Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 45 Review article Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration (survey results 2007–2008) UDK: 005.336:35(045) Polonca Kova~ University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Administration polona.kovac fu.uni-lj.si Barbara Leskov{ek University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Administration barbara.leskovsek fu.uni-lj.si ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was (1) to investigate the trends in the develop- ment of excellence and innovativeness, or the use of the relevant tools, by com- paring the situations of 2003, 2006 and (as projected) 2009 to one another, and against the approaches used in companies, and (2) to encourage the spread of awareness within the public administration of the importance of identifying and spreading good practices. We found that trends are taking the same direction, with the number of different tools and the frequency of their use – especially of the CAF (Common Assessment Framework) and EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) models, partly also the BSC (Balanced Scorecards), and of ISO standards – being on a continual rise, while the main systemic deficiencies are the inconsistent top-down policy of quality and excellence development, and the non-existent methodology for empirical evaluation of the effects produced by the use of those tools. The organisations are left to their own initiative, and sup- port of the Government and the Ministries is only declarative. Innovativeness, unlike this, primarily entails gradual improvements in the ways in which work is done – in the first place from the client perspective –, which is mainly reflected by the estimated financial savings. Key words: public administration, quality and excellence, innovativeness, organisation JEL: H 83, L15, O31, D73 Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 46 1. Introduction This paper entitled »Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence de- velopment in the Slovenian public administration« presents the results of the »Study on business excellence in relation to the use of tools for continuous improvement and innovativeness and for higher quality and excellence in the organisations in the Republic of Slovenia« conducted, mostly in 2007, by the Faculty of Administration in cooperation with the Metrology Institute of the Republic of Slovenia and the Faculty of Organisational Sciences of the Univer- sity of Maribor. The study on business 1 excellence in Slovenia, more specifi- cally on the use of tools for quality and excellence development and continu- ous improvement with special emphasis on establishing the significance of innovativeness in the organisations covered by the study, examined the corre- lations between innovativeness and business excellence of organisations on one hand and the comparison between large, small and medium-sized enter- prises and the organisations of public administration on the other. The purpose of the research was mainly applicative considering that the common aim of both the requesting and the implementing institutions was to obtain empirical analyses of the actual and planned use of quality development tools in time and by type of organisation, to be used as basis for the strategy of further qual- ity development in public administration. Moreover, by means of data gather- ing the organisations would perceive the strategic interest in the development of the matter, whereby the study would have achieved its objective of raising the awareness of the competent authorities about the significance of business quality development (also) in public administration. In the latter part, the study focused on demonstrating the assumed correlation between wide-spread and increasingly used quality tools and greater innovativeness of work. In order to better understand the applicative part of the study, a presentation of some basic notions already anticipated by the title of this paper are presented below. The theoretical part will be followed by an empirical demonstration of the main outcomes of the study. In the theory of economics, innovativeness is one of the factors of eco- nomic growth and a driving force of development. Innovation and innovative- ness both have a positive connotation, meaning something which is useful and 1 The EFQM model from which the above definitions are taken initially referred to »business excellence« and began to use the term »excellence« only after its renewal in 2003 (and in Slovenian documents even later). For the purposes of this paper, the two terms are regarded as synonyms. Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 47 brings progress and greater satisfaction. Innovativeness is closely related to creativity: in fact, an idea would first come up and would (can) be transposed into reality only by means of innovativeness. An organisation is deemed inno- vative when it carries out a certain task in a manner different than usual for a specific work post, or when it offers its clients a new service in a different and better manner (e.g. online services). In public administration, innovations are defined as introduction of new services, organisational forms, processes and management methods not hitherto applied 2 . Nemec 3 points out that public administration is more familiar with the notion of change, possibly for the bet- ter, or kaizena i.e. gradual and non-revolutionary or non-radical improvement. The next notion anticipated by the title of this paper and calling for an ex- planation is quality. The higher the quality, the greater the value of products and services for all the parties in terms of policy and finance. Total quality man- agement (TQM) focuses on procedures and processes that are considered as quality assurance tools. A higher degree of quality is excellence, i.e. the ex- ceedance of the needs, requirements and expectations of the clients and all the parties involved in the work of the organisation. According to CAF 2006 (Common Assessment Framework for organisations in the public sector/model CAF, 2007), excellence means best practice in the management of the organi- sation and the achievement of results based on a series of basic principles of total quality management as provided by the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) model (Savi~ et al., 2007). Public administration is a notion that lacks a uniform definition and in- cludes state administration bodies and part of the public services; in addition, it may include local self-government bodies with local public services, i.e. all organisations of the territorial as well as functional type performing duties of public importance or the public duty of providing public amenities 4 . Public ad- ministration operates with written documents and performs time-defined and continued tasks based on legal or technical rules; its functional and hierarchical organisation is focused on centralisation. Public administration is defined not only in terms of function (definition of functions and duties in public interest) or organisation (permanent structures with defined human, financial and other resources), but also in terms of procedure given the definition of proce- dures as guarantees of (formal) legality (Kova~, 2006). Public administration 2 Loeffler, 2006, p. 23, comp. Virant, 2007. 