The National University of Public Service is the center of public service executive development in Hungary. The „How to develop leaders for 21st Century?” one-day international conference (22nd of November, 2017) combined comprehensive overview of the civil service leadership development systems with the latest international leadership training trends. On one of the occasions of the Hungarian Science Day (2017) the new educational building of NUPS Faculty of Science of Public Governance and Administration was home to this event.
The aim of this event was to overview the leadership roles, functions and the challenges of leadership training through summarizing the experiences of each areas of public service. Accordingly, the lectures explore the topic of leadership development from the aspects of Civil Service, Law Enforcement, Military Science and Business.
Dr. Gábor Baranyai (NUPS, Institute of Sustainable Development) as the chairman of the conference in his introductory thoughts emphasised the key role of the public service leadership development. Dr. Gábor Zupkó (The European Commission Representation in Hungary) accentuated in his keynote speech, that the 21St Century public executives will be only able to hold on in our ever changing world if they learn more and more new skills. The international trainer of one of the NUPS’s special leadership training, Dr. Brian Cawley (Specialist in Leadership Development and Public Policy, Ireland) introduced the audience into the challenges and specialties of the Irish public sector executive development. Dr. Zsolt Molnár (Permanent Representation of Hungary to the European Union) not only emphasized the difference between management and leadership roles, but provided insight to the complex system of law enforcement executive development. Csaba Attila Bakos Lt.Col, (NUPS, Faculty of Military Science and Officer Training) gave a lecture about the most important specialties of the military leadership development. Dr. Katalin Pallai (NUPS, Institute of Human Resources) lightened the role of leadership development in extending organizational integrity through collecting the complex problems of public service.
In the course of the lively professional debate the audience learnt that the leadership development palette is though rich and colorful, the challenges of our ever changing world require constant innovation. There is no so-called best executive training model, we should discover new methods. Events like this conference, the exchange of experiences between the public service professions would benefit this process.
The conference was sponsored by the European Union: „Padop-2.1.1-CCHOP-15-2016-00001, Development of complex competencies, career programmes and education technology development in public services” project.
text: Csilla Paksi-Petró assistant professor
photo: Alma Dorina Markó project assistant
