In recent years, Kazakhstan has demonstrated a strong commitment to make the civil service system open and transparent to its citizens. The country has introduced an e-government system to improve access to information and allow public consultation on civil service. Reforms of the civil service aim to reduce corruption in the civil service and to ensure a transition to a career-based model, meritocracy, and result-based remuneration. This study aims to expand the literature on the civil servants’ appraisal toward new civil service reforms both in Kazakhstan and in worldwide. As a part of the broad investigation, this research provides the results of a sociological survey examining the assessment of civil servants toward recent civil service reforms in Kazakhstan. The survey has been conducted among 14,250 respondents aged 20 years and older from 14 regions of Kazakhstan, including three cities of republican significance and the capital city of the country – Astana. According to the survey results, civil servants are satisfied with the current state of the civil service system in Kazakhstan. The items on satisfaction mainly refer to the working conditions in the government agencies like work schedules and organizational climate. The research further reveals factors influencing the general evaluation of civil servants, as well as the most critical problems in the national civil service system.

Digital transformation of public services is reshaping governance worldwide, yet evidence on citizen-centered outcomes in emerging economies remains limited. Kazakhstan’s ambition to adopt proactive, composite, and once-only service models presents an opportunity to evaluate how far institutional intent translates into improved citizen experience. We used a mixed-methods design combining (i) SWOT and PEST analyses of legal, institutional, and technological frameworks; (ii) an expert panel (n = 5 senior staff of the Agency for Civil Service Affairs, rating 7 items on a 0–5 scale); (iii) a large-scale national e-government survey of 27,336 authenticated respondents across all 20 regions (completion rate 97.1%); and (iv) international focus groups on AI in public services. Weighted percentages and Wilson 95% confidence intervals were calculated for citizen-reported problems; expert mean ratings summarized institutional factors. Experts rated enforcement capacity (mean 4.8/5) and statutory basis for once-only/composite/proactive services (4.6/5) highest among political factors, but identified weak international financial support (3.4/5) and cybersecurity posture (3.8/5) as persistent gaps. Citizen survey data show technical errors (23.3, 95% CI 22.8–23.8), redundant bureaucracy (15.2%, 14.8–15.7), and staff capability gaps (14.5%, 14.0–14.9) as the leading obstacles. Urban respondents were overrepresented (98.4% vs. 1.6% rural), highlighting a digital inclusion gap. Focus groups found that 70.8% of international participants reported some use of AI in public services but noted uneven environmental safeguards. Kazakhstan has built a robust legal and institutional infrastructure for digital public services, yet legacy registers, digital divides, and data-protection gaps constrain performance. Codifying once-only, composite, and proactive services as mandatory principles, investing in data stewardship and cybersecurity, and treating inclusive digital literacy as public infrastructure are critical next steps. These findings offer a model for other emerging economies seeking to balance innovation with equity and accountability.

This study investigates the extent to which digital HRM systems are implemented in public sector organizations and the assessment of the effectiveness of technology in enhancing organizational performance. Through quantitative analysis of survey data from managers (n=25), HR professionals (n=50), and employees (n=70), the research examines implementation success factors and their impact on service delivery. Findings reveal optimal ROI at moderate budget allocations (10-14%) and a strong correlation between implementation effectiveness and service quality (β=0.4058, p=0.001). Departments obtained between 19.8% and 25.1% increase in efficiency with system usability proved to have a strong positive correlation with perceived system use (r = 0.96). The study makes multiple theoretical and practical contributions by presenting proven implementation strategies and introducing the efficiency ratio to assess digitalization effectiveness in the public sector.

The article examines current conditions and prerequisites for the development of project management and contract employment in the civil service system with a specific view of the Republic of Kazakhstan experience. Global innovative trends and the Industry 5.0 paradigm have significantly changed approaches to project management in recent years. The innovative value creation allows successfully implementing projects, optimizing the costs of time, money, and human resources, without deviating from the planned quality of the final product of the project (Malik et al., 2019). The research implies several methods (retrospective and comparative analysis, scenario forecasting) to analyze data received from surveys (10,942 civil servants) and interviews with 24 experts from governmental and non-governmental organizations. The findings highlight the main emphasis on improving the quality of human capital and transitioning to “flexible” management tools. However, opponents assume that new methods will bring “chaos” to state apparatus, undermine the foundation of national security, and change the achieved level of checks and balances. Thus, the proposed solutions with two scenarios in mind could be a potential benefit or introduce uncertainty for the country. Based on this assumption, the article proposes key recommendations for the full implementation of these new innovative institutions for the Kazakhstani civil service.

The article discusses the importance of new approaches development in the context of public administration modernization in Kazakhstan. The study of the ecosystem, digital and human-centric approach to civil service, which is used in many countries, is becoming increasingly in demand in the modern public administration system. The article analyzes key modern concepts of human resource management in the civil service, which are distinguished by their focus on innovation, involvement and personnel development. The experience of Estonia, Singapore, Great Britain, Finland, Canada, New Zealand and other countries is also considered, which would be useful in developing of new approaches to the formation and development of the civil service of Kazakhstan in modern realities and requirements.

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