The Impact of Power on Information Sharing in E-Government

In the digital era, information sharing is of utter importance to improving the quality and benefits of government services. At present, there is a lot of information housed by and distributed among different government agencies, which poses significant challenges and barriers to information sharing and dissemination. This paper presents a research model that examines some crucial factors, including administrative power, trust, perceived risk, and power games, that may affect information sharing in e-Government. The administrative power can be classified as coercive power and coordinated power. Trust, perceived risk, and power games are introduced as moderators of the power on information sharing in the research model. Results of our empirical study indicate that coercive power and coordinated power positively affect information sharing, and such effects are moderated by trust among employees and power ames. The research and practical implications of this tudy are also discussed

T-government for benefit realisation

This paper proposes a model for t-Government and highlights the research agenda needed to increase understanding of transformational government and the processes involved in furthering the agenda of the t-Government. In particular, both an operational and a conceptual model for the effective involvement of citizens and businesses in government functioning have been proposed. This will help to define an agenda for t-Government research that emerges from national UK strategy and policy for e-Government. The main threads of t- Government encompass: (1) A citizen-centric delivery of public services or e-inclusion, (2) A shared services culture to maximize value added to clients, (3) The effective delivery and management of resources and skills within government or professionalism. All three threads should be addressed principally from the perspectives of delivery, evaluation and participation in view of benefit realisation as envisioned by Government strategic planning and policy directives (CabinetOffice, 2005). The management of change dimension of these phenomena have been included in the research agenda. In particular, research is needed to reshape the discourse towards emphasising a citizen centric approach that defines, develops, and benefits from public service. Decision makers in Government will need models of Governance that fulfil transformational objectives. They will also need models of benefits realisation within a strategic Governance framework. It has been argued that t-Government research should be addressing these relative voids

The factors involved in sharing information between public agencies

With the increasing move to partnership working in the public sector this paper looks at the main barriers in place which reduce the chances of Public Agencies working together. Agencies such as the Police, Local Councils, Youth Services and Health Services would like to work closer to improve their ability to serve the public whilst reducing the costs associated with this. A review of the literature along with personal experience from talking to and working with these agencies has identified the key elements affecting data and information sharing. The paper has found that whilst the agencies themselves are able to work on many of the barriers to data and information sharing the Data Protection Act 1998 continues to act as a deterrent

Applying GIS in practitioner settings

This paper focuses on the involvement of CURS in a project aimed at developing an integrated GIS to facilitate inter-agency data sharing and analysis so as to enhance the planning and provision of family services in the Hunter. The paper focuses on the process of developing the \u27soft technologies of engagement\u27 necessary to facilitate the co-operative data-sharing between key government human services agencies that must underpin an integrated GIS. These soft technologies are required to address the ethical, procedural and technical challenges of data sharing and, more intangibly, to manage the organisation and institutional barriers to inter-agency data sharing. The paper outlines a template of ethical protocols and procedures for data-sharing as a first step in developing longer term inter-agency engagements. Crucially though, the paper argues that the process of engagement is central to the development of an informed and critical community of practitioners within government agencies. We see this longer term engagement as having the potential to address some of the broader epistemological and ontological critiques of GIS and spatial indicators

Multi-agency information sharing in the public sector

BACKGROUND. The need for public sector agencies to work together to deal with complex issues which overlap agencies spheres of work has been well established. Cases such as the Soham murders in 2002 (BBC News, 2003), the Climbie child abuse case in 2003 (Health Committee, 2003) and the Pilkington Anti-social Behaviour case in 2007 (Telegraph, 2009) each highlighted the need for public sector agencies to work more closely and share information with each other to more effectively serve their public. METHODOLOGY. A three year period of participant observation in the implementation of a real time information sharing system used by multiple agencies to jointly manage anti-social behaviour was undertaken. An information sharing framework was produced detailing the factors which impact an information sharing project, classified into six categories; External Environment, Organisation, Process, Project, Technology and Individual. FINDINGS. Firstly bureaucracy is not always a barrier to information sharing. At times bureaucracy was found to enable information sharing by providing documentary evidence to decisions made throughout the system implementation. Secondly an agency’s level of buy in and involvement with the information sharing project was shown to be a key indicator of their motivation to share information, correlating with the level of case recording on the system. Thirdly whilst technology enables the process of information sharing the research showed people had a much greater impact on whether information sharing took place. Finally whilst the UK public sector encourages public sector agencies to share information a wide scale review and approach to IT infrastructure would better enable future information sharing projects. CONCLUSIONS. The research identified there are many factors which impact an agency’s ability/motivation to share information. It is the level of motivation an agency has minus the cost of sharing which ultimately determines whether information sharing occurs. In order to further encourage information sharing there is a recommendation that the UK government look at ways to make integrating the disparate data sources easier to decrease the cost of sharing and thus improve the likelihood information sharing will occur

Attempts to share information between public sector organisations over time: A case-based exploration of value conflicts

Despite the importance of inter-organisational information sharing (IOIS) in the public sector, such endeavours often fail. Existing research has shown that the values held by collaborating organisations are one important factor affecting these kinds of initiatives. However, research has sought only to a limited extent to address how value conflicts come into play over time. Therefore, this paper aims to explore how conflicting values shape an inter-organisational information-sharing practice in the public sector over time. Using the local/global network framework, we analyse four years’ worth of information sharing in an inter-organisational advisory group in the context of Swedish nuclear waste management. We conclude that different value conflicts are emphasised to different extents at different points in time. That is, values do not uniformly affect IOIS activities, and such conflicts over time reduce the set of potential IOIS activities. We also conclude that when IOIS activities are driven by an individual organisation’s values, individual value rational activities may co-exist with a dysfunctional long-term IOIS practice.publishedVersio

The Interplay Of Ict Innovation With State Administrative Tradition: The Case Of The Greek Taxation Information System (taxis)

In recent years, there is an explicit link of ICT innovation with deep structural reforms in public administrations. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are viewed as enablers of state reform towards the establishment of a minimal, agile and accountable government apparatus. The concept of administrative tradition allows us to understand how structural, historical, institutional and behavioral elements shaping a country’s perception of proper public administration interact with ICT innovation. In this paper, we examine a specific administrative tradition, the Napoleonic, in its Greek variation. The properties of Greek administrative tradition are identified and analyzed. Their interaction with ICT innovation is studied in the case of TAXIS, the flagship information technology project of the Greek government in the mid 1990s. TAXIS’s implementation occurred in a period of conscious and systematic effort of the Greek polity to radically change its operations and become aligned to the political structures of its Western counterparts. Thus, there is an explicit link between ICT innovation and the need for state reform. Nevertheless, ICT innovation did not follow an independent path but was infused by elements of the Greek administrative tradition producing a number of interesting outcomes

A Vehicle for Research: Using Street Sweepers to Explore the Landscape of Environmental Community Action

Researchers are developing mobile sensing platforms to facilitate public awareness of environmental conditions. However, turning such awareness into practical community action and political change requires more than just collecting and presenting data. To inform research on mobile environmental sensing, we conducted design fieldwork with government, private, and public interest stakeholders. In parallel, we built an environmental air quality sensing system and deployed it on street sweeping vehicles in a major U.S. city; this served as a "research vehicle" by grounding our interviews and affording us status as environmental action researchers. In this paper, we present a qualitative analysis of the landscape of environmental action, focusing on insights that will help researchers frame meaningful technological interventions.Comment: 10 page

Transformação digital na administração pública: Estudo de caso

A globalização, o desenvolvimento tecnológico e a valorização crescente do conhecimento originaram uma crescente necessidade de adaptação das organizações, públicas e privadas, às mudanças, com objetivo de descobrir alternativas e soluções para questões socais e ambientais. Apostar na Transformação Digital (TD) tornou-se assim fundamental, pois permite o uso de recursos tecnológicos que aumentam o desempenho organizacional e possibilitam a aplicação, reutilização e reaproveitamento do conhecimento organizacional, potenciando os benefícios criados por ele. O propósito desta pesquisa é analisar qual o efeito da Transformação Digital nas práticas de Gestão do Conhecimento (GC) na Administração Pública portuguesa. Ou seja, verificar se o processo da Transformação Digital teve impacto nas práticas de Gestão do conhecimento das organizações públicas. A metodologia de análise baseia-se num estudo quantitativo e está suportada na aplicação de um questionário a uma amostra de 54 colaboradores de duas áreas governativas do Ministério do Ambiente, do Governo de Portugal. Os resultados obtidos permitiram concluir que a Transformação Digital influenciou a Gestão do Conhecimento e demonstraram que é crucial uma consciencialização de como esta transformação pode agilizar e simplificar o trabalho, levando a ganhos de eficiência. Comprovou-se assim que é necessário que a Administração Pública estimule processos de Gestão do Conhecimento.Globalization, technological development, and the increasing valuation of knowledge have led to a growing need for public and private organizations to adapt to change in order to find alternatives and solutions to social and environmental issues. Betting on Digital Transformation has become fundamental because it allows the use of technological resources that increase organizational performance and enable the application, reuse and reuse of organizational knowledge, enhancing the benefits created by it. The purpose of this research is to analyze the effect of Digital Transformation on Knowledge Management practices in public administration. That is, to verify if the Digital Transformation process had an impact on the knowledge management practices of public organizations. The analysis methodology is based on a quantitative study and is supported by the application of a questionnaire to a sample of 54 employees from two governmental areas of the Ministry of the Environment, of the Government of Portugal. The results obtained led to the conclusion that the Digital Transformation influenced the Knowledge Management and demonstrated that it is crucial an awareness of how this transformation can speed and simplify the work, leading to efficiency gains. This proved that it is necessary for the Public Administration to stimulate Knowledge Management processes

Opportunities for information sharing: case studies

Personal information provided to government and non-government service providers is highly sensitive. Appropriate collection, management and storage of personal information are critical elements to citizen trust in the public sector. However, misconceptions about the frameworks governing sharing personal information can impact on the coordination of services, case management and policy development.   The NSW Department of Premier & Cabinet engaged the Social Policy Research Centre to develop three case studies that identified the challenges to sharing information appropriately, and the opportunities for better personal information sharing between government agencies and non-government organisations. Improved sharing of personal information in these areas can support more effective policy development, leading to improved service delivery performance and coordination.   The Social Policy Research Centre identified the legislative and policy framework for each case study, conducted qualitative research on the interpretation of this framework, and developed three case study reports