Demystifying the Role of the Steward

This study seeks to enhance understanding regarding the public sector stewardship of integrated services delivery initiatives in joined-up digital government, with a particular focus on understanding the nature of the steward’s role in practice. This specifically includes the skills required of those performing stewardship, and the key challenges stewards faced. Eight interviews supplemented by the use of reflective journals were completed with stewards of the New Zealand public sector to understand their practice and perception of the steward concept. Three tiers of stewardship practice were identified: (1) Internal Stewardship, (2) Inter-Agency Stewardship, and (3) Stewardship as a Governance Model. Each tier exhibited unique challenges. Participants overcame these challenges through performing two complementary sub-roles: Navigator and Storyteller. Understanding the operational challenges of the stewardship tiers and how the stewardship roles were enacted has implications for both practitioners and researchers

“HAVING SKIN IN THE GAME”: A VALUE TENSION STUDY OF AN INTER- AGENCY IT PROJECT

This study seeks to better understand the challenges involved in early stage development of citizen-facing Joined-Up Government and the mitigating strategies used to address these issues. In-depth interviews were carried out with 11 members of a unique, cross-agency case, the SmartStart life event project, the first of a planned suite of life event services in New Zealand’s public sector. Three key underlying value tensions were identified as contributing to agency challenges: New Public Management versus Joined-Up Government, Immediate Needs versus Long Term Benefits, and Waterfall versus Agile development approaches. Participants successfully addressed these value tensions through three concurrent mitigating strategies: active stewardship, citizen centricity, and creation of reusable artefacts. A framework is proposed, based on the concept of a base isolator, to illustrate the dynamics between the underlying value tensions and mitigating strategies, which enable effective practice of Joined-Up Government. Understanding these value tensions and their relationship to the mitigating strategies has implications for both practitioners and researchers