AMCIS 2006 1

Evaluative Design of e-Government Projects: a Public Value Perspective

Mike Grimsley

Anthony Meehan

Kushaan Sen Gupta

AMCIS 2006 2

Avoiding Exclusion

• “Those who are left outside the development of information and communication technology are often the same people…who most need the welfare state’s services in any case. This is why special attention should also be paid to the needs of these people when developing a human information society.”

• “The level of trust in an organisation affects levels of use and engagement with services. Some [people] avoid contact with services they do not trust unless it is absolutely essential. This can have a direct impact on how well services meet the wider community's needs.”

Osmo Pekonen and Lea Pulkkinen, Report to Finish Parliament, 2002

MORI, Trust in Public Institutions: A Report for the UK Audit Commission 2003

AMCIS 2006 3

Community Trustpolitical, economic & social institutions

vert

ical

tru

st

community – family, friends, neighbours

Braithwaite & Levy, 1998;Grimsley, Meehan et al, 2003

horizontal trust

“Trust relations are an expression of a community’s capacity to co-operate to achieve a better quality of life than would otherwise be available if its members acted merely as individuals.”

AMCIS 2006 4

ICT mediation of Trust?political, economic & social institutions

vert

ical

tru

st

community – family, friends, neighbours

Braithwaite & Levy, 1998;Grimsley, Meehan et al, 2003

horizontal trust

Poorly designed/managed e-government will damage the relationship between citizen and public service provider…

…and may have much wider implications for community well-being.

ICT

AMCIS 2006 5

Initial Conceptual Framework

Services Outcomes“normatively

compelling collective purposes”

contribute to

experience

Trust &Satisfaction

experience

after:Moore, 1995;PM’s Strategy Unit, Creating Public Value, 2002

AMCIS 2006 6

Developing the Conceptual Framework: Drivers of Satisfaction & Trust

influence: the extent to which people feel able to influence

personal control:

the extent to which people feel a sense of personal control in life

information: how well informed people feel

AMCIS 2006 7

well-informedness

vertical trust horizontal trust

414172410301052N =

Sense of being well-informed.

very well informed

fairly well informed

not well informed

poorly informed

95%

CI V

ert

ical tr

ust

.6

.4

.2

-.0

-.2

-.4

-.6414172410301052N =

Sense of being well-informed

very well informed

fairly well informed

not well informed

poorly informed

95

% C

I H

ori

zon

tal t

rust

.4

.3

.2

.1

0.0

-.1

-.2

-.3

-.4

AMCIS 2006 8

personal control

8372219435590140N =

Sense of personal control

strongly agree

agree

neither

disagree

strongly disagree

95%

CI H

oriz

onta

l tru

st

.2

.1

0.0

-.1

-.2

-.3

-.48372219435590140N =

Sense of personal control

strongly agree

agree

neither

disagree

strongly disagree

95%

CI V

ertic

al tr

ust

.4

.2

0.0

-.2

-.4

-.6

-.8

vertical trust horizontal trust

AMCIS 2006 9

influence

vertical trust horizontal trust

7112114617631146N =

Sense of ability to influence

strongly agree

agree

neither

disagree

strongly disagree

95%

CI V

ertic

al t

rust

.4

.2

0.0

-.2

-.4

-.6

-.87112114617631146N =

Sense of ability to influence

strongly agree

agree

neither

disagree

strongly disagree

95%

CI H

oriz

onta

l tr

ust

.3

.2

.1

-.0

-.1

-.2

-.3

AMCIS 2006 10

Extended Public Value Model

Rein

forc

ing

Services Outcomes

Well-informednessPersonal control

Influence

TrustTrustSatisfaction

Satisfaction

Positive Correlation

ExperienceExperience

Contribute to

AMCIS 2006 11

Case Study: Home Connections

AMCIS 2006 12

HC: Threats to TrustHome Connections Customer Comment Information Control Influence

“The system works fine, but nobody looks at your personal situation.” X

“It would be nice to meet someone from Housing to let you know where you stand [on bids].”

