scholarly journals Association of the implementation, use and appropriation of information technologies with decision making in the public sector: An exploration of the case of the mayoralty in Bucaramanga, Colombia

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-118
Author(s):  
H. Gélvez Díaz ◽  
J. F Reyes-Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
The City ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Natural Way ◽  
Second Use

This investigation explores the association between the implementation, use and appropriation of information technologies in the decision making process in the public sector. The study adopted a quantitative approach with data collected from the application of a questionnaire to 294 employees at the mayoralty of the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia. Results show that understanding information technologies as part of a structured and gradual process can positively influence those who make decisions, facilitating and speeding up their work. The above requires three previous steps: first, to carry out implementations of information technologies in accordance with strategic planning; second, use those implemented technologies in a prolonged way over time; and third, appropriate such technologies to the point where its advantages are taken grasped of in a natural way to obtain effective results in the development of work activities. The practical implications of the influence of information technologies in decision- making in the public sector are to facilitate and expedite the decision-making process of workers who decide, through the implementation of approval channels, the availability and security of information, the historical evidence and the prioritization of resources.

Rooting a new event in its place: the case of Festa Templária, Tomar, Portugal

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 324-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermínia Sol ◽  
Marisa P. de Brito ◽  
João Pinto Coelho ◽  
Luís Mota Figueira ◽  
Christopher Pratt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The City ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose With fierce competition in capturing tourists, it is crucial that destinations be prepared to adapt and to refresh their event portfolio. The purpose of this paper is to look into the decision-making process that led to the development of a new festival in a middle-sized city, Tomar, in Portugal. Design/methodology/approach This study analyses the creation process of the Knights Templar Festival, in Tomar, a new event focusing on the Templar history of the city. A retrospective outlook on the evolution of the event is given. Primary data were collected via quantitative survey analysis and semi-structured interviews. The theoretical scope is events and placemaking. Findings The strengths and weaknesses of the region influenced the conception and setting up of this particular event. This awareness is important for cities in meeting the challenges and opportunities that event portfolio diversification calls for. Research limitations/implications This paper helps us to understand the motives and challenges in establishing a new event in the city, through the analysis of a single case study of a European middle-sized city. Simultaneously, it is a longitudinal in-depth case of the first editions of a new historically focused event. Practical implications Several practical implications can be derived to the case of Tomar. Overall, it is key that cities align the focus of new events with the city’s identity (as Tomar did). Originality/value This paper presents an in-depth and longitudinal case study, from the moment of the creation of a new event to its fourth edition, mapping the decision-making process, highlighting the learning curve of the decision makers.

scholarly journals Democracia e deliberação: a escolha popular das políticas públicas locais - o caso do orçamento participativo de Porto Alegre (OPPOA) / Democracy and deliberation: the popular choice of local public policies - the case of the participative budget of...

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 463-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Tannus Gurgel do Amaral ◽  
Francisco Toniolo de Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Porto Alegre ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Structure ◽  
Civil Society Participation ◽  
Budget Policy ◽  
The City

