Implementing e-Government policy - politics and resistance
2014 (English)In: Proceedings of the European Conference on e-Government, ECEG, Volume 2014, 2014, p. 163-169Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Resource type
Text
Abstract [en]
Despite its promise of increasing public authorities' effectiveness, improving decision making and service delivery, e-Government initiatives often fail. So far, reasons have largely been sought in technological aspects of e-Government. However, e-Government implementation processes should be seen as more complex than that; also encompassing various social aspects, implying the need for a broader perspective when developing the understanding of e-Government implementation. Based on an in-depth case study of the attempted implementation of new policy documents on e-Government in the municipality of Vasteras, Sweden, this paper sets out to develop the understanding of e-Government by elucidating how individuals' actions, behaviors and decision affect e-Government policy implementation processes. Applying theoretical concepts from political science and organizational change management, the paper describes how the change driver aimed at steering the implementation as a political process through involving as many stakeholders as possible. Hence, a new advocacy coalition emerged, which agreed upon a new definition of "e-Government", which was necessary for the policy implementation to be successful. However, as time went by, it became apparent that there existed several veto players, which the change driver failed to engage, who actively blocked the implementation process. As a consequence, the policy implementation process failed, despite that Vasteras have the best starting points possible, with general agreement regarding the usefulness and necessity of ICTs and hence with a long history of ICT-use in its daily operations. The case study illustrates the importance of acknowledging basic change management aspects when steering implementation of e-Government processes in order for these to be successful. The case also highlights the need for e-Government-research to look beyond theoretical areas of technological science, and it illustrates the usefulness of theories from political science and organization studies when furthering the knowledge of e-Government.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2014. p. 163-169
Keywords [en]
e-Government, E-Government policy making, Implementation steering strategies, Policy implementation, Resistance, The municipality of Vasteras, Automobile steering equipment, Decision making, Economic and social effects, Electric resistance, Government data processing, Social aspects, Social sciences, E-governments, Policy implementations, Policy making, Public policy
National Category
Other Social Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-32549Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85006445768ISBN: 9781909507326 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-32549DiVA, id: diva2:953578
Conference
14th European Conference on eGovernment, ECEG 2014; Spiru Haret University, Faculty of Legal and Administrative SciencesBrasov; Romania; 12 June 2014 through 13 June 2014
2016-08-182016-08-182017-01-05Bibliographically approved