16 December 2002

Change Management and the Relationship to eGovernment

By Thomas B Riley, Executive Director and Chair, Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance

Change management is a subject matter that is currently sweeping public and private sector organizations. It is not new but has been evolving as a discipline over the past decade. Change management is addressing the changes being faced by modern public administrators, both internally and externally. In the past three decades governments have had to contend and deal with, many societal evolutions that have significantly altered the way public administrators function in their jobs. Globalisation, free trade, the increased movements of people and goods, internationally, on a scale never before known, new attitudes of a citizenry that is expecting more from governments, changing social attitudes and new technologies, especially information and communication technologies, have all contributed to the challenges now facing politicians, executives and managers alike.

Change management, in the context of eGovernment, is all about how members of the public service make the transition from the traditional approaches to management, pre-Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) era, to new means of administering in new and evolving environments. The latter principle is one of the many ways in which change management is different for the public sector.

A paper recently written by the Commonwealth Centre for eGovernance (which can be viewed here) sets out to look at how the change management philosophy can assist in the implementation of eGovernment and the transformation of governments to cyber-intelligent nations involved in global e-commerce and e-program, e-service delivery and online voting and consultations. Change management is relevant to the three-pronged approach to change many governments have taken to transform their economy and their society. For change management is, essentially, about adapting to new environments in an orderly and professional way. Recent findings of the Commonwealth Centre for eGovernance (CCEG), in their international tracking surveys, have made clear the growing importance of change management to the eGovernment process.

Overall, some of the findings show:

	·	eGovernment and eGovernance are directly linked though two separate concepts.
	·	eGovernment and eGovernance are growing subject matters and will, in time, become an important part of the overall discipline of public administration.
	·	It is still too early to make any firm conclusions about the overall nature of eGovernance, eGovernment, and eDemocracy as these subjects are in a constant state of definition, redefinition and evolution. However, as the findings of the tracking surveys reports illustrate, some important, basic, applicable approaches to eGovernment are surfacing. Governments will need mechanisms to respond to these changes and the disciplines of both knowledge management (to be competitive in a knowledge society) and change management will become important tools for public administrators.
	·	Two critical success factors for whichever version of eGovernance does eventually prevail are (a) adequate funding and (b) good planning.

Our first Report for 2002 looked at the privacy issue in relation to eGovernment and the importance these policies play in the implementation of program and service delivery online. This issue of privacy was included because of its importance in ensuring the success of eGovernment implementation. Privacy and good access to government information, through web sites and other technological mechanisms, are important. Privacy rights, in particular, help to build trust and confidence in eGovernment programs. Also, privacy is seen as a basic, intrinsic human right being woven into the fabric of life in many countries. Privacy is also emerging as an important policy instrument in international trade to enable governments to protect their nations' sovereignty and have control about how the use of personal information of their citizens is used.

The concept of information rights are being linked with the success of eGovernment. The degree to which wide swathes of information are available to the public through websites and other information and communication technologies, the better the public is being served. This will be an evolving trend in the next decade. Thus, privacy, information rights laws and other cyber-laws, such as copyright, intellectual property and freedom of expression laws, are becoming central to eGovernment practices and an important part of the change management evolution.

Change management will become central to many of the above issues. However, how public sector officials adapt to these new environments, which require transparency, accountability and openness, will become crucial to the success of eGovernment implementation. For example, positions are going to have to be created in government departments and agencies that reflect responsibilities for eGovernment implementation and policy evolution. Some countries are already designating such posts (with the responsibilities given to Chief Information Officers).

eGovernment applications bring governments into more than efficient and effective government in delivery of services and internal administration and communication. eGovernment brings countries, and, concomitantly, its citizens, into the international stream. This brings cultural change both within the government itself and in the overall society. Increased links, by government and the citizen alike, to international web sites, news groups, chat rooms, email communications, building of international networks through the use of email and the powerful wireless technologies, all contribute to an emerging linked world that operates continuously.

The success of how governments, private sector and citizens alike use the new potentialities is going to also depend on human awareness building and training. Information management is becoming a crucial subject matter for eGovernment. The reason for this is that the billions and billions of bytes of information that find their way onto the world web require skills on how to effectively access and use this growing information and knowledge to the world. Knowledge management is one such tool to achieve this goal but the success of how we will handle our future lies in the degree to which peoples' skills are developed so they can effectively operate in our new, emerging and developing information environment. Skills education, new ideas on information content presentations on web sites, use of other Internet and mobile tools, such as chat rooms, text messaging and notifications of releases and government events, are going to be necessary. This is part of a major evolution that is compulsory to reflect the current social and cultural shifts occurring in society.

These emerging applications and communications' potentials, create, through the nature of the activity of individuals using the new technologies and who have wide access to government around the world, reflect significant cultural and intellectual shifts. We are undergoing an evolution in the way society organizes and communicates with itself and the world. Governments everywhere are working in an attempt to both understand and adjust to these new trends. Part of what public administrators are undertaking are new approaches to how to organize themselves in order to adjust to work productively and effectively, in response to the changes going on in their own agencies and departments. It is this latter phenomenon that the paper on change management addresses with specific concepts, observations, recommendations and solutions on how to adapt to the coming change.

The paper assesses the basic concepts, principles, administrative issues and barriers that will arise when instituting eGovernment applications. Thus, the title: Change Management, eGovernance and the Relationship to eGovernment. For governance is central to all change and good governance is particularly needed when moving to eGovernment applications, joined up government and, most importantly, cultural change. It has been demonstrated over the past two decades that when information and communication technologies (ICTs) are implemented in government, administrative practices undergo change. When change has not been implemented problems arise.

Change Management can, and should, be a practical explication on ways and means to adapt to the coming shifts. Human resources development and training will be an important follow up. This work is a complement to the recommendations being made on human resources development and eGovernment in many quarters.

The full paper, with Executive Summary, can be found here in both html and word doc format.

Note: The Change Management paper, found on the CCEG website, is part of a project for the evolution of eGovernment in the Republic of Mauritius, Africa that is being undertaken by the Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance and funded by the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, UK. CCEG sponsors also provided additional funding Government Telecommunications and Informatics Services Inc., Public Works and Government Services Canada, Canada Post and Data Beacon Inc., Ottawa.

Other articles by Thomas Riley
- Privacy Trends: Meeting New Demands
- eDemocracy in a Changing World

Thomas Riley is the co-Founder, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance [http://www.electronicgov.net], a think-tank set up under a Commonwealth Secretariat programme in London. He is also the President of Riley Information Services [http://www.rileyis.com], a consultant and advisor specialising in national and international IT policy development, and a Visiting Professor of Law and Technology at the University of Glasgow. For further information he can be contacted at Tom@Rileyis.com

Thomas Riley's independent opinion appears courtesy of Prospect - a recruitment consultancy committed to 'enabling better futures' and sourcing the people to drive eGovernment. For further information go to http://www.prospectmsl.com/ or email info@prospectmsl.com