Fully Mobile City Government

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

This is an interdisciplinary research project on the premises, requirements, and effects of fully mobile, wirelessly connected applications on information load and use, work organization, informal organization, worker job satisfaction, and organizational transformation in local government. Digital Government impacts the way the business of government is done. Recently, governments have begun examining and testing the potential of fully mobile wirelessly connected (FMWC) applications, which give government field operations an unprecedented quality of immediacy in information availability needed for critical ad-hoc decision making. Many FMWC applications are also sensitive to the ambience and to the needs of a specific individual worker. The potential utility and efficacy of these applications might significantly help advance the Digital Government agenda. Since major variables of the organizational and work context are immediately impacted, the introduction of new base technologies is highly risky. By developing an analytical and formative model, this research intends to contribute to the understanding of critical interdependencies and interactions between important variables. Through field studies, observation and interviews, the research team will iteratively develop a formative model representing the constraints, interactions, and interdependencies of the studied fieldwork domains and their contexts, in which FMWC applications are either already in use or are under consideration for use. Based on this work- and task-anchored model, the team will develop the requirements and characteristics of FMWC devices and applications. Also included will be an analysis and specification of the organizational, social, individual, and technological impacts of FMWC applications for various fieldwork types. Intellectual Merit This project has the capacity to break new ground in the following areas: (1) With the fieldwork domain-centered approach, going beyond specifying the factors influencing the organizational outcomes of FMWC application uses as most research has done so far, and determine the effects of their interactions and interdependencies within a formative framework. (2) the formative framework increases the explanatory power of the structuration perspective on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as introduced by Orlikowski & Robey (1991). (3) there will be further definition of the requirements for FMWC applications and workflows as well as the policy choices available to decision-makers in Digital Government. In this regard, the proposed research contributes to the understanding of the elements and processes leading to the organizational success of FMWC applications in Digital Government, and provides a mechanism for the evaluation of such technology in use or when considered for use. Broad Impact This research will help define strategic choices and avoid costly failures when adopting FMWC applications in Digital Government, and will also inform both academics and practitioners about the organizational prerequisites, consequences, and the specific requirements regarding FMWC technology. The potential utility of the expected findings on FMWC applications and fully mobile modes of operation, however, are not limited to government. They may be highly informative to other environments including private-sector organizations and institutions in the education sector.