E-Government and Change Management

Digital government (also called: electronic government or eGovernment) uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a fundamental operating lever, but at the same time requires a considerable organizational effort from public administrations. The design of the technologies and the design of the organizations are therefore progressively converging, until they become almost the same thing.
The course basically assumes that eGovernment cannot be considered as distinct from the organizational and management problems that public administrations have to address. For this reason, the study program offers some interpretive lenses trends that characterize the implementation of eGovernment in Italy and in other national contexts, with the warning that it is not possible to formulate forecasts or propose ""models"" universally valid. Technology offers interesting opportunities to administrations and recipients of public services, but it is the organizational and managerial system that must grasp them.

The course illustrates the main theories that - once applied to public administrations - offer conceptual tools useful for the explanation, exploration and assessment of organizational change at different levels. At the end of the course students will be able to use key concepts and related theories within the modernist, symbolic and post-modern perspectives. They will also have a clear understanding of the organizational implications of eGovernment and its main applications..