Government Information Systems Research Articles

CHANGING STUDENTS ATTITUDES, SATISFACTION AND INTENTIONS OF SERVICE-LEARNING IN MIS COURSES

Service-learning courses offer department of management information systems (MIS) students the opportunity to create and implement systems in realworld, public service-oriented social contexts. Students provide government and non-profit agencies information systems services and solutions via the community service activity . The survey was conducted on 146 students who were enrolled in a system analysis and software development (SA & SD) course in an MIS department at a comprehensive university. The student subjects were divided into two groups by their class. After they finished the course, the students were asked to complete a questionnaire. The analytical results of our investigation indicate service learning adoption model has differences between service-learning and non-service-learning students. Those interested in promoting service learning may find these results helpful in guiding their efforts.

Freedom of Information Practices

he Australian High Court decision in McKinnon v Secretary, Department of Treasury [2006] HCA 45 has highlighted major differences in the handling of official access to government information in Australia and New Zealand. Despite commencing with similar legislative schemes and public policy objectives in 1983 the two countries have produced two very different national government information systems. New Zealand has a relatively open system in contrast to the relatively closed system in Australia. The more liberal disclosure approach in New Zealand has not generated the kinds of problems (less frank discussion in Cabinet, or disruptions to policy development) used by Australian officials as examples when they warn against more open disclosure practices. While there are a number of critiques (for example, Price, 2005) of the New Zealand Official Information Act (OIA), they pale into insignificance compared to the nature and extent of the deficiencies identified with the Australian legislation and its administration (ALRC, 1995; Alhadeff, 2006; Fraser, 2003; Hubbard, 2005; Lamble, 2004; Lidberg, 2006; Commonwealth Ombudsman, 2006; Snell, 2000; Snell, 2002a; Snell, 2002b). The performance disparity between Australia and New Zealand noted in earlier research (Snell 2000) has widened significantly in the last six years. In what follows we use the work of Stiglitz (2002), who analyses the role of information asymmetry in political and public policy. This provides a framework to further examine how this disparity in the performance of freedom of information legislation has occurred, and its implications for policy analysis and reform. In New Zealand the OIA has become a key reform which has allowed other public sector reforms to be implemented (Shroff, 2005:3). In Australia FOI has made a far more limited contribution to public sector reform. The aim of this paper is to identify some of the reasons for this difference and to add to the tools of analysis to assist future research and discussion.

Basic situation of construction and implementation of the open government information system in Chongqing Municipality

Basic situation of construction and implementation of the open government information system in Chongqing Municipality

Exploring Reputation Differences in Information Systems Groups

This article examines the difference in reputation of two Information Systems (IS) groups within the same company. The company is a mid-sized insurance company in a large Midwestern city in the United States, and the two IS groups are from different divisions within the company. The two cases identify the IS governance structure and IS coordination techniques used by the divisions. We then discuss how the structure chosen and the coordination techniques used impacted the relationship between the end-users and the IS groups. We also examine the relationship between the working relationship of the two groups and the reputation of the IS group. Because IS governance structure and coordination techniques did not appear to fully explain the large discrepancies in end-users’ perceptions of the two IS groups, the cases also discuss organizational behavior theories. The effect of such elements as size, external environment, and leadership in the division is discussed in relation to the differing reputations of the IS groups.

Training the IT-Savvy Public Manager: Priorities and Strategies for Public Management Education

Despite big budgets, political endorsement, and formal frameworks for information policy, technology, and management, government information technology (IT) projects continue to falter or fail. This paper argues that public management education must include information strategy and management topics as core concerns. MPA programs should be teaching the next generation of public managers to appreciate how deeply embedded IT is in every aspect of government—and to appreciate their own roles and responsibilities in it. The paper reviews practical experience and academic research on information systems in government and identifies five kinds of competencies that are most needed to build successful information strategies and systems in the public sector.These include strategic thinking and evaluation, system-oriented analytical skills, information stewardship, technical concepts, and complex project management skills.The article concludes with a variety of approaches for bringing these competencies into the master of public administration curriculum.

