Public Procurement Employees' Perception on Legal Changes, Perceived Red Tape and Job Stress: Evidence from Serbia

Abstract

Public servants play an important role as guardians, guarantors, and promoters of the regime values who are in frequent contact with the citizens. Having that in mind, it is of high importance to understand their behaviour and attitudes on legal changes, perceived red tape and job stress. The aim of this paper is, therefore, twofold: firstly, to explore the influence of red tape and perceived red tape on public procurement officers’ (PPOs) and managers’ (PPMs) perception of the new Public Procurement Law in terms of its benefits to public procurement process and to their jobs and job stress, and secondly, to explore the differences between PPOs and PPMs regarding the examined statements. To answer the first question, we proposed a conceptual model which was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM), while to answer the second question we used the Mann-Whitney test. Both analyses were done using the data collected from 115 PPOs and PPMs in Serbia. The results show that PPOs and PPMs share similar attitudes regarding the existence of red tape, perceived job stress, and the influence they expect the new legislation will have on their jobs. Their expectations of the new legislation as well as their perception of job stress are found to be partially influenced by red tape. As PPOs are not that convinced that the new law will improve their job, it may be concluded that the changes the new law will bring are not substantial enough.