From SuisseID to SwissID: Overcoming the key challenges in Switzerland\u27s e-credential market

This teaching case explores the political, socio-technical, and business-related challenges of the introduction of a state-recognized electronic identity (e-ID) in Switzerland. Based on real-life events, the case puts every student in the shoes of a board member of SwissSign Group, a joint venture between 20 of the most influential public and private companies in Switzerland. This conglomerate faces three major challenges. To solve these challenges they need, among others, to learn from the past failures of SuisseID, the previous unsuccessful attempt to launch a nationwide e-ID infrastructure. Students must also analyze current political and regulatory events that impact on the e-credential market and need to develop a business model for the new solution, SwissID. This teaching case is designed for students from the undergraduate level upward. The content may be suitable for courses or modules relating to e-government, the platform economy, business models, value co-creation, information ethics, digitalization, PPPs, information security, and privacy

Managerial Challenges and Tasks in Multirational Public Organizations

This paper explores multirationality of public organizations from the perspective of systems theory. In the tradition of this theoretical approach, it focuses on how communication may be used in explaining and understanding the hybridity of these organizations. It argues that faced with a variety of different rationalities of function systems in their environment, public organizations are responding, inter alia, by becoming more complex internally. In other words, they import different rationalities from their environment into their own house. Classifying public organizations as being comprised of highly autonomous subsystems, where each subsystem uses a specific type of specialized communication to process a subsystem specific rationality, this paper sheds light on associated tensions and conflicts within public organizations. It discusses managerial challenges and tasks deriving from multirationality within public organizations. The paper finally concludes that proper communication requires greater theoretical and practical consideration when explaining and dealing with conflicts stemming from the hybridity of public organizations

Smart Government – Partizipation und Empowerment der Bürger im Zeitalter von Big Data und personalisierter Algorithmen

Anhand zwei konkreter Fallbeispiele beschreibt der vorliegende Artikel anschaulich wie staatliche Behörden und öffentliche Organisationen die heutigen Potenziale der Digitalisierung und integrierter Sensorsysteme zu nutzen versuchen. Unter dem Stichwort „Smart Goverment“ werden neuartige IT-Initiativen lanciert, welche mehr als „E-Government“ auf eine ganzheitliche Vernetzung von physischen, digitalen, öffentlichen und privaten Lebensräumen abzielen. Dabei spielt die aktive und passive Partizipation von Bürgern und anderen Stakeholdern eine wesentliche Rolle. Nur so können die für die algorithmische Entscheidungsfindung notwendigen Daten generiert werden, welche für die personalisierte Interaktion mit Bürgern oder zur real-time Steuerung öffentlicher Infrastrukturen benötigt werden. Der Artikel schließt mit einer kritischen Diskussion über die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von Smart Government Initiativen und deren Einfluss auf das Privatleben der Bürger und die öffentliche Politikgestaltung

Que pensent les chefs de service de l'introduction de Big Data dans l'administration publique ?

Au cours des dernières années, les géants de la technologie ont favorisé l'adoption des Big Data dans le secteur public apportant ainsi des améliorations prometteuses pour la collectivité, les entreprises et le gouvernement. Toutefois, des ambiguïtés conceptuelles ainsi qu’un nombre limité d’observations ont entrainé confusion et l'incertitude. Dans l'étude que nous avons réalisée, nous nous sommes interrogés sur comment les chefs de service de Suisse perçoivent l'utilisation des Big Data dans l'administration publique. En effet, les gestionnaires publics jouent un rôle clé en influençant le compor tement des fonctionnaires et du public. Ils peuvent façonner l'agenda politique de manière durable, et cela en faveur ou à l'encontre de l'utilisation des Big Data. D’où l’impor tance de cette réflexion. De plus, il est essentiel du point de vue de l'administration de connaître l'attitude fondamentale des employés et de la population à l'égard de l'utilisation des Big Data afin de permettre une communication et une mise en œuvre efficaces

Technological Frames in Public Administration: What Do Public Managers Think of Big Data?

Being among the largest creators and gatherers of data in many countries, public administrations are looking for ways to harness big data technology. However, the de facto uses of big data in the public sector remain very limited. Despite numerous studies aiming to clarify the term big data, for many public managers, it remains unclear what this technology does and does not offer public administration. Using the concept of technological frames, we explore the assumptions, expectations, and understandings that public managers possess in order to interpret and make sense of big data. We identify nine big data frames, ranging from inward-oriented techno-enthusiasts to outward-oriented techno-skeptics, each of which characterizes public managers’ specific viewpoints relating to the introduction of big data in public administrations. Our findings highlight inconsistencies between different perceptions and reveal widespread skepticism among public managers, helping to better understand why the de facto uses of large amounts of data in the public sector remain very limited

The role of dynamic managerial capabilities and organizational readiness in smart city transformation

This study focuses on the dynamic managerial capabilities of smart city managers and the organizational readiness of a city administration required to drive smart city transformation. After reviewing the literature, we conducted semi-structured interviews with smart city managers in 40 smart cities. We identified five dynamic capabilities that effectively contribute to smart city transformation: seizing, sensing, innovation, integrative, and empowering capability. Our analysis also reveals that a city administration's organizational readiness plays a critical role in these transformative processes and relies on four factors: innovation readiness, resource readiness, a participatory and collective mindset, and strategic readiness. Based on our findings, we suggest a theoretical framework composed of 10 propositions that describe the mutual influences of these dynamic managerial capabilities and organizational readiness factors, together with their contributions to smart city transformation. We conclude with a discussion of the limitations and the implications for future research and practice.publishe

Generic frames and tonality: mapping a polarizing issue in a multifaceted context

This study explores the feasibility and usefulness of five generic frames (conflict, responsibility, economic consequences, human interest and morality) in analysing framing practices in a multifaceted journalistic field over time. We show that supplementing generic frames through the tonality expressed in news stories enhances analytical quality. Mapping Swiss media outlets by how they frame a highly polarizing policy, we identify different framing practices in covering the issue. Using multiple correspondence analyses, the results first show that, while cultural background and media partisanship lead to heterogeneity in how the issue is initially framed, the state’s involvement homogenizes framing practices over time. Second, unlike previous research, our study provides empirical evidence that both conflict frame and attribution of responsibility frame can measure the same underlying construct. Third, we find evidence that these two frames are strongly associated with a negative tone. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed