Effects of e‐government on service design as perceived by employees

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the effects of e‐government on service design as perceived by employees. Design/methodology/approach The study uses semi‐structured interviews with middle managers and front‐line employees, complemented by documentary analysis, to investigate how the introduction of e‐government has affected service design in two Swedish public‐sector organisations. Findings The analysis reveals five dimensions of change in the design of services as a result of the introduction of e‐government: service encounter and service process; customers as co‐creators and sole producers of services; efficiency; increased complexity; and integration. The study discusses the significance of these findings with particular examples from transcriptions of the interviews. Research limitations/implications This study is rather limited and exploratory in nature; however, it does provide useful information on the categories of change in the redesign of services for e‐government and it does point the way to important avenues of future research in this field. Practical implications Four practical implications flow from the present research: managers should involve both employees and customers in projects and processes during the introduction of e‐government services; the services must be redesigned to ensure that the benefits of the information and communication technologies systems are fully realised; the introduction of e‐government might require more time being made available to assist certain customers who are in need of extra time and support from employees; and the time that is saved as a result of the introduction of e‐government must be profitably utilized by careful advance planning. Originality/value The study makes an original contribution by identifying five categories of change in the design of services in the context of the introduction of e‐government.