IPMN Newsletter 2002
Number 4
The IPMN 2003 Workshop for IPMJ and IPMR Editorial Board members will be hosted in Monterey, California September 16-18, 2003 by Larry Jones, Wagner Professor of Public Management in the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, The Naval Postgraduate School. The workshop will be held at the Asilomar Conference Center on the Monterey Peninsula. The IPMN 2003 Monterey Workshop seeks to expand our definition of technologies available for public management capacity building and our awareness of the potential impact of new technology on public organizations.
Workshop Organizing Committee:
Lawrence R. Jones, Chair
Michael Barzelay, London School of Economics
Cynthia Bond, IPMN, Willamette University
Sandford Borins, University of Toronto
Riccardo Mussari, University of Siena
Whitney Ning, IPMN, Monterey
Nancy Roberts, Naval Postgraduate School
Kuno Schedler, University of St. Gallen
Fred Thompson, Willamette University
The topic theme of the workshop is "Enabling Technologies for Building Capacity in Public Management." In this century technology will transform virtually every aspect of organizational life. Given this reality, how do we build the executive, institutional, and professional capacities to exploit emerging technologies and enhance management and service delivery? Building capacity is difficult and costly. Therefore, a key issue that must be addressed is how best to mobilize financial and human resources to understand and exploit emerging technologies. Failure to recognize and harness the power of technology to enhance public management will leave public managers and their organizations less able respond to management and client needs.
Current thought about technology and capacity building in the public
sector tends to be somewhat narrow. For example, e-government dialogue
tends to focus on reporting and enhancing the transparency of government
transactions and policy. This view is far too narrow in that it ignores
the full implications of the use of computers and the web to improve public
management. Similarly, in thinking about technology, often the focus is
on computerization, ignoring other important technologies. Thus, the first
problem is thinking too narrowly about computer applications. The second
problem is thinking too narrowly about technology and its application.
We have much to learn about how to adapt new technologies to public organizations.
For example, often organizations fail to fund technology adapting employee
education and training, or they provide training that does not match the
demands of new technology or the educational deficiencies of employees.
Other information technologies not exploited to full advantage include
the power of the web, decision support software, group problem solving
applications (e.g., GroupWare to make collective choices and problem solving),
and other expert systems for collective decision making and action (to
allow participation from wherever people work throughout the world). Organizational
design is a significant aspect of new technology that has been overlooked
by all but futurists. Likewise, the implications of smart practices are
not fully utilized. In general, knowledge in electronic form is a resource
not yet employed to its fullest value in virtually all public sector organizations.
Larry Jones
IPMN Coordinator
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Last Modified: May 27, 2003