THE LEARNING NEEDS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION MANAGERS

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the key findings from a project which focused on assessing the learning needs of managers in Cyprus public service. The project is managed by the Cyprus Academy of Public Administration (CAPA), and was implemented by the international center CARDET and the consulting firm INNOVADE Leadership and Innovation LTD. The project was funded by the European Social Fund and the Republic of Cyprus. Within the broader plan for improving public service, this project was initiated by CAPA to identify the learning needs of managers in three areas: leadership, management and strategy. The managers were classified in 3 categories: Upper level, middle level, and low lever managers. The project began in December 2009 and ended in May 2010. A large scale survey was conducted in order to identify the learning needs across all services, ministries and departments of public service. In order to develop the instruments, we consulted the international literature and held a focus group with key stakeholders. After the first draft of the instrument was developed, it went through several phases of piloting and revising until it was finalized. The questionnaire was administered using stratified sampling procedures. A total of 1164 questionnaires were mailed or delivered, and 784 were returned (response rate 67.4%). In addition to the survey 28 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with mangers from all three levels, and 5 focus groups were held with managers. During data analysis we followed two stages: the inductive and deductive stage. First, we collected and organized all the data. The data from the survey were entered in SPSS and we calculated descriptive statistics. Comparisons across levels were conducted using one-way ANOVA. We prepared tables, graphs and diagrams to help illustrate main ideas. We then read through the qualitative and quantitative data several times to gain an overall understanding of the learning needs of managers and the challenges they face. We wrote notes and memos about those issues and events that emerged and began to generate assertions. Assertions are propositional statements that indicate relationships and generalizations in the data. Once we generated assertions from the data as a whole, we entered the deductive stage. In this stage we engaged in detailed examination of the data and looked for evidence that supported or disconfirmed our assertions. We juxtaposed and weighed all evidence. We examined all instances carefully and tried to determine whether to keep each assertion, refine it, or drop it. During this presentation we will discuss the success and challenges of the project, as well as discuss some of the key findings.