Political and Bureaucratic Conflict in Managing IT

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Political and Bureaucratic Conflict in Managing IT
Prof.Sandford Borins Laura Sampson (BBA 07 U
of T, MPP 09 U of T) Research Assistant
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The research project

• Is IT transforming government?
• Holistic (understand linkages among e-govt.,
  e-politics, e-participation, KM, procurement)
• Longitudinal (2000 to 2005)
• Leading Edge (federal and Ontario governments, US
  and UK comparators)
• Supported by SSHRC Initiative on the New Economy
  (333K over 5 years)

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The complicated question of transformation

• Yes
• Nature of political and bureaucratic work
• Availability and use of information
• Maybe
• Organization structure of government
• Delivery of services
• Unlikely
• Major reduction in cost of government
• See last chapter of Digital State

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Elements of conflict

• Who rules a governments portal?
• Who controls citizen engagement?
• The political upside of eye candy/advocacy
  websites
• The political downside of large IT projects
• Conflict between political left and right

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Who rules the portal?

• Mainly govt-of-the-day or service?
• Space on portal for govt-of-day (priorities,
  news, 1st minister page link) vs. space for
  services, other content
• Highly political BC (62), NL (58), feds (48)
• Medium political (20-35) ON, AB, SK
• Low political (0-19) QU, MB, NS, NB, PEI
• US, UK practice separate sites (www.usa.gov,
  www.whitehouse.gov

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Emerging netiquette

• New govt may not trash the old govt
• Legislators links from legislature site to their
  personal sites (Yes feds, BC, AB, SK, NL No
  ON, QU, MB, NS, NB, PEI)
• Material created for the government site may not
  be transferred to its party site
• Government portal frozen for the campaign period,
  i.e. after writ dropped

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Who controls engagement?

• Politicians views (as perceived by public
  servants at 2007 Lac Carling Congress)
• I have politicians full support for obtaining
  public input 31
• Politicians have reservations about my obtaining
  public input 23
• Politicians would limit staff to surveys (e.g.,
  on service experience) and would seek input on
  broader questions of policy themselves 46
• N 100

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Who controls engagement?

• www.consultingcanadians.gc.ca
• or
• www.garth.ca ?
• Garth Turners supporters swamped recent
  Department of Finance post-budget survey

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Political upside of eye candy/advocacy
websites

• All governments have them youth (5), healthy
  lifestyle (3), equalization (2), anti-violence
  (2), economic opportunity in province (2),
  environment (1), medical wait-times (1)
• Classic government role of providing information
• Inexpensive and quick to build
• New website with simple URL linked to button on
  portal
• Supported by print, television ads
• Alternative to advertising
• Announcement of website as political event

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Political downside of large IT projects

• Expensive and carry substantial risk of failure
  (cost, capacity, or delay) which negates
  potential cost savings the minister must wear
  failure
• Departments resist giving up their own service
  delivery networks and channels (e.g. Ontario
  licence plate renewal)
• Resistance to extending social control (e.g.
  Ontario welfare reform, federal firearms
  registry, smart cards, data integration,
  biometrics)

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Conflict between political left and right

• Left prefers IT work done by inhouse public
  servants (public service union pressure) right
  more favourable to consultants and large
  contractors
• Left critical of P3s, right more supportive
• Political change will disrupt the IT organization

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Conclusion

• Intrinsic conflict, in a new context
• Subtle conflict, sometimes publicly visible
• Some intrinsically scarce resources
• Netiquette as accommodation
• More money mitigates conflict

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To learn more

• www.digitalstate.ca, including blog on
  www.intergovworld.com