Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse and understand the contemporary management of electronic identification (e-ID) development to: identify and formulate challenges and reflect upon the ...use of a combination of perspectives. To generate knowledge on this issue, we investigate e-ID development in Sweden from: an e-government systems development lifecycle perspective and a project challenge and critical success factor (CSF) perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative case study covering an analysis of the three years in a larger project focusing e-ID in a public e-service setting. Empirical sources have been face-to-face interviews; official documents and different kind of forums for presentations and discussions in, for example, hearings arranged by authorities; meetings with the coordinating agency, and practitioners’ networks events.
Findings
This study concludes that there are significant challenges involved in managing e-ID development because of its contextual and integrated character. Challenges involve the organization and management of the program and can be traced back to e-government, general project management literature and theory on path dependency. Based on this study, we can question, e.g. governance models, centralization and a narrow focus on the technical artefact. Our study is also an illustration of a possible way to analyse e-ID within an e-government initiative.
Research limitations/implications
The present study shows that an e-ID can be considered as a back office-enabler for launching e-services, but also highlights the need for management of the artefact as an integral part of e-service development because it is intertwined with the use of e-services from a user perspective. This aspect together with the insights related to challenges and success factors including path dependency provides implications for future practice of e-ID management and development in particular and information systems artefact development in general.
Originality/value
This paper addresses challenges related to the development of e-ID in a public e-service setting. Few studies have theoretically combined a lifecycle perspective on challenges and success factors related to e-ID development while also focusing different dimensions of path dependency as an example of a challenging area within a program frame. Studying e-ID as a contemporary phenomenon from a contextual perspective in line with sociomaterial thinking – with a focus on the interplay between technology and people –can also help us to understand and discuss artefact development in general.
Public e-services from inside Giritli Nygren, Katarina; Axelsson, Karin; Melin, Ulf
The International journal of public sector management,
08/2013, Letnik:
26, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to discuss the consequences of citizens' increased use of public e-services for agency employees' work situation.Design methodology approach - In order to ...accomplish the purpose of the paper the authors focus on the way in which the increased use of public e-services also implies internal process and routine changes in public administration. The authors analyze work conditions for case officers at a government agency in Sweden by applying occupational ideal types to identify the specific work conditions in the studied case. The case study is based on qualitative data collected with a back office perspective.Findings - The findings indicate a new hybrid organization where the increased use of e-services challenges earlier demands for competence. The transformation of e-government has implications for job codification, rule observation, job specification, and interaction with the general public.Originality value - The paper extends the knowledge on how the increased use of public e-services affects back-office work conditions, with an increased high level of complexity in work content, but with low level of work autonomy. It argues that studying back-office work conditions is an important management issue in public administration research as well as practice.
The Emperor's New Clothes? Melin, Ulf
International journal of public information systems,
2009, Letnik:
2009, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This paper analyses the “National Action Plan for the Swedish eGovernment”, launched in 2008, based on three dimensions generated from theory: (1) the relationship between information systems and ...organizational change, (2) process orientation and (3) coordination. The analysis presents a critical examination of the action plan. The analysis shows that the action plan contains an overall rational perspective on the relationship between information systems and organizational change; several rather specific impacts are forecasted using e.g. e-services in public administration. Rational choices when designing information systems for public administration are assumed to be made based on business needs, citizen needs and business processes. An almost unlimited choice over technological options and an explicit ambition to control the consequences are also outlined in the action plan. The process perspective is also very present in the action plan promoting a horizontal view of public administration and e-services as an antithesis to the vertical, rigid “silos” often reported in government organizations. The action plan is also found to have an innovative view of IT, but a more moderate and reformist view of internal government organizations. The plan as such represents an overall top-down approach to e-government, providing a framework within which to develop egovernment. The customer/client needs are expressed explicitly in the action plan, in several contexts and combined with internal efficiency efforts in a balanced way. Several aspects of coordination are also identified in the analysis, for example regarding standardization.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the progress and the success vs failure in egovernment development, based on case studies of two interorganizational IO ...eservice projects. Designmethodologyapproach The analysis in the paper is made from an egovernment systems development life cycle perspective and a challenge and success factor perspective. The point of departure is theory and a comparative analysis of two egovernment projects. Findings The main results in this paper are a combination of perspectives in a project stage and analysis grid that can serve as a support when managing eservice development and a set of identified crucial success factors within an IO egovernment project including project manager skills and position in the agency organization as well as when and how systems maintenance issues are introduced into a project. Existing theory and perspectives are also criticised based on the present study. Practical implications Lessons to learn from a challenge and success factors perspective in two different egovernment projects, and suggestions to revise an egovernment development life cycle in order to perform a better practice in the field. The reviseddeveloped project stage and analysis grid presented in the paper is one way to deal with the challenges related to the management of eservice development in the public sector. Originalityvalue The paper addresses a number of challenges of complexity and risk that egovernment initiatives face. It is not an easy matter to realize such initiatives' potential. A key research issue for the egovernment field, as well as the information systems field in general, is to understand why some projects progress to success while others end in failure. This is the niche for the present paper.
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