Seniūnijų veiklos valdymo Marijampolės savivaldybėje analizė ; Analysis of eldership activity management in Marijampolė municipality

Abstract

The purpose of this master's thesis is to analyse the activity management of elderships in Marijampolė municipality. Democracy that functions on a local-government level, gives the opportunity for the citizens to maintain a close contact with administrative institutions and participate in government matters directly. With the intent to expand the accessibility of public services, municipalities establish certain sub-units, i.e., elderships, which could be defined as public sector organizations, operating as structural territorial units of different municipalities. This ensures the cooperation between the citizens and public administration institutions, leading to governance on a nationwide scale. Researchers' interest in government activity management models in the public sector extends over the boundaries of Lithuania and this issue is also relevant abroad. There is a gap of knowledge, however, how the mechanisms of eldership activity management are implemented in governance. It is generally agreed that such organizations provide the necessary tools to involve local communities into government matters. For this reason, it is essential to monitor the activity management in elderships. In order to determine the characteristics of eldership management in Marijampolė municipality and provide the recommendations for its improvement, three objectives have been set: to analyse the activity management principles in elderships in the context of public sector organizations; taking into account the eldership activity management models and the processes within them, to identify the territorial administration practices employed abroad, as well as the legal regulations regarding elderships in Lithuania; to conduct an analysis of eldership activity management in Marijampolė municipality. To achieve this, relevant scientific literature, legal acts and regulations, statistical data, and documents were evaluated. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to investigate the eldership activity management practices in Marijampolė municipality. The preferred data collection of this research paper was interviewing an expert. This master's thesis consists of summaries in both Lithuanian and English, an introduction, a literature review, empirical part, conclusions, recommendations, a reference list, and sources. Initially, taking into consideration the information provided in scientific literature, the characteristics of eldership activity management, as a unit of public sector organizations, are provided; this includes the model for eldership activity management. Subsequently, the legal acts and regulations regarding eldership management, as well as the practices in the European Union and Lithuania, are examined. The information gathered from various documents concerned with eldership management, relevant in both the European Union and Lithuania, is presented. Additionally, this part introduces the theoretical model for eldership activity management and implementation in Lithuania. Lastly, the third part contains the analysis results of eldership activity management in Marijampolė municipality. This was achieved via semi-structured interviews with experts and investigation of legal acts and regulations with concern to eldership activity management. The analysis is carried out following the eldership activity management principles described in the theoretical parts. The conclusions and recommendations serve as the endpoint of this study.