3 In Žargi et al., 2007, p. 203. 4 [midovnik, 1985, p. 129–130. Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 48 is characterised by superior-subordinate relationships whereby superior is the body holding the power, while under private law the prerequisite is the equality of the parties 5 . According to Pirnat 6 , the main problem in the legal definition of administration-related notions is that one tries to impose legal norms on em- pirical notions, analysing them with strict formal rules of logic and legal sci- ence; the consequence of generality and abstractness is inconsistence be- tween the actual and the normative. The previously mentioned study of the use of quality and excellence tools and thus of promoting continuous improvement and organisational innovative- ness development was based on the assumption that regardless of the area of operation of individual organisations, there is a correlation between business quality development and innovativeness. The organisations fostering quality and excellence development (Marolt and Gomi{~ek, 2005), mainly by investing into the relevant resources and the use of TQM tools with emphasis on inter- nal and external evaluation procedures, create a stimulating environment for innovations at the level of individual employees and the organisation as a whole. Consequently, the systemic development of innovativeness leads to higher business quality (Nemec, 2003). In such context, two basic research questions were developed and studied with the following hypotheses: (1) the public administration does not (yet) systematically use the tools for the devel- opment of excellence and innovativeness, and (2) as regards the extent and the results of the use of different excellence tools, a higher degree of innova- tiveness and better business results are achieved by the organisations that invest more in their employees and organisational development. The purpose of the study was therefore to prove the hypothesis that in public administration quality development tools are still used in a non-systematic manner although the organisations using them achieve better results in employee innovative- ness and overall satisfaction with the organisation's work. 2. Methodology The selection of the organisations covered by the study was made in ac- cordance with the definition of public administration. The study was conducted by means of a survey questionnaire involving a highly representative sample composed of ministries, bodies affiliated to ministries, administrative units and 5 Pav~nik, 1997, p. 437. 6 1988, p. 9, in Kova~, 2006. Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 49 government services – i.e. the state administration bodies. The largest share of addressees belonged to municipal administrations, and the study also included social work centres and public institutes. In total, the sample comprised over 400 organisations of public administration. The level of response exceeded the expectations as 140 questionnaires were returned (Figure 1), meaning that over 33% of all addressees participated in the study. This confirmed the au- thenticity of data gathered and analysed for the purpose of the study. Figure 1: Share of addressees per type of body (out of 140) Survey Institutes 4% Social work centres 12% Administrative units 31% Bodies affiliated to ministries 9% Ministries 7% National Council 1% Government services 4% Public companies 3% Municipalities 29% Survey Institutes 4% Social work centres 12% Administrative units 31% Bodies affiliated to ministries 9% Ministries 7% National Council 1% Government services 4% Public companies 3% Municipalities 29% Survey Institutes 4% Social work centres 12% Administrative units 31% Bodies affiliated to ministries 9% Ministries 7% National Council 1% Government services 4% Public companies 3% Municipalities 29% A systematic approach was chosen to carry out the research (To{ and Fink, 1998), from the definition of the problem and development of research questions (based on the prevailing expert opinion) to the application of the method of research with preliminary data gathering and substantiated confir- mation/rejection of the research questions. Methods of research in the field of social sciences were applied. The study covers both the theoretical-dogmatic and the empirical aspects of the use of tools to increase quality and excellence in the public administra- tion or in the private sector in Slovenia. The first aspect is reflected in the defi- nition of the basic notions determining the scope of the study. Dogmatism is Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 50 expressed also in the definition of the frameworks of empirical research (defi- nition of public administration and, thus, the respondents' organisations, etc.), and even more in the interpretation of statistical results. The entire research is however dominated by the second aspect since the main objective of the pro- ject is to gather and process data on the use of tools and on investments into innovativeness and development of business excellence in practice. Empirical methods are in fact indispensable for dealing with a world of facts where prac- tical experience is taken into consideration. Moreover, in order to study the world of theoretical definitions a descriptive method needs to be applied, i.e. an analysis of the content of individual notions, the definition thereof in legisla- tion and within the context of individual approaches and textbooks, their inter- pretation and comparison. The described duality of notions is thus essential also for the duality of the applied methods and findings of this study. In most cases also the sociological method was used, mainly considered as the basic method when it integrates certain elements of public administra- tion into real social life, taking into account the formulation of legal norms in the light of prevailing social values. However, the sociological method can not be the only one as it is based on the respect of existing legislation only. Never- theless, it brings to interesting conclusions concerning the relationship be- tween law and society and vice versa. The project activities were divided into three stages: (1) formulation of theoretical basis, (2) data gathering, and (3) their statistical and content-related analysis. The empirical part of the research was based on the case study method. The surveys and additional talks with respondents’ representatives and other participants in the study brought to light mostly practical issues. The survey research method enables to gather quantitative data and is considered a quantitative method. In fact, a survey is any collection of data obtained by asking questions, which may be carried out in various ways. Surveys may be either individual or