X X

“The website is a jazzed up version of the council trying to get out of answering questions! If the correct information was up there on the website, we would not be phoning up for reassurance.”

X X

“It gives you false hope…. You’re just left waiting…. The system raises people’s hopes – you have to wait for two to three months before you find out if you have been successful.”

X X

“The real blockage with these schemes, which are excellent, is with the council.”

X

“There is no communication so the wheels grind ever so slowly – the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.”

X X

“The officer told me that properties are allocated on a ‘first come first served’ basis, so the people who bid earlier in the morning have a better chance than those bidding in the afternoon [untrue]. People in the councils don’t know as much as we know about it [Home Connections]!”

X

Ch

an

& H

ark

ne

ss (

20

04

) H

om

e C

on

ne

ctio

ns

Fo

cus

Gro

up

s R

ep

ort

.

AMCIS 2006 13

HC: Trust ReinforcementHome Connections Customer Comment Information Control Influence

“I like the autonomy of being able to pick.” “You can choose the area in which you want to live.” “You can visit the property before you bid if you want to (only the

outside though).” “You can see what’s available every week, so you can start to see

where [in the borough] you want to be.” “It’s nice to see what’s available when previously you have always

been told there was nothing.” “I like the right to refuse a property without it affecting your future

chances of being housed.” “The “I like having a say in the property and being able to turn a

property down.”

Ch

an

& H

ark

ne

ss (

20

04

) H

om

e C

on

ne

ctio

ns

Fo

cus

Gro

up

s R

ep

ort

.

AMCIS 2006 14

Some Lessons/Issues (1)• Customer/client/citizen relates to whole process – need for

seamless integration of all system elements, and in ways that support diversity and avoid exclusion.

• Well-informedness is promoted by: – personalised proactive communication;– consistency/lack of contradiction;– and reinforced by trusted 3rd party mediation.

• Personal control is promoted by:– flexibility (multiple paths to the same end);– clarity of where the initiative resides.

• Sense of influence is promoted by:– timeliness of context sensitive communication/feedback.

AMCIS 2006 15

Some Lessons/Issues (2)• It is possible to maintain trust (even if the desired outcome is very

difficult to attain) by taking a holistic view of clients needs and proactively supporting the client in recognising and addressing these needs.

• Introduction of e-government raises client and citizen expectations and it is these raised expectations that must be met. This is particularly challenging for developers and managers of e-government systems as the introduction of the system itself raises benchmark by which it will be judged.

AMCIS 2006 16

Experience Management Matrix

Trust & Satisfaction

Strategy

Target Experience in User

Sense of being Well-informed

Sense of Personal Control

Sense of being able to Influence

InformationStrategy 1? 2? 3?ControlStrategy 4? 5? 6?

Deployment of Influence(Power) 7? 8? 9?

AMCIS 2006 17

Information

Trust & Satisfaction

Strategy

Target Experience in User

Sense of being Well-informed

Sense of Personal Control

Sense of being able to Influence

InformationStrategy

Expectation(Ambiguity!Contradiction!)

Reputation (Brand)Vertical•B2CHorizontal•Power of Indirect (3rd Party)

Knowledge of:•Whole-process Map•Distribution of initiative•Conditions of engagement

Information for•informed views•how/when to convey them•to whom

Evidence of (independent) consideration of views and explaining decisions.

AMCIS 2006 18

Control

Trust & Satisfaction

Strategy

Target Experience in User

Sense of being Well-informed

Sense of Personal Control

Sense of being able to Influence

ControlStrategy

(Initiative and Responsibility)

Proactive communication in relation to initiative:

•Reporting when the initiative is with you;•Enquiring when the initiative is with the customer/client.

Design for flexibility:•adaptability•personalisation

Definitions of ethos, boundaries and behaviours that change entitlements.

Contingency:•response in keeping with customer/client expectation.

