Bringing all clients into the system – Professional digital discretion to enhance inclusion when services are automated

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Iréne Bernhard ◽  
Elin Wihlborg

The increasing use of automated systems for decision-making and decision support in public administration is forming new practices and challenging public values since public services must be impartially accessible and designed for everyone. New robotistic process automation (RPA) systems are generally designed based on back-office structures. This requires clients to submit relevant data correctly in order for these services to function. However, not all potential or intended users of these services have the competence and the capacity to submit accurate data in the correct way. Front-line case workers at public agencies play critical roles in supporting those who have problems using the services due to the aforementioned accessibility requirements and thereby work in bridging digital divides. This article analyses strategies used by front-line case workers to complement RPA and improve the inclusion of all clients in the services. It builds on qualitative case studies at two Swedish authorities, including in-depth interviews and observations. The study shows that the discretion of the front-line case workers is limited by the RPA systems, and they also have limited discretion to support clients in their use of the digital services. Instead, they develop strategies in line with more service- and socially-oriented values; duty-oriented values are integrated into the RPA. The analysis shows the importance of forming new support structures for inclusion when public services are automated to maintain the core public values of inclusion and democratic legitimacy.

Author(s):  
Ewan Ferlie ◽  
Sue Dopson ◽  
Chris Bennett ◽  
Michael D. Fischer ◽  
Jean Ledger ◽  
...  

This chapter explores, in greater depth, the idea floated in the Introduction that the macro-level political economy of public services reform can exert effects on preferred management knowledges at both national and local levels. We argue that an important series of New Public Management reforms evident since the 1980s have made UK public agencies more ‘firm like’ and receptive to firm-based forms of management knowledge. We characterize key features of the UK’s long-term public management reform strategy, benchmarking it against, and also adding to, Pollitt and Bouckaert’s well-known comparativist typology. We specifically add to their model a consideration of the extent to which public management reform is constructed as a top-level political issue.


2011 ◽  
pp. 294-310
Author(s):  
Leonidas G. Anthopoulos

E-government evolves according to strategic plans with the coordination of central Governments. This top-down procedure succeeds in slow but sufficient transformation of public services into e-Government ones. However, public agencies adapt to e-Government with difficulty, requiring holistic guidance and a detailed legal framework provided by the Government. The setting up of common Enterprise Architecture for all public agencies requires careful analysis. Moreover, common Enterprise Architecture could fail to cover the special needs of small or municipal agencies. The chapter uses data from various major e-Government strategies, together with their enterprise architectures, in order to introduce a development model of municipal Enterprise Architecture. The model is based on the experience collected from the Digital City of Trikala, central Greece, and results in “Collaborative Enterprise Architecture”.


2018 ◽  
pp. 263-280
Author(s):  
Nandini Ghosh

Ableism is entrenched in all societies and cultures, and reveals itself in the cultural inclination towards normalcy. The ‘norm’ reflects the cultural reproduction of ableism, by drawing boundaries around those bodies that transgress able-bodied whiteness. Emotions, as normative evaluative judgements, help in understanding social relationships within both macro and micro contexts. In the case of disability, emotions make the exclusion of some bodies acceptable through a process of othering, by devaluing and debasing certain identity groups. Public policy discourses on disability frequently reference emotions such as shame or pity to describe the lived experience of disabled people. In India, laws and policies around disability have largely been influenced by the ableist socio-cultural ideologies, drawing on cultural assumptions and dominant power equations. This paper seeks to elaborate the processes whereby persons with impairments are socialised into accepting their own bodies as “deviant/impaired” and consequently experience shame and stigma in society. This paper uses qualitative case studies of men and women with different disabilities in India to reflect on how pity, disgust and shame, influenced by socio-cultural ideologies, operate within interpersonal interactions to ensure that disabled people remain othered in everyday life processes. The socio-cultural ideologies around disability and impairments have been evinced through focus groups discussion by mostly nondisabled people and in-depth interviews with key informants. The paper will illustrate how disabled people experience internalised oppression, a phenomenon that has hitherto remained unaddressed by policy frameworks in India. The paper will finally reflect on the ways in which disability policy in India has failed to address both the structural barriers and the socio-cultural attitudes that underpin the process of disabilism.


Author(s):  
Leonidas G. Anthopoulos

E-government evolves according to strategic plans with the coordination of central Governments. This top-down procedure succeeds in slow but sufficient transformation of public services into e-Government ones. However, public agencies adapt to e-Government with difficulty, requiring holistic guidance and a detailed legal framework provided by the Government. The setting up of common Enterprise Architecture for all public agencies requires careful analysis. Moreover, common Enterprise Architecture could fail to cover the special needs of small or municipal agencies. The chapter uses data from various major e-Government strategies, together with their enterprise architectures, in order to introduce a development model of municipal Enterprise Architecture. The model is based on the experience collected from the Digital City of Trikala, central Greece, and results in “Collaborative Enterprise Architecture”.


