Department of Political Science and Public Administration

Doctoral Dissertation in progress

"Civil servants’ resource planning and mobility in Public Administration: Factors for effectiveness"

Commencement date: November 22, 2022

Abstract

The thesis aims at examining the way in which human resource planning and mobility are being carried out, as well as how these procedures contribute to an effective performance in public administration. By ‘efficiency’ of public administration is meant the provision of quality services to citizens contributing to citizens’ trust towards the state. In this context and taking into account the constitutional rules on meritocracy and on equal opportunities for all citizens in the right of access to work in public administration, the reform of the public service recruitment system that is attempted by the law 4765/2021 aims at improving the efficiency of the recruited staff. In this direction, the annual implementation of the provisions on public sector staff recruitment falls within the responsibility of the Supreme Council for Civil Service Personnel Selection (ASEP).

Another important “tool” for improving public administration quality is the rational distribution of civil servants. Enactment 4440/2016, as last amended and entered into force, aims at regulating this distribution by introducing a Unified Mobility System for public servants, which seems to constitute a step towards the reorganization of the Greek public administration, establishing a new procedure for their transfer or secondment. In order to put an end to irrational practices of the past, it is assembled in one piece of legislation the regulations that concern the movement from one public service to another, having a double objective. On the one hand an optimization of the utilization and rational management of civil servants and on the other hand the acquisition of civil servants’ professional experience. However, there are two main conditions that public sector must fulfill in order to contribute to this procedure: a) the creation of digitized and updated public services establishment plans, which will form part of the single digital Organization Chart of public administration – it is the first time that such a database is created, which enables to obtain a comprehensive picture of knowledge of public sector’s structure – and b) the drawing up of job descriptions, in order to ensure that the employee’s transfer will fill a vacant post that meets his/her formal and substantive qualifications. The above arrangements are the pillars for the administrative reform which will lead to a rational and citizen-friendly operation of the Greek public service, reducing at the same time the fiscal cost and leaving behind the main structural weaknesses and pathologies of the past.

In conclusion, the present dissertation conducts the study of the implemental level of the aforementioned institutional measures for public administration, so that human resource planning binding together with mobility – by adopting more transparent processes – will lead to a more rational management of public service personnel and therefore, in turn, it will increase its efficiency and in general the effectiveness of public sector.