The Public Bureaucracy Under Digital Transformation

The previous chapters have explored how central tenets of the Weberian bureaucratic model are enabled and constrained by digital technologies. In this chapter, we summarize our findings and discuss the implications of our analyses for the enactment of public bureaucratic values in practice, focusing on transparency, accountability, legality, efficiency, and responsiveness. We end with some reflections on future research into public bureaucracies in the digital age. Based on our analysis, we argue that digitalized public bureaucracies are best viewed as being under permanent reconstruction. We therefore call for a more processual understanding of digital government. Rather than a destination, digitalization is a mode of organizing that both perpetuates certain traditional organizational challenges and introduces new ones. Many of these challenges are not likely to be overcome but must be handled on an ongoing basis, and frontline managers and workers should be equipped to do so. This calls for further discussion about what kind of expertise or competences are required among frontline workers and managers in digitalized bureaucracies.