Konstantinos M. Karyotakis Maria Bakatsaki Vassilis Moustakis Technical University of Crete, Greece The Entrepreneurial Facet of Public Administration Sinteza April 2015 Belgrade, Serbia

Overview Public administration Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behavior in public sector Who is entrepreneur in the public sector? The model of corporate entrepreneurship Organizational learning

The public administration is characterized by high levels of risk aversion and resistance to change, limited sources, lack of direction, vision and management measurement, political disputes and legal restrictions.

Although the public sector is conservative, bureaucratic and characterized by slow motion rate, the concept of entrepreneurship in this sector exists since the 1960s. Nowadays, maybe more than ever, there is a need of adoption entrepreneurial behavior and attitudes in order the society to become more sustainable.

Definition of Entrepreneurship French economist Jean Baptiste Says ( ) supports that: “The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield”. Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter ( ) considers as entrepreneurs the innovators who drive the “creative-destructive” process of the capitalism. American economist Peter Drucker ( ) stresses that: “The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity”.

Entrepreneurship is the driving force for economic and social development worldwide. Empirical data unveiled that entrepreneurial practices and behavior in public sector induce mostly non-for profit benefits, increasing social welfare more than personal or economic objectives and creating added value to the provided services.

Entrepreneurship may happen to organizations of any size or type. It is a continuous process whose results should be evaluated in the long-term. It identifies market opportunities under existing political conditions, optimizes the performance of public sector, encouraging innovation, and urges the parties to risk taking, as well as to proper management of resources. It reduces public expenditures and creates growth.

The entrepreneurial behavior in public sector drives to: ability to avoid bureaucracy strategic vision creation of an energetic environment change of orientation Added value is created in an organization and the social welfare is increased

The entrepreneur of the public sector: deals with the introduction of innovations trying to increase the productivity, the efficiency and the effectiveness of procedures and services, providing better quality citizen’s services, is result of management, leadership principles and strategies in public organizations, are employees who can imply innovative solutions to the needs and problems of citizens.

Adopting entrepreneurial & innovative attitudes and behavior: Service, customer and employee satisfaction is improved, there are more appropriate reward systems and incentives, there are better internal procedures, improve communication and human resources management relations.

Corporate Entrepreneurship ▫ Innovation Internal environment of public sector organizations ▫ Structure ▫ Rewards & incentives ▫ Decision making & control ▫ Culture ▫ Risk taking ▫ Foresight/ prevention/ pro-activeness External environment of public sector organizations ▫ Change ▫ Complexity ▫ Munificence The model of corporate entrepreneurship in the public sector

Cycle of organizational learning Change and entrepreneurship (What should be differentiated to appear?) Organizational experience (What really happens?) Thoughts and evaluation (of past experiences) Organizational development (What steps should be taken to increase the efficiency?)

In public sector, generally, there is a need for culture change of the outdated bureaucratic procedures in order flexibility, innovation and entrepreneurship to be increased. Simultaneously, there is a desire to maintain those practices and procedures which are necessaries to ensure the quality of citizen services. In short

In an ideal situation, public organizations should be able to detect changes in their environment (internal and external) and assess the repercussions that induce these changes to the organization and to the provided services. Additionally, public organizations should immediately develop changes, innovation and entrepreneurship so that they can respond to the continuous changes.

The intensely dynamic global sociopolitical environment in combination with the constant technological changes, require, perhaps more than ever, public (and not only) organizations to embrace practices and behavior which are characterized by entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is crucial for the organizations, not only for their adaptation to new data and their development but also for their survival.

Thanks a lot for your attention! Konstantinos M. Karyotakis Maria Bakatsaki Vassilis Moustakis Technical University of Crete, Greece