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The present research explores the concept of gender equality and the main issues faced by female civil servants in the pandemic, with purpose of designing recommendations for the development of an inclusive and fair working environment in the Romanian public administration. The study is an exploratory one and was conducted in the Romanian National Agency for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, the main institution with prerogatives in developing and implementing the strategy for gender equality. The research methodology consists of a survey based on a questionnaire designed by the author. The main findings of the study are: stereotypes and gender role biases are the main cultural or systemic barriers, indicating an increased awareness, especially among women, of the impact of these stereotypes and prejudices on their career opportunities and progress. In addition, the main difficulties encountered by female civil servants during the pandemic were the necessity to spend more time with their families and doing house chores, as well as to take more often, unexpected leave days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research aims to contribute to the strain of literature that investigates resilience implementation features at different spatial scales. The analysis is guided by the following research questions: Are there any significant variations in the perception of shocks and stresses by policymakers at different spatial scales (rural, urban, local, regional, national)? How do spatial diversities influence adaptive capacities and transformation at different scales? How can multi-level governance frameworks be tailored to increase resilience performance? The research is a qualitative case study aimed to analyse the perception of Romanian decision-makers at different levels on how their territorial units experienced various difficult situations, surpassed them and proved to be resilient. The research methodology consisted of a set of semistructured in-depth interviews conducted with public authorities at central, regional, local and sub-local levels (urban and rural). The study highlighted Romanian decision-makers' perception of shocks, stressors and the resilience capacity at various spatial scales. For the analyzed period, the economic crises, the pandemic crisis and various types of natural disasters were identified as the main shocks. Also, a series of stressors can be added, with slower action, but equally strong and persistent over time, such as the phenomenon of deindustrialization and the waves of emigration. The study has also outlined the fact that strategies and plans, structures and dedicated resources can be identified at all levels, but these are mainly aimed at emergency situations such as natural disasters and less to economic and social shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the professional training process for public administration personnel in three European Union Member States: France, Ireland, and Romania. In the first part, the study presents and analyses the common elements, but also the differences, starting from the legislation in force, reports, and other sets of official documents. In the second part of the study, a sociological survey was carried out in a central public institution in Romania - the National Institute of Administration (INA), based on a questionnaire, with the aim of analyzing the professional training process and its impact on the career development of public administration staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to conduct an analysis regarding the professional training process of the public personnel from the Romanian public administration, in the 2020-2022 period. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the field of professional training has experienced a series of emerging changes, that had a major impact on the management of the professional training, in general, and training processes, in particular. The research method used consists of an opinion survey, conducted with the self-administered questionnaire, designed by the authors, based on the main studies and researches in the field. The questionnaire was sent to public institutions in the central public administration, under the subordination/ coordination of ministries. 239 respondents agreed to participate in the study. The research revealed that the public personnel from public administration prefers the professional training process to be conducted in the classical and mixed systems (blended learning). In addition, benefits of the training process in the online system which can be developed, in order to optimize this type of training, were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research aims to analyze civil servants’ work engagement in the Romanian state's public administration, meaning the central and territorial public administration’s organizations. The purpose of the study is to create a comprehensive image regarding the level of civil servants’ work engagement in the Romanian state’s public administration, taking into consideration the major importance of these institutions in the successful implementation of governmental reforms and crisis management, such as the Coronavirus pandemic and its economic and social impact. In order to better understand civil servants' attitudes and behaviors that reveal their level of work engagement, the items used in the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale developed by Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) were chosen, as well as three new items, based on the studies identified in the literature review process. A total of 646 respondents (civil servants) participated in the study. Findings suggest that civil servants in Romania's public administration have a high degree of work engagement, stating that they have a high level of energy and mental resistance during their work, are eager to put out effort in their work, and are persistent in the