Politics, Accountability, and Governmental Information Systems

Abstract

Information systems are becoming more involved in politics due to the growth of the World Wide Web, electronic government, and the increasing digitization of information of all kinds. Many information management specialists lack knowledge and experience about how to deal with political aspects of information management, and consequently they are ineffective. This chapter shows how important political issues are to information managers and illustrates strategies that can be useful in dealing with political issues. I provide several examples of how inattention to the political aspects of managing information systems can result in problems and disasters. The chapter covers both internal and external politics. Information managers have to deal with many internal politically-charged tasks such as the structuring of information management, purchasing information systems, managing personnel in this era of digital communication, and struggles over the sharing of information within organizations. External information management issues are also becoming important such as demands for online accountability information, the development of websites, issues over access to information, and interorganizational issues including disputes over turf.

Invigorating website management through XML: an e-government case from New York State

“…Two problems, in particular relate to the goals and objectives of IT initiatives; the first is the lack of alignment between organisational goals and the objectives of the IT project (Dawes and Nelson, 1995) and the second is the existence of multiple, and sometime conflicting, goals in the public sector . In addition, individual interests and associated behaviours lead to resistance to change, internal conflicts, and turf issues (Dawes, 1996;Best, 1997;Bellamy, 2000;Jiang and Klein, 2000;Barret and Green, 2001;Edmiston, 2003;Rocheleau, 2003).…”

“…For example, one-year budgets are common in many national and state governments and this type of budgeting affects the potential results of long-term IT initiatives (Dawes and Nelson, 1995;Fountain, 2001). Federal systems, as in the USA, present additional challenges derived from the particularities of the relationships between different levels of governments and the formal checks and balances among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches (Bellamy, 2000;Harris, 2000;Rocheleau, 2003).…”

“…This situation can constrain efforts to use technology to integrate or share information across multiple agencies (Dawes, 1996;Caffrey, 1998;Fountain, 2001). Finally, external pressures such as policy agendas and politics may affect the results of IT initiatives (Bellamy, 2000;Rocheleau, 2003).…”

E-government success factors in the context of an IT-enabled budget reform

“…In terms of benefits, the literature shares 8 potential benefits: increase efficiency and cost reduction [17,18,34]; improve public services [11,19,34]; strengthen accountability [15,34,35]; increase communication based on performance information [22,34]; improve collaboration between different staffs [3,34]; improve collaboration between different organizations [3,9,16,34]; and increase knowledge sharing [31,34].…”

E-Rulemaking: Issues in Current Research and Practice[1]

“…For example, information systems that provide seamless access and increased accountability can result in controversy for public-sector officials. [39] As the National Research Council has noted, "IT is anything but a mature, stable technology, [40] and the leeway for innovations in democracy that has devolved to technologists and public administration managers is remarkable. "…”