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14.1 introduction
The contemporary function of Greek public administration (PA) is significantly
compromised by legal labyrinths and ramifications that strongly determine both its
bureaucratic character and its resistance to modernization and resilience to change.
The existence of a large number of detailed laws and regulations not only makes it
difficult to monitor their implementation but also creates a rule-based instead of
a result-oriented operational background. Thus, the existing legal and regulatory
framework is, to a significant degree, responsible for the cachectic administrative
culture and its subsequent problems that dominate PA operation in the country
today (Matei & Flogaitis, 2011).
Meanwhile, the economic crisis that broke out in the last 5 years has revealed
all the malfunctions of PA in its full spectrum. The same applies to the educational
area. It is now obvious that the situation cannot be reversed until the importance of
other deviant factors is realized (e.g., innovation). Not only should anyone under-
stand the conditions for the development of innovation, but one should also coordi-
nate multiple initiatives to foster it in both private and public sectors. Formulation
of such a strategy contains, sine qua non, the accurate description of a national
vision and its coherent master plan.
The emergence of innovation as an economy driver is a relatively recent phenom-
enon. It is due to the rapid growth of local environment based on synergies among
three key factors: (a) the establishment of research and excellence inside educational
nodes, which become capable of producing state-of-the-art results, (b) the active
participation of large companies that are willing to immediately finance innova-
tive ideas, and (c) the emergence of start-up companies that provide flexibility and
efficiency in the exploitation of scientific results in everyday practice. These three
cooperating factors constitute a self-sustained symbiotic system that has the ability
to drive the country away from the slippery recession track (Babones, 2012).
In this work, the authors try to isolate factors that lead to success stories when
changing or transforming educational systems in large scale. First, some elements
that come out of the international experience should be considered. The cases of
Finland and England are examined. The next section describes the idea of “inno-
vation,” when taking policy actions, followed by a section that introduces an
applicable model of the transformation process in education using four generally
accepted PA standards (Management by Objectives [MBO], Common Assessment
Framework [CAF], International Organization for Standardization [ISO], and
e-government [eGov]).
14.2 Relevant international Cases
The first case that comes to mind when the discussion refers to successful educa-
tional systems is Finland. Indeed, this country has been a model case for sustainable
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