Management. (From the Library).

"Reinventing Local Government and the E-Government Initiative"

Alfred Tat-Kei Ho

Public Administration Review, July/August 2002, pp. 434-441.

For better or for worse, governments have long been characterized by the Weberian model of organization, which focuses on internal and managerial concerns and emphasizes departmentalization, specialization, standardization, and routinization of the production process. The "reinventing government" movement that started in the late 1980s has been heralded as a better alternative to the traditional model of government organization--one that would turn government inside--out, so to speak. Transaction costs, however, have limited the adoption of such reforms to mostly isolated cases around the country. The proliferation of the Internet in recent years has refocused attention on customer-focused government by reducing the costs of communicating with citizens and enhancing the flexibility of public service delivery. Indeed, one need only look at local government Web sites to see evidence of this paradigm shift. The author's content analysis of the Web sites of the 55 most populous cities revealed that most of these cities have abandoned Web site designs organized around administrative departments in favor of information-oriented and user-oriented designs. The latter alternatives are characterized by a "one-stop service center," an umbrella organization that operates on top of existing functional departments to maximize the convenience and satisfaction of users through service integration. Despite the trend toward centralized service provision, many governments still face significant barriers to such reform efforts. Chief among them are insufficient staff, lack of funding, and the so-called "digital divide." Public Administration Review is available from the American Society for Public Administration through Blackwell Publishers Inc., 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148 (800/835-6770), or [e-mail].