Public administration's dynamic capabilities in response to Covid-19 pandemic: AMA's case study

• Autor(a) principal: Jacob, Beatriz Domingos Fernandes de Paula
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/21438
• topic: Capacidades dinâmicas; Administração pública; Modernização administrativa; Covid-19; Dynamic capabilities; Public administration; Administrative modernization

The present study intends to contribute to the investigation about how public organizations can use their dynamic capabilities to face environmental challenges and improve their performance, by presenting the case of the Portuguese Agency for Administrative Modernization (AMA). Changes in the external environment of organizations can leverage their dynamic capabilities. The pandemic of the new coronavirus, Covid-19, emerged in March 2020 and caused impactful changes in the external environment of AMA. The organization's response to the pandemic involved initiatives, activities, and adaptations. To identify Dynamic Capabilities in this response, data collection was performed through observation and through an interview carried out to 8 directors and team leaders. The results were analyzed in the light of the existing theory about dynamic capabilities, with a special focus on the three components proposed by Wang and Ahmed in 2007 - Adaptive capability, Absorption capability and Innovation capability. The results demonstrate that the three components of dynamic capabilities are evident at AMA and that the response the organization had to deal with the pandemic was successful in creating value for the citizen and in corresponding to the government guidelines. Finally, it is concluded that developing dynamic capabilities can be a strategic approach to take into account as a way to maximize organizational performance and that more research must be carried out in this context, as it is possible for a public organization to strengthen and use dynamic capabilities.