Resistance To Change In The Public Administration In The Republic Of Kosovo: A Case Study Of The Ministry Of Trade And Industry

Background of the Republic of Kosovo and its Independence

Question:

Case study: Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Republic Of Kosovo.
 

Republic of Kosovo is a landlocked country located in the central Balkan Peninsula. Republic of Kosovo is located in southeast Europe and it got its independence from Siberia in the year 2008. Republic of Kosovo has faced various political and economic changes continuously from its time of independence (Selimi and Pristina 2015). A public administration reform strategy was launched by the government of Kosovo in the year 2007, which aimed to cover a period of five years.

The group of experts on Public Administration Reform (GERAP) drafted this. Covering the eight main areas of Human resource, communication with citizen, Institutional structure, Management in Public Administration, e-Government, Anti-corruption, Public finance management as well as the Policies and legislation (Zeqiri and Ahmeti 2013). These details were framed under the public administration of Republic of Kosovo, which went through various changes in the past (Selimi and Pristina 2015). These Public administrations of Kosovo and its resistance to change would be studied in the context of “Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Republic Of Kosovo” (Kume and Leskaj 2015).

In this assignment, research methodology would be framed to understand the “Resistance to Change in the Public Administration in the Republic of Kosovo” in context of the “Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Republic Of Kosovo” (Ramadani et al. 2015). The topic would be explored and hypothesis would be framed under the research objectives.

The problem statement of this research is the effect of change in public administration of Republic of Kosovo in the ministry of trade and industry.

Republic of Kosovo had undergone various changes in the Public Administration after its independence.  In order to frame out the objectives of the research, various factors like the war, difference between the Serbians and Albanians in context of the ethics, political influence on the public administration in the Republic of Kosovo had been studied. The objectives are given below:

• To know the current Public administration of Republic of Kosovo
• To know the change of public administration of Republic of Kosovo from the time of independence
• To have an idea about the ministry of trade and industry in Republic of Kosovo
• To know the affect on Ministry of Trade and industry of Kosovo due to the resistant to the change in public administration of Republic of Kosovo

The research questions of the above objectives are given below:

• How is the current Public administration of Republic of Kosovo?
• How did the public administration of Republic of Kosovo change from the time of independence?
• How is the ministry of trade and industry in Republic of Kosovo?
• How do the resistant to change in the public administration of Republic of Kosovo affect the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Kosovo?

There is a null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis for this research, which is given below:

H₀: There is no affect on the ministry of Trade and Industry in Republic of Kosovo due to the resistant to change in the public administration.

H₁: There is affect on the ministry of Trade and Industry in Republic of Kosovo due to the resistant to change in the public administration.  

Various factors influence the change in public administration of Republic of Kosovo. According to the viewpoint of Nagy (2015), various factors like political, social, demographic and legal situation prevail in the country. These situations lead to amendments of the policies of public administrations of the country. Post war, the country Republic of Kosovo, faced several major challenges to resolve the resultant crisis. Republic of Kosovo underwent various administrative changes in order to strike a balance in the country. These changes had triggered changes in the ministry of Trade and Industry in Republic of Kosovo.

Public Administration Reform Strategy of Kosovo

As per the viewpoint of Selimi and Pristina (2015), during the period of post-conflict in Kosovo, new public administration had been built since 1999 until there was a reform in the administration, which was a challenging period for Kosovo. The reform in public administration of Kosovo had been manifested in two ways; firstly with the relation to its structure of its self-development and secondly; with respect to the functions it performs, effects of its work and services offered to the citizens and institutions (Zeqiri and Ahmeti 2013). Kosovo had also implemented technology in their public administration policies. They have implemented e-government in all categories of government fast services. In context of the viewpoint of Nakrošis (2015), it was seen that this e-governance had fulfilled citizen’s daily requirement at any time and at any distance.

This reform had also affected the Ministry of trade and industry of Republic of Kosovo. There was change in administration and policies of Ministry of trade and industry of Republic of Kosovo. These reforms had initiated various resistant from the people of Kosovo. The government of Kosovo had made it easier for the foreign investments in their country. Ministry of Trade and Industry had recently met Mr. Gerd Herman Horst, the head of the textile company “Bodet & Horst GmbH” from Germany and they have expressed their interest in investing in Kosovo. According to the viewpoint of SOTIROPOULOS (2013), it was seen that this investment would benefit the people of the country as they would have job opportunities to work under these foreign countries. As per the viewpoint of Miteva-Kacarski (2016), it was found that these were the positive changes in the public administration of Republic of Kosovo.

