Impacts of e-government according to the structure of public authorities

By Maika Fieguth

Introduction

Summary

The term paper analyse how e-government benefits and changes the structure of public authorities.

The focus is on the local authority.

Potentials and barriers will be presented.

Introduction

Term definition

E-government is „the business activity of public administrative agencies in correlation with the governance and adminstration reliant upon information and communication techniques under participation of citizens and internal administrative communications partners“ (so-called Speyer-definition).

The structure of public authorities includes responsibilities, competences, organisational units, internal and external workflow.

Agenda

1. Introduction

3. Impacts

4. Barriers

5. Final comment

2. Potentials

Potentials

Survey

Information

Communication

Transaction

Integration

Rationalization

Potentials

Information

Current information is independent of time and place. Considerable

knowledge data bases are available. Useful tools are:

Web portals, homepages and databases

„Responsibility-finder“

Automated self-recording

Potentials

Communication

Direct contact is possible independent of time, territorial constraints can

be abolished. External and internal communication is more efficient.

Contact forms and emails allow to contact the responsible official directly.

Virtual mail-administrating centres

Potentials

Transaction

E-government allows the electronic implementation of complex transactions E-service like booking an adult education course (VHS) or the electronic

dunning procedure Case study: „Elster“

Effect: Using only one media reduces the processing time,

background processes will be streamlined.

Potentials

Integration

Better cooperation among governmental units over distance and

with third parties

Ocassional involvement of non-governmental third parties Benefit: Sometimes external service providers are closer to the client‘s

problem und more specialized.

Potentials

Rationalization

Automation of administrative procedures Software runs the complete processing of applications.

Parallelization Different officials can access the electronic documentation at the same

time.

Economization Personel cutback

Agenda

1. Introduction

2. Potentials

4. Barriers

5. Final comment

3. Impacts

Impacts on the structure of public authorities

Survey

Organisational impacts

Processual impacts

Impact to the self-image

Impacts on the structure of public authorities

Organisational impacts

Redesign of organisational structures and administrative competences Stronger delegation of responsibility Personal responsibility rises Streamlining quality assurance Less hierarchy levels and bigger organisational units Process-oriented organisation-modells with more team and project work

Impacts on the structure of public authorities

Organisational impacts

Changing of the organisational form Division in organisational units

The units specialize in subject or product. Example: Separation between front and back office Case study: ArGe

Classical structures of a closed system (line organisation) combined with networked structures of an open system (networked organisation).

Networked structures create extra interfaces.

Organisational impacts

Closed System (linie organisation)

Project leader

Subproject leader 1 Subproject leader 2

Member subproject 1 Member subproject 2

Organisational Impacts

Open system (networked organisation)

Project leader

Subproject leader1

Member subproject 1

Subproject leader 2

Member subproject 2

Impacts on the structure of public authorities

Processual impacts

Increase in efficiency

Elimenation of processes which don‘t add value E.g. joint underwriting, unneeded partizipation and quality insurrance,

media disruption

Software replaces automatically simple routine jobs

Better technical support

Impacts on the structure of public authorities

Processual impacts

Workflow Customer-relationship-management-systems (CRM) IT-surported workflow systems

E-service Online transactions Online acces to information Electronic marketspace

Impacts on the structure of public authorities

Impact to the self-image

The changed self-image of public authorities

Public authorities perceive themselves as service providers.

The citizen is perceived as a customer.

Effect: More flexible organisational structures, more service orientation

Agenda

1. Introduction

2. Potentials

5. Final comment

3. Impacts

4. Barriers

Barriers

Survey

User-side

Authority-side

Legal barriers

Barriers

User-side

Lack of knowledge about e-government applications

Lack of general acceptance within the population

Lack of internet access

Barriers

Authority-side

Only rare cooperations between authorities

Financial concerns

Management deficit

Qualification deficit

Motivation deficit

Barriers

Legal Barriers

Right of self-administration, Art. 28 par. 2 GG (Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany)

Constraints of competences

Data protection

Agenda

1. Introduction

2. Potentials

5. Final comment

3. Impacts

4. Barriers

Final comment

Result

More transparency of administrative agencies

More independence of time and place

Better engineered processes

Reduction of holding time and required wait time

Improved citizen service

Final comment

Result

E-service and workflow is growing.

Public authorities increasingly cognize the potentials of e-government, but because of the mentioned barriers the implementation still takes place slowly.

Thank You

Dziękuję bardzo

Vielen Dank