Author(s):  
Kirsteen Grant ◽  
Gillian A. Maxwell

Purpose This paper aims to theoretically proffer and empirically evidence five inter-related high performance working (HPW) groupings of value to practitioners interested in developing HPW in their organizations. Design/methodology/approach The empirical research is based on three UK-based qualitative case studies. Data are drawn from nine in-depth interviews with managers (three from each case) and three subsequent focus groups (one in each case). Focus groups comprised six, eight, and four employee (non-manager) interviewees. Findings The empirical findings validate the theoretical importance of the five identified HPW groupings. More, they imply a number of relationships within and between the five groupings, confirming the need to view the groupings collectively and dynamically. Originality/value The five HPW groupings provide a foundation for further research to closely evaluate the dynamism within and across the groupings. They also offer practical types of human resource interventions and actions for practitioners to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of HPW in their organizations.


Significance The island's government and public agencies hold 72 billion dollars of debt obligations, but migration to the mainland United States, political unwillingness to cut spending and constitutional difficulties have triggered a severe crisis. Federal US and Puerto Rican lawmakers are concerned that austerity-driven cuts to public services would only exacerbate the problems of the commonwealth. Impacts The Puerto Rican diaspora in Florida may punish Republicans at the ballot box in the event of federal inaction. Anti-gun-control policy 'riders' may scupper congressional efforts to aid Puerto Rico in March. Relief for Puerto Rico may become a vote-winning issue for Democratic presidential candidates in the party primaries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Andrews

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a framework integrating theoretical insights, empirical research and practical advice emerging from public service motivation (PSM) and self-determination theory (SDT). It aims at demonstrating that, while PSM shows the relevance of public values for motivation, SDT explains how context affects it. Taking the two theoretical approaches as complementary to one another and by pointing out their “static” and “dynamic” features, the framework provides a theoretical foundation for organizational practices aimed at enhancing motivation in the public services. Design/methodology/approach – The framework is based on a review of PSM and SDT theoretical concepts and empirical studies; the analysis examines the implications and contributions of each approach to the understanding of motivation in the public services. Findings – The paper demonstrates that PSM and SDT are complementary theoretical approaches and that this complementarity can provide clearer guidance to practitioners and widen the understanding of motivation in the public services. Research limitations/implications – The framework considers only a few features pertaining motivation in the public services, such as public values, basic needs satisfaction, prosocial behaviour and socialization. Further research should explore additional factors. Practical implications – The framework provides an explanation of why some practices are likely to enhance motivation in the public services, while others are likely to deplete it. Originality/value – The framework does not limit itself to proposing the theoretical integration of PSM and SDT, but connects this integration to organizational practices.


2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 707-728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Korczynski ◽  
Ursula Ott

In lightly regulated economies many jobs are becoming subject to a process of ‘marketization’ involving an externalization of the employment relationship in the context of intensified product market competition. At the same time, a number of front-line jobs are becoming redefined to encompass more proactive sales aims. This study examines two sites at an intersection of these trends — sites where financial service jobs have been marketized and redefined to revolve around proactive sales activity. It examines the key social relations of the sales workers — relations with managers, immediate colleagues, back-office staff, customers and referrers — in considering how far marketization leads to the social relations of the cash nexus along bare market principles. It is found that one group of workers is enmeshed in a dehumanized, instrumental and antagonistic set of relations, while another, smaller, group of workers is insulated against such relations by the functioning of tight trust-based referral networks. It is concluded that the texture of the social relations of sales work under marketization is centrally influenced by the social constitution of the specific product market in which sales workers act. In addition, it is argued that the process of marketization tends to corrode the factors that support the functioning of tight trust-based networks.


Author(s):  
Salamun

This study aimed to describe the quality of public services in health after the earthquake in North Bengkulu with study site in Services Agency General Hospital North Bengkulu Region. The focus of this research study aimed at two main dimensions of public services quality, namely confidence and empathy. The method used was qualitative method with the goal of implementing the apparatus and the service selected by using purposive and accidental sampling. Methods of data collection used in-depth interviews, observation and documentation techniques. Data analysis used descriptive qualitative techniques with interactive model. The results showed: (1) from dimension of faith, the Services officers Agency of North Bengkulu General Hospital have sufficient competence and attitude in giving service, (2) from the dimensions of empathy, the officers have the willingness and efforts to empathize with the conditions of service users. In general, the quality of public services in the Services officers Agency of North Bengkulu General Hospital has met both criteria. Because the two major dimensions that are the focus of this research can be done properly in accordance with the desired service standards by the service users (costumers).


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