It was seen that these changes took place constantly over the years from the time of birth of this country. Public administration had become an instrument for the government to deal with the general social problems. According to the viewpoint of Mehmeti (2014), there are various problems faced by Republic of Kosovo post declaration of independence in 2008. Republic of Kosovo is the poorest country in Europe and 45% of its population officially lives below the poverty line. 17% of its population are extremely poor as per the records of World Bank. As opined by Lončar (2016), it was found that Republic of Kosovo was economically already weak country. Changes in the public administration were necessary for the growth of the economy of the country.

As per the viewpoint of Kume and Leskaj (2015), it was found that the country faced several resistant to the changes in public administrations. Factors like poor economic policies, international sanctions, little access to finances and external trades, and conflicts between various ethnics possessed resistant to the changes in the public administrations. These factors had also triggered changes within the ministry of trade and industry in the Republic of Kosovo. The ministry of trade and industry had reformed its policies in order to upgrade their economy in the upcoming years. The new policies had agitated the people of Republic of Kosovo and they have resisted to the changes in the policies.

Factors Influencing the Change in the Public Administration of Republic of Kosovo

As opined by Joireman (2016), it was seen that there was a strong increase in 2000 and 2001in the period of post war. This was due to the post war reconstruction and the assistance provided by the foreign countries. This growth was found to be negative in the year 2002. From the period of 2003 to 2011, there was an upward trajectory of the growth despite declination of the foreign assistance to Republic of Kosovo (Aspridis and Petrelli 2016). This upward trajectory growth was due to the change in public administration, which had invited various reforms in the policies of every departments of Republic of Kosovo (Nagy 2015). The trade and Industry department of Republic of Kosovo had also reformed its terms and conditions. This had invited various countries for foreign direct investment. Countries like if Germany invested €292 million; United Kingdom invested €251 million and Slovenia invested €195 million (Fejza et al 2016). Austria invested €133 million; Switzerland invested €115 million; the Netherlands invested €109 million, Albania invested €70 million, Turkey invested €64 million, the United States invested €31 million, and France invested €5 million (Fejza et al 2016).

According to the viewpoint of House (2014), it was seen that Foreign Direct Investment contributes a relatively small amount to the economy to Republic of Kosovo, but it possess an important part in the up gradation of the economy of Republic of Kosovo. Resistance to the change in legal and political factors had resulted in slow system of privatisation prior to independence (Miteva-Kacarski 2016). This had hampered in the progress of the Trade and industry for Republic of Kosovo. As per the viewpoint of Jacobs et al. (2013), Republic of Kosovo houses various young workforces who had been exposed to Western European culture and their linguistic standards are high. These qualities of the people of Republic of Kosovo remained unexplored due to the lack of opportunities of the exposure (Zeqiri and Ahmeti 2013).

Despite various resistant to the reforms in public administrations, government took various steps to upgrade their policies and increase the economy of the country (Aspridis and Petrelli 2016). Policies were reformed and the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Republic of Kosovo implemented laws to trade with foreign countries and build industry at Republic of Kosovo (Ramadani et al. 2015). These reforms would lead to more of employment and increase the economy of the country in near future. The government of Republic of Kosovo had to make their people understand about the positive sides of the changes in the public administration (HETZMANN 2014). Eradicating the resistance to the change in public administration would help Republic of Kosovo to upgrade their economy further.

The citizens of Kosovo require liberalization in their trade so that they can decrease the imbalance in the trade with foreign countries. Recently, there was an agreement between the European Union and future trade preferences that will provide assistance to the trade between Kosovo and European Union (Ramadani et al. 2015). This assistance would help Republic of Kosovo to strengthen their business and upgrade their economy. The CEFTA Agreement Kosovo has been implemented and it is being used by the country to be in a better situation than before. The ministry of Trade and Industry had been trying to change their policies further in order to have an economically stronger country in near future (Selimi and Pristina 2015).  

The Impact of Reforms on the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Republic of Kosovo

The research methodology of this topic includes collection of data of the Public administration of Republic of Kosovo for “types of resistance to change in Kosovo”, “how had these changes been motivated” and “the role of management in creating the resistance” in the recent years. This also includes analysis of the collected data and its interpretation.

The method of data collection includes collection of both quantitative and qualitative variables about the Public administration of Republic of Kosovo. This includes collection of data about the “types of resistance to change in Kosovo”, “how had these changes been motivated” and “the role of management in creating the resistance” recently (Nakrošis 2015). The data would be collected from the government of Republic of Kosovo (Hendriks 2012). Both qualitative and quantitative data would be collected for these variables (Aspridis and Petrelli 2016). Collecting data for these variables would give an idea about trades and industry in Republic of Kosovo and its change over time (Ramadani et al. 2015). This is because the level of trades and industry of any country gives an idea about the “types of resistance to change in Kosovo”, “how had these changes been motivated” and “the role of management in creating the resistance” of the country.