relate to a group, they can be made by mail, e-mail, web- site, telephone, etc. There are many types of questions to be asked, depend- ing on a number of criteria (content, manner of responding, significance in the questionnaire, indirect/direct questions, special purpose, etc.) (from http://www.znanstveniki.si/; Ambrožic, 2005). For the purposes of this study, all possible forms of questions by manner of responding were used. Open questions allowed the respondents to give a free answer expressed with their own words; closed questions offered alter- native answers; and semi-open questions enabled them to provide either a Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 51 free answer to the posed question or an answer corresponding to the sug- gested answer categories. The survey questionnaires sent by regular or elec- tronic mail provided data from certain organisations covered by the study; the obtained results were then generalised by survey group or sample and com- pared. To increase the survey sample, organisations were called to cooperate a few times by mail, telephone, and the Internet. The persons failing to respond after two additional letters were sent a reminder with a copy of the question- naire 7 . The study collected data relating to 2003, 2006 and 2009. The year 2006 was set as the reference year considering that the organisations responded to the survey mainly between June and August 2007, thus providing available secondary statistical data for the latest entire calendar period i.e. the year 2006. The periods of three years before and after the reference year (data for 2009 is based on projections) were defined in line with the experience and practice of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) in Brus- sels. In all questionnaires, data was first statistically analysed by calculation in Excel, after which it was processed and analysed in SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). 3. Presentation of excellence assessment tools With the aim of achieving the better (best), various tools and approaches were developed (more in Dolin{ek et al., 2006, Kova~, 2007). First, there were individual (mainly economic) indicators, followed by quality assurance stan- dards defining minimum criteria, the most widely known being the ISO 9000 quality management system. In a few decades following the 2nd World War, a radical upgrading took place and various quality models were developed which, contrary to the standards, aimed at promoting continuous improvement and known as quality management. Prior to proceeding to the empirical part of the study, it is necessary – in order to allow greater uniformity of terms, better understand the applied results and obtain the relevant data considering the identification of basic notions (and the interpretation thereof) – to present the excellence tools developed by national and foreign scientists which served as basis for the questions used in the survey. 7 Kalton and Vehovar, 2001, p. 83 Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 52 One of the most widely used standards is indeed the EFQM European Excellence Model, known also in Slovenia in relation to the Slovenian Business Excellence Award (PRSPO). In addition, the Slovenian public administration uses standards and approaches such as the Quality Barometer, customer and staff satisfaction surveys, SiOK – Slovenian Organisational Climate, Investors in People, the system of financial indicators of performance and efficiency, Balanced Scorecards, etc. Nevertheless, the most important is the CAF model for the public sector. The EFQM Excellence Model was designed in the 1980s and in 1992 served as basis for the European (business) excellence award, initially awarded for the private sector but today including categories of large, small and me- dium-sized enterprises and the public sector. Its partner organisation in Slove- nia is the Metrology Institute in the context of the Slovenian Business Excel- lence Award (PRSPO). The PRSPO award was developed in the first years of Slovenia's independence under the national quality programme – following the example of the EFQM Excellence Award EEA and national awards in other Member States – to support competitiveness enhancement policies in all areas of work of the State. The basis for any activity in such field is provided by the European criteria of excellence and assessment thereof, developed by the EFQM. The purpose of the award is to encourage Slovenian companies, insti- tutes and other legal entities as well as state bodies to introduce the systems for modern, efficient and full achievement of quality and business excellence. As regards quality, Slovenia was among the first countries in Europe to use the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) for organisations in the public sector. This model, designed in 1998 as a pilot project under the auspices of the European Commission and the European Institute of Public Administration and in regular use since 2000, may be used for self-assessment or for external assessment and competition. A distinctive feature of the CAF model is that it takes into account the specifics of public administration, e.g. the importance of the attitude toward customers, non-financial performance indicators, etc. ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) is a global network de- termining which international standards need to be applied on work, within the Government and within the society, developing them in partnership with the sectors where they are to be used, summarising them by means of transparent procedures based on national inputs, and making them available on a global scale. ISO standards determine the requirements for state-of-the-art products, services, procedures, materials and systems, and for adequate assessment of compliance, Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 53 management and organisational practice (Common Assessment Framework for organisations in the public sector/model CAF, 2007). The Balanced Scorecards (BSC) system is a tool used to transfer strategy into the operation of an organisation, originated in the late 1980s by Harvard professors Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton. Measuring the results by BSC allows the companies' managements to define the objectives that exceed the mere financial performance and include investments in people and in the improvement of processes by which long-term performance may be guaran- teed. The BSC system is a managerial tool for managing the organisation's strategy and measuring performance, not for designing the strategy 8 . The Quality Barometer is a tool or method to assess customer satisfaction with the work of the administration. Thus, it supplements similar approaches that have been in force for some years now, particularly the customer satisfac- tion surveys in administrative units (since 2001) and other bodies. The Quality Barometer assesses customer satisfaction on a monthly basis. The respective questionnaire relates to four parameters of operation of an organisation: quality of staff work, staff attitude, velocity of the work done, and arrangement and accessibility of the organisation. The Excellence Measurement System in Slovenian Public Administration (SOOJU) is a system developed in 2007 by the Faculty of Administration under the project commissioned by the Ministry of Public Administration and the Metrology Institute, using the CAF 2006 model and the Decree on Administra- tive Operations. The aim of the project was to develop and set up an external excellence assessment system in the organisations of the Slovenian public administration based on the European model (framework) for the public sector CAF and the Decree on Administrative Operations in the part relating to stan- dards of public administration operations with the users of public services (22 standards were defined in the project). 