Search Results (107)

Digital technologies have fundamentally changed how public administration operates, moving it from traditional bureaucratic structures toward more efficient and responsive systems. This study analyzes the links between e-government usage (measured as the percentage of individuals who interact with public authorities via online platforms), governance quality, and fiscal performance across ten Central and Eastern European countries from 2010 to 2023. Using a fixed-effects panel data model, we investigate whether higher e-government usage is associated with stronger government effectiveness, improved budget balances, and more sustainable public debt levels, while controlling for key macroeconomic and structural factors. Employing a fixed-effects panel data model, we examine whether greater use of e-government services is associated with stronger government effectiveness, improved budget balances, and more sustainable public debt levels, while accounting for key macroeconomic and structural factors. The findings show a positive and statistically significant association between e-government usage and government effectiveness. The links to fiscal outcomes are more nuanced: e-government usage is associated with better budget balances, mainly through indirect channels such as higher tax compliance and tighter expenditure control. In contrast, its association with public debt levels is weaker and appears to depend more strongly on broader macroeconomic conditions. Overall, the findings suggest that greater e-government usage is associated with improvements in governance quality in the CEE region, although its contribution to long-term fiscal sustainability remains conditional on the quality of existing institutions. Full article

This systematic review synthesises the qualitative literature on Māori leadership to examine how leadership is conceptualised, enacted, and constrained, and what this implies for Aotearoa New Zealand’s health system. Across included studies, Māori leadership is grounded in whakapapa-based legitimacy, tikanga and mātauranga Māori, and collective responsibility for relational, cultural, and intergenerational wellbeing; these foundations persist across “traditional” and “contemporary” settings, with differences reflecting institutional conditions rather than shifts in core values. Interpreting the literature through a Māori cultural lens, the review shows that leadership is often exercised within Crown-dominated organisations where Māori authority is not the default, requiring leaders to navigate multiple accountabilities to iwi and communities, organisational mandates, and statutory obligations. Hybridity emerges as a structurally produced feature of practice, integrating Māori relational ethics with bureaucratic, professional, and governance requirements and ongoing translation work to make Māori priorities legible within institutional systems. Health-sector evidence illustrates how commissioning, funding, and accountability arrangements can limit Māori decision-making, increase leadership burden, and constrain sustainability and leadership pipelines. The review concludes that strengthening Māori leadership in health requires organisational and system change—such as clearer Māori decision rights, resourced Māori-led priority setting, and accountability mechanisms that operationalise equity and anti-racism—alongside targeted research on governance, commissioning, and system design. Full article

Employees were required to adopt new working methods within a very short time frame during the COVID-19 period through digitalization. While digitalization has been largely perceived as an enabler during the pandemic, its impact on employee health and well-being remains complex and underexplored, particularly in the public sector, where employees have less discretion to adapt digital tools. This study examines how rapid workplace digitalization during COVID-19 affected employee health and well-being in the public sector. Drawing on the job demands–resources (JD-R) framework, we focus on three specific forms of digital work—digital meetings, digital clearance, and digital training—selected because they represent distinct theoretical pathways through which digitalization affects well-being, such as digital meetings and digital training can increase job demands that can deplete employee energy and increase stress, whereas digital clearance operates as a job resource that reduces bureaucratic hurdles and enhances autonomy. To test these ideas, this study uses data from the 2020 Australian Public Service Commission Census (n = 108,085), and applies ordinal and multinomial generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) to assess the effects of three new ways of working—digital meetings, digital clearance, and digital training—on employees’ health and well-being, as well as the mediating roles of organizational support. The results demonstrate that while digital clearance is positively associated with employee health and well-being, digital meetings and digital training are negatively associated. Organizational support mediates these relationships, underscoring its importance in mitigating adverse effects. These findings highlight the mixed consequences of digitalization for public employees’ health and well-being and point to the need for supportive organizational strategies in times of crisis. As a practical implication, this study suggests that public sector organizations should prioritize employee mental health in teleworking policies, adopt employee-centered digital transformation strategies that provide adequate resources and training support, and implement digital clearance processes that enhance employee well-being, particularly during a crisis. Full article