Primary data would be used in order to complete the research. Data would be collected by interviewing the citizens of Republic of Kosovo (Cierco 2013). The citizens would be so chosen who not the natives of Republic of Kosovo are. They would be enquired about the types of résistance they made to the changes in public administration of Kosovo. They would also be asked about the reason behind the résistance they made to the changes in public administration of Kosovo. The respondents would be enquired about the difference in their cultures they faced, difference in the communications they faced and the change in their work environment they faced after coming to Kosovo for work (Nakrošis 2015). The respondents would be enquired about the role of the management in creating the résistance. Thus, both qualitative and quantitative data would be collected for the above variables.  

The data collected for the survey undergo various methods of analysis. The analysis includes qualitative analysis as well as quantitative analysis. Quantitative analysis includes methods of frequency (Selimi and Pristina 2015). The frequency of the each “type of résistance” made by the respondents of Republic of Kosovo would be calculated (Beha 2015). The frequency of the methods of motivations of these changes would be counted (Groß 2015). The types of roles played by the management to create the résistance would also be analysed by the method of frequency.

The degree of resistance made by the workers at Republic of Kosovo, the degree of motivation faced for the résistance and the degree of the involvement of the management in the resistance to change in public administration would be analysed. These analyses would be done by qualitative analysis methods (Groß and Grimm 2014). These frequencies and the qualitative analysis methods would be used for comparative study for further analysis.

Resistance to Change in Public Administration Policies

The country had faced various resistant to the change in its public administrations and it had changed various policies regarding the trade and industry within the country. These resistant can be political factors or social factors that prevailed in the country (Zeqiri and Ahmeti 2013). The resistant to the changes in the public administration must have affected the trade and industry of Republic of Kosovo, which in turn had affected the economy of the country (Bajraktari et al. 2014). Collection of the qualitative and quantitative data of the variables mentioned above would an idea about “types of resistance to change in Kosovo”, “how these changes had been motivated” and “the role of management in creating the resistance” (Fejza et al 2016). The frequency methods of study would be used to analyse the collected data and this method would provide the idea about the various types of resistance faced by the government due to the change in public administration in context of the ministry of trade and industry (Arraiza 2014). The extent of the affect of ministry of trade and industry due to the change and resistant of change in public administration for Republic of Kosovo would be understood from the qualitative analysis (Ramadani et al. 2015). 

Various ethics would be considered in order to complete the research. These ethics are important in order to abide by the rights of the citizens. The ethical considerations are given below:

• Consent/ Assent of the government- The primary data collected from interviewing the citizens of Republic of Kosovo, consent of the respondents must be taken in order to use the collected data and publish them in the research (Fejza et al 2016). Without the consent of the citizens, the researcher might fall into legal trouble if he publishes the data in the research.
• Confidentiality- The researcher must maintain the confidentiality of any information collected from the respondents if the respondents ask him to do so. This maintains the interest of the respondnets and the researcher as well.
• Honesty- Another important ethical consideration that must be considered while conducting the research is the honesty of the researcher (Ramadani et al. 2015). The researcher should be honest about the aim of his research. The researcher must tell the respondents about the purpose of the collection of data and present the original purpose of the use (Selimi and Pristina 2015). The use of data and the analysis of the data should not be fake and the researcher should be honest in his approach.
• Openness- The researcher must be open about the pros and cons of the research when he had collected the data from interviewing the respondents. The researcher should also be open about the various risks present in the research and analysis (Ramadani et al. 2015). He should present these risks, pros and cons to the respondents as the data includes the data collected from interviewing the researcher. Not being open about the aim of the research and the reason behind collecting the primary data from the respondents might lead the researcher into legal trouble.
• Cultural issues- The researcher must consider the data for various cultures present in Republic of Kosovo. The data should be collected from different regions of Republic of Kosovo and he should not be biased while collecting the data (Aspridis and Petrelli 2016).
• Objectivity- The objectivity of the researcher must be to avoid biasness in the experiments. The researcher must not have any personal or financial interests in the research. The researcher must be sincere and he should strive for consistency in the research (Zeqiri and Ahmeti 2013).  

The outcome that is expected from this research is that there are various psychological, sociological and organisational factors that had tigered the resistance to the changes in the public administration of Republic of Kosovo. It is expected that some of the employees could have resigned from their company, some had debarred from doing their work, some have thought of speaking with the management to solve the issues while some have thought to take violence. It is expected that the management of trades and industries and the Ministry of Trade and Industry had played a major role in creating the resistance of change in the public administration of the country. It is also expected that the management of trade and industry of Republic of Kosovo did nto motivate their workers prior to the changes. They had implemented the changes and had forced the workers to follow them. Moreover, the communication gap, cultural and psychological differences had created misunderstanding between the management and the workers, which had created the résistance in change in the public administration in Republic of Kosovo.    

References

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Expected outcome and implications