The Political Economy of Information Exchange : Politics and Property Rights in the Development and Use of Interorganizational Information Systems

Interorganizational information systems are information systems that cross organizational boundaries. Information managers and system developers often assume that the more integrated these information systems are, the more successful the system will be. Such an assumption is indeed intuitively appealing, and, from a

Why Would Anyone Like To Share His Knowledge?

Why do workers within organizations, or organizations in a network share information and knowledge? This question reverses the logic in some of the knowledge management literature, which addresses impediments and problems in information and knowledge sharing. According to property rights theory, information sharing can be explained in terms of self-interest, maximizing behavior, indispensability of groups and complementarity of assets. Based on this line of reasoning and on empirical evidence presented in this paper, we conclude that the ownership structure of information and knowledge systems matters. In building knowledge management systems, developers should take into account that the intuitive wisdom, indicating that central control is better control, should be interpreted with great caution

The Political Economy of Information Management : A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Decision Making regarding Interorganizational Information Systems

Designing and using interorganizational information systems requires cooperation and coordination among organizations that are, to a certain degree, competitors. This thesis analyzes the design and use of interorganizational information systems from the points of view of political organization theory and economic organization theory and analyzes three case studies of interorganizational information systems, and provides guidelines for the design of these systems

The Back-Office of E-Government (Managing Information Domains as Political Economies)

Many governmental organizations nowadays are setting up e-government initiatives to improve the delivery of services to citizens. Often, these initiatives require information exchange in networks of various governmental organizations in so-called back-offices. In this article, resource dependence theory and information property rights theory are used to analyze the complex mixture of cooperation and conflict that arises in these networks. The authors conclude that the use of novel process management techniques is a promising and fruitful alternative to the use of more ?traditional? project management techniques in the development of interorganizational, back-office information systems

Lessen en inzichten voor zbo-beleid

In dit artikel bespreken wij zes ons bekende rapporten, aan de hand van een aantal bestaande discussiepunten uit het zbo-beleid

Organiseren met beleid

Beleid komt tot stand binnen en wordt uitgevoerd door organisaties. Dit hoofdstuk gaat in op vraagstukken rondom het ontwerpen van organisaties, en op de vraag hoe de omgeving van organisaties doorwerkt in het ontwerp ervan

Diffusion of personalised services among Dutch municipalities: evolving channels of persuasion

In many European countries, municipalities are becoming increasingly important as providers of electronic public services to their citizens. One of the horizons for further expansion is the delivery of personalised electronic services. In this paper, we describe the diffusion of personalised services in the Netherlands over the period 2006-2009 and investigate how and why various municipalities adopted personalised electronic services. In achieving this, we analyse data that were gathered during interviews with key stakeholders in ten selected Dutch municipalities. We synthesise the findings in an explanatory model of personalised electronic service delivery diffusion. The model emphasizes persuasive pressures that are channelled to potential adopters of personalised services. Furthermore, the model shows how persuasive pressure (as perceived by adopters) is followed-up by organisational search activities, and how, in various circumstances, the idea of personalised services is ‘framed’ by innovation champions, knowledge brokers and new members of staff as to appeal to specific organisational priorities and ambitions. In doing so, this article contributes to an institutional view on adoption and diffusion of innovations, in which (1) horizontal and vertical channels of persuasion and (2) human agency, rather than technological opportunity and rational cost-benefit considerations, account for actual diffusion of innovations

Informatierelaties in toezichtsarrangementen

In dit artikel worden verschillende toezichtsstijlen of rollen van toezichthouders geanalyseerd. Het blijkt dat achter verschillende rollen van toezichthouders - als politieagent, coach of netwerker - verschillende typen informatierelaties schuilgaan. In het artikel worden kritieke succesfactoren van verschillende toezichtsstijlen ge?dentificeerd en wordt de betekenis van informatierelaties in toezichtsarrangementen geduid

New Public Management in Europe

New Public Management (NPM) is the label which many academics have given to a series of reforms from the 1980s onwards, to improve the efficiency and performance of western governments and/or public sector organizations. Examples are the development of performance indicators and benchmarking, personnel reforms aimed at ‘normalising’ public sector employment on private sector models, placing executive bodies at arms’ length from ministries, establishing public private partnerships and introducing new management techniques and instruments. Continental European governments have adapted and re-interpreted many of the Anglo-American ideas underpinning the NPM, to adjust them to their own national politico-administrative contexts. As a consequence, reforms of the public sector may have the same labels in different countries but need not be the same in practice or in meaning; there is both convergence and divergence

Adopting microblogging solutions for interaction with government

Authorities in the People’s Republic of China communicate with citizens using an estimated 600,000 Sina Weibo microblogs. This study reports on a study of Chinese citizens’ adoption of microblogs to interact with the government. Adoption results from trust and peer pressure in smaller-network ties (densely knit, pervasive social networks surrounding individual citizens). Larger-network ties (trust in institutions at large, such as the Chinese Communist Party, executive organizations, the judicial system, the media, etc.) are not associated with the adoption of microblogging. Furthermore, higher levels of anxiety are correlated with lower levels of use intention, and this finding underlines the impact of the Chinese authority’s surveillance and control activities on the lives of individual Chinese citizens. Based on these findings, we outline a theory of why citizens use microblogs to interact with the government and suggest avenues for further research into microblogs, state–citizen communication patterns and technology adoption