Childrenand young people need to be educated in new ways, the elderly need to be rehabilitated as part of a new way of providing care, and the unemployed need to enter the labor market faster.
The core tasks in the municipalities in virtually all welfare areas are characterized by a number of reforms that set new goals for the task solution. This means that municipal employees must change their professional understanding of the tasks and often also change their approach to and interaction with citizens.
This also means that the reality of municipal managers is changing. For example, managers need to get closer to the day-to-day tasks and specific professional skills in order to succeed with the changes together with employees.
READ MORE ABOUT OUR EDUCATION
LEAD
offers certification in the development of agile leadership with the development tool The Leader's Versatility Index (LVI)
With a certification, you will be equipped to use LVI in development processes in your organization at the individual, group and organizational level.
New focus on balance
Kristian Dahl believes that the increasing complexity combined with the increased political pressure to both maintain or improve service levels while reducing public budgets means that there is a whole new need for balance in public management.
Specifically, Kristian Dahl is working with internationally recognized researcher and former senior executive in Canada and the UN Jocelyne Bourgon on a research project that will uncover what leaders need to focus on to create the necessary balance.
Bourgon's previous research has involved politicians and top officials in six different countries and has resulted in a new theoretical model of public administration called the New Synthesis of Public Administration.
The 200+ participants identified four focus areas for the public sector that need to be balanced to succeed with change and austerity:
Staying on top of things - Compliance
More for less - Performance
Innovation of welfare together with others - Emergence
Resilience and robustness - Resilience.
The model can also be transferred to a Danish context.
"Danish public sector leaders have traditionally been good at creating more for less. What happens is that if you only focus on creating more for less, you risk creating the same reality, just more efficiently. But you're not creating anything new. And that's no longer enough," says Kristian Dahl and continues:
"It's a question of understanding that the changes happening in society create such complex challenges that Danish leaders need to innovate with others and work with resilience."
Read the full article from Væksthus For Ledelse to gain deeper insight into the 4 focus areas for leaders