Success factors for implementing e-government services: the case of the Austrian e-government service portal

This paper illustrates the lessons learned from the implementation and management of a web-based Government Information System in Austria. We will discuss the case of the implementation of a nation-wide service portal. The analysis is based upon the theoretical foundations of and e-government strategy research. Throughout the paper, findings of IS failure research are reflected. The lessons derived from the analysis are grouped into four key domains of web-based Government Information Systems development: content and services, user interface, organisational integration, and IT infrastructure. The paper also shows that IS failure models must be considered as viable concepts for practitioners when it comes to identifying potential obstacles in the development of web-based Government Information Systems. Based on this case study and the lessons derived form the analysis, we will also try to identify the main success factors and success drivers for implementing services.

A governance information system

AbstractImplementing Policy Governance requires a significant investment of time, effort, and money. This is the final article in a three‐part series examining behaviors of boards thai invest wisely in Policy Governance. Based on her experience with a variety of boards that have implemented the model, Jannice Moore shares some of the conditions and behaviors that contribute to value investing. In Issue 61 of Board Leadership, she discussed the idea of a Governance Action Plan. In this article, she addresses the idea of a Governance Information System in contributing to Policy Governance as a value investment.

Researching Russian Laws

The article discusses online sources dealing with current Russian laws and regulations. Included are websites from branches of the federal government, commercial databases and commercial information systems.

Government information locator services and systems: a challenge to academic library integration projects

Government information locator services and systems: a challenge to academic library integration projects

Towards a common-sense typology and democratic philosophy for South Africa's ‘community media’

ABSTRACT The South African media have been going through a process of transformation during the past decade. However, these changes are not regarded by influential black journalists as being sufficient. They are therefore insisting on more fundamental changes to ownership, newsrooms and editorial content. At the same time government is planning to set up structures which will lead to the subsidising of certain media (newspapers and radio stations), in particular community-based media. The paper will focus on the latter developments which places the ‘community media’ in the spotlight. The following three questions are posed: • Is ‘community media’ still a useable term? If not, what alternative could be suggested? • What underlying normative media models can be identified in the different ‘community media’? • Could ‘civic journalism’ perhaps offer an appropriate alternative to the more established models? The paper will argue that an inclusive, diverse approach to the media will best serve a plural democratic SA. Given the political pressures and the needs of the people, it will be suggested that a typology is accepted which distinguishes between community-based media (which will receive state subsidies in future), and the independent commercial community media (which will continue as free-enterprise ventures). It is furthermore argued that different approaches (including financing) could function side by side within a plural democracy. Journalistic common ground could be found in the concept ‘civic journalism’. This includes the following: • Telling the news is not enough, journalists have a broader mission of ‘helping public life go well’. • Journalism practitioners are citizens as well as journalists. • It moves from worrying about proper separations to concern with appropriate connections. • Journalists can no more only describe what is going wrong, they have a responsibility to write the positive side as well. • The public is seen as potential actors in arriving at democratic solutions to public problems. Cooperation between the Government Communication and Information System the PMA's print development unit is commended as the common goal is, or ought to be, a diverse, vibrabt, free and inependent community press.

An integrated planning tool based upon multiple criteria evaluation of spatial information

Despite the widespread adoption of geographical information systems (GIS) in local government for parcel mapping and asset management, the full potential of GIS has not yet been realised. GIS is mainly used by planners for data management and querying land records. More advanced site planning has not taken advantage of the spatial analysis capability of GIS. On the basis of a user survey we identify the cause of the problem as being a disparity between the way planners solve urban design problems and the operational environment of a GIS. That is, when planners look at the tasks they need to perform to solve a problem they have difficulty relating this to operations provided by a GIS. The paper proposes a solution that involves integrating a rigorous decision-making procedure with spatial analysis and presenting this through an interface specifically designed for planners. The decision theory approach is based upon multi-criteria evaluation (MCE). Spatial analysis is used for defining design factors in MCE and again in the evaluation process to aggregate factors in the final solution. As a proof-of-concept a prototype system was developed customised to the way planners formulate and evaluate design problems. The prototype is demonstrated with a site control planning exercise within a city region.