8 Kaplan and Norton, 2000, p. 19–20 Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 54 4. (Non) use of excellence/innovativeness development tools The research questions gave the following results: 1. The organisations of public administration do not (yet) use the ex- cellence and innovativeness development tools in a systematic manner. This question was further examined through 9 sub-questions. The analysis revealed that on the average the majority of organisations (from 62 to 67% of all returned questionnaires) kept systematic records of the number of employees on several issues. As regards monitoring and assessing the number of training days per employee, organisations kept record in 50– 60% of the cases. Financial resources are monitored and assessed mainly in relation to training (57–67%) and less in relation to improvements and innova- tiveness (44–47 %) or research and development (39–42 %). The above partly confirms the finding of the second part of the question (see below), namely that organisations do not monitor their employees with systematic and struc- tured data relating to improvement/quality and innovativeness – in fact, the results showed that on the average organisations monitored and kept record of the proposals for improvement and innovation to a lesser extent (34–37%) or not at all (49–52%); likewise, also who and how many employees had pre- sented proposals was monitored less (34–38%) or not at all (49–52%). Organi- sations do not keep systematic and structured records of the implementation of the received proposals (30–36%) or do not examine such fact at all (50– 57%). The estimated net savings as a result of the implemented proposals for continuous improvement and innovation were monitored in a limited number of cases (17–22%) or not at all (65–69%). Quite similarly, data regarding the amount of the reward given to employees for their proposals and improve- ments was kept in a small number of cases (23–29%), or the organisation did not keep track thereof at all (57–63%). In such context, many respondents stressed that data thereon was not kept as there was no particular interest in such monitoring. In the period 2003–2006, the average number of days of employee train- ing in quality management and business excellence was 144.95, in raising innovativeness 41, in human resources development 86.5, and in managerial skills improvement 79. In all areas of training, the same trend was recorded Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 55 also in the period until 2009. The linear trend calculated independently from the data received in the survey questionnaires provided a picture very similar to other statistical calculations, namely that the number of days devoted to employee training was steadily increasing between 2003 and 2006, which would certainly continue also in the period until 2009. Among the four areas under consideration, the highest figures were recorded in days of training in quality improvement and innovativeness, which points to a high degree of management and staff awareness that the quality of work and innovative solu- tions by employees are an important aspect of performance also in the public administration. The analysis also showed that in 2006 organisations with 26 to 50 em- ployees considered the certified system of business quality management ISO 9001:2000 to be most important procedure. 2009 is expected to see a further increase in the share of organisations with similar staff numbers that find such procedure most important. The majority of organisations which in 2009 find it most important to be evaluated by external evaluators based on the CAF model or to participate in the pilot project of external evaluation according to the same model (public sector) are those with 26 to 50 employees. The following conclusions were derived from the first research question: Organisations systematically monitor the use of financial resources for employee training but do not keep record of or evaluate such by area of training and work of the employees. The surveyed organisations measure the number of days of training per employee, whereby in the period 2003–2006 such number is con- stantly increasing, with certain areas recording a growth index of 1.8 (for 2009 it seems to be oversized, as it is expected to grow by over 200% compared to 2006!). Organisations only exceptionally (only some of them) encourage, sys- tematically establish, measure and reward the proposals for improve- ment (about half of the respondents not at all). In the periods under consideration, organisations used internal and ex- ternal tools for quality development with an increasing frequency but failed to develop the indicators to evaluate the effects of such ap- proaches in relation to the strategic goals of the public administration. Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 56 The more they take account of the changes in quality and excellence, the more evaluation schemes they actually use. However, they do not include the above approaches in their work or specific plans. The re- sults are the same for internal and external approaches. The correlation between the (large) number of employees representing the critical mass and the use of the tools promoting continuous im- provement and quality and innovativeness development is either weak or at least middle (according to the Pearson's correlation coefficient). As expected, in the periods considered organisations aimed at increas- ing the number of days for employee training in quality and excellence, human resources development and managerial skills improvement, and less in improving innovativeness. In addition, it was established that the organisations in public administration do not necessarily relate staff development to the development of quality and excellence, since the figures in training in human resources development and managerial skills improvement are significantly higher than – and thus non-related to – those in quality improvement. Organisations only keep financial data if the latter directly relate to the use of budgetary funds, i.e. by purpose rather than objective of use. Moreover, not even those with at least partially established system of improvement proposals