Skills and training requirements of municipal directors: a statistical assessment

A survey has been performed in collaboration with the National Association of the Municipalities of Italy (Veneto region) to study the role of the municipalities with regard to the local area, to reconceptualize the profile of public directors and to study municipal directors as far as requirements in terms of competencies for skills and training are concerned. In the paper the importance of municipal director requirements for skills and training is assessed using composite indicators. The analysis showed that the most important skill requirements refer to internal aspects of the organization, whereas the most important training requirements refer also to external aspects. The analysis has been repeated on the strata of municipal directors obtained by considering municipality population, director sex, length of service, education and opinions about municipal mission. It is shown that the various strata of directors are rather concordant in assessing the importance of skill and training requirements. Municipal directors are aware of Italian public administration now being oriented toward new public management where they are assessed according to the results they produce. The robustness of the results has been addressed using uncertainty analysis.