E-government op een kruispunt van wegen

De afgelopen jaren heeft de elektronische overheid (ook wel e-government genoemd) een steeds duidelijker gezicht gekregen. Een breed palet

Verbroken verbindingen hersteld?

Begin augustus stortte in Utrecht tijdens een botenparade een werftrap in waardoor een persoon om het leven kwam en vele anderen gewond raakten. Een werftrap verbindt de straat met de daaronder gelegen werfkelders, waar restaurants en cafés zijn gevestigd. Tot verbijstering van de gemiddelde burger duurde het twee dagen om antwoord te geven op de vraag: ‘Van wie is de trap?’. De reden hiervoor is dat we het eigendom van vastgoed altijd verbinden aan percelen en niet aan objecten (zoals huizen en, in dit geval, trappen). Van deze percelen registeren we alleen de lengte en de breedte en dus niet de hoogte. Dit geeft echter steeds meer problemen omdat het aantal gevallen van zogenoemd ‘meervoudig ruimtegebruik’, oftewel het stapelen van bouwwerken op elkaar of het bouwen over de openbare weg heen, het laatste decennium sterk toeneemt. In dit soort gestapelde situaties zijn we dus blijkbaar niet zonder meer in staat om een helder overzicht te geven van eigendomsverhoudingen. Veranderende maatschappelijke omstandigheden vragen om een openbaar bestuur dat meeverandert. En in de regel doet de overheid dat ook. Vaak zijn deze veranderingen gekoppeld aan specifieke doelen als verbetering van dienstverlening of het efficiënter laten functioneren van overheidsorganisaties. Dat de overheid zich bezighoudt met vernieuwing, is natuurlijk niets nieuws. Sterker nog, dat is altijd al zo geweest. Maar steeds vaker hebben we het over innovatie in plaats van vernieuwing.Rede, in verkorte vorm uitgesproken bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van bijzonder hoogleraar aan de Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen van de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, 10 november 200

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

The 'Publicness-puzzle' in public leadership. A theoretical exploration of leadership in public organizations

Abstract Following a contingency approach we argue that the content and style of administrative leadership depends on characteristics of the public context. The purpose of the paper is to develop hypotheses on the relationships between several dimensions of publicness and the content and style of leadership, by reviewing academic literature on public leadership. To build our argument we first conceptualize leadership and distinguish several theories, definitions, and styles of leadership based on four different basic conceptions of what leadership is: Leadership as traits; 2. Leadership as behavior; 3. Leadership as managing of meaning; 4. Leadership as interaction processes. Then, Bozeman’s model of publicness is described as well as the effects of publicness on organizational environments, organizational goals, organizational structures and managerial values. As a final step we develop hypotheses that relate leadership to publicness and identify possible contradictory demands administrative leadership has to deal with. We conclude by outlining a research agenda on administrative leadership

Information and Communication Technology and Public Innovation: Assessing the ICT-driven Modernization of Public Administration

The modernization of public administration is a recurring theme on the political and public agenda in many countries. Modernization presupposes innovation. However, is an innovative public administration a contradiction in terminis? If we look at the practice of public administration, and evaluate -from an evolutionary perspective – how public administration has transformed itself during the last 40 years, we actually see a variety of radical and incremental changes. Hence, innovation does take place. This book clearly demonstrates how public administration organizations try to adapt to changing circumstances in their environment in order to secure their legitimacy. At the same time we see that public administration tries to respond and anticipate to new technological developments as well as to make use of them. In many countries e-government has become the symbol of the way in which ICT has penetrated in the nerves of ministries, local and regional government and all kinds of agencies. In this publication, a number of case studies have been presented in which different kind of ICT-driven innovations have been described and analyzed