Ledarskap i offentliga organisationer

Vain Jarbandhan, lecturer at Center for Public Management and Governance at Johannesburg’s University, describes in his article Ethical Public Sector Leadership and Good Governance: Implications for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), how the fourth industrial revolution has the potential to contribute to either more sustainability and equality, or the opposite, as technology is amoral. He means that a completely new type of public sector leader will be required, one who understand the potential benefits and also the risks involved in the fourth industrial revolution in order to ensure that they do good for people and the planet.

What is necessary, according to Jarbandhan, is ethical leadership with qualities such as agility, humility and open-mindedness as well as a strong will to serve society. The creation of strong international networks in combination with citizen dialogues to create local buy-in will be important ingredients. The focus in the article is on ethical leadership that works to see that the fourth industrial revolution will promote sustainability and equality, and this would even suit the fifth industrial revolution.

…the 4IR requires an ethical public sector leader, one who embraces agility, humility, open-mindedness and a penchant to serve communities. Vain Jarbandhan, Ethical Public Sector Leadership and Good Governance: Implications for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) 2021.

EU’s vision document Industry 5.0, a transformative vision for Europe, discusses briefly how public sector organisations need to be more in tune with the rest of the world in terms of speed, insecurity and changeability. There is talk of a strategic agile leadership and resource fluidity that is not today associated with public sector operations.

The current era of uncertainty, instability and rapid change calls for a degree of resource fluidity, strategic agility and leadership in the public sector, that is at odds with the existing budget processes, incentive structures, competencies and institutional rigidities that characterise policymaking today.

The vision document uses the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI) as a source. This is an organisation that has developed a model with various attached tools to encourage innovative solutions in the public sector. It is called Anticipatory Innovation Governance (AIG) and pilot tests are currently being carried out in Finland, Ireland and Latvia. The analysis of alternative future scenarios in order to prepare for potentially disruptive events is included among the tools.