Soft Skills in the Greek Public Sector. From Legal Neglectance to Administrative Omnipotence

Soft skills tend to play an increasingly important role in private companies as well as in public organisations nowadays. Thus, emphasis is being placed on the relevant management and training systems worldwide. The article focuses on the evolution of the importance of soft skills in the Greek public sector. Emphasis is placed on the changes brought about by the relevant recent provisions of the legal framework (Law 4940/14). The research effort focuses on the main aspects of the importance given to the soft skills framework in order to investigate their expected effectiveness in practice. The aim is to investigate the changes and opportunities provided by the soft skills framework in the Greek environment, as described by law 4940/2022, which has recently entered into force (01.01.2023), as well as the ways in which this new framework restructures the recruitment of staff, the evaluation system of civil servants, the training procedures and the selection of Heads of Units and Organisations. In this context, it examines how the newly introduced soft skills system fulfils the conditions required to be effective, promoting the recruitment of the right candidates for each post, objective assessment, tailored training procedures through mentoring and coaching and the selection of appropriate heads of units/organisations in the Greek public administration. The administrative implications are discussed.