This article examines the institutional communication of the White House on X (formerly Twitter) during the first nine months of Donald Trump’s second presidency (January–October 2025). Through a mixed-methods approach that combines thematic, network, and lexical–discursive analysis, the study explores how the presidential account (@WhiteHouse) integrates informational, emotional, and performative dimensions within a hybrid media system. The dataset comprises 4297 tweets, analysed through Graphext, NodeXL/Gephi, and Sketch Engine. The findings reveal that audiovisual and symbolic content dominate over political or policy-related topics, while financial and technological actors occupy central positions in the network of mentions. Lexical analysis highlights three semantic nuclei—Trump, President, and America—that structure a moralised and affective narrative of leadership. The results reflect that White House communication operates as a hybrid and post-bureaucratic model, where political legitimacy increasingly depends on visibility and reputational association with market logics. Full article

This study examines how relationship cultivation strategies are interpreted and enacted by strategic communication practitioners in Kenya’s county governments and corporate sector. Drawing on 38 in-depth interviews and guided by relationship management theory, the study employs a theory-informed inductive approach to explore how six key strategies—access, assurances, openness, networking, positivity, and task sharing—manifest in structurally distinct institutional contexts, extending scholarship on relationship cultivation to an underexamined sub-Saharan African setting. Findings reveal that while corporate practitioners operationalize these strategies through deliberate planning, responsiveness, and integrated stakeholder engagement, county government practitioners often face bureaucratic, political, and infrastructural constraints that undermine even basic efforts at relationship building. These sectoral contrasts highlight how the institutional context influences the cultivation of relationships and strategic communication practices. The study contributes to theory by demonstrating the need for a more context-sensitive and adaptive application of relationship management theory, and it offers practical insights for enhancing public engagement in decentralized governance systems. Beyond deepening understanding of strategic communication in Kenya, these findings carry implications for the global study and practice of relationship management across diverse institutional settings. Full article

In Philippine state universities and colleges (SUCs), faculty are mandated to balance instruction, research, and extension as “trifocal” functions. Yet, research often competes with heavy teaching loads, administrative work, and community engagement, especially in science disciplines that demand laboratory-based and fieldwork. This qualitative multiple-case study examined how twelve science faculty members across academic ranks in a Philippine SUC system enact the research function within their trifocal roles. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, institutional and policy documents, and cross-case analysis, this study employed a case study design through the lens of systems thinking to identify how research function is embedded in institutional structures and professional life-worlds. Findings show that faculty construct research as (1) a catalyst that propels instruction and anchors extension programs; (2) a strategic requirement intertwined with promotion and career progression; and (3) a relational and infrastructural practice dependent on collegial networks, mentoring, and institutional support systems. Feedback loops link these themes wherein research output fuels promotion and time protection, which, in turn, shape opportunities for further research and mentoring. Additionally, verbatim accounts reveal how faculty members navigate structural pressures, such as bureaucratic processes and workload policies, while framing research as a moral and professional responsibility. This article argues that designing research support in SUCs requires moving beyond compliance-driven metrics to system-level arrangements that honor research as a form of scholarly work deeply connected with teaching quality and community impact. Implications are suggested for workload policy, mentoring, and research-capable learning environments in the Philippines and comparable higher education contexts. Full article

Vocational education and training are essential for the integration of refugee youth into Greek society. Therefore, it seems that there is an urgent need for the Greek Ministry of Education and Religion and for the Ministry of Labour (herewith, Greek Ministries of Education and Labour) to redesign and adapt their strategies and practices to address the specific learning needs of refugee youth. The aim of this study is to explore the types of policies that the Ministries of Education and Labour should design, reform, and implement to increase the number of students attending vocational education and training in Greece. The researchers adopted a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. Ten participants took part in the study: seven Refugee Education Coordinators based in camps across Greece, two experts from the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP), and one academic specializing in adult education and serving as an EPALE Ambassador. The findings indicate that both Ministries of Education and Labour need to collaborate more closely in redesigning and implementing targeted policies for refugee students. These should include expanding reception classes in EPAS (vocational school) and EPAL (vocational high school) schools, reducing bureaucratic procedures, ensuring adequate staffing with trained teachers, and adopting simpler administrative processes. Full article