gathering and evaluating assess net savings deriving from implemented improvement proposals. Although the organisations of the Slovenian administration – both indi- vidually and at the level of public administration as a whole – declara- tively support the ideas and approaches of the new public management in the sense of assessing the results (management by objectives), the truth is that they only measure the inputs of, exclusively, financial resources. The first research question was thus fully confirmed. Given the initially described restrictions and the limited degree of trust, we believe that the study question was posed absolutely correctly – with the additional statement that there is (yet) no systematic use of excellence and innovativeness devel- opment tools in the public administration. The organisations' awareness of the importance of the above approaches and the actual use thereof in the period considered and, in particular, in their plans demonstrates an evidently up- ward trend, although there is still a lack of empirical evaluations of the rele- vant effects. Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 57 2. As far as the extent and results of the use of various excellence tools are concerned, a higher degree of innovativeness and better busi- ness results are demonstrated by the organisations that invest more in individual employees and in the organisation's development. At the end of 2003–2006, the number of employees in quality manage- ment and business excellence rose on average by 9 and totalled 35.96; the same is expected for the period until 2009. Research and development em- ployed 43.7 persons; their number increased on average by 24.8 in the period under consideration and shows a similar trend also for the period until 2009. Human resources development employed 14 persons – this number is ex- pected to be at least preserved also in the following three-year period. Esti- mates for the above three areas show that financing is mainly allocated to employee training as a result to the increasingly prevailing trend among the employees – namely life-long learning – since both employers and employees are aware that in the present information society formally attained education soon becomes obsolete and it is necessary to continuously acquire new com- petences for a more efficient performance of work and higher level of com- petitiveness. The frequency of introducing or using new tools and approaches per year was 15.71% in 2003, 20.71% in 2006 and 28.57 in 2009. A slightly higher per- centage was recorded also by the respondents whose replies related to three- year periods: 9.29% in 2003, 8.57% in 2006 and 4.29% in 2009. The respondents obviously prefer certain internal approaches over others, since in the periods concerned the same internal approaches obtained the same ranking, e.g. Quality Barometer and CAF self-assessment 1 st or 2 nd rank, comparisons with competitors or the best in the sector as part of the analysis for mainly strategic purposes (benchmarking) and introduction of process indi- cators regularly monitored by statistical tools 3 rd or 4 th rank, while the last two ranks (15 th and 16 th ) were occupied by 6 sigma and 20 keys systems. Such ranking reveals that organisations prefer internal approaches that are known to a broader circle of people, thus having better possibilities to compare the re- sults with other similar organisations in the public sector in Slovenia and abroad. Moreover, in planning the future use of internal approaches to promot- ing innovativeness and quality they opt for tools which most of them already used in the previous period. Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 58 The number of days of training per employee foreseen for 2009 is de- creasing (down to 2.05 days), while the number of recorded proposals for im- provement or innovations per employee is expected to grow (to 8.62 propos- als); the same applies for the average share of implementation of the received proposals (47.53%). In the period 2003–2006, all three variables increased: the number of training days per employee rose from 4.72 in 2003 to 7.9 in 2006, the number of recorded proposals from 3.34 in 2003 to 5.69 in 2006, and the average share of implementation of the received proposals from 27.59% in 2003 to 41.65% in 2006. Among the results obtained, only data on the ex- pected number of days of training per employee in 2009 seems to stand out, which might be due to the introduction of e-government that initially required additional training in e-services for a large number of employees; once the system has come into operation, knowledge only needs upgrading and less training is necessary. Moreover, the said variable could also be under the ef- fect of Slovenia's accession to the EU and the related need for training of competent employees which at the time considerably increased but has now taken the opposite direction. The variables for which the Pearson's coefficient revealed correlation with the number of training days per year include: internal evaluation based on ISO 17025, ISO 17020 and similar, self-assessment according to the CAF excel- lence model, process indicators and regular monitoring of processes with sta- tistical tools, and the use of the Quality Barometer. As regards 2009, it was noted that certain organisations strive to take advantage of the knowledge their employees obtain in training to enhance the use of the above internal approaches to promote continuous improvement and innovativeness and to improve quality and excellence, thus raising the quality of their services. Organisations that in 2003 already had a plan for continuous improvement and innovativeness and greater quality and excellence recorded in the same year 43% of employees submitting 160 proposals in total; organisations with- out a plan recorded only 9% of employees presenting such proposals. In 2006, they recorded 43% of employees presenting 301 proposals and 16% employ- ees presenting proposals, respectively. The share of the latter however in- creased by 7% between 2003 and 2006. Organisations that in 2009 intend to introduce a plan for continuous improvement and innovativeness and greater quality and excellence are expected to record 49% of employees submitting 422 proposals in total, while the organisations without such intention for 2009 nevertheless expect to record 10% of employees presenting proposals. Quite Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 59 obviously, the number of proposals anticipated by the organisations for 2009 increased in organisations which have or will produce a plan for continuous improvement and greater quality and excellence. The correlation between the use of tools for continuous improvement and innovativeness of employees on one hand and the significance of procedures for recognising business quality by external (authorised) institutions on the other in 2006 is statistically characteristic of the Pearson correlation coefficient as 19.39% of coefficients proved correlation while 80.61% of coefficients did not. In 