1. Stanisław Mazur Cracow University of Economics
How innovation can transform public administration? Strategies, consequences, challenges
Stanisław Mazur
Cracow University of Economics

2. Presentation outline The goal:
to present the nature of innovation in the multidimensional transformational processes occurring in public administration in Europe.
The main issues to be covered:
nature of innovation;
innovation drivers and barriers;
outcomes and challenges resulting from the innovation driven change.
Conclusions drawn:
innovation has gained increased significance in the public administration;
there is still a pressing need for more disruptive innovations.

3. Understanding of the innovation
Innovation is a process of change characterised by the following properties:
novelty;
viability;
causality (OECD);
and
reflectiveness.

4. What do we expect from innovation?
Innovation is seen as an opportunity to:
improve the quality of public services;
solve problems resulting from the deepening complexity and fragmentation;
reap the benefits of globalisation of the economy and eliminating its adverse effects;
create a sound regulatory framework for the economy;
restore the citizens’ trust in the state.

5. How are innovation proliferated?
There are three basic mechanisms:
Diffusion.
Organisational learning.
Isomorphism.

6. Types of innovation and areas of exploitation
The key areas:
social policy;
public services;
education;
environmental protection;
new information technology;
mechanisms of governance.
Public sector innovation types applied:
process innovation:
administrative,
technological;
product or service innovation;
governance innovation;
conceptual innovation.
(Vries, Bekkers, Tummers 2015)

7. Types of innovation and areas of exploitation
Types of public sector innovation:
Process innovation (47%):
administrative (40%),
technological (7%);
Product or service innovation (22%);
Governance innovation (13%);
Conceptual innovation (2%);
Other (16%).
(Vries, Bekkers, Tummers 2015)
The nature of innovations:
Incremental innovations;
Disruptive innovations.

8. What do you need innovation?
Innovation strives for:
increasing effectiveness (18%);
increasing efficiency (15%);
tackling societal problems, e.g. addressing unemployment, overweight (10%);
increasing customer satisfaction (7%);
involving citizens (6%);
involving private partners (2%);
other (7%);
non goal mentioned (35%).
(H. Vries , V. Bekkers, L. Tummers, Innovation in the Public Sector. 2015)

9. Innovation drivers What drives innovation:
get out of the crisis (bespoke innovation designed to solve a specific problem);
strive for the efficiency (innovation aimed at making already existing products, services or procedures more efficient);
fulfill leaders’ aspirations (innovation generated by organization leaders striving for self-realization through obtaining professional recognition);
seeking legitimization (innovation intended to ensure the support of the influential stakeholders who constitute the external environment of the organization).

10. Innovation barriers The most visible among them are:
lack of management support
lack of incentives for your staff
staff resistance
uncertain acceptance by the users of your services
regulatory requirements
lack of sufficient human or financial resources
risk adverse culture in your organisation
(EPSIS, 2013)

11. Innovation leaders and organizational culture
Innovation leader generates new options, implement them in the organization and cause commitment.
They strongly influence the organizational culture.
An organizational culture that encourages trust, cross‐boundary networking and risk‐taking can support organizational learning.
Decentralized, informal hierarchies best support certain forms of explorative learning and knowledge creation.
A risk-averse culture, hierarchies, and silos are all prominent in many large organisations and are also significant barriers to change.

12. The levels of public sector innovation
The group of countries with the highest levels of public sector innovation:
Denmark, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland.
The group of countries with low innovation potential of public institutions:
Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia.
(EPSIS 2013)

13. What are the consequences of innovation-driven change in public administration IN CEC
There are many consequences of innovation-driven change. Two of them are especially visible:
the increasing local government activity in generating and implementing innovations, as manifested, among other things, by:
the growing number of implemented innovations,
increased public expenditure on innovations,
created specialised innovation teams.
the improved quality of public services and increased satisfaction of their recipients, which can be seen, albeit indirectly, in the national reports and analyses as well as data from the European Social Survey.

14. The challenges related to innovation-driven transformation
Imminent tensions resulting from:
discovering knowledge versus using it;
monopoly versus competition;
stability versus change;
functional versus intra and inter-organisational cooperation.

15. The disruptive innovations in public administration?
How to increase the number of disruptive innovations:
to create a fostering regulatory framework;
to develop financial incentives to encourage research and testing;
to launch multi-annual projects carried out jointly by universities/research centres and public administration;
to run adequate public procurement policy;
to create within public administration spaces for the internal production of disruptive innovations.