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Five Bureaucratic Roles in the Age of Digital Transformation – Insights from Scandinavian Public Organizations

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Electronic Government (EGOV 2024)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14841))

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Abstract

The traditional street-level bureaucrat’s (SLB’s) role has undergone significant changes in the age of digital transformation. These changes have challenged Lipsky’s description of the SLB. To address this, our study aims to analyze how the ongoing digital transformation influences the role of traditional SLB’s, their work activities, and organization. The research question we ask is: How does digital transformation in the public sector influence the roles and work activities of traditional street-level bureaucrats? We have analyzed three large government agencies that administer public services in Scandinavia. We applied Nograšek & Vintar’s framework as a sociotechnical analytical lens in our exploratory qualitative study of three large public organizations. Focusing people, work activities and processes, and enabling digital technologies, we have identified five bureaucratic roles: (1) The automated bureaucrat, (2) the self-servicing citizen, (3) the front-office employee, (4) the back-office employee, and (5) the specialized bureaucrat. While the SLB was an essential actor in the traditional street-level bureaucracy, these five roles are equally essential to a functioning contemporary bureaucracy. We argue that the five roles have greater explanatory power for understanding bureaucratic roles, including digital technologies, and contemporary ways of managing public services in the age of digital transformation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management and Engineering, Information Systems and Digitalization, Linköping University, 581 83, Linköping, Sweden

    Ulf Melin

  2. Research Centre for Government IT, IT University of Copenhagen, 2300, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Christian Østergaard Madsen

  3. Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering AS, 0164, Oslo, Norway

    Karl Kristian Larsson

Authors
  1. Ulf Melin
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  2. Christian Østergaard Madsen
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  3. Karl Kristian Larsson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulf Melin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Marijn Janssen

  2. KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Joep Crompvoets

  3. University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, USA

    J. Ramon Gil-Garcia

  4. Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UK

    Habin Lee

  5. Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Ida Lindgren

  6. Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Anastasija Nikiforova

  7. Krems Center for E-Governance, University for Continuing Education, Krems, Niederösterreich, Austria

    Gabriela Viale Pereira

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Melin, U., Madsen, C.Ø., Larsson, K.K. (2024). Five Bureaucratic Roles in the Age of Digital Transformation – Insights from Scandinavian Public Organizations. In: Janssen, M., et al. Electronic Government. EGOV 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14841. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-70274-7_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-70274-7_7

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