E-Leadership in Municipal Administrations: The Post-Pandemic Analysis

Dr. Rita Toleikienė

Digitalisation of the public sector led to the emergence of e-leadership. COVID-19 global pandemic as crisis-induced situation required municipal administrations to react immediately, to act in more appropriate ways to continue performance under pandemic circumstances. Therefore, ICT usage in the daily routine of the municipal administrations became mandatory (Toleikienė et al., 2020; Juknevičienė et al., 2021).

In 2019, the pilot study, funded by Hochschulkontor, focused on e-leadership in local municipalities in Baltic States and Germany, analyzing pre-pandemic practices. The qualitative analysis relied upon interviews with leaders and employees within municipalities (Rybnikova et al., 2022). The continuation of this research was conducted in 2020, evaluating practices of e-leadership in a Lithuanian municipal administration, comparing situation before and during the pandemic (Toleikienė et al., 2020; Juknevičienė et al., 2021; Toleikienė et al., 2022). However, the post-pandemic situation of e-leadership in municipal administrations still remains uncovered.

Problematic questions of this study:

• How processes and the content of e-leadership have changed in German, Lithuanian and Latvian municipal administrations after pandemic?
• How supervisors deal with social isolation and loss of work motivation because of remote work in the course of e-leadership in municipalities after pandemics?
• What kind of training and other institutional support is needed for supervisors and/or employees in municipalities in the period of leadership (using ICT) transformation?

The goals of the project are:

• To continue the collaboration in research of a Baltic-German expert group of e-leadership in public contexts;
• To prepare a research instrument of e-leadership for the focus group method (post-pandemic qualitative country-comparison);
• To conduct a focus-group based study of e-leadership, comprising German, Lithuanian and Latvian municipal administrations.

1. A methodological seminar (1) (ONLINE): kick-off meeting; a discussion of guidelines for literature review; a discussion of the guidelines for the research instrument for focus groups.
2. Preparing a comparative analysis of the previous research results (pre-pandemic and during pandemic situation), performed in Lithuania, Latvia, and Germany. Preparing the research instrument for focus groups.
3. A methodological seminar (2) in Hamm-Lippstadt (Germany): a discussion on the primary results of the comparative analysis; conducting the focus group of the research in Germany (N = 4-6 participants – leaders and employees of municipal administrations).
4. Conducting the focus groups of the research in Latvia (N = 4-6 participants – leaders and employees of municipal administrations) and Lithuania (N = 4-6 participants – leaders and employees of municipal administrations). Analysing results of three focus groups, using qualitative context analysis and conducting the comparative analysis of countries.
5. A methodological seminar (3) in Riga (Latvia): discussion on primary results of research in Germany, Lithuania and Latvia; agreements on duties and the plan in preparing the academic article for the academic journal.
6. Preparing the academic article for the academic journal.
7. A methodological seminar (4) in Šiauliai (Lithuania): a discussion on the final results of the research in Latvia, Lithuania and Germany; preparation for the public presentation of results, review and improvement of the final version of academic article.
8. Presenting the research findings in the international public scientific discussion, organized by Researchers’ Excellence Network (RENET). Participants: researchers, students, and practitioners.
9. Promotion of project activities and results. Preparing the project-based video for social media (Youtube).

Direct:

• The academic staff: No: 5 + 50 (international RENET members)
• Managers and employees in local government organizations in Lithuania, Latvia, and Germany: 30
• Students in participating universities: 90

Indirect:

• The academic staff in the research fields of Public Management, Human Resource Management, Organizational Behaviour and Leadership from Lithuania, Latvia and Germany; No: 1.000.
• Managers and employees in local government organizations in Lithuania, Latvia and Germany; No: 10.000.

Students from the non-participating universities in Lithuania, Latvia and Germany: 15.000.