Reziliența funcționarilor publici din mediul rural românesc

Abstract

Although resilience, a relatively new concept, can significantly influence the performance of employees and organizations, the phenomenon is under-analysis in the case of Romanian civil servants. The present research aimed to identify the level of resilience of rural civil servants, the main factors affecting resilience and the main measures to strengthen the resilience currently used by institutions. As such, an online questionnaire was sent to rural public institutions between December 2019 and January 2020, obtaining 103 responses. The level of resilience of civil servants in rural areas is 81,5 points out of 105 maximum points, which indicates a relatively high level of resilience. The main factors that affect resilience are: working conditions, high quantity of tasks, stress and pressure at work, lack of flexibility, but also lack of experience, shifting/transferring tasks from one person to another, verbal violence and the lack of patience of citizens. The level of resilience is influenced by seniority at work (the more seniority in public administration the higher the level of resilience), but also by age, i. e., younger employees tend to have a lower level of resilience than older people. Our research also shows that applying mindfulness strategies, an efficient organization of tasks, developing skills to more effectively manage a workplace crisis situation, providing mutual support, encouraging risk-taking and eliminating unnecessary tasks (reduction of the number of tasks) are the main measures that must be adopted in order to improve the level of resilience.

Keywords

• resilience
• public sector
• employees
• rural environment
• factors.