O presente artigo visa analisar o Orçamento Participativo de Porto Alegre (OPPOA) como política orçamentária de auxílio na tomada de decisão dos gastos públicos através da participação popular. Embasa-se no marco teórico de promoção desta participação nas democracias ao longo dos anos e na formação do conceito de “democracia participativa”, onde a sociedade civil assume maior relevância no momento de tomada de decisões. Apresenta a formação histórica do OPPOA e a evolução das instâncias participativas em Porto Alegre. Revisa sua estrutura jurídica-legal e seu processo de tomada de decisão, considerando o envolvimento da sociedade civil. Analisa-o como instrumento de incentivo à atuação dos cidadãos na administração conjunta da cidade, através da elaboração do orçamento municipal e da escolha, em assembleias populares, das obras públicas prioritárias para sua região e para o município. Ao fim, analisa a participação popular nas suas instâncias nos anos de 2011 a 2015, comparando dados fornecidos pela prefeitura de Porto Alegre, o volume da participação popular e os valores dispendidos pelo programa. Por se tratar de pesquisa descritiva e quantitativa, a metodologia utilizada enfatizou a coleta de dados, a revisão bibliográfica e a análise documental, em especial leis municipais e normas relacionadas com o OPPOA.  Palavras-Chave: Orçamento Público; Orçamento Participativo; Participação Popular; Políticas Públicas; Porto AlegreAbstract This article aims at analyzing Porto Alegre’s participatory budget (OPPOA) as a budget policy that helps the decision-making process of the public expenditure through popular participation. It’s based in the theoretical framework of promoting participation in democracies over the years and creating a "participatory democracy" concept, in which the civil society takes on a greater relevance in the decision-making moments. It presents the historical formation of the OPPOA and the evolution of participative instances in Porto Alegre. It reviews its legal structure and its decision-making process, considering the value of civil society participation. It analyzes the OPPOA as a tool for encouraging popular participation in the joint administration of the city, through the elaboration of the municipal budget and the choice, in popular meetings, of the priority public constructions for their region and their municipality. Finally, analyze the popular participation in the OPPOA’s instances between the years of 2011 until 2015, comparing data supplied by Porto Alegre’s administration, the volume of popular participation in the program and the values spent. Since this research is descriptive and quantitative, the methodology emphasized data collection, literature review and document analysis, in particular Porto Alegre’s municipality laws and standards regarding the OPPOA.  Keywords: Public Budget; Participatory Budgeting; Popular Participation. Public Policy; Porto Alegre

scholarly journals Service outsourcing decisions – a process framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-194
Author(s):  
Suvituulia Taponen ◽  
Katri Kauppi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Cost Analysis ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Market Analysis ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Service Outsourcing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Organizations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare service outsourcing decisions between public and private organizations and against a theoretical decision-making framework to both understand differences across the sectors and to provide an outsourcing framework more suitable specifically for outsourcing (and for the public sector). Design/methodology/approach Multiple case studies, i.e. a study of phenomena (here outsourcing process) at various sites is used as an approach. Findings Findings indicate that public sector organizations are trailing behind private sector organizations in how the decision-making process is conducted and resourced. The authors suggest regular evaluation of service functions internally as a starting point for the outsourcing service decision-making process. Additionally, the market analysis should be done prior to cost analysis and benchmarking as the availability of suppliers more qualified than the internal process defines the make or buy decision. Research limitations/implications The newly developed framework based on empirical evidence includes the following phases: regular evaluation of service functions, market analysis, cost analysis and benchmarking and evaluating relevant service activities. Applying the framework improves the efficient delivery of outsourced public services and brings public sector outsourcing closer to the professionalism currently present in the private sector. Originality/value Choosing between in-house and outsourced service delivery is a fundamental decision in both private and public sector organizations. Previous outsourcing research has mostly focused on the private sector, with limited focus on the public sector’s outsourcing processes, yet understanding of the service outsourcing process is important in ensuring organizational competitiveness and cost efficiency.

scholarly journals The Double Side of Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-165
Author(s):  
Isabella Alberti
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
The Public ◽  
Italian Case ◽  
Rules And Principles ◽  
The One

The introduction of artificial intelligence in the public sector seems to be both a positive and negative development. On the one hand, artificial intelligence could improve the efficiency of public bodies due to the acceleration of the decision-making process, especially for repetitive procedures to free up public servants. Big data analysis, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things applied to the public sector could allow the reshaping of public service delivery. This is so, on the one hand, because data becomes a ‘piece of reality’ and, therefore, the aggregate analysis of data gives a realistic and objective picture of the current society. On the other hand, some concerns arise when artificial intelligence dissociates civil servants from the recipients of their services or affects the rights of these recipients. Scholars are called upon to reflect on the nature of artificial intelligence to overcome obstacles related to the ‘black box’ nature of its functioning and to better implement it in the public sector field. Legal rules and principles in the administrative decision-making process play a crucial role as they risk hindering the development of artificial intelligence in the public sector, as the Italian case-law highlights.