This article examines Romanian internet memes as cultural micro-narratives that encode social critique, identity negotiation, and emotional response through compressed, multimodal storytelling. Using a mixed-method approach, the study integrates qualitative narrative analysis with quantitative sentiment data drawn from the RoMEMESv2 corpus, comprising 983 Romanian-language memes. The analysis identifies recurrent narrative roles and plot structures adapted from Propp’s morphology and applied to digital contexts, revealing archetypal roles, such as the slacker hero, the bureaucratic villain, the domestic guardian, and the trickster. From a quantitative point of view, the corpus exhibits a dominant negative sentiment, particularly within political memes, which combine systemic critique with affective ambivalence. These findings distinguish Romanian memes from datasets in other languages, suggesting that negativity functions not as deviance, but as a culturally specific narrative and emotional resource. Multimodal analysis demonstrates how visual and textual elements operate through anchorage, intertextuality, and symbolic compression, so as to construct narrative messages within single frames. The study argues that Romanian memes function as digital folklore: they narrate social frustration and institutional distrust through irony, repetition, and archetypal condensation, offering insights into the emotional and narrative logic of post-communist digital culture. Full article

Background: Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a progressive inherited retinal dystrophy that affects daily functioning, psychological well-being, and social participation. Although quantitative research describes disease burden, less is known about how individuals experience progressive vision loss in everyday life and within healthcare and social contexts. Methods: This qualitative study used semi-structured face-to-face interviews with adults diagnosed with RP. Purposive sampling was applied to ensure variation in demographic and clinical characteristics. Interviews were conducted in a tertiary ophthalmology clinic in Erzincan, Türkiye, between June and October 2025. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis. Reporting followed the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist. Results: Sixteen participants (P1–P16) were included. Five themes were identified: (1) making sense of the illness and the diagnostic journey; (2) functional loss and the negotiation of independence; (3) psychological adaptation and identity reconstruction; (4) social relationships and social encounters; and (5) interaction with systems and the environment—accessibility and healthcare. Participants described early symptom normalization, delayed diagnostic pathways, and uncertainty persisting after diagnosis. Independence was shaped by safety concerns, environmental barriers, and reliance on support. Psychological adjustment fluctuated between fear of progression and efforts to sustain resilience. Social participation was influenced by support networks, concerns about being a burden, and stigma linked to invisible disability. Conclusions: Living with RP extends beyond visual impairment; building on prior qualitative work, our findings contextualize these experiences in Türkiye, highlighting how accessibility gaps, bureaucratic encounters in public institutions, and cost barriers within healthcare and public services can shape uncertainty, independence, and social participation. Full article

This study systematically reviews 53 peer-reviewed articles on public sector innovation published between 2021 and 2025 to synthesize knowledge on how innovation is conceptualized, triggered, enacted, and constrained. Findings reveal that innovation is framed across technological, organizational, governance, and social dimensions, reflecting substantial conceptual and theoretical diversity. Key triggers include digital transformation, leadership, inter-organizational collaboration, fiscal pressures, and workforce capabilities, with emphasis shifting toward technology, human capital, and collaboration in recent years. Innovation produces both positive outcomes, such as improved service quality, efficiency, and citizen engagement, and negative or unintended consequences, including implementation failures, equity concerns, and employee resistance. Persistent barriers, such as bureaucratic rigidity, risk-averse culture, accountability pressures, and political interference, operate as structural conditions rather than isolated obstacles. Theoretical foundations remain fragmented, with New Public Management, New Public Governance, institutional theory, and public value theory applied inconsistently. These findings underscore the need for integrative, context-sensitive approaches that combine institutional, human, and technological perspectives to guide innovation effectively. The review offers actionable insights for public managers and policymakers, emphasizing alignment with organizational capacity, leadership, and regulatory design, and highlights directions for future research to advance theory, practice, and policy in public sector innovation. Full article

This study investigates and compares archaeological site management practices across diverse cultural contexts, focusing on how cultural factors influence preservation, stakeholder involvement, and management strategies. Employing a mixed-methods comparative design, the research integrates field observations, interviews with site managers and local stakeholders, and archival analysis. Three case studies, the Giza Necropolis in Egypt, Madain Saleh in Saudi Arabia, and the Al-Ain Archaeological Sites in the United Arab Emirates, form the empirical foundation for this analysis. Thematic and qualitative comparative analyses are used to identify cross-cultural patterns, challenges, and best practices. The findings reveal that management approaches are profoundly shaped by their respective cultural settings. Regions with strong traditions of community participation, such as Al-Ain, tend to integrate local knowledge and foster sustainable preservation outcomes. In contrast, state-dominated systems, as seen in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, often face constraints related to bureaucratic processes and limited local engagement. Across all contexts, factors such as governance structures, funding mechanisms, and cultural attitudes toward heritage emerge as decisive in shaping management effectiveness and sustainability. The results offer essential perspectives for the strategy of engaging local communities in the management of archaeological sites, and may be beneficial for implementation in other Arab countries. Full article

