The transformation of work in digitized public sector organizations
Journal of Organizational Change Management
ISSN: 0953-4814
Article publication date: 16 July 2018
Issue publication date: 12 September 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine what the authors can learn from organization studies of digital technologies and changes in public organizations, and to develop a research agenda that allows us to produce systematic knowledge about how work practices in the public sector change with digitization.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an analysis of the organizational studies literature on how digital technologies lead to changes in public sector organization. The literature comprises a wide range of different case studies, and they are analyzed with a specific focus on the insights they offer regarding bureaucracy, accountability and professionals.
Findings
The paper identifies various examples of how digital technologies change important aspects of public sector organizations relating to bureaucracy, accountability and professionals. It is a main finding that no systematic account exists in the organization literature of changes due to digitization specific to the public sector.
Practical implications
The knowledge produced by current and future research in this area is directly applicable for change management. To react productively on the digitization imperative, public managers need to deepen their knowledge of the organizational dimension of digitization.
Originality/value
The paper proposes an agenda for future research, which has the potential to produce both systematic and useful knowledge of how digitization changes central aspects of public sector organizations.
Keywords
Citation
Plesner, U., Justesen, L. and Glerup, C. (2018), "The transformation of work in digitized public sector organizations", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 31 No. 5, pp. 1176-1190. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-06-2017-0257
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited