| Abstract [eng] |
Youth involvement in volunteering creates benefits for the youth themselves and for public sector organizations. Legal documents recognize that voluntary activities promote active citizenship of young people and contribute to the implementation of initiatives to increase public activity. Although the benefits of youth volunteering are emphasized, youth volunteering activities and opportunities are still not sufficiently developed in Lithuania. There is still a lack of competences of voluntary organizations in organizing voluntary activities, which may lead to insufficient interest of young people to engage in such activities. Appropriate targeting of volunteers' motivations can contribute to increasing the innovativeness of the public sector. Innovation is an important institutional capability that enables organizations to create products that meet the needs of consumers and provide them with added value at lower costs. The topic of the impact of youth volunteering on the innovativeness of the public sector is almost unexplored. Individual scientific articles provide insights into the benefits of youth volunteers for public sector organizations, but there are no studies empirically revealing the impact of youth volunteering on the innovativeness of public sector organizations. Taking this into account, the master's final project addresses a problematic question - what influence does youth volunteering have on the innovativeness of public sector organizations? The object of the study is the influence of youth volunteering on the innovativeness of public sector organizations. The aim of the project is to analyze the influence of youth volunteering on the innovativeness of public sector organizations. Formed project tasks: 1. Conceptually substantiate the influence of volunteering on the innovativeness of public sector organizations. 2. Systematize information about the regulation and trends of youth volunteering in Lithuania and the European Union. 3. To empirically investigate the influence of youth volunteering on the innovativeness of public sector organizations. The research methods used in the project: the method of scientific literature analysis; document analysis method; semi-structured interview; content analysis method. When discussing the results of the conducted empirical research, it can be stated that volunteering youth, through involvement in voluntary activities, seeks to realize their creativity and innovative potential, get to know different professional opportunities, realize their own ideas, therefore they are motivated, actively implement innovative solutions and receive support from the public sector managers and employees of institutions, are able to contribute to the creation of tangible and intangible value. The innovativeness of youth volunteers is most often observed in the improvement of the process of providing a product or service of a public organization, in the presentation and implementation of innovative marketing solutions of the institution, and in contributing to the innovativeness of organizational processes. The practice of voluntary service is still being formed, so it was found that there is still a lack of wider opportunities to contribute to organizational innovation. In some cases, volunteering activities are focused on micro-tasks in different events, organization of activities, management or other processes. Experts participating in the organization of voluntary activities recognize the inclusion of volunteers in their activities as a strategic innovation in public sector organizations. The implementation of the concept of voluntary service made it possible to enable and structure the opportunities for voluntary activity, more effectively mobilizing the creative potential of young people, which is used in various operational processes of the institution. Innovative ideas and proposed initiatives help organizations publicize the institution's activities, create a more favorable attitude towards institutions, and also encourage community members to become more actively involved in the activities organized by these institutions. Together with youth ideas, operational processes are improved (e.g. cooperation with communities, youth is created and developed), society's attitude towards volunteers is changed. Along with the positive results, there are also challenges related to the lack of funding of the voluntary service, which does not allow guaranteeing all young people opportunities to engage in voluntary activities, thereby partially limiting the development of volunteerism in the youth group. The master's final project consists of an introduction, three parts, conclusions and recommendations, and a bibliography. The first part reveals the theoretical assumptions of the influence of volunteering on the innovativeness of public sector organizations. The second part is dedicated to the discussion of legal prerequisites and trends of youth volunteering in Lithuania and the European Union. The third part presents the results of an empirical study of the role of youth volunteering in increasing the innovativeness of the public sector in Lithuania. |
