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CPSO Research Seminar School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London

CPSO Research Seminar School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London. Information technology and public service delivery: an empirical investigation in Italian municipal governments. Greta Nasi Assistant Professor of Public Management Bocconi University, Milan February, 28° 2007.

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CPSO Research Seminar School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London

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  1. CPSO Research SeminarSchool of Management, Royal Holloway University of London Information technology and public service delivery: an empirical investigation in Italian municipal governments Greta Nasi Assistant Professor of Public Management Bocconi University, Milan February, 28° 2007

  2. Agenda • Theoretical background • eGovernment in Italy • Purpose and methodology of the research • Findings • Conclusions • Open discussion for further research studies

  3. Theoretical background

  4. Change and innovation in public service organizations Global economic changes; Internationalizations of firms; New institutional role of states; Social factors; Demographic characteristics; Technological factors • Deliver “better services” • Maintain and enhance “trustworthy relationships” with constituents • Adoption of NPM approach and principles for public service provisions • Adoption of new modes to meet unanticipated needs (Osborne, S.P. and Brown, K.; 2005)

  5. A social revolution: the Information Society • Input and output of innovation in public service organizations • How services are provided • New forms of public services • New forms of organizational structure • Change in roles and responsibilities; • Different job content of personnel • More horizontal structures Technological factors

  6. An exploratory framework • Norris D. F. and Moon M. J. (2005) present an exploratory framework that depicts three dimensions of IT adoption: • The input dimension • The impacts on internal organizational processes • The impacts in terms of organizational outputs and outcomes

  7. The input dimension in local and state governments • Environmental factors (Moon, M. J. 2002; Reddick, C. G. and Frank, H. A. 2007) • Demographic factors (Bingham, R. D. 1978) • Organizational factors (Kimberly J. R. and Evanisko M. J. 1981; Brudney, J. L. and Selden, S. C. 1995) • Human factors (Nedovic-Budic, Z. and Godschalk, D. R. 1996) • Drivers of diffusion (Walker 2006)

  8. The context of Italian Local Governments

  9. Background: The Italian context Four levels of government: central government, 20 regional governments, 103 provinces, 8,101 municipal governments (92% with populations < 15,000; 0,5% with population < 100,000) Municipalities

  10. NPM reforms and the action plan for egovernment Grant digital access to information Enhance internal efficiency Digital signature Digital workflow Integrated management systems Deliver integrated on line public services

  11. The action plan for eGovernment • June 23° 2000: The action plan for eGovernment was published • 2002: First action phase of eGovernment • Guidelines for establishing an on line presence of LGs; • Guidelines for building IT infrastructure • 120 M Euros to co-finance projects • Nov. 2003: The second phase of eGovernment started • eDemocracy; • IT infrastructure; • eInclusion of small LGs; • Reutilization of “best practices” • Establishment of local agencies for eGovernment coordination • Jan. 2007: New strategic objectives for eGovernment

  12. Survey mania The UN eGovernment readiness index 2005

  13. The UN eGovernment readiness index: from 2003 to 2005

  14. Survey mania The UN eGovernment readiness index EU countries in 2004 and 2005

  15. Discussion • Is the UK eGovernment strategy consistent with NPM ideas and the overall reform process? • How similar/different is the UK action plan for eGovernment? • As citizens, do you have comments about the UK eGovernment readiness?

  16. The purpose and methods of the research

  17. Purpose of the research • Take a close look at the actual state of eGovernment in Italian Municipal Governments (MUs); • Assess the attributes of innovative municipal governments (MU) that adopt IT innovations by changing how public services are provided (stages of eGovernment) and their internal organizational structures’ arrangements (back office organizational structure rearrangements)

  18. Its positioning in the current literature • Most studies that discuss determinants of IT innovations, focus on the technical aspects of IT adoptions or types of innovation (Walker, R. 2006) • Some studies focus on trust and legitimacy (Welch, E. W., Hinnant, C. C. et al. 2005; Tolbert, C., J. and Mossberger, K. 2006; Torres, L., Pina, V. et al. 2006) • A few researches focus on the impacts on the delivery of public services (Moon, M. J. 2002; West, D. M. 2004), focusing on the stages of egovernment. In this study the focus is on the level of sophistication of on line public service delivery for each type of stakeholder (i.e. citizen, businesses, employees, suppliers, ect) of the MUs.

  19. Egovernment framework, Hiller J.S. and Bélanger F. (2001)

  20. The dependent variable IT adoption was measured through an indicator that measures the intensity of adoption from two categorical variables: • One variable measures the type of interaction of the municipal government and its constituents. • The second variable measures the level of sophistication of IT adoption for each of the interaction the municipality engages in using five stages: information, communication, transaction, integration, political participation. • Based on this, we created an indicator to consider the following: • the number of interactions activated; • the number of stages at which each interaction is activated.

  21. Methodology • Desk research and literature review to draw the conceptual framework • Analysis of official LGs’ documents, revision of websites • An on line survey, conducted by email, sent to Chief Information Officers to all Municipal Governments with populations greater than 40,000 inhabitants (a total of 183) • The sample represents: • 2.26% of the total Municipalities in Italy • 37% of the population

  22. Results

  23. The Respondents 114 MUs responded: 62.3% of the sample

  24. Are IT innovations a priority? • There is a vision for IT innovations • 53% of respondents have a “long term strategic plan for eGovernment”; 43% are drafting it; • However, there is a perception of lack of consistent actions to adopt them: • Among those that have a strategic plan, over 68% don’t have consistent yearly operative plans for IT; • The annual budget allocated for IT capital investments is usual very low: • 63% of total respondents allocate less than 1% of annual current expenditures;; • 27% allocate between 1 and 2%;

  25. CIO positioning CIO and IT Staff positioning

  26. Personnel dedicated to IT and eGovernment innovations (over total MUs’ personnel) HR capacity Educational background of IT staff

  27. Technology readiness Workstations and PCs Back office information system integration

  28. IT integration and alignment of back office processes: is it a priority?

  29. Stages of egov Type of interaction

  30. Attributes of innovative Municipal Governments • MU environment: • Small size (population between 40,000 and 100,000) • Located in North of Italy • Have a centre-left city council • MU’s eGovernment vision: • Have a strategic plan for eGovernment • CIO and IT Staff respond directly to the City Manager

  31. Attributes of innovative Municipal Governments • MU’s eGovernment actions: • Have access to external funds • Invest in managerial training to adopt innovations (more than 6 days per year) • Are technologically ready (3 PC every 4 employees)

  32. Overall view • Municipalities adopt IT at different stages to support many interactions with their constituents • Most relevant stakeholders for more sophisticated stages of eGovernment: • Businesses • Employees • Environmental, organizational and demographic attributes are important in determining the stages of eGovernment and the MUs relationship with constituents • Access to external resources seems to be more important than the budget allocated

  33. Next steps • Qualitative analysis aimed at better understanding: • What motivates MUs’ choice of high sophisticated level of web interactions with some constituents? • How do they choose which public service processes and information flows to align? • How does internal organizational structure (and information system) affects innovation?

  34. The UK case • The healthcare case • What are the main factors affecting the development of electronic medical record systems? • What motivates health care structures to adopt technological innovations to manage relationships with patients? • Does the institutional environment (and policies) play a strong role?

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