AMCIS 2006 19

Influence

Trust & Satisfaction

Strategy

Target Experience in User

Sense of being Well-informed

Sense of Personal Control

Sense of being able to Influence

Exercising Influence

(Power)

Minimising uncertainty:

•transparency of policy and process.•independent legitimation.

Holistic view of customer/client need:

•shaping the perception of need and space of possible solutions •enlarging the sphere of action.

Coordinative and integrative responses to well-founded needs/desires.

Anthony MeehanThe Open UniversityWalton HallMilton KeynesMK7 6AA

http://mcs.open.ac.uk/am4469

AMCIS 2006 21

Supplementary Slides

AMCIS 2006 22

Terms of EngagementRelational Terms

(c.f. Simons, 1996; Vangen & Huxman, 2003)Activity

Establish Relational Values Establish values/ethos and describe high-level behaviours that express these values.

Define Mutual Expectations and Entitlements

Define entitlements. (It may be useful to distinguish between equity and equality in respect of entitlement). Recognise different levels of commitment.

Define Bounded Freedoms Identify boundaries that denote levels of entitlement.

Define Incentives and Penalties Identify and agree behaviours that induce transitions across entitlement boundaries identified above.

Monitor Performance Jointly monitor and review adherence to values and behaviours as described above.

AMCIS 2006 23

Information StrategyInformation

StrategyInduced Sense of Well-informedness

Basic-reactive: Information provision is entirely request driven.

Dependent: user must take the initiative in researching the information needed to act.

Minimal-standard: basic or routine information on levels of service availability is published.

Non-standard dependent: if the user needs any variation in the basic

provision they must take the initiative in acting to meet their need.

Explanatory: explanations are published in relation to ‘routine’ service standards.

Informed-dependent: the user knows and can take a view on the reasonableness of the service standards they experience.

Responsive: information is provided about how the service can be adapted to (individual) users’ needs.

Facilitated: the user can negotiate provision for their specific circumstances.

Enabling: information is provided which allows the users to achieve goals by reference to alternative courses of action or even 'competing' service providers

Emancipated: the user is able to pursue alternative courses of action which achieve their desired goal.

AMCIS 2006 24

Satisfaction

MORI (PM’s PIU, Cabinet Office), 2001

AMCIS 2006 25

The Hysteresis of Trust

+ ve

- ve

Trust

Experience

when trust is lost, there is rarely a quick and easy way to rebuild the relationship.

AMCIS 2006 26

Exclusion

Trust

Alienation exclusion

Anxiety exclusion

Acting in the

World

Confidence

Note: Confidence and Trust are not linearly additive

voting?

mental health?fear of crime?

after Luhmann, 2001

AMCIS 2006 27

References• Green. G., Grimsley, M., Suokas A., et al: Social Capital, Health and Economy in South Yorkshire Coalfield

Communities. CRESR, Sheffield Hallam University, UK• Green G., Grimsley, M. and Stafford, B., (2001) Capital Accounting for Neighbourhood Sustainability, CRESR,

Sheffield Hallam University, UK.• Green, G., Grimsley, M. and Stafford, B. (2005) The Dynamics of Neighbourhood Sustainability, Joseph

Rowntree Foundation: York Publishing Services. http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/1859353045.pdf• Gilbertson J., Green G., Grimsley M. and Manning J. 2005. The Dynamic of Social Capital, Health and

Economy. CRESR, Sheffield Hallam University, UK• Moore, M.H. (1995) Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government. Harvard University Press,

Cambridge, MA.• MORI (2003) as Duffy, B., Browning, P. and Skinner, G. (2003). Trust in Public Institutions: A report for the

Audit Commission. MORI.• PM’s Strategy Unit (2002 as Kelly, G., Mulgan, G. and Muers, S. (2002) Creating Public Value: An analytical

framework for public service reform, Strategy Unit discussion paper, Cabinet Office, http://www.strategy.gov.uk/downloads/files/public_value2.pdf