face of adversity. In comparison to female civil servants, men declared they adopted behaviors particular to a higher level of dedication, indicating that gender is a variable impacting work engagement. The occupied position, as well as the administrative level of the organization where the respondents worked, have no bearing on job engagement. The study adds new insights to the scarce literature on work engagement by examining the level of engagement among civil servants in the state's public administration and how it differs with respect to various sociodemographic and job-related variables. This is especially true in the Romanian context, where little research has been conducted in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study tries to analyze work satisfaction and motivation of civil servants from the Parliamentary offices of Romania's Senate in order to identify the factors that employee satisfaction and motivation depend on and the possible causes of dissatisfaction. The research methodology consists of an opinion survey conducted in Romania's Senate using a questionnaire designed by the authors. The study revealed that the majority of the respondents declared themselves satisfied with their workplace, their working activities, the working conditions, the level of remuneration, the relationship with the hierarchic superiors and colleagues, as well as the organizational climate. The participants in the study were satisfied the most about the remuneration level and job security and the least, about merit recognition and the opportunities to develop new skills. Also, the respondents considered that the main factors which can increase work motivation and satisfaction are: a higher level of remuneration and improved work conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romania's innovation performance did not improve in the last years. Consequently, the country remained in the Modest/Emerging innovators category in the European Innovation Scoreboard. Considering the importance of innovation for the economic development and recovery after Covid-19 pandemic, the present research aims to compare the development of the RD&I systems in five Member States-Romania and other four states with better performance in EIS. The main objective of the study is to investigate Romania's situation regarding the RD&I system development compared with EU's average and other Member States in order to identify the existing problems and the causes that led to its low performance in the EIS. The research methodology consists of an exploratory study conducted using secondary data analysis collected from the European Innovation Scoreboard database. The results of the analysis revealed that Romania registered upward trends only regarding four indicators: exports of knowledge-intensive services, high-tech exports, presence of venture capital funds and broadband penetration. The analysis of innovation activities revealed a constant underfunding of the research and innovation field, which also has repercussions on the quality of scientific activity, the attractiveness of the academic environment and on the number of applications for patents, brands and design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Integrated Territorial Investment mechanism (ITI) was implemented in Romania to the territory of ITI Danube Delta in the 2014-2020 programming period. In this respect, the present article aims to analyze the process of implementation of the ITI mechanism on the Danube Delta territory in order to find out the impact of its implementation on the socio-economic development of the area and on its resilience, as well as the main problems encountered by the responsible authorities for managing this programme and the beneficiaries of these funds. The research methodology consists of a survey conducted by using two questionnaires designed by the authors. The study had 42 participants from the fund managers' category and 71 participants from the beneficiaries' group. The study revealed a positive perception among all the participants which considered that ITI impacts the resilience of the Danube Delta territory to a medium extent. The most important problems encountered in the implementation process were the pre-financing process, the guides' conditions that are not adapted to the beneficiaries' needs and the public procurement process. The research revealed a high degree of satisfaction from both types of respondents regarding the ITI mechanism and a good relation between the managing institutions and beneficiaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women represent approximately half of the global human capital but continue to remain one the most underutilized resources since their contribution to economic development is hindered by various barriers. Sustainable economic growth can only be achieved by fully allowing women to become economically empowered meaning to have equal access to jobs as men, being equally paid, and having the same opportunities and chances to be promoted to higher positions. The present paper approaches the manner in which women contribute to economic development by focusing on female participation in the labor market as well as on the positive externalities generated by female employment. In addition, the study focuses on the effects of the gender pay gap on the ability of women to contribute to economic development and pays particular attention to the situation in Lebanon, a developing country with a frail economy where women face various forms of labor discrimination and Romania, a country with a better situation regarding gender equality and the gender pay gap. The main findings of the study reveal the importance of addressing the gender pay gap through changes in legislation, public policies, and public services providing in order to help at boosting the economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research is an exploratory study aiming at presenting the measures taken by the European Union to support the creation and