CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC AUTHORITIES AND ITS IMPACT ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF THE POPULATION IN THE CONTEXT OF HUMAN-CENTERED GOVERNANCE

Abstract

The article examines the specific features of change management in public authorities under conditions of contemporary societal transformations and its impact on the quality of life of the population within the framework of human-centered governance. The relevance of the topic is determined by the need to enhance the effectiveness of public administration in the context of digitalization, decentralization, wartime challenges, growing public expectations, and the necessity to develop resilient institutions capable of ensuring high-quality public services and a high level of public trust. It has been established that the traditional bureaucratic model of governance is losing its adaptability to contemporary challenges, which necessitates a transition toward a service-oriented and human-centered model of governance. The purpose of the article is to investigate the key directions of change management in public authorities and to determine their impact on the quality of life of the population under conditions of implementing human-centered governance. The methodological basis of the study includes systemic, structural-functional, comparative, institutional, and analytical methods, which made it possible to comprehensively assess contemporary transformational processes in the field of public administration. As a result of the study, it is substantiated that effective change management is not limited to the implementation of individual reforms or digital tools, but rather presupposes a comprehensive institutional transformation encompassing strategic management, professional leadership, the development of organizational culture, personnel policy, digitalization, public participation, and result-oriented evaluation mechanisms. Particular attention is devoted to the problem of the formalization of reforms, when strategic documents, participation mechanisms, and digital instruments exist primarily at the normative level but fail to ensure a real managerial effect. The scientific novelty of the study lies in substantiating the interconnection between the effectiveness of change management in public administration and the improvement of the population’s quality of life through the prism of human-centered governance, as well as in identifying the key institutional factors that ensure the effectiveness of transformational processes within the system of public authorities.