Public Sector Capabilities and Individual Skills Needed for the Digital Transition: A Multilevel Perspective on Teaching Digital Governance

Abstract

T his special issue aims to unpack what competencies public managers, policy makers, and public leaders need to manage and cope with the digital transition and what this implies for teaching digital governance. We situate digital governance into a wider context of socio-technical change, by using a multilevel perspective based on transition scholarship and the recent debate on directionality. This allows us to capture the public sector capabilities needed for governing the different spheres of digital transition, as well as the individual skills and knowledge required from public officials. We situate the six studies in this special issue within our multilevel perspective. The contributions provide concrete examples of skills and knowledge needed and what it implies for public management programs. Furthermore, based on our multilevel framework we identify avenues for future research into organizational and strategic capabilities for the digital transition and the operational, reflective, and political skills needed to foster these capabilities.