2009, statistically characteristic correlation was proven by 25.45% of coefficients among the pairs of variables. In terms of individual groups, the highest shares of replies confirming the use of continuous improvement tools was recorded by administrative units, followed by municipalities (12.3%), bodies affiliated to ministries, social work centres, ministries, institutes, and government services. The replies by public companies and the National Council were not positive. Likewise, administrative units, followed by municipalities, institutes, social work centres and bodies affiliated with ministries, were the most likely to use specific approaches to assess continuous improvement. The replies by public companies, ministries, government services and the National Council were not positive. In 2009 administrative units recorded a decrease in the elaboration of the above plans as only 31 organisations had such, compared to 35 in 2006 (equal- ling a drop from 81 to 72% of organisations within the group). Social work centres, municipalities, bodies affiliated with ministries and institutes are ex- pected to increase the number of plans. No significant change compared to 2006 was recorded by public companies and government services. It seems that the difference between administrative units and other seg- ments of administration is decreasing or at least a decrease is planned, al- though it is a rather slow process that only points to the relevant trend; in ab- solute terms, administrative units are well ahead in the use of tools for con- tinuous improvement, greater quality and excellence and innovativeness in all the years covered by the study. The second research question as such can only be confirmed partially or it can only be concluded that the question can neither be proven nor overruled. This question is indeed harder to prove owing to the lack of uniform measur- able and comparable indicators in the public administration as a whole, particu- larly those relating to the objectives of work. Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 60 The fact is that if the volume of input (human resources, finance, training) in quality, excellence and innovativeness is increasing, organisations are in- deed aware of the significance of these areas and change their rather uncon- trolled approach for a more systematic one. The following conclusions can be drawn: Organisations distinguish between human resources development on one side and business excellence development and innovativeness on the other, and do not correlate them. The number of employees in human resources development is significantly higher than of those en- gaged in quality management and research and development; the lat- ter two however show an upward trend while the first shows a slightly downward trend. The growth of inputs should lead to higher number of submitted and implemented proposals for improvement as a basic indicator of innova- tiveness of individuals and the organisation as a whole. Such correla- tion is partially seen only between 2003 and 2006 although it is only a middle correlation, not even stated for 2009. Planning as a systematic approach is fruitful since organisations with elaborated continuous improvement plans obviously record a larger number of improvement proposals. The growth of inputs (human resources, finance, training) in quality, excellence and innovativeness leads to increasingly frequent or wider – in terms of volume (number of approaches) – use of tools in general, mainly internal and external evaluation procedures, taking into account both the comparison between 2003 and 2006 and the plans for 2009 when the most frequently used tools should be used regularly once a year. Attention is drawn also to the unequal rate of use of the tools in vari- ous parts of public administration, e.g. social work centres do not use them, supposedly due to insufficient involvement of the line ministry. None of the above assumptions may be proven because either the or- ganisations do not keep record of such data or there is actually no correlation, not even between the number of training days and the volume of submitted proposals for improvement. A more frequent use of the tools was recorded, yet not for all the three elements of the study (partly for tools in general and Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 61 internal approaches, but not at all for external procedures) and differently in different periods of time. The largest share of positive replies about the use of tools for continuous improvement in individual groups compared to the overall statistical sample goes to administrative units (50.8%), followed by municipalities (12.3%), bodies affiliated with ministries (10.8%) and social work centres (9.2%), ministries (6.2%), institutes (6.2%) and government services (4.6%). The same applies to measuring continuous improvement. Administrative units also recorded the largest share of positive replies about plans promoting continuous improve- ment in the period 2003–2006. Such share was 58.8% in 2003 and 60.3% in 2006, while projections for 2009 indicate that it will account for 49.2% of the public administration as a whole. 5. Financial inputs by the organisations and their impact on results The 140 organisations surveyed together employ 17,122 persons; 53 or- ganisations have less than 25 employees, 42 have 26–50 employees, and 44 have more than 50 employees. The size of the organisation has no effect on the frequency of use of the tools for continuous improvement and for raising innovativeness among the employees. The statistical correlation based on the Pearson’s correlation coefficient is observed only in organisations with 26–50 employees that use the ISO system and the CAF model, both in terms of in- ternal and external evaluation and follow-up. Organisations with less than 25 employees are the most reluctant to use improvement tools that contribute to quality and excellence as well as innovativeness. In 2003, organisations on average recorded the lowest number of employees in quality management and business excellence; here, also the arithmetic mean based on the total number of employees is the lowest and amounts to 0.50. The lowest estimated values relating to the number of employees in 2003 were indicated in research and development and in 2006 in quality management and business excellence. The highest numbers of employees in 2009 are expected on average in research and development. As a general rule, surveys were answered on behalf of the organisation by the heads of such organisations (30%), followed by the »person performing Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 62 other tasks« (23.6%) and heads of internal organisational units (19.3%), which indirectly shows who in the hierarchy of an organisation is in charge of the development of quality, excellence and innovativeness. It was established that compared with the findings for the private sector (Kova~, 1999), various analy- ses of the use of the EFQM model in Slovenia and abroad indicate (Kova~, 2007a) that