Information systems in Japanese government

In this article we focus on information systems (IS) in Japanese government. We concentrate on the nature of IS-use and the major challenges faced for the future path of IS-use in local government. The governments have low budgets for IS use, a low penetration rate, and almost no IS use in the communication with citizens, companies, other departments, or inside the organizations. Impacts are accordingly restricted to mainly conventional IS applications such as word processing, accounting, and taxation. However, local governments and national governments are determined to increase their utilization and we have found emerging visible signs of these changes such as one-stop shopping, tele-access to governmental information, digital libraries, office automation, etc. We identify four major challenges facing local governments: (1) rebuilding the organizational content, procedures, and frontier; (2) using IS applications to support intra- and interorganizational communication; (3) developing a clear IS-strategy with respect to goals, means, time-span and evaluations and (4) having politicians supporting the IS strategy.

A Review of Information Systems in Local Government : Alignment with Performance Measurement

A Review of Information Systems in Local Government : Alignment with Performance Measurement

The Use of Geographic Information Systems in Local Government

Countless land-related decisions are made by local units of government. Municipal governments and local offices of state and federal agencies deal with real property, development, infrastructure, and so forth. Many other records such as health and crime data are referenced by geographic location. Individual decisions of local units of government typically have a limited scope and impact. However, as a whole, they shape the way land is used and the built environment is managed. Geographic information systems (GIS) have tremendous potential at this level, both in allowing decision making to be more objective and in elucidating the cumulative effect of incremental decisions. It is also the level of government with a wide range of experience and success with GIS. Local agencies seemingly have the most difficult time using analytic and decision-support aspects of the technologies. Because great potential and great problems exist, this article is focused on GIS at the local level. GISs are now commonly accepted tools in public administration. GIS literature includes description of many kinds of successful applications; missing are anecdotes about orphaned technologies, alienated users, withdrawn funding, and other incidents that undoubtedly occur. To account for performance promised by purveyors of the technology, we need to ask does the technologies. provide better information? - faster, cheaper, more reliable, more precise, more available, and more understandable? It is critical to note that the question is does, not can. The question concerns its actual uses - not its potential. Successful use of GIS depends on technical choices and on the ability, capacity, and willingness of an organization to absorb and use new forms and quantities of information. Organizational and institutional factors may be a greater barrier to successful use of GIS than technical constraints (e.g., Dueker, 1987; Chrisman, 1987; Innes and Simpson, 1993). To make this innovation a useful component of decision-making processes, we should understand the technical, organizational, and institutional impediments to successful GIS use. In this article, I review GIS adoption and use in local government and discuss why successful use has come slowly in many jurisdictions. My observations are derived primarily from GIS implementation in Wisconsin, where local agencies participate in the Wisconsin Land Information Program (Kuhlman, 1993). This program has provided incentives and funding for land records modernization since 1990. This has accelerated GIS implementation and thus provided an opportunity to study factors influencing technology diffusion (Ventura et al., 1993). In the terms of Rogers' (1983) paradigm for diffusion of innovations, Wisconsin local agencies are typically in adoption or implementation phases, while counterparts around the country are in awareness and understanding phases - just learning about GIS. Additional evidence comes from participant observer activities, primarily assistance in the design and implementation of geographic information systems with many kinds of agencies. This has made it possible to probe deeply into organizations, to become familiar with personal traits, attend staff meetings, and so forth, and not just read final reports, attend public meetings, or accept the word of interviewees. Adoption and Use of GIS in Local Agencies To answer questions about the use of GIS, we must distinguish adoption from the many kinds of uses for which the technology is suited. Adoption, at least of hardware and software components of a GIS, is readily observed. GIS vendors' reports indicate that adoption is proceeding at a rapid pace. This is supported by studies of adoption as detailed below. Because the applications of GIS and related technologies are so diverse, it is not possible to assume from adoption that the technology is being used for decision making. In most cases, initial applications of GIS are within the realm of mapping and inventory. …

