Annotation: Performance measurement and performance management are typical New Public Management instruments, used in the public sector also today. Their current use is connected with certain benefits, but also critical implementation problems. The task would be to select concrete public sector/ public administration subsystem and to analyze the use of performance measurement and management, to determine main factors and barriers related to their use.

Goal: Evaluation of the functioning of the concrete performance measurement/ management system, defining main factors and barriers determining the performance of such system.

The supervisor for this topic is professor Juraj Nemec. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects can be found here.

Annotation: The quality of local budgeting and local financial management represent one of core determinants of local performance. However, in many countries local self-governments still use old-fashioned approaches, their budgets just show revenues and expenditures and cannot be effectively used for managerial purposes. This is true also for large cities, where local self-governments manage significant amounts of own and transferred resources. In many cases, the budgeting process is also not supported by already available technologies.

Budgeting, including local budgeting represents the area of significant potential innovations – like performance budgeting, participatory budgeting, SDG budgeting, gender budgeting, green budgeting etc. The level of implementation of these instruments is also very different between countries.

Goal: Determining factors and barriers of the quality of local budgeting and local financial management in selected countries, preferably in the comparative perspective.

The supervisor for this topic is professor Juraj Nemec. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects can be found here.

Annotation: Contracting/ outsourcing are typical New Public Management instruments, used in the public sector also today. Their current use is connected with certain benefits, but also critical implementation problems. The task would be to determine the scope of contracting/ outsourcing and its success in the selected public sector area.

Goal: Evaluation of the functioning of the concrete contracting/ outsourcing scheme, defining main factors and barriers determining the performance of such system.

The supervisor for this topic is professor Juraj Nemec. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects can be found here.

In recent years, many countries have experienced exceptionally demanding crises. These events have heightened turbulence and prompted research to increasingly focus on resilience thinking, preparedness for future crises, and the concept of robustness.

The literature presents robustness as an emerging paradigm that underscores the importance of agile adaptation in the face of turbulence. Governance is considered robust when it ensures the formulation and implementation of effective and legitimate public value solutions in response to intensified turbulence—through adaptation and innovation in public policy, regulation, and service delivery.

While trust has been widely examined in relation to public administration, research has typically concentrated on trust in public administration rather than trust within public administration. The role of internal trust in enabling or constraining robust governance remains underexplored. This dissertation project should address this gap by examining how trust within public administration influences the capacity for robust governance in times of turbulence.

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor David Špaček. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects can be found here.

The importance of crisis management in responding to crises has been widely emphasized in literature. However, it remains unclear whether governments have truly learned lessons from recent crises and to what extent these experiences have led to changes in crisis management frameworks.

The dissertation project should address the question of whether recent crises have influenced crisis management practices and resilience-building efforts—and, if so, in what ways.

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor David Špaček. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects can be found here.

One of the long-standing features of the Czech system of public administration is its exceptionally high number of small municipalities. This fragmentation poses significant challenges to the efficiency, capacity, and sustainability of local governance, as well as to the provision of public services. The issue has been widely discussed in both academic literature and policy debates, often in connection with questions of territorial consolidation, inter-municipal cooperation, and the search for an optimal balance between local autonomy and administrative effectiveness. The aim of the dissertation project is to evaluate possible approaches to addressing the large number of small municipalities in Czechia, to assess their feasibility and impacts, and to propose recommendations for strengthening the effectiveness and sustainability of local governance.

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor David Špaček. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects can be found here.

In the past decade, public management systems around the world have been exposed to multiple large-scale crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the refugee crisis, and economic and energy shocks. These crises have tested the adaptability, coordination capacity, and strategic leadership of public sector institutions, prompting a reconsideration of established management models and practices. Literature increasingly points to the need for agility, collaboration across administrative levels, and new modes of decision-making under uncertainty. The aim of the dissertation is to analyze how recent crises have affected public management, identify patterns of adaptation and learning, and propose recommendations for strengthening the capacity of public organizations to manage future turbulence effectively.

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor David Špaček. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects can be found here.

Charities often publicize generous contributions as fund-raising strategy and encourage individuals to donate more. This topic proposes to analyze the effect of social influence in charitable giving and experimentally test the conjecture that different types of social information about other donors’ decision will have different effects on donors. The research will involve laboratory and field experiments and might be conducted as a cotutelle (double degree) under the supervision of Prof Maroš Servátka at Macquarie Business School in Sydney.

The supervisor for this topic is professor Jiří Špalek. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects can be found here.