Public Bureaucracy and Digital Transformation: Structures, Practices and Values

Caroline Howard Grøn, Anne Mette Møller

Research output: Book/ReportBookResearchpeer-review

Abstract

This book assesses how digitalization of public organizations affects their bureaucratic structure and features. Drawing on rich ethnographic data from two highly digitalized government agencies in Denmark, it analyses how digitalization both enhances and distorts fundamental characteristics of Weberian bureaucracy, including division of labour, hierarchy, rules and programmability, and bureaucratic discretion. The book also examines the ways in which digitalization influences demands on employees’ and managers’ expertise and relationships with other organizational actors, and demonstrates the implications of digitalization for the enactment of public bureaucratic values such as legality, transparency, accountability, and responsiveness. In doing so, it provides an analysis of the opportunities and challenges facing public bureaucracies in the digital age. Above all, the book offers a nuanced understanding of how digital transformation reshapes the public bureaucracy, and thereby one of the foundation stones on which our societies stand.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationCham
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Number of pages111
ISBN (Print)9783031678639
ISBN (Electronic)9783031678646
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
SeriesGovernance and Public Management

Keywords

  • Digital transformation
  • Public bureaucracy
  • E-leadership
  • Public administration
  • Digitalization
  • Organization
  • Public organizations

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