Managing Public Sector in the Digital Reform Era: Organizational Factors and Their Impact on the Digital Transformation at the Greek Public Administration

The present study aims to investigate the key organizational factors that impact digital transformation of public sector in Greece during the current pandemic, which caused many changes in the ways that organizations operate and offer their services to citizens. We used a mixed research method both quantitative and qualitative. A total of 151 questionnaires were answered by middle managers of the Greek public sector, and an analysis was performed using the SPSS statistical tool. Then, a qualitative research was conducted through 30 structured interviews with public servants, regarding the digital transformation and the internal factors that hinder its successful integration. The results revealed that technological factors that compose the quality of service and organizational factors such as training and evaluation of human resources, leadership, organizational strategy, and the creation of a digital culture had a great impact on the successful implementation and adoption of digitalization projects. Our results can be useful for policymakers considering the application of similar systems in their public administration practices. Finally, another important finding was that public servants consider the current pandemic as an opportunity and not as a threat in improving the quality of their internal processes and in the value creation to citizens. However, they still believe that the chronic problems of the Greek public administration fail to hinder any attempt of transformation.