To understand the potential and pitfalls for information technology and

1
Objectives for Chapter 2

• To understand the potential and pitfalls for
  information technology and
• E-Government
• Leadership
• Political Process 

2
Does Information Technology Matter to Public
Administration?

• Information technology is drastically
  transforming methods of communication in public
  administration.
• Example
• T-Mobile provides wireless Internet access to
  over 1,200 U.S.A. Starbucks Coffee Shop locations
  and Wi-Fi in 2,000 cafes.
• This is the first completely digital generation.
• They have had access to media, technology and
  each other.
• The analogy of Sable Island applies to the effect
  of information technology on society and public
  organizations.

3
The Structural/Historical Problem

• Historical because we are not used to the new
  ways
• In 1999 when the Swiss Air Flight crashed about
  one kilometre off the Nova Scotia coast, only one
  method of communicating hand signals out their
  windows.
• Same problem occurred with Katrina hurricane in
  September 2005
• RCMP history of IT
• Structural
• The constitutions of many democratic countries
  carefully divide responsibilities
• Is the silo mentality alive and well in
  governments in 2005?

4
Networks

• The metaphor often used for a new organizational
  structure to meet the new challenges
• Collaborative model focused on results, managing
  horizontally and developing partnerships.
• Opposed to other paradigms such as markets and
  hierarchies which have dominated the past
  organizational structures.

5
Knowledge Based Economy and Employment

• One of the blessings and curses of the last two
  decades
• easier access to information
• increased speed of that access
• Leading to the knowledge based economy.
• Government of Alberta Strategic Business Plan,
  page 17

• Static knowledge becomes obsolete very quickly,
• The knowledge based economy must involve a
  learning culture based on
• life-long learning- page 19 of Alberta Strategy
• openness to change for both individuals and
  organizations.

6
Two Important Changes

• Public organizations are realizing that
• cooperation among organizations is essential
• citizens are best served as individuals and not
  homogeneous clumps of customers

7
Good News

• The web is becoming more popular with governments
  
• Accenture 2003
• Studying 22 governments.
• more services online and improving existing
  services to better meet the needs of citizens.

• Governments at the bottom
• set up websites and simply provide information
  rather than services.
• Only Canada has reached the top level of
  complexity
• perceived as having the most sophisticated
  e-government.
• The second ranking includes many other countries
  such as the UK, US, Singapore and Australia.

8
Deloitte Touche

• Define e-government as.
• The use of technology to enhance the access to
  and delivery of government services to benefit
  citizens, business partners and employees.

9
Deloitte Touche

• Perspectives from more than 250 government
  departments in.
• Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United
  Kingdom and the United States.
• Most of these governments developing fresh
  approaches through re-engineering for the
  customer and using information technology.

10
Deloitte Touche

• The study investigated the ability of various
  levels of governments to harness the use of
  technology to improve service delivery for
  citizens.
• Two groups of governments,
• Those that make concerted efforts to leverage
  taxes and increase customer satisfaction
  (customer centric).
• Those that do not (non-customer centric),
• The first is better able to recognize the
  benefits of e-government

11
Deloitte Touche

• The biggest challenge.
• To maintaining strong executive leadership to
• continue changes
• guide an organization through difficult times.
• Reinforces the need for all senior public
  administrators to be knowledgeable about
  e-government.
• And the need for this class.

12
Deloitte Touche

• The priorities are.
• Customer self-service
• Data warehousing
• Customer-relationship management applications.

13
Deloitte Touche

• This requires
• Anti-silo thinking
• Transforming government websites from
  encyclopedias to transaction processors
• Customer-centric governments place more emphasize
  than non-customer-centric governments on
• training
• empowering their employees

14
First E-Government Stage

• 1. Information publishing/dissemination.
• Mainly involved with providing information to
  e-clients, e.g. Directories of services and
  people.

15
Second E-Government Stage

• 2. Official two-way transactions.
• Citizens provide personal information
• Perform monetary transactions over the web
• Requires a secure website with a guarantee of
  privacy.

16
Third E-Government Stage

• 3. Multipurpose portals.
• Here is where the anti-silo thinking must prevail
  
• The citizen can enter one portal and complete
  transactions with many government departments and
  private businesses.

17
Fourth E-Government Stage

• 4. Portal personalization.
• Stage four is similar to stage three but now
  citizens can customize the portal to carry the
  features they require.

18
Fifth E-Government Stage

• 5. Clustering of common services.
• Distinctions among departments start to blur,
  driven by customers using the portals and not
  knowing which departments are providing the
  services.
• Governments start to bring services together
  along common lines even though they may not be in
  only one department.

19
Sixth E-Government Stage

• 6. Full integration and enterprise
  transformation.
• A full-service center customized to the needs of
  the customer.
• Technology is integrated across departments and
  little distance separates the top from the bottom
  of the organization.

20
Institute of Public Administration

• To set up an effective e-government, the
  information technology expectations of users are
  important.
• The best Canadian sources are the Citizens First
  Studies

21
Types of Leadership Needed

• Catalytic Leadership
• Public problems are complicated with many
  connections across organizational and
  jurisdictional boundaries
• Elevate the issue on the public agenda, involve
  critical stakeholders, stimulate multiple
  initiatives and sustain action toward the goal
• Organizational Culture Leadership

22
Organizational Culture Levels

• Three levels
• Each level is prevalent in all organizations
• The levels deal with the depth that the concept
  reaches into the organization

23
Levels of Culture

• Levels

Artifacts
Espoused Values
Basic Underlying Assumptions
24
First Level Artifacts

• What we see, feel and hear.
• Most prominent when we come to a new group.

• Dangerous to try to infer the deeper assumptions
  from artifacts alone.
• 1. Ones own feelings.
• 2. Many interpretations.

25
Second Level Values

• Ought to statements.
• Can be verbalized and written by the group
  members.
• All group learning ultimately reflects someones
  original values, someones sense of what ought to
  be as distinct from what is.
• Can predict much of the observed behavior.

26
Third Level Assumptions

• Ought to statements.
• Have become so taken for granted that one finds
  little variation within a cultural unit.
• Neither confront nor debate.
• Make them congruent with our assumptions.

• Any challenge will release anxiety and
  defensiveness.
• Any of your examples?
• Electronic books.

27
Look at these pictures

• What are the Information Technology values for
  these employees based on the artifacts?

28
The Political Process
29
Will e-voting Increase the Turnout?

• The city of Markham, Ontario 2003
• Internet voting for their municipal election
  advanced poll.
• Twenty-five percent of the electronic voters
  hadn't cast a vote in 2000
• All (100) electronic voters said they would use
  the same channel in subsequent elections