such person is much too seldom – only in one third of the cases – the top manager of the organisation. If this is an issue that falls within the do- main of hierarchical levels below the head of the organisation, it acquires an operational (rather than strategic) and thus understated connotation, which as a consequence reduces the potential effects of the use of TQM tools. In 2003, organisations on average allocated the least financial resources to promoting continuous improvement and staff innovativeness as demonstrated by the lowest value of the arithmetic mean (approx. EUR 2500), but are ex- pected to increase such figures in 2006 and 2009 to 3900 or, according to the plan, EUR 4400 respectively. Most financing is intended for staff training, with extremely high arithmetic means for all three years under consideration – over EUR 21,000 in 2003, almost EUR 28,000 in 2006, and almost EUR 36,000 planned for 2009. On average, organisations estimate that in the future (in 2009) most fi- nancing will be allocated to research and development given that it records the highest arithmetic mean – almost EUR 40,000 although slightly above EUR 35,700 in 2006 and only EUR 19,000 in 2003. The standard deviation from the values of the arithmetic means indicates that the estimated financial resources in EUR on average differed from the arithmetic mean by various amounts that varied considerably from one group of replies to the other. The most out- standing are the values of the standard deviation of replies in research and development. This points to an uneven use and planned distribution of financial resources by individual organisations. In 2009, organisations plan to reduce the number of trainings per em- ployee by 2% on average compared to 2006, namely in quality and excellence development, human resources development, and improvement of managerial skills, and increase training related to improving innovativeness by 4%. The lowest average number of days of training per employee was recorded in 2003, namely in quality and business excellence improvement with arithmetic mean values of 27.6 days compared to 41.7 days in 2006 and the planned 47.5 days in 2009. Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 63 6. Continuous improvement, innovativeness, and greater quality and excellence – findings In public administration, the respondents mainly use customer satisfaction surveys, Quality Barometer, the ISO system and CAF model, as well as other tools, but are unfamiliar with others, as expected (e.g. 20 keys, 6 sigma etc., and in particular the tools and procedures characteristic for small and medium- sized enterprises). Figure 2: Use of continuous improvement tools by organisation (based on 140 replies), in % 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Social work centres Public companies Municipalities Administrative units Ministries Bodies affiliated to ministries Government services Institutes National Council no answer not available NO YES 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Social work centres Public companies Municipalities Administrative units Ministries Bodies affiliated to ministries Government services Institutes National Council no answer not available NO YES In 20% of the cases the organisations replied that they assessed the number and value of proposals for continuous improvement and innovative- ness, while in 66.43% of the cases these data were neither kept nor as- sessed. In 2003–2006, the number of recorded proposals increased from 3% to 6% (the average increase planned was 8,6%), similarly to the number of proposals Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 64 by employees which rose from 4% (2003) to almost 6% of employees (2006), with a plan of nearly 13% proposers among all employees of the organisation. The average reward received by employees for a submitted and imple- mented improvement proposal increased from EUR 100 in 2003 to over EUR 200 in 2006. Organisations recorded the smallest share of implementation of proposals for continuous improvement and innovations in 2003 when the arithmetic mean was the lowest (27.6%), but in the years to come the per- centage of implementation is (planned) to increase (to 42 or 48%, respec- tively). The organisations record the least of the data that could serve as basis to assess the average net savings as a result of the proposals (17–22% of all replies received). Significant saving is expected no sooner than 2009 where the arithmetic mean is the highest (EUR 3200 compared to around EUR 860 in 2003 and 1760 in 2006), but it is not clear how such plans and expectations are justified. Among all the participants, the question whether the organisation used tools for continuous improvement and innovativeness received 47% of posi- tive replies, 39% of organisations do not make use of such tools, 13% did not reply, and two organisations (1%) did not record such data. According to the classification of replies by the frequency of use of inter- nal approaches, organisations do not use or are even unfamiliar with internal approaches for continuous improvement. In terms of their size, internal ap- proaches are not used in general by 48% of organisations with less than 50 employees and by 24% of those with more than 50 employees. Internal ap- proaches most widely and regularly used in public administration include self- assessment according to CAF model, internal assessment according to ISO 9001:2000, benchmarking and Quality Barometer. Occasionally, but very rarely, organisations resort to gathering and rewarding useful proposals and im- provements, present their own quality and good practice system at confer- ences and conventions, etc. In 2009, the frequency of use of certain internal approaches, particularly the CAF model and the gathering of useful proposals and improvements, is expected to increase. In 2006, organisations most often used self-assessment according to CAF, process indicators, Quality Barome- ter, and the system of gathering and rewarding proposals and improvements. Over 60% of organisations did not know or use one of the most common ap- proaches, i.e. internal assessment according to ISO 9001:2000; the latter was used by only 28 organisations. This will probably change in 2009 as the share Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 65 of organisations familiar with and using the above approach is expected to grow. We also examined the use of external procedures. Here, the 2006 aver- age values range between a minimum of 0.27 (importance of successful coop- eration in quality projects supported by the Small Business Promotion Centre or the Public Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investments – small organisations) and a maximum of 1.83 (importance of the certified system of business quality management ISO 9001:2000). The maximum estimated value for 2009 is 2.64 for importance of assessment according to the CAF model by external evaluators or participation in the pilot project of external assessment according to the same model. Organisations highlight the importance of the CAF model also for external – and not only internal – evaluation. Moreover, the hitherto trend (observed in 2003 and particularly in 2006) regarding participa- tion in the Ministry of Public Administration's public tender on good practices, in Business Excellence Award projects and in competitions for quality awards, and certified quality management system ISO 9001:2000 is expected to con- tinue. In such context, organisations distinguish between business quality awards by individual external institutions and attach particular importance to those fitted to public administration, while they do not know others or even reject them. 24% of participating organisations had a plan for continuous improvement in 2003, 42% had such in 2006, and 45% are expected to elaborate a plan in 2009. 