Public Management and Organization. What impact has the increasing use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) had on the delivery of public services?

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University of Bristol: School for Policy Studies

Master’s Programme in Public Policy 2008-2009

Public Management and Organization

Assessed Essay Question:

What impact has the increasing use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) had on the delivery of public services?

Word Count: 2977

Introduction

Because of their potential contribution to improved public service delivery, the development and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is growing. It is also believed that accessibility will result in the use of ICTS to help improve the legitimacy and transparency of political institutions. This transformation process should be continual and gradual, increasing efficiency of service delivery and, by changing public opinion, inspire trust in both directions. Thus public feedback would be further developed in a way that increases citizen satisfaction, thus making ICT a potential tool to improve administrative efficiency. Indeed, it has already brought many changes in ways of working with consequencial organizational changes (Gasco, 2003).

ICTs have shaped the role and activities of government. Digital processes have resulted in the emergence of a new notion in public administration – e-government. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines e-government as: ‘The use of Information and Communication Technologies, and particularly the Internet, as a tool to achieve better government’ (OECD Report 2003: 23). This essay will concentrate on e-government as a modernization factor in public services delivery. Brown puts it eloquently: ‘knowledge-based government in the knowledge-based economy and society’ (Brown, 2005: 242). However some authors claim that accessibility may be further questioned possibly leading to a ‘digital divide’ between those with access to technology and those without (Bellamy, 2003).With regard to Bellamy’s allegation, Brown adds that e-government is intended to take substantial measures to help marginalized and disadvantaged groups of society through the knowledge economy, use and modification of ICT (ibid). Modification by itself may be understood within the context of solutions to be taken to maximize the benefits of ICT.

Section I: (Potential of ICT to improve public service provision) will identify the extent of the change of services provision through five stages of e-government. It will also highlight the new notions that have appeared in the e-government field such as e-democracy and online voting.

Section II: (Impact of ICT and Modernization of Government as a citizen/community oriented government) will consider the impact of ICT on government operations, particularly how ICT has affected public service delivery and changed public attitudes about its effectiveness. It will also highlight the institutional changes taking place in e-government and expand on the modernization of government as citizen oriented.

Section III: (Difficulties to Tackle and Future Perspectives) will focus on the various difficulties and different barriers that need to be tackled in order to benefit from the potential of technology and innovation to improve services delivery.

I Potential of ICT to improve public service provision

Slowly but steadily ICTs are pushing society, government and business to create and advance new types of interactions between citizens, politicians and customers. This part of the essay will try to assess these interactions together with mechanisms of public participation and services delivery within the main stages of e-government. Thus Belanger and Hiller (2006) define five stages of e-government for implementation and improvement of public service delivery:

  1. Information;
  2. Two-way communication;
  3. Transaction;
  4. Integration
  5. Participation.

All of these play a significant role in supporting public services.

1. Information: is the simplest form of e-government. Governments display information for citizens and the challenge is to provide accurate, useful, relevant and up to date information (Belanger & Hiller 2006).  Information may consist of new regulations, pay dates, holiday information etc, which may be useful for all citizens not merely government / civil-servants.

2. Two-way communication: is online communication of government with its citizens which becomes increasingly important within the democratic process. Citizens nowadays are getting more and more engaged online in citizen to government, citizen to group and citizen to citizen interaction as well as engagement on all the most important social, economic and political issues (Riley, 2001). As already mentioned ICTs may be accepted as tools to increase efficiency of service delivery. Here it appears to be increased by extensive participation of citizens in the decision-making process. Some authors speak about the emergence of civil society and participation as important roles in the implementation of ICTs and their further development. For example Australia has taken steps to increase input from civil society with the formation of a Roundtable for Australian Civil Society (RACS, 2003) in order to deliver a statement from Australian Civil Society to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). In this regard Taylor suggests: ‘[G]overnments can create considerable public value if they are able to reproduce themselves as networks instead of hierarchies’ (Taylor, 2004: 117).

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3. Transaction: - individuals interact and conduct transactions with government online. For example the renewing of licenses, paying taxes and fines. Online provision of these services not only reduces costs and improves quality of services provided, but also significantly reduces the waiting lines (Belanger and Hiller 2006).

4. Integration: all government services become integrated offering access to the services of all departments or agencies by linkage via a single portal, resulting in joined-up government with joined-up services, data and networked citizenry (Bellamy, 2003). By reducing time-consuming face-to-face interactions and integrating online and back-end systems to support customer ...

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