development of clusters and to analyze Romania’s position in relation to other Member States in terms of key factors impacting cluster development. Impact factors on the development of clusters, such as digital skills among the active population, the degree of development of innovative companies, the number of applications for obtaining patents per one million inhabitants, the degree of development of clusters and the share of GDP in expenditures for research, development and innovation (%) were considered. The study highlights that Romania ranks last in the European ranking, due to the lack of incentives to promote the emergence of strong innovative clusters, underfunding of the innovation system and the absence of a legislative framework to support small and medium enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyses the leadership styles practiced in Romania's Prefectures Institutions and the impact of gender on it. The purpose is to analyze if the leadership practiced by civil servants from top management is the effective one as well as if female leaders are perceived as being better leaders than men are. The main objective of the study is to establish which are the leadership styles practiced predominantly and the differences between men and women when occupying leadership positions. The methodology of research consists of an opinion survey conducted in the 42 Prefectures (the institutions that represent the Government in each County) of Romania using a questionnaire. The questionnaire measured two types of effective leadership behaviors: transformational and transactional and one ineffective style, namely laissez-faire (Howell, Avolio, 1993). The research revealed that the leaders from the studied institutions are presenting mostly transformational and transactional characteristics and lower scores at the passive leadership behaviors, which makes them effective leaders. A direct relation between gender and the leadership styles practiced could not be established due to the fact that the civil servants considered that men and women behave almost the same when occupying the same leadership position. The study also revealed that the majority of the respondents (over 70%) did not have a preference regarding leaders' gender. Even if the research did not show that women are better leaders than men, the fact that they are perceived as being transformational leaders leads to the idea that female leaders are effective leaders capable of making public institutions more modern, resilient and performant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper presents the results of a pilot study conducted in one county council from Romania (Neam? County Council) aiming to explore the civil servants' perception of the leadership styles practiced by the top executives (Directors/General Directors/Deputy Executive Directors/Executive Directors), as well as about their capacity of building employees' resilience. The research methodology consists of an opinion survey that was conducted using a questionnaire designed by the author. The research started from the theories of Burns (1978), Bass and Avolio (1985) about Transformational, Transactional, and Laissez-Faire leadership styles. The main objective is to investigate the potential relationship between leadership and civil servants' resilience, considering a series of factors that could negatively influence civil servants' careers. The respondents were asked to express their opinion regarding the attitudes and behaviors of the studied leaders in 40 situations, aiming to observe which are the most exhibited leadership behaviors. Leaders' capacity to build civil servants' resilience was measured from four perspectives: leaders' attitudes towards personal problems, leaders' attitudes towards professional issues, leaders' attitudes concerning financial issues affecting the institution, and the attitudes concerning management changes. The research revealed that the studied leaders exhibited mostly transformational behaviors, but also transactional characteristics, to a high extent. The results also showed that the top executives had a high capacity of building employees' resilience being perceived as supportive and understanding leaders, who helped their subordinates to overpass the problematic moments from their careers. The research will be further continued in all Romanian County Councils with the purpose of studying civil servants' resilience as an impact factor for public institutions' resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research focuses on two interconnected gender phenomena which are often manifested in public sector: the glass ceiling and horizontal segregation, trying to establish a connection between the presence and evolution of these concepts in Central Public Administration of Romania and the implementation of gender policies and national legislation. The methodology of research consists of an exploratory study conducted using 2003-2017 data gathered from Central Public Administration institutions (ministries and subordinated institutions) concerning women in decision-making positions and uses BEIS typology, showing the influence of gender policies implemented by Romanian' Governments from the reference period. The study's results showed that the situation of women in decision-making positions has improved starting with 2011 when the dominance of men occupying both level 1 (positions which involve more power) and level 2 leadership positions has stopped. The data showed the existence of sectorial segregation because at higher administrative levels, men were better represented than women. From 2011 until the present, the gender ratio remained constant and equitable, because each gender occupied more than 40% of public functions at each level. This study showed that in the Central Public Administration of Romania women managed to break the glass ceiling and a form of gender equality in the core of the administration has been reached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]