This study explores how school principals evacuated from their schools in the wake of the 7 October 2023 war perceived their unique challenges, the strategies they adopted, and the ways in which their agency was shaped during the extreme crisis. Using semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 33 displaced principals from elementary, middle, secondary, and special education schools, we identified four interconnected dimensions of the principals’ agency during wartime. Intrapersonal agency reflected the principal’s inner identity as a foundation for action. Critical agency emerged from frustration with systemic failures and bureaucratic obstacles, motivating the pursuit of meaningful change. Collaborative agency was expressed in building and maintaining trust-based networks and partnerships that enabled effective solutions. Finally, proactive agency was driven by an internal desire for growth and influence, promoting innovative strategies and renewal processes at organizational, emotional, and community levels. This leadership framework for understanding principalship in wartime highlights agency as a holistic framework that enables principals not only to ensure the survival of their schools, but also to respond to chaotic realities. Practically, the findings inform the design of models for ensuring educational continuity in emergencies, and tailored support mechanisms for displaced educational communities. Full article

This study explores the opportunities, challenges, and sustainability prospects of multifunctional farms in Greece that have been officially certified by the state. Through qualitative field research involving semi-structured questionnaires with farm operators, the study examines general operational aspects, environmental practices, social engagement, cultural activities, digital presence, and perspectives on institutional frameworks and development potentials. Results indicate that multifunctional farms contribute to environmental sustainability, local identity, and rural–urban linkages through organic farming, circular resource use, educational programs, and cultural activities. At the same time, structural challenges—including bureaucratic hurdles, complex licensing, limited institutional support, and low digital capacity—restrict their potential. Participants emphasized the need for tailored regulations, networking, guidance, and marketing support. While the sample is small, reflecting a low response rate, the study provides rich, context-specific insights into multifunctional farm practices and highlights the necessity for flexible policies, digital capacity-building, and community-oriented strategies to enhance the socio-economic and environmental impact of these farms. Full article

This article analyses contemporary transhumance in Gran Canaria as a singular case of insular pastoralism and biocultural heritage within the Mediterranean and Atlantic contexts. While transhumance has been widely recognised for its ecological, cultural and socio-economic relevance, in Gran Canaria it persists in an especially fragile form, maintained by a small, ageing group of herders. Drawing on an interdisciplinary methodology that combines 36 semi-structured interviews, ethnographic fieldwork and GIS-based spatial analysis of routes and grazing areas, the study characterises the socio-ecological functioning of the system, its environmental and cultural contributions, and the threats it faces. The results highlight the role of transhumance in sustaining agrobiodiversity, fire prevention, ecological connectivity and traditional ecological knowledge, as well as in shaping a distinctive pastoral soundscape, toponymy and material culture. At the same time, the system is undermined by demographic ageing, land fragmentation, urban and tourism pressure, bureaucratic burdens and climate uncertainty. The article examines emerging initiatives in cultural and experiential tourism linked to cheese production, wool and participatory transhumant journeys, arguing that tourism can support, but not substitute, the protection of pastoral livelihoods. It concludes by outlining policy implications for island territories, emphasising the need for integrated governance that recognizes transhumance as living heritage and a strategic tool for cultural landscape management. Full article

This article provides a detailed comparative analysis of the transposition and implementation of the Renewable Energy Directives II and III (RED II and RED III), REPowerEU Plan, and the ‘Fit for 55’ package in France, Italy, and Germany. The analysis highlights the objectives, key legislative provisions, and national-scale achievements, challenges, advantages, and disadvantages—including implications for investment conditions and renewable energy financing mechanisms—associated with these pivotal European Union legislative frameworks, which, to a certain extent, induced a paradigm shift with varying degrees of impact in every Member State. The work is divided into four parts that follow this brief introductory outline of the problem. The introduction presents legal developments in renewable energy law in the European Union. The second part offers a comprehensive and in-depth examination of the European Union’s renewable energy regulatory framework and research gaps that hinder doctrinal tensions within the EU’s renewable energy legislative framework. In the third part, we analyze the transposition and implementation of each mentioned directive in the selected countries. The last part highlights commonalities, divergences, challenges, best practices, and lessons learned from each nation’s approach. This comparative analysis predicts that implementation success is inversely linked to administrative divergence, with France’s centralized legal system facilitating effective bureaucratic streamlining and higher predicted deployment, while the fragmented governance structures of Germany and Italy serve as structural impediments that critically undermine the EU’s acceleration mandate. Full article