E-government based lean public management: A case study

Abstract

Traditional Chinese governance based on “information islands” has negatively affected e-government evolution. E-government has been a mostly debated concept in the domain of public management in recent years just as what has happened to lean supply chain in the field of business management. Yet, there has been few discussion of the relationship between the two in the past. This paper studied this gap from the perspective of lean management by reference to lean supply chain principles. The aim was to identify the determinants for the efficient provision and delivery of public services to realize flexible governance reform as per public demand. Therefore, an explorative and deductive study was conducted to identify the determinants. A case about Jiangmen municipal service hotline was provided to analyze the lean implementation based on cross-network integration. Through analysis of the process and key points of the cross-network lean management, the determinants for lean public management were identified from distinct dimensions. Future efforts and direction for implementing lean management in public sector were pointed out. This paper contributed to identifying framework, determinants and criteria of cross-network lean management for public sector, and, was essential for ensuring the successful practices of lean public management in future. It provided a new insight for lean implementation in public sector, and contributed to public management research as well as business management study.