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Hof (dpa / lby) - According to experts, Germany's authorities must be completely turned inside out so that they can really use the advantages of digitization.

Above all, hierarchies should be abolished, said Thomas Meuche, head of the new competence center for digital administration, which the Hof University of Applied Sciences will open this Friday (March 19).

«We have an extremely strong hierarchy.

The people in public administration work according to Max Weber's bureaucracy model, which is 100 years old.

But when I think in the direction of agile work, it doesn't work in hierarchies. "

Instead, you need a “multidimensional organization.

If I want to work with new tools, then it's about working across processes.

And that does not work with a one-line organization in which communication goes from top to bottom and back up again ».

The competence center in Hof wants to set up a kind of “digital twin” of the authorities in order to show how administrative processes can be implemented digitally.

There is also a part-time course in digital administration.

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The problem of the lack of flexibility in the authorities is particularly evident in crisis situations, said Meuche.

«The basic structure of the administration is not geared towards dealing with ad hoc situations.

It is purely geared towards standard processes.

But the problem is, we have increasingly deviations from the standard, ”said the professor of business administration.

It is important to change the training - because the public administration trains its offspring itself in its own academies and universities.

That is why you cook in your own juice: “The trainers come from the organizations and teach what they themselves learned at the time.

So this wheel keeps turning.

It's not necessarily very productive. "

Training content would be determined by those who have always worked in administration.

And anyway: The buzzword digitization does not go far enough for the administration anyway, stressed Meuche.

Digitization is not an end in itself.

“It's about increasing the benefits for the citizens - and efficiently, if you please.

That is the real goal.

To do this, one also has to consider: What do the citizens want?

What do you actually expect from an administration - also when it comes to communication?

And what do you actually have to do in culture to get away from the thought: The citizen is a supplicant and has to come when we imagine he is coming. "

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But the change process has been initiated, said the expert.

“In seven to ten years we will have a different administration.

Demographic change also plays a not insignificant role here.

You can then also make a difference.

There are already public administrations that are on the right track. "

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210317-99-853657 / 2

Competence center for digital administration