INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE OF PUBLIC SERVANTS IN INTERACTION WITH THE PUBLIC

Abstract

The article examines innovative approaches to the development of communicative competence of public servants in the process of interaction with the public and determines their significance for enhancing the openness, accountability, and effectiveness of public administration under wartime and post-war challenges. It is substantiated that, under current conditions, communication between public authorities and citizens ceases to be an auxiliary administrative function and acquires the significance of a strategic resource for building public trust, ensuring the legitimacy of managerial decisions, and maintaining social cohesion. Its main structural components are identified: regulatory and legal, discursive and linguistic, socio-psychological, digital, and strategic. It is shown that the development of this competence requires not only the acquisition by public servants of legal procedures for informing, handling appeals, and conducting public consultations, but also the formation of practical skills in active listening, conflict de-escalation, countering disinformation, working with digital communication channels, and adapting managerial information to the needs of different social groups. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of innovative areas of professional development for public servants, including competence-based diagnostic and behavioral training, digital-participatory interaction, human-centered design of public services, service-oriented, empathetic, and trauma-informed communication, evidence-based and security-oriented public communication, project-team organization of interaction with the public, as well as the responsible use of artificial intelligence tools. It is proven that the effectiveness of these approaches depends on their practical orientation, their connection with real communicative situations in public service, and their ability to ensure measurable changes in the behavior of public servants. The author’s DIALOG model for the development of communicative competence is proposed. It includes the diagnosis of professional needs, integrated case-based training, analytics of appeals and digital channels, laboratories of codesign with the public, evaluation of communication outcomes, and the institutionalization of successful practices in the internal standards of a public authority. It is substantiated that the implementation of this model facilitates the transition from formal informing of citizens to systematic dialogue, within which the public acts not as a passive recipient of administrative messages, but as a partner in the formation, implementation, and evaluation of public policy.