Le sfide del management pubblico: innovazione organizzativa, valorizzazione delle risorse umane e transizione digitale

The study originates from the awareness that the functioning of the public administration and the quality of services provided to citizens depend to a significant extent on the well-being and effective valorisation of public employees, whose management and motivation constitute the cornerstone of an essential cultural and organisational transformation. Through a combined methodology, both “traditional” and empirical, which included a period of placement within the Information Technology Department of the Liguria Region and the dissemination of interviews and questionnaires among public employees, the research identifies perceived criticalities within the administrative apparatus and translates them into inputs for innovative organisational solutions. The issues addressed are structured around three closely interconnected macro-areas: public recruitment, organisational models, and mechanisms for fostering public employee motivation, with a cross-cutting reflection on the role of managerial leadership and digitalisation as both a tool and, simultaneously, an objective of renewal. The analysis of recruitment starts from the constitutional principle of public competition, examining its interpretative rigidities that have led to an excessively formalistic approach, thereby hindering the principle of sound administration. Specific issues within Italian competitive selection procedures are considered, including weak strategic planning and recurring tensions between internal and external selection processes, as well as between centralisation and decentralisation. The analysis then turns to various experiments currently underway in Italy and in other legal systems, including the European one, which have interpreted the same principle of competitive selection in a more flexible manner. It therefore questions the applicability within the Italian legal system of solutions such as centralised, digitalised, and common pre-selection tests, eligibility lists, and structured apprenticeship pathways designed to facilitate the entry of young people into the public administration. The research also addresses the systems governing the selection and appointment of senior public managers, who—acting as the interface between politics and administration—are, even in countries with a strongly merit-based legal tradition such as Italy, at the highest levels often chosen through forms of spoils system, albeit constrained by the constant jurisprudential intervention of the Constitutional Court. This issue is particularly sensitive, as public management constitutes a strategic lever for personnel administration and for the diffusion of a managerial culture oriented towards efficiency, organisational innovation, and collective motivation. Given that, following an effective recruitment system, the challenge for the public administration as an employer lies in retaining talent and ensuring its optimal valorisation, the focus subsequently shifts to organisational models of public employment. Drawing on numerous international examples, these models are assessed as requiring restructuring towards greater flexibility and enhanced recombinability, in order to respond promptly to the uncertainties and continuous disruptions of contemporary society, also through the intelligent use of technology. In this context, digitalisation emerges as a catalytic element for many of the proposed solutions, both as an instrument of simplification, transparency, and citizen participation in administrative action, and as an indispensable driver for modernising the operational frameworks of the public administration. Finally, the research addresses the issue of public employee motivation, identifying both traditional and emerging factors that foster engagement and job satisfaction—elements that are essential to ensuring the efficiency of public services and the resilience of the administrative system itself, as widely demonstrated by the extensive literature on public service motivation. The analysis considers traditional factors such as job stability and the public administration’s role as employer, the existence of performance-based reward mechanisms (which, however, in Italy are subject to significant implementation distortions that undermine their effectiveness), career prospects (often constrained by the competitive selection requirement), and the presence of leadership capable of guiding and inspiring others. It also considers more recently recognised determinants, such as access to continuous training—enabling the public administration to keep pace with rapidly evolving technological contexts while allowing workers to enhance their value in an increasingly flexible labour market—and, crucially, the achievement of a sound work–life balance, deriving from organisational flexibility, managerial autonomy, and the availability of person-centred welfare provisions. In conclusion, the research aims to outline a model of public administration capable not only of adapting to change, but also of anticipating and shaping it, through the construction of a more modern, skilled, and motivated administration, able to transform contemporary challenges into opportunities for renewal and to reassert public employment as a driver of collective well-being.