| Abstract [eng] |
The global pandemic of COVID-19 has become the biggest challenge for the entire human population in recent decades. The need expressed in the World Health Organization recommendations for evidence-based knowledge of public policy and governance response chosen by countries to the COVID-19 crisis has not gone unnoticed. However, the analysis of the effectiveness of public policy measures rarely takes into account the intensified search for alternative crisis management tools through the implementation of public sector innovations. Therefore, the objective of this Master’s thesis is to determine whether and how the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the development and implementation of innovations in the Lithuanian public sector. The theory of change constructed during the analysis of theoretical approaches allows to assess whether and how the COVID-19 crisis affected the Lithuanian public sector innovation. In this thesis, a qualitative two-part empirical study has been conducted. Both the first and second parts of the empirical study are devoted to general analysis and are based on process tracing. In the first part, the analysis of relevant legal acts, information on official portals of state institutions, and media measures have been performed. In the second part, it was chosen to conduct 12 expert interviews. A qualitative case study revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the development and implementation of innovations. A higher volume of product/service and process innovations have been implemented mainly to adapt to the rapidly changing environment. However, it can be observed that after the first quarantine, the development of innovation in quantitative terms and the enthusiasm of public sector workers have decreased. The following conclusions can be drawn about the influence of independent variables on the dependent variable: 1. High uncertainty during the pandemic significantly accelerated the decision-making. Instead of the usual linear model of decision-making and implementation, during the crisis, the processes had to be coordinated in parallel, however, this led to a lack of time to consider alternative methods or products. 2. The need for collaborative or experimentation-based decision-making methods, which are less common in public administration, has led to the development and implementation of significant innovations. The provision of business services on a pro bono basis and the risk is taken by the public sector to allow services or products at the MVP stage provided an opportunity for both cross-sectoral communication and cooperation, as well as rapid adaptation. 3. A faster and smoother process of developing and implementing innovations is driven by a type of collaborative leadership emerging at the political level. However, at the political level, the focus is limited to significant public innovations in public administration, such as the development of a public data management system. During the COVID-19 pandemic, situational leadership prevailed in the Lithuanian public sector. 4. Flexibility is a key feature of financial and human resources for innovation. The opportunities to finance new projects have made a significant contribution to the implementation of innovations and the motivation of public sector workers. Moreover, innovative teams are characterized by higher digital competencies or collaboration in attracting such competencies from outside. Although the chosen research method does not allow to generalization of these conclusions to other cases, it creates an opportunity for scientific discussion and verification of empirical connections through comparative analysis case studies or quantitative access studies. It is recommended that future research is focused on more detailed analyses of the co-creation processes between government, businesses, and citizens. |