7. Final conclusions If quality or excellence development is assessed by the use of tools, in- ternal and external evaluations, systematic encouragement of proposals for improvement and planning, all in the context of increased inputs in human resources management and development – particularly training – and finance, there is no doubt that (1) there is statistically typical increase in the use of such tools which, however, (2) is not systematic neither at the level of most individ- ual organisations nor in the public administration as a whole (they are mainly used only in administrative units). The recommendation for the competent authorities is to reconsider the objectives of public administration and adopt Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 66 and implement a plan of activities to improve the use of the approaches stud- ied. This also derives from Slovenia's Development Strategy relating to the period 2006–2013 (prepared in 2003–2004 and approved in 2005). Undoubtedly, an upward trend regarding the use of such tools is observed both in individual organisations and units and in the public administration as a whole. The trend is mainly progressive, meaning that the difference between 2009 and 2006 is greater than between 2006 and 2003, although the plans for 2009 should be regarded with some reserve given the lack of support with guaranteed resources. Investment into resources is, on one hand, a factor of development and a consequence thereof on the other, and the spiral of organi- sations involved in continuous improvement procedures is infinite. Attention needs to be drawn to the fact that it would be wise to examine the actual im- pacts of increasing inputs and of the use of quality and excellence tools on the implementation of the objectives of public administration. In terms of method- ology, such approach is certainly very good practice to be applied in as many projects as possible related to a wider social context. Last but not least, the purpose of the project was to enable and provide an opportunity to as many organisations in the Slovenian public administration (and private companies) as possible to compare with and learn from other simi- lar or different public administration organisations (Kova~ et al., 2007) and in- troduce good practices in all types of organisations of public administration and – on a longer run – in the entire public sector. The originality of good practice derives mainly from the correlation of various systems within state administra- tion and from cooperation with the users in the private sector 9 . The findings of this study will be very useful for both the employees in public administration and – in particular – to decision-makers at the State level when developing public policies on the functioning of public administration taking into account the changed role of the State both in adopting strategic decisions and prepar- ing the relevant documents as well as in their implementation. The organisations of the Slovenian administration – both individually and at the level of public administration as a whole – only declaratively support the ideas and approaches of the new public management in the sense of assess- ing the results; the truth is that they assess (only) the inputs of financial re- sources. Evidently, the frequency of use is increasing over time (2003–2009), but empirical evaluations of the effects of such use are still lacking. There is an uneven rate of use of the tools in individual parts of public administration, 9 Smodi{, 2005, p. 599. Polonca Kova~, Barbara Leskov{ek Innovativeness as part of quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration Uprava, letnik VII, 2/2009 67 mostly in administrative units. According to the results of the study, quality and excellence development in the Slovenian public administration is – despite the remarkable results of individual organisations – still at an initial stage. There- fore, the main task for the competent authorities is to pursue further activities only after prior target-oriented analyses of public policies and redefinition of strategic goals of development of the State and its administration. Polonca Kova~ completed her PhD studies at the Faculty of Law of Ljubljana in Novem- ber 2005 with a thesis on public authority in the Republic of Slovenia. Since 2001 she has been employed full-time at the Faculty of Administration where she is lecturer at several first- and second-level courses, also collaborating with the Faculty of Social Work, Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, Faculty of Economics, and Faculty of Social Sciences. Since the late 1990s, she has been giving seminars and workshops and presenting and publishing papers at national and international conferences. In 2007 she was appointed Assistant Professor for public administration. She has been an evaluator since 2002 and acted as arbitrator in the procedure regarding the Slovenian Business Excellence Award between 2004 and 2008; she now holds a second term of office for the period 2009-2012. She is also evaluator in quality assessment procedures for higher education programmes and institutes. Since 2008 she has been member of the Senate of the Faculty of Administration. She is member of the Government Strate- gic Council for the public sector. In December 2008 she was appointed member of the Council of Officials and has been chairing this body since last July. Barbara Leskov{ek is a specialist in public administration completing a postgraduate master's course in administration at the Faculty of Administration. She concluded hith- erto studies as the graduate of the year. She graduated in comparative analysis of e- portals in Slovenia and abroad and specialised in comparative analysis of European framework programmes. She presented her findings at several national conferences. She has been employed at the Faculty of Administration since February 2004 as autonomous specialised staff member for science and research. In such context, she has been actively involved in the preparation of numerous national and European pro- jects and has been member of organisational boards for several international confer- ences and conventions (NISPAcee, EGPA, SSPA). 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