E-government - organizational and democratic challenges Åke Grönlund Örebro University, Sweden.
-
Upload
mohammad-garner -
Category
Documents
-
view
215 -
download
2
Transcript of E-government - organizational and democratic challenges Åke Grönlund Örebro University, Sweden.
E-government - organizational and democratic challenges
Åke GrönlundÖrebro University, Sweden<[email protected]>
All on the web, but little change
eGovernment studies consistently report a lack of the much hoped-for efficiency gains by reorganization and cross-organizational integration, particularly at local level.
“While 467 local councils in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have web sites 23 – 5 % - have 'transactional' services” (Society of Information Technology Management) – and little progress
Why?
9 Swedish government agencies – local, regional and national – regarding their view of drivers and obstacles
4 hypotheses: lack of economic incentives No sense of crisis Lack of user “e-readiness” Conflicting goals
Swedish eGov agenda 10 yrs
1995: “Top Leaders’ Forum” 1997: Gov Bill “Public Administration at the
Service of the Citizens” 1999/2000 Gov Bill ”An Information Society for
all”, a close match to the EU initiative ”eEurope” 2001/02 Gov Bill “Democracy for the New
Millennium” Swedish Agency for Public Management (SAPM):
developing standards for IT and information transfer and initiating, supporting and monitoring progress among government agencies
As of the bills….
In the information society: ”People will change” ”Ways of doing business will change” ”Education will change” ”Companies will change”
But never: ”Government will change”
Practitioners views
1. Which are the driving forces for developing e-services?2. What is the knowledge about, and the view on, the
national policy documents in the field? 3. What e-services have been implemented? 4. What are the visions for the future? 5. What is the influence of companies on the
development of public e-services? 6. How are e-services developed? 7. What organized cross-organizational cooperation is
there, and how do the actors view the needs in this respect?
8. What are the main obstacles for further development?
Validity
Typical views among leading government practitioners
Organizations together cover 20 % of the Swedish population
2nd largest city 2nd largest region 2 of the largest national government
agencies. 6 of the smallest towns 1 rural region. Views founded in long history of IT
development and eGov efforts
(H1) Lack of economic incentives
SAPM: Investment comes first – payback comes… when?
One-year budget strongly guiding the behaviour Benefits to one agency may require investment in
another Unclear how to share development costs that
benefit more agencies Some investments are too large for individual
agencies to bear -> national support or cooperation is necessary
Investments yielding societal benefits, bring small or no agency benefit, and cannot be financed by fees are not made
Lack of economic incentives? (1)
Automated voice service saves 88 % of the cost per call
Economic incentives are designed on a per-agency basis and do not favor cross-border cooperation
A strict one-year planning horizon Low level of competence in measuring effects of
e-service use in local government Defensive attitude Lack of political leadership Require national directives, e g signatures National work division? Municipal law forbids municipalities to sell
innovations
Lack of economic incentives ? (2)
“Good e-services trigger demands for better services and this might eat up efficiency gains”
Whole systems factors, e g reorganization, are not rewarded: Costs and benefits unbalanced
Many mention positive effects of citizen demand creating a pressure for reorganization, only one of the municipalities in our investigation has systematically worked for implementation of this
Lack of technical and semantic standards Political decisions at national level regarding
cooperation and standards are lacking e-services not yet integrated part of daily business
operations
(H2) There is no sense of crisis requiring eGov investment in the agencies where it is supposed to be implemented
Case studies and anecdotal evidence (e g Kawalek et al, 2003) supported by evidence from other fields
No sense of crisis?
e-Gov not politically driven - delegated to lower level adm, often IT dept -> reorganization not an issue
“Better service” – non-urgent issues quoted as drivers
Crises usually seen as budget deficits and lack of staff -> eGov not seen as a solution
Little look to research -> eGov seen as simple implementation
Often a special organization for dealing with e-services but on top of the ordinary business not as change driver
(H3) Service users and providers lacking skills and means to make use of the electronic medium
EU agenda: Broadband connectivity User “trust” Education % of people online…varies across
countries
Users not ready?
Citizen trust in government and e-services high “e-service supply is too limited, citizens want
more” No major problems with using services e-services providing user value much used “the coming IT-generations are expected to
demand more e-services” New channels such as SMS considered
attractive Some services have not yet found their
place/lack of general services Government’s lack of care for privacy aspects
make users hesistant
(H4) Local gov’s have conflicting goals, and other ones are sometimes prioritised over investing in eGov to improve government efficiency
Local employment -> why scrap public sector jobs for achieving a more efficient public sector if the whole municipality would then suffer from increased unemployment?
Problem cutting manual services -> risk that e-services would only increase costs
Conflicting goals, other priorities? (1)
Internal driving forces mentioned include providing better services, utilizing resources better, and attracting staff by being a more modern organization. These factors can to considerable degree be dealt with within each organization and are treated in this way
Cross-border cooperation is only rarely happening, and several respondents require the national government to make some services compulsory or provide incentives
Unclear how services provided correspond to citizen needs, as structured investigations of needs/requirements are not made
Noone wants to make a risky investment, national policy later making local services obsolete -> turf war stage?
Conflicting goals, other priorities (2)
Defensive rationalization for to meet budget constraints -> not strength left for (proactive) reorganization
eGov issues delegated -> eGov not considered in a restructuring perspective -> eGov competing cost
No tradition of cooperation, among municipalities and between municipalities and companies
Cooperation seen as threat to local innovation, adaptation to local conditions, and – for small municipalities– local independence
Public sector lacks procedures and experience in commercializing innovations
Conclusions
+ Lack of economic incentives
+ No sense of crisis eGov can solve
- User “e-readiness”+ Conflicting goals
Discussion
The “lack of readiness”, implying steady if slow progress towards a politically defined goal should be challenged
Balancing central – local. The role of local governments at stake
Uncertainty of national policy implementation -> -> turf wars
Elements of standardization both at technical level and service level lacking
“Market model” has not driven reorganization across borders -> System level incentives?
….
The long list of drivers and inhibitors indicate that eGovernment development is complex and involves a number of challenges. There is no one straight-forward way towards the electronic government, and what is positive at one stage may prove an obstacle at the next
eGov can not be treated just as a way to achieve internal organizational efficiency – “external” issues regarding societal organization are at stake. The automating stage is well underway, now comes the governance stage
eGov as evolutionary system
1. Administrative engineering
2. Consultations, e-lobbying, voluntary org’s
3. ”e-democracy”: often information focus
4. ”user” e-dem: administrators in charge
5. E-service ”do-it-yourself”, community networking
6. eGov: formalization to implement policy
Reorganization – for what?
Most ignored eGov issue:The e-citizen: what is she like, and how does she relate to the electronic government?
From eDemocracy to participation? The emancipated eServiceCitizen?
The role of municipalities? - Less of service providers, more of community?- More of service providers leaving community
to civil society organizations?
Benchmarking for change
Current EU:1. Information2. Interaction (download
forms)3. 2-way interaction
(form processing, authentication)
4. Transactions (case handling, decision, delivery, payment)
Future?1. Information/catalogue2. Two-way
communication3. Service and financial
transactions4. Vertical and horizontal
integration5. Political (citizen)
participation(Moon, 2002; Abramson&Means, 2001)