Conference Agenda

Trump’s current government wants its public sector workers to be ‘traumatically affected’ and exposed as ‘villains’. As a result, many public sector workers in the US are presently suffering from mental breakdowns, suicidal ideation, and panic attacks, making it impossible to realise their value as the most important assets of public sector organisations.

While this horror tale is currently unfolding with a particular focus on the US governance context, the reality is that public sector workers globally are struggling with a decline in workplace wellbeing and employee happiness. Across many countries, the politicized nature of bureaucracies, lack of job security, limited formalization of working procedures, lack of managerial guidance and training on the job, scarcity of essential resources, and socio‐economically vulnerable service users and citizens have created a chronically depressed public sector workforce that is overworked, disengaged, and apprehensive for the future.

Negative cognitive and emotional impacts, such as low productivity, lack of motivation, despair, and hopelessness, prevent effective workplace functioning and come at a considerable cost to public sector organisations and society at large. The implications are that public sector workers are unable to leverage their capabilities and knowledge(s), and foster innovation to provide sustainable, world-class public services. By crippling the most important asset of public sector organisations, opportunities to develop new solutions and approaches, which catalyse sustainable development and meet goals and objectives ‘beyond GDP’ policy narratives, are systematically eradicated.

Increasingly, the imperative for employee wellbeing in the public sector, and its critical links with leveraging capabilities, driving innovation, and progressing to achieve sustainability agendas, are beginning to be recognised in public administrative literature. However, there is a dearth of conceptual approaches that could give rise to practical templates and drive theoretical debates. In addressing this gap, this study develops a framework for examining and promoting well-being among public sector workers and unlocking their capabilities for fostering sustainable innovation.

The research is designed to produce a public sector version of the capabilities framework, which was developed by Nussbaum and Sen to provide theoretical and conceptual frames for evaluating human wellbeing and promoting social justice. Since its inception, the capabilities framework has resonated widely across academic disciplines and has thus been contoured and adapted by scholars across the humanities and social sciences, including public policy scholars.

In adapting the capabilities framework to the realities of a public sector workforce, the study employs Q-Methodology, which is both a constructivist theory and a qualiquantological method for the scientific study of subjectivity. It allows participants to define relevant discourses and meaningful categories based on their beliefs, values, and experiences. The Q-Methodology study will draw on the views and experiences around wellbeing and workplace happiness of Civil Servants in Ghana to empirically inform the development and validation of a capabilities framework for public employees.

The study will make a theoretical and practical contribution to the nascent public administrative literature on increasing employee well-being and happiness as a critical means for unlocking the capabilities of the public sector workforce to galvanise much-needed sustainable innovation.

Public administration is under growing pressure to attract, select, and retain Generation Z employees while managing the challenges posed by an aging workforce. This presentation explores succession strategies, aging, and recruitment practices and emphasizes the crucial role of employee well-being in creating a sustainable and attractive public sector environment.

The study forms part of a large-scale international and Hungarian research project (Generations in Public Administration 2024), combining a multi-method approach. It is based on:

Quantitative data analysis,

A representative questionnaire survey among EUPAN members (n=27)and Hungarian public administration institutions (n=12.000),

An in-depth interview series with senior HR professionals, and

A representative 1000-person telephone survey targeting Generation Z individuals, focusing on their career expectations, well-being needs, and public-sector employment preferences.

Findings reveal that few European countries have dedicated aging strategies tailored to generational needs. Moreover, traditional recruitment methods often overlook Generation Z's well-being expectations, such as flexible work arrangements, mental health support, career development pathways, and the desire for meaningful and socially impactful work.

To stay competitive, public administrations must integrate advanced technologies into recruitment and succession planning and institutionalize wellbeing-oriented HR strategies. These include promoting psychological safety, work-life balance, health and resilience programs, and authentic career advancement opportunities—all of which are fundamental in attracting and retaining young workforce.

The presentation offers a practical overview of the most effective practices for managing aging workforces. It highlights innovative wellbeing-focused approaches as essential tools for sustainable and future-proof public sector HR management.

According to the results, wellbeing programs – such as initiatives supporting mental health and flexible working arrangements – are crucial factors for Generation Z when choosing a career in public service. The Hungarian example shows that institutions lacking structured wellbeing strategies face significant disadvantages in recruitment and retention. It was also found that opportunities for personal development and work-life balance are decisive factors in career decisions.

The call for papers asks for papers that study trends influencing the capacity and legitimacy of public sector organizations. The trend we study is the growing involvement of the financial industry in social services, which has come with significant challenges to social justice, inclusion and adaptive capacity. This paper argues that rather than being passive in the financialization process, governments actively contribute to the weakening of their ability to govern social services. Drawing on a case study of elderly care in Flanders, we highlight two key governance mechanisms: (1) policymakers instrumentalize financial industry involvement to relieve pressure on social services facing rising demand, and (2) path-dependent governance structures struggle to adapt as financial logics reshape the sector dynamics. Over time, this reliance on financial actors to enhance policy capacity paradoxically weakens administrative capacity, ultimately undermining governments’ ability to analyze and steer social care provision. To overcome this ‘Trojan horse’ dynamic, policies that facilitate financialization should, from the outset, be paired with providing public administrations with the legal frameworks and financial expertise to analyze and steer the complexities that come along.

Social inclusiveness (SI) is central to the United Nations' vision for sustainable development (SD), which aims to integrate societies cohesively without discrimination. Multiethnic integration (MEtI) is pivotal in achieving SI and addressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study was comparatively designed using the RIMc integration framework of theoretical connotations of Rawls’ justice theory, institutional theory, and multiculturalism. Moreover, considering regional diversity and division, the Brandt Line of Division concept has been used in 98 Global South and 56 Global North countries in a panel of 154 countries from 2008 to 2022. Making it statistically rigorous, a two-step system, the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation applied, and robustness checked through Driscoll-Kraay Standard Errors-Fixed Effect (DKSE-FE). The statistics indicate that effective law enforcement, institutional frameworks, and addressing resource inequality are critical for promoting SI and MEtI globally, fostering inclusivity over division. In the Global South, SI and MEtI face challenges due to weak law enforcement and unequal legal treatment, while the Global North excels in policy implementation, though resource inequality persists. The global South requires stronger, sustainable policies to bridge these gaps and achieve SD. Cultural integration (CI) further complicates SI and MEtI, often straining state administration and eroding indigenous societal norms. While CI poses global challenges, it is more pronounced in the Global North due to migration flows and dominant cultural trends compared to the Global South. Despite these complexities, MEtI remains vital for achieving SI and SD, supported by equitable institutional frameworks and resource distribution that protect individual freedoms. Preserving cultural norms and values is equally important, ensuring the integrity of indigenous traditions while embracing diversity. This study concludes that MEtI would be considered a key to successful social inclusion and sustainable development by effectively dealing with institutional settings and appropriate inequality without harming anyone's liberty. Moreover, cultural norms and values should be intact despite the assimilation of other cultures and values to retain their true essence. They must take this multiculturalism in promoting sustainable development threads instead of invading the Indigenous cultures, which would be essential for SI and the way forward for sustainable societies.