Information technology and public administrationit-enabled management of government (e-gov-management)) minitrack

Abstract

This minitrack covers characteristics, development, implementation, and uses of information systems that support the full range of management and administrative functions that are internal to agencies, link multiple public organizations, or connect government to its business suppliers and partners. The first paper, SMART Government On Line Not In Line by Breena E. Coates, is interesting because it sets eGovernment in context with the literature on bureaucracies, the development of this literature and of bureaucracies themselves. This allows for a perspective on IT that brings in the people who design and manage the new interface. The discussion is broad rather than deep and includes such issues as bureaucrats, business improvement, e-talent and expertise, records management, loss, privacy, democracy, and gender. In the second paper, Content Management for Government Agency Web Sites: Initial Results From a Study of State Agency Manual Content Management Processes, Kristin R. Eschenfelder analyzes the management processes supporting content on government agency web sites. The goal of the study is to improve government agency web pages by increasing the understanding of the managerial structures that underlie them. The linkage between the self-efficacy of public managers to employ information technology (IT) and managerial perceptions of IT effects on the operations of public organizations is examined in Managerial Capacity and E-Government in the States: Examining the Link Between Self-Efficacy and Perceptions of New Technologies by Charles C. Hinnant. Data from a national study of state program managers is employed to test five hypotheses regarding computer self-efficacy. Much like their private sector counterparts enabling ecommerce applications to serve customers and support partnerships, public organizations are beginning to embrace electronic government (e-government). In the paper Electronic Government at the Grass Roots: Contemporary Evidence and Future Trend, Stephen H. Holden explores the short and largely undocumented history of electronic government, discusses the literature of e-government at the local government level, and documents the adoption and infusion of e- government among US local governments. Towards an Ontology for e-Document Management in Public Administration - the Case of Schleswig-Holstein by Ralf Klischewski sets out to exemplify ontology-based approaches of e-document management in the public sector. While the focus of the paper is on the case of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, it introduces a number of similar efforts which can be helpful to e-government efforts world-wide. In Declining Public Trust as Chronic Challenges to Governments: Can IT Restore Public Trust? by M. Jae Moon the decline in public trust is explored in the area of selected administrative factors that might cause the decline of public trust in government in direct or indirect manners. The selected factors include public perception of administrative corruption (lack of transparency), inefficiency (wastefulness), ineffectiveness, and policy alienation. The study provides an exploratory link to solutions with IT tools. E-government: A Special Case of ICT-enabled Business Process Change by Jochen Scholl discusses the implications of business process change regarding the ICT-enabled transformation of government. In Assessing the Quality of a Cross-National eGovernment Web Site: a Case Study of the Forum on Strategic Management Knowledge Exchange Richard Vidgen addresses an important question in the field: how can government agencies assess whether web site redesign efforts have improved the end-user experience? The paper uses a nice mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze their case. The ninth paper Using Mobile Technology to Support eDemocracy by Heide Brucher is provocative. The strengths include examining the technology interactions with each stage of the democratic participation process and surveys the key problems to broader adoption of mobile technology.