E-governments for a governable and transparent city (1/3)
Can you imagine a scenario where all interaction with the government could be done through a one-stop window at any time of the day without any queues? Or maybe a city where lamposts "feel" and record information that is then fed back to improve our urban plans?
Hi! This is the first post of a small theoretical/conceptual project with case studies that I'll be starting in this blog. The topics discussed will be:
- E-governments
- Traditional bureaucratic model digitalization (this post)
- E-government model
- E-governance
- Smart cities
- Smart city model
- Smart city dimensions
- Internet of Things and Big Data
- Electronic public participation
- Public participation theory
- Crowdsourcing and crowdsensing
I hope that these are of your interest and if you have any opinion or comment do not hesitate to tell me. Let's start!
The digitalization of the traditional bureaucratic hierarchy
Governments are usually seen as a hierarchical bureaucracy commonly called "Weber's organizational model" created under the bureaucratic and social theories of the German Max Weber. [1] This model focuses on internal issues highlighting the departmentalization, specialization, standardization and routinization of the production process. Employees with similar functions are grouped and organized into units or departments, each responsible for understanding their clients (citizens) analyzing the demand for services, granting them and setting administrative goals for planning and evaluation purposes. Over these units, the administrative political head office is responsible for the centralization of control and coordination (Tat-Kei Ho, Alfred, 2002, p 435).
However, this model does not respond to the citizen as a user because it is incapable of generating "human" solutions due to its rigidity, proceduralism and inefficiency. This hierarchical tree-style organization causes that these non-related units lack of scopes or competences generating disorientation for the user. An example would be to imagine a newcomer to a city that must complete forms belonging to different departments for the processing of several documents when, possibly, all these forms require very similar information (Tat-Kei Ho, 2002, p.435) .
However, this model does not respond to the citizen as a user because it is incapable of generating "human" solutions due to its rigidity, proceduralism and inefficiency. This hierarchical tree-style organization causes that these non-related units lack of scopes or competences generating disorientation for the user. An example would be to imagine a newcomer to a city that must complete forms belonging to different departments for the processing of several documents when, possibly, all these forms require very similar information (Tat-Kei Ho, 2002, p.435) .
Figure 1. The problem with Weber's organizational model
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| Source: Own elaboratin from Tat-Kei Ho, 2002, p. 435 |
In response to this problem, at the end of the eighties, the governments reinvention movement was born where government operations were reoriented leaving the perspective of an exclusively internal vision to move to an external vision model in which user needs are emphasized. With the introduction of the World Wide Web system during the early 1990s, the reinvention movement evolved into the e-government initiative, which consisted in reorienting the provision of public services and empowering citizens and communities through information and communication technologies (from now on ICT [2]) (Ndou, 2004, Tat-Kei Ho, 2002). In 1993, US Vice President Albert Gore declared that electronic governments "will allow citizens the most extensive and timely access to information and services through efficient processes designed for the user, thus creating a fundamental revision between the federal government and those served by it" (Gore, 1993).
With the advent of internet, digital connectivity and the boom of electronic business models, the public sector has been pressured to rethink its bureaucratic hierarchical organizational structure. Consumers, citizens and businesses are faced daily with new forms of digital commerce implemented by the private sector that are possible thanks to the ICT tools. From this perspective, citizens can be considered as consumers for the government because they must empowered and not just served; thus achieving the change from vertical hierarchy to horizontal user-focused participation (Ndou, 2004, p.2).
Starting from this reinvention of governments and empowered citizens vision, the concept of the "one-stop shop" is born, spaces that provide all user needs in one place as a centralized offer of varied services. Although this concept was invented during the 1920s from the commercial perspective (Martin, 2018, par.1-3), it is between the 70s and 80s that it was applied to governments organization (Calista, 1986; Rainey and Rainey, 1986) being rejected by traditional bureaucratic systems (Rainey, 1990).
A "one-stop source" applied to the government system is then a kind of umbrella organization [3] that operates on existing departments with the aim of maximizing user satisfaction through the integration of services. The center records information that users (businesses, residents or visitors) demand to process it and coordinate with departments such as the local police, the urban planning or transport offices (Tat-Kei Ho, 2002, page 436). Unlike the Weber Model where a single administrative entity is positioned above the unrelated departments, in the one-stop model this new organization is an additional layer that is added over the existing model to achieve the relationship between the units .
