Information Technology (IT) in Public Administration-4

Literature on IT and e-Government

Prof. Dr. Doğan Nadi Leblebici

http://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~nadi

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In this part of the e-government course, the link between e-government concepts and practices and public administration literature is examined. For this purpose, it has been discussed how the conceptual frameworks of management reform, new public administration, institutional theory and networks can be used in understanding and explaining management-technology relations in general and e-Government concepts and practices in particular.

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After the oil crises of the 1970s, the decline of social welfare state understanding, especially in developed countries such as USA and UK, minimization of state organization has come into being through privatization and marketization practices. From this period on, there are two main features that imprint this wave spreading to the rest of the world: the minimization of the state organization and functions, and the use of private sector strategies in public administration. This approach is called, "the new public management ".

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Administrative Reform, New Public Management and E-Government

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The new public administration movement focuses on the quality of goods and services and the performance of public employees and organizations as a private sector's reasoning. This trend, which emphasizes being citizen-oriented and focusing on outputs instead of inputs, tends to create marketization and localization of public service areas and to divide public service production and delivery from each other.

It is thought that e-Government applications can be a remedy for public administration budgets, performance and trust disclosures, which the new public administration focused on. It is argued that states made the e-Government as a part of public administration reform to control the movement of people, commodities, and capital by taking advantage of information and communication technologies.

As a result, it can be concluded that "e-Government applications are a means of rearranging public administration systems in the direction of new public administration".

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Developments in the e-government area did not only result in the automation of public administration processes; at the same time, it changed the nature and shape of its interaction with citizens, private sector firms, and public institutions. This change can be observed in the reduced costs, the increased quality of public services and increased citizen satisfaction. However, the same change can also be considered from the perspective of institutional theory, "harmony with the organizational environment and its rules".

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Institutional Theory and e-Government

Institutional organization theory is a field arguing that organizations are acting for survival by gaining legitimacy and stability in the organizational environment. Its arguments can be used where rational explanations are inadequate to explain organizational facts. In this context, the explanation of the use of technology in organizations by the developments in the organizational environment which symbolically legitimate organization shows the potential of theory to be utilized in e-Government field.

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Before applying the institutional organizational theory to e-Government studies, it is important to note that the discussions on the theory persist, and the main concepts and methodology are still problematic; that is, the theory is not yet "institutionalized". Nevertheless, the institutional organizational theory can be useful in understanding and describing e-Government concepts and practices. For example, it is argued that institutionalist theory can be useful in answering the question of why organizations are so similar. From this point of view, the question why all public institutions build a website or why these sites are always alike can be investigated by using arguments of this theory.

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It is argued that organizational structure is an adaptation tool and that institutionalization means an evolutionary adaptation process. Thus, symbolic behaviors in the organization become important. Such symbolic behavior can often be observed in the e-Government field. e-Government is one of the quests to solve the crisis of legitimacy and trust in democracies.

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It has been reported that e-government projects have been presented as a symbol of pursuing the latest developments in the field of technology by top executives. Examination of 50 e-government projects implemented in USA shows that there is not a healthy business plan and cost-benefit analysis in most of them. In many projects, e-Government as a fashion concept and the understanding that organizations implementing e-Government applications are technologically developed is much more important than a healthy business plan and cost-benefit analysis. It has been thought that through these projects, organizations will increase their legitimacy.

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At this point, the concepts used by institutionalist theory should be briefly referred to as "isomorphic pressures". Isomorphic pressures are pressures applied or perceived to be similar to one another. There are three isomorphic pressures defined:

- The normative,

- The mimetic and

- The coercive pressures.

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Normative isomorphic pressures can be described as an adaptation of a field to existing or emerging professional rules and norms. For example, providing online interactive services is beginning to become a norm, and public organizations not doing this by interactive web application are considered to be not developed. The norm can change over time. The norm of serving on the website for yesterday can be served via mobile technology or through social media tomorrow.

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The mimetic isomorphic pressures arise from the imitation of organizations which are considered to be successful and legitimate. Private-sector web-based services have been adopted by citizens and also requested from public institutions. Such pressures are widespread in network environments where members exchange intensive knowledge and new ideas.

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In the case of coercive isomorphic pressures, organizational change takes place with legal or financial constraint. Examples of this type of organizational change that exist as a condition of the financial and technical assistance of international organizations. In the case of such a resource dependency, it is important to evaluate organizations by another organization theory, namely the theory of resource dependency, which emphasizes organizational dependency on resources in the organizational environment. In this case, the boundary between these two theories becomes unclear.

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A pressure of isomorphism can carry more than one attribute. For example, pressures on a Turkish public organization can experience both normative pressure (conforming to the rules and standards of the EU) and coercive pressure of being compelled (by organizational changes that are regulated by laws and regulations of EU that are subject to sanctions in the case of noncompliance).There are examples of such normative and coercive pressures on e-government projects in the fields of justice and finance in Turkey.

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The important point here is that it is necessary to be careful about the assumption that organizations are in passive positions against these pressures. Because organizations respond differently to such institutional pressures such as adaptation, reconciliation, avoidance, resistance and manipulation. This situation also adds new factors that complicate the analysis. Institutional pressures can also be divided into objective and subjective pressures: Objective pressures are pressures that can be observed in the same way by everyone. For example, an international organization may provide financial credit to a public institution to implement an e-government application. However, if the organization brings some conditions for the use of that credit such as the requirement of some structural change in the institutional body or rules, this can be considered as a coercive pressure by everybody.

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A subjective pressure of isomorphism is only a form of pressure felt by only the organization. Employees of the organization feel it in their minds, but it can not be directly observed. Some of the normative pressures exist only for being perceived by public administrators. For example; if we ask the question: "is the use of social media in public services really a sector norm?" we can say that it is so if the institution manager thinks like that. There is no objective measure for it to be accepted as a norm. It is can be useful to take subjective and objective isomorphic pressures into account in e-Government researches.

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Networks are organizational constructs that contain multiple organizations or parts that are dependent on each other instead of having hierarchical relationships. Networks are defined as the third major organizational structure other than markets and bureaucracies. There is an "adaptive efficiency" that offers flexibility and innovation in solving problems, which does not exist in two other types of organization. Networks do not function with market-dynamics as determined by the chain of command as in bureaucracies, or by profit maximization as in the markets. Common objectives, values, trust, interdependence are critical in the operations of networks. Because they operate on the basis of common values and objectives, less resources are required to audit network members.

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Networks and e-Government

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The importance of network type organization is connected to various factors. The complexity and diversity of the information age have made network structures necessary. Within the framework of public administration reform, it can be explained by the minimization of the state under the influence of the new public management approach. Necessities of networks can also be attributed to rapid technological change, increasing competitive pressures and uncertainties of the global economy.

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The relationship between network organization and the e-Government field is not a subject of much research. The purpose of using information and communication technologies in networks can be explained as follows:

1. To disseminate information quickly and cheaply to network members and individuals and organizations in the network's corporate environment,

2. To reduce coordination costs with means such as e-mail and text message service (SMS) and teleconferencing,

3. To make decision-making free and cheap through electronic decision-making techniques and tools which are faster, more transparent, and face-to-face,

4. To be able to use management support systems such as simulations supported by databases and software.

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A subset of the relationship between e-government and networks is the relationship between public policy networks and e-Government applications. Public policy networks, termed "issue networks" or "policy communities" in the public policy literature, are defined as "loosely connected communities, most of whose interests are based on public policy decisions and are composed of experts representing organized interests." policy actors such as public institutions, various non-governmental organizations, scientists, and private companies, which are around the periphery of each public policy field and are trying to influence politics in some way can be counted as public policy networks.

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Public Policy Networks and e-Government

For the research purpose, we can ask following questions:

1. What is the nature of interests and power relations between network members? How does it affect e-Government policies?

2. How and why the power brokers in these networks are responsible for determining and redistributing resources among between members? How does the distribution of resources affect e-Government policies?

3. What are the consequences of differences in power and political/administrative capacity among network members? How do these differences affect e-Government policies?

4. How and in what conditions, cooperation and conflicts among network members occur? How it affects e-Government policies?

5. How network members differ from those working in market-type organizations (private companies) and bureaucracy type organizations? What are cultural and behaviouraldifferences? How do they affect their policies?

6. What are the capabilities needed for having an efficient network membership? How these affect e-Government policies?.

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