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alumni survey: ratings of technology skills required in order of percentage ranked important or critical (combined)
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This study investigates how employees in government entities develop information technology (IT) competence and the extent to which training in Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs contributes to such competence. To facilitate this evaluation, we surveyed government employers and MPA program alumni and carried out a content analysis of MP...
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The colonel, later general Hans Philip Fuchs von Bimbach (ca. 1567–1626) was for some years the most influential official at the court of the Protestant Margrave Joachim Ernst of Brandenburg-Ansbach and was engaged as a diplomat beyond the state’s borders. However, later he fell out with the Margrave and entered into imperial (i.e., Catholic) servi...
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... Grizzle (1985) identified a separation between what managers desired from public administration degree-holders and what was being taught in schools. Subsequent research supports this general assertion as it applies to IT. Christian and Davis (2016) surveyed managers of government organizations and found that IT needs were not being met through the hiring of recent MPA graduates. Miller (2019) analyzed undergraduate public administration programs, concluding that considerable variation existed between the coursework and skills taught to students in member schools of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NAS-PAA), the global accrediting body for public administration. ...
New technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain are changing how the public sector serves constituents. Academic programs in public administration and public policy must adapt their coursework to best serve students in an increasingly technology-based world. This qualitative research analyzed 84 Asian public administration graduate programs to determine the degree to which information technology was taught throughout the region. Our findings indicate that considerable variation existed between the number of information technology classes offered and the types of information discussed in the classes. A majority of public administration programs throughout Asia offered coursework in information technology ; but, core classes and IT-specific specializations in public administration programs were observed at a much lower rate. Discussions of the tactics taken by programs to educate students in information technologies provide actionable suggestions for practitioners , educators, researchers, and administrators alike.
... Thus, there was a gap between the skills taught and emphasized by the curriculum and those seen as valuable in the IT realm (Christian & Davis, 2016). ...
In this paper, we address several facets of the problem we call local government cyber insecurity – a problem that plagues such governments across the nation, if not the world. We describe this problem and discuss its manifestations in local governments. This is followed by our analysis of why, on average, local government cybersecurity is managed and practiced so poorly. Next, we discuss several constraints on local governments that may help to explain why so many of these governments are not able to provide highly effective cybersecurity. We then discuss steps that local governments can and should take to improve their cybersecurity, including adopting dedicated cybersecurity budgets, adopting several highly recommended cybersecurity policies, and following best cybersecurity practices.
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Teaching data literacy topics, such as machine learning, to security studies students is difficult because there are limited security-related teaching materials (e.g. datasets, user friendly software) for instructors. To address this challenge, we conducted an exploratory study to evaluate an asynchronous training module and software prototype with 15 college students. A key finding from this study is the importance of a simple teaching software tool and security case studies. The module boosted knowledge of key concepts and awareness of ‘big data’ accountability issues. We also found that teaching data-science concepts – even at an elementary level – requires that students have basic proficiencies working with datasets and spreadsheets, which suggests the need to integrate these skills throughout security studies curricula. This research also highlights the importance of building partnerships with data-science instructors to integrate data-science literacy in security studies and intelligence studies.
Infolge von Entwicklungen wie Vertrauensdefiziten gegenüber etablierten Entscheidungsprozessen und der fortlaufenden Digitalisierung wird elektronische Bürgerbeteiligung durch die Kommunalverwaltungen zunehmend fokussiert. Trotz des Potenzials der Einbeziehung von Bürger/innenmeinungen zeigt sich eine große Heterogenität in Bezug auf die Anzahl, den Umfang und den Erfolg von Online-Partizipation. Um die Institutionalisierung und den Erfolg zu fördern, ist die Einstellung der Kommunalverwaltungsmitarbeiter/innen von zentraler Bedeutung. Die Studie untersucht mithilfe eines qualitativen Forschungsdesigns, aus welchen Inhalten sich die Einstellung der Mitarbeiter/innen gegenüber Online-Partizipation zusammensetzt und wie diese entsteht. Dazu werden Aspekte wie die konkrete Arbeit an den Verfahren, der organisationale Kontext, die berufliche Sozialisation oder individuelle Faktoren analysiert. Aufgrund der Relevanz für die Durchführung der Verfahren werden dabei die verantwortlichen Mitarbeiter/innen der Fachbereiche für Bürger/innenbeteiligung betrachtet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen eine hohe Relevanz von individuellen Eigenschaften, der Verwaltungsführung sowie der Bürger/innen als Adressat/innen der Projekte.
In recent decades civil services worldwide have experienced exogenous forces that are transforming their work and workplace. In turn, these changes are altering the skills set associated with civil service employment. As professional degrees oriented towards careers in civil service these changes can have important ramifications on the curriculum. Focusing on member schools of the Canadian Association of Programmes in Public Administration (CAPPA) our research explores whether and how the postgraduate public administration and public policy programmes (MPA and MPP) curriculum has adapted to changes in the natural labour market for their graduates. Our threefold findings are that: A lack of alignment exists between the MPA/MPP currently taught and the requirements of civil services; a recognition by programme heads that some degree of curriculum alignment is indeed necessary; and that engagement between schools and civils services exists, but is typically informal and conducted through intermediary bodies. Our findings further highlight the necessity for civil services to engage with MPA and MPP programmes to ensure that future civil servants possess the skills relevant at a time of significant change in the nature of work.