With the advent of internet, digital connectivity and the boom of electronic business models, the public sector has been pressured to rethink its bureaucratic hierarchical organizational structure. Consumers, citizens and businesses are faced daily with new forms of digital commerce implemented by the private sector that are possible thanks to the ICT tools. From this perspective, citizens can be considered as consumers for the government because they must empowered and not just served; thus achieving the change from vertical hierarchy to horizontal user-focused participation (Ndou, 2004, p.2).
Starting from this reinvention of governments and empowered citizens vision, the concept of the "one-stop shop" is born, spaces that provide all user needs in one place as a centralized offer of varied services. Although this concept was invented during the 1920s from the commercial perspective (Martin, 2018, par.1-3), it is between the 70s and 80s that it was applied to governments organization (Calista, 1986; Rainey and Rainey, 1986) being rejected by traditional bureaucratic systems (Rainey, 1990).
A "one-stop source" applied to the government system is then a kind of umbrella organization [3] that operates on existing departments with the aim of maximizing user satisfaction through the integration of services. The center records information that users (businesses, residents or visitors) demand to process it and coordinate with departments such as the local police, the urban planning or transport offices (Tat-Kei Ho, 2002, page 436). Unlike the Weber Model where a single administrative entity is positioned above the unrelated departments, in the one-stop model this new organization is an additional layer that is added over the existing model to achieve the relationship between the units .
Figure 2. One-stop center concept
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| Source: Own elaboration from Tat-Kei Ho, 2002, p. 436 |
Figure 2 shows the functioning of the traditional bureaucratic structure in which the central integration mechanism (eg, the mayor's office) plans the services that the different departments will provide, taking the needs of the citizen as an output. In this scheme these needs are not connected to each other and can fall into a model that is not related to the human being, as mentioned above. On the other hand, when the additional layer of umbrella organization of the one-stop center is added over the existing system, a more user-related service provision is achieved by having a single entity that receives their needs by constantly evaluating them. These are then presented to the central integration mechanism or directly to the departments according to their complexity level. Through this reinvention of traditional governments towards electronic ones, ICTs are transforming public administration into a digital era.
Chart 1. Changing paradigms in the provision of public services
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| Source: Tat-Kei Ho, 2002, p. 437 |
[2] ICTs are the set of technologies that allow access, production, processing and communication of information presented in different codes such as text, sound or images with the Internet as their most representative element. It focuses around information technology, microelectronics and telecommunications in an interactive and interconnected way, achieving new ways of communication. (Ortí, 2011, p.1)
[3] An organization that controls or organizes activities of other organizations that have a similar goal. (Cambridge University Press, 2018, parr. 1)
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An electronic government model could trigger a more "human", transparent and citizen-focused public management. After this post I think we are ready to go deeper into this model by defining its levels and dimensions. I'll wait for you next week,
Flavio 👾
Sources:
Calista, D. (1986). Reorganization as reform: The implementation of integrated human services agencies. In D. Calista, Bureaucratic and governmental reform (págs. 197-214). Greenwich: JAI Press.
Gore, A. (1993). The National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Obtained from CyberCemetery: https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/library/status/ex.sum.html
Martin, G. (2018). One stop shop. Obtained from The Phrase Finder: https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/one-stop-shop.html
Ndou, V. (2004). E–Government for developing countries: opportunities and challenges. The electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 18 (1), 1-24.
Rainey, G. (1990). Implementing and managerial creativity: A study of the development of client-centered units in human service programs. In D. Palumbo, & D. Calista, Implementation and policy process: Opening up the black box (págs. 89-106). Westport: Greenwood.
Rainey, G., & Rainey, H. (1986). Breaching the hierarchical imperative: The modularization of the social security claims process. In D. Calista, Bureaucratic and Governmental Reform (págs. 171-196). Greenwich: JAI Press.
Tat-Kei Ho, Alfred. (2002). Reinventing local governments and the e‐government initiative. Public administration review, 62 (4), 434-444.
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