Conference Agenda

This study explores employees' perceptions of organizational dynamics and their aspirations for the future state of city halls in Bistrița-Năsăud County, an emerging region in Romania seeking to achieve parity with more developed areas. The research employed the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) and a modified Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) version. Surveys were distributed to fifty city halls, with an anticipated response from at least ten. The culture questionnaire was exclusively directed to staff, while the leadership questionnaire was shared with both staff and managers to uncover any discrepancies in perceptions of leadership styles.

Recognizing these differences is essential, as they can highlight areas for improvement or point out misalignments that impede organizational effectiveness. The anticipated findings intend to clarify the dominant cultural types within these organizations and the desired cultural attributes among employees, enabling a comparative analysis of their perspectives. This research aims to provide leaders with insights into necessary adjustments to cultivate a more effective work environment by emphasizing discrepancies between leadership self-perception and employee perceptions.

Points for practitioners:

The findings of this study provide a valuable framework for public institutions globally, enabling them to enhance operational effectiveness through strategic improvements in human resource management, organizational dynamics, and leadership practices. Key recommendations include aligning organizational strategies with assessment results and conducting evaluations annually or in response to structural changes. Furthermore, additional research is encouraged in the southeastern region of Romania to explore potential variations in organizational culture and leadership dynamics. These insights have the potential to significantly shape policy and practice within public institutions, ultimately contributing to improved governance at the local level.

Attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel in top leadership positions remains a key concern in public administration, with particular attention to the representation of women and the promotion of gender equity (Andrews, 2024; Papenfuß et al., 2024). Despite increasing societal demands for female representation in executive board positions, public organizations often deviate from institutional expectations regarding female executive representation. Research emphasizes the importance of gender representativeness in leadership positions (e.g., Baekgaard & George, 2018; Rutherford & Mee, 2023; Andrews, 2024). However, the reasons why public organizations deviate from institutional expectations on female representation in executive directors (ED) positions and the role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) (Tremml, 2019) are a crucial underexplored issue (Van Genugten et al., 2023; Andrews, 2024; Askarzadeh et al., 2024).

Regarding the EGPA call striving "to celebrate public administration research in all its diversities" is important and rewarding to integrate government-owned enterprises (GOEs) and their ED positions in the discussion. Corporatization and GOEs have become one of the most important emerging trends in public administration. GOEs deliver essential public services and infrastructure, particularly at the municipal level (Van Genugten et al., 2023). At the same time, they offer great potentials for public service provision and sustainable democracy but also induce far-reaching governance challenges. Corporatized public service provision is an alternative to the provision of public services by the administration on the one hand, or contracts of the administration with private partners or total private service provision on the other hand (Andrews et al., 2020). Corporatization is characterized by multiple, role expectations.

Pertinent literature (Aguilera et al., 2018; Askarzadeh et al., 2024) calls to test corporate governance deviance theory and the role of the centrality of organization’s entrepreneurial orientation, as part of its overall identity in different organizational contexts.

The research question of the study is: Does the centrality of EO of GOEs decrease the representation of women in ED positions?

Bridging discourses on EO and gender representativeness in the public sector, this already finished study analyzes a panel dataset on female representation at the ED level in 1,691 German GOEs during 2020–2024, yielding 7,039 observations. Employing random-effects logistic panel regression, the findings reveal a significantly lower representation of female EDs in GOEs with higher centrality of EO.

The findings imply critical challenges in the ongoing debate on the future of public administration and effective governance. They underscore the importance of harnessing the strategic opportunities associated with EO, while simultaneously highlighting the need to develop regulatory and leadership approaches capable of mitigating its potentially unintended effects on the representation of women in ED positions. By reflecting on the relationship between EO and the representation of women in ED positions, this paper seek to contribute to the broader discussion on the future prospects of public administrations across Europe.

In order to meet the challenges posed by demographic and social change, cities need innovations and sustainable technologies,[1] which are reflected in the concept of the smart city.[2] A technologically innovative public administration is the basis for its realization. This study answers the question: “What role does the organizational integration of smart city in public administration play and what effects does this have?” The regional study follows a mixed-method research design and presents a framework that transforms cities into smart cities, with a focus on municipal public administration.

Smart cities need smart processes and smart applications. They combine technological, organizational and personnel aspects.[3] The study results show that many individual workflows are already mapped in a smart way. However, to be holistically smart, process optimization is needed in addition to technological transformation. The study reveals differences between different organizational forms in this regard: when embedded in the office structure, the focus is usually on structural issues or on smart citizen participation. This is because a department cannot reach across other departments and therefore concentrates on its own key topics. Outsourcing smart city to external service providers or to outsourced organizational units shows similar effects, because here the connection to internal administrative workflows and processes is often missing. However, one opportunity here is that inter-municipal issues can also be addressed. A staff unit organization attached to the top management makes Smart City a matter for the boss. This shows that internal processes in particular are made smart. Removing them from the office structure enables overarching transformation, because staff units are outsourced from the specialist departments and can act across the board and politically. In addition to organizational assignment, the employee level also plays a role. The study results show that the profession of the people entrusted has a significant influence on whether a process-related or individual case-related approach is taken, as this has a lasting impact on their awareness. These findings are confirmed by organizational research.[4]

The degree of a smart city's holistic approach thus varies depending on the technical background and organizational assignment. This regional study shows that smart cities develop individually despite uniform funding criteria. The degree to which a smart administration thinks along with the process depends of where the topic is established. Public administration empowers a smart city. However, its silo mentality is not adequate for a holistic smart transformation. Instead, a mix of line and staff functions is optimal, taking into account inter-municipal issues. The inclusion of different professions in the personnel handling of smart city topics is desirable for an interdisciplinary approach.

[1] Berniak-Wozny/Sliz/Sicinski, 2025

[2] Hermse/Nijland/Picari/Sanders, 2021; Song/Srinivasan/Sookoor/Jeschke, 2017

[3] Nam/Pardo, 2011; Calzada, 2020

[4] Ahmady/Mehrpour/Nikooravesh, 2016