Improving the quality of civil servants’ professional training process through digitalization – an exploratory research from employees’ perspective

Assoc. prof. Laura Mina-Raiu (laura.minaraiu@amp.ase.ro) 

Lecturer Cătălin- Valentin Raiu (catalin.raiu@faa.unibuc.ro) 

Manuela Comăniciu (comaniciumanuela21@stud.ase.ro) 

Digitalization initiatives in the public sector require not only advanced ICT infrastructure and technologies, but also a good strategy in terms of stakeholdersʾ management, especially citizens-clients and human resources. Because quality management plays a key role in improving the organizational performance and the quality of public services, this research is concerned with how quality management can enhance digitalization efforts and support public organizations adapt to the challenges of the technological revolution. The paper focuses on the particular case of National Institute of Administration (NIA) from Romania, the main provider of professional training courses and specialized training for public sector employees and also a very dinamic and proactive public organization regarding the quality management approach and digital transformation. Our findings suggest that implementing digital transformation is perceived by NIA employees to bring a lot of benefits, but at the same time participants to the digitalization process (public sector human resources and citizens) face several obstacles in this respect, such as lack of skills, competences and resources. We argue that a quality management approach may build a strong foundation for overcoming such obstacles, as TQM practices such as top management support, customer focus, continuous improvement, training and education enhance usersʼ readiness for change.

Keywords: digitalization, public sector organization, quality of training process, quality management