An Information Infrastructure for Innovative Management of Government

Many management trends are currently sweeping the public and private sectors. One popular approach, called total quality management (TQM), focuses on improving the quality of services or products in die private sector through total organizational commitment, worker participation, and rigorous attention to inputs, outputs, and processes (Walters, 1992; Milakovich, 1991; Carr and Littman, 1990). Many TQM ideas have been adapted to the public sector, under the label entrepreneurial government, in a book that has been widely acclaimed by public administration practitioners, elected officials, and other knowledgeable observers of government (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992). Examples of other approaches are process innovation (Davenport, 1993) and managing behavior results (Brumback, 1993). Although each innovative management approach emphasizes different methods, they all advocate activities such as planning, analysis and monitoring, informed decision making, and identifying missions and objectives as well as improving products and services. Furthermore, underlying all approaches is an unwritten assumption that the information infrastructure necessary to perform key activities is present. This study presents a framework for such an infrastructure in the public sector that integrates the information requirements of innovative management (IM), methods of program assessment and monitoring, and the structure of information systems. If IM is to achieve its objective, information must be available about its operations and environment that is accurate, timely, accessible, comprehensive, and continuous. This, in turn, requires an integrated and coordinated information system for collecting, organizing, and storing data. It also requires a system that creates meaningful information from the data and then presents that information in useful ways. Developing such a system - which is much more than computers, databases, and the personnel who handle them - is a tall order for any organization. The private sector, however, has a distinct advantage over the public sector in this area. First, the private sector's experience with and knowledge of information systems is much more advanced. There is a vast and well-developed literature, both theoretical and applied, on information systems in private organizations; and business schools graduate thousands of specialists in this area each year. Second, the design and development of information systems in the private sector is simpler and more straightforward. Although some may argue that the differences between business and government are blurring, in general, government processes, structures, functions, and products vary greatly in comparison to business. Moreover, the objectives of government are less dear, clients and stakeholders are more diverse and numerous, and concepts such as quality are more complex (e.g., accountability). Despite these hurdles, if IM is to be implemented successfully in government, a great deal more attention must be paid by practitioners and scholars to developing good information systems in government. One manifestation of the well-developed literature in business is that numerous frameworks for information systems exist in private sector organizations that link the systems to organization and managerial functions, information attributes, decisions, and technical characteristics (Blumenthal, 1969; Gorry and Scott Morton, 1971; Lucas, 1973; Nolan and Wetherbe, 1980; Sprague, 1980). However, the differences between government and business imply that these frameworks will not automatically translate to government. The framework presented here recognizes these differences. It is based on the assumption that there are two inextricably related components of an information infrastructure within government: (1) assessment and monitoring and (2) information systems. On a basic level, assessment and monitoring (which comprise program evaluation) specify what information about government products and services is important; and they provide plans for obtaining that information. …

The Use and Development of Information Systems and Technology in Scottish Local Government

A survey of Scottish local government IT managers confirms the existence of systems allowing modern decision support systems (DSS) to be successfully exploited. Extensive in‐house software exists across departmental functions indicating significant internal expertise. IT use is inversely related to managerial level, with the majority of users located in the central services and housing functions. The traditional supporting role of information systems and technology (IS/T) is changing as compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) is applied to the IS/T function itself. Considerable uncertainty surrounds decision making in IS/T as a result of proposed structural change to unitary authorities.

CAN GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS BE INFLEXIBLE TECHNOLOGY? THE OPERATIONAL STRATEGY REVISITED

Recent failures of government information systems to achieve their objectives have highlighted the risk involved in large‐scale information technology projects. This article looks at one example, the computerization of the UK social security system, in the light of recent discussions of large‐scale technologies and the particular problem of inflexible technologies as defined by Collingridge. It is argued that large‐scale government computing projects can fit the criteria of inflexible technologies, although this is not an inherent feature of information technology. There are always more flexible alternatives available: this is illustrated using examples from both private and public organizations.

Administrative Information Systems in the Japanese Government: Some Reflections on Issues and Solutions

Administrative Information Systems in the Japanese Government: Some Reflections on Issues and Solutions

Land information systems in local government and the role of the private sector

This paper discusses some of the current strategies in the Victorian public sector to implement land and geographic information systems (LIS/GIS), the desirability of both the private sector and th...

Land Information Systems in Local Government

Land Information Systems in Local Government