Weighing private preferences in public sector safety decisions: some reflections on the practical application of the willingness-to-pay approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL JONES-LEE ◽  
TERJE AVEN
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
The Public ◽  
Expert Analysis ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Regulatory Decisions

AbstractViewed from both an ethical and practical perspective, it is clearly desirable that public sector allocative and regulatory decisions should, so far as possible, reflect the preferences of individual members of society. It is therefore hardly surprising that, in appraising proposed safety improvements, public sector bodies have displayed an increasing tendency to estimate the benefits of such improvements on the basis of values of safety defined in such a way as to reflect the preferences and attitudes to safety of individual members of the public. However, given the technical complexity of many public sector safety decisions, it is also necessary to rely on expert analysis and informed judgement in reaching such decisions, so that preference-based values of safety should be regarded as being only one input to the decision-making process. In addition, the definition and estimation of the values themselves raise a number of practical and ethical questions. The purpose of this paper is to consider the role that preference-based values of safety can realistically be expected to play in these decision-making processes, given these difficulties and limitations.

Developing a Drug Testing Policy at a Public University: Participant Perspectives

2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen O. Griffin ◽  
Adrienne Keller ◽  
Alan Cohn
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Drug Testing ◽  
Public University ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
Hard Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
Participant Perspectives

Employee drug testing has been around for more than 30 years. The practice was embraced by private employers early on and is now widespread, particularly among larger companies. The development of drug testing programs in the public sector, however, has been slower and more deliberate due to constitutional law constraints, and perhaps also to a more democratic, convoluted decision-making process. Intensity of interest in drug testing has long subsided with respect to the literature; there are, nevertheless, compelling reasons to revisit this issue. Much of the past literature focuses on drug testing in the private sector, and where public-sector issues were broached (primarily from the legal/constitutional perspective), many have not been resolved. Moreover, many issues confronted by public policymakers have not been identified or adequately discussed. Also, most treatment in the literature has been academic and explicit, whereas analysis in this article is more anecdotal and implicit. Increasingly, policymakers are finding value in qualitative analysis of this type of data, as such analysis fills in gaps and guides utilization of the more explicit data. This is especially true of policymakers in the public sector who are keenly aware that decision making in this arena is often a politically- or socially-sensitive process, and that the hard data alone is insufficient to assist them.

Creating Value Through Information and Knowledge Flow: Lessons from the Public Sector Applied to the Private Sector

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel De Tuya ◽  
Monica L. De Tuya
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Knowledge Flow ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
Organizational Benefits ◽  
Human Capability ◽  
Cycling Time

Information sharing can be an enabler for generating value. An organization’s ability to disseminate accurate, complete and timely information has been related to higher levels of organizational efficiencies, in turn generating value for customers. An assumption underlying this conceptual article is that organizations capable of sharing information efficiently and effectively have created certain social–technical conditions that make the interaction of stakeholders more fluid and productive, reducing cycling time of the decision-making process. This article will propose how such an information sharing infrastructure may be conceptualized as a boundary object, providing common mechanisms and meanings for all actors involved in moving data and transforming it into knowledge. With these conditions set, we identify that an enabler of value—the human capability to transform data into information and knowledge—can be created, and organizational benefits can be realized in the form of efficient and accurate decision-making.

scholarly journals The problems of increasing transparency on uncertainty

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magda Osman ◽  
Amanda J. Heath ◽  
Ragnar Löfstedt
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Disease Prevention ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
European Medicines Agency ◽  
Scientific Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
And Control ◽  
Current Guidelines ◽  
Practical Implications

Public regulators (such as European Food Safety Authority, European Medicines Agency, and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) are placing increasing demands on scientists to make uncertainties about their evidence transparent to the public. The stated goal is utilitarian, to inform and empower the public and ensure the accountability of policy and decision-making around the use of scientific evidence. However, it is questionable what constitutes uncertainty around the evidence on any given topic, and, while the goal is laudable, we argue the drive to increase transparency on uncertainty of the scientific process specifically does more harm than good, and may not serve the interests of those intended. While highlighting some of the practical implications of making uncertainties transparent using current guidelines, the aim is to discuss what could be done to make it worthwhile for both public and scientists.

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