@techreport{RackwitzHammerschmidBreaughetal., type = {Working Paper}, author = {Rackwitz, Maike and Hammerschmid, Gerhard and Breaugh, Jessica and Palaric, Enora}, title = {Government Collaboration and Digitalisation: Comparative Case Studies on Collaborative Management for Government Digitalisation and Public Sector Innovation}, language = {en} } @techreport{BreaughHammerschmidRackwitzetal., type = {Working Paper}, author = {Breaugh, Jessica and Hammerschmid, Gerhard and Rackwitz, Maike and Palaric, Enora}, title = {Research Report on Collaborative Management for ICT Enabled Public Sector Innovation}, pages = {103}, abstract = {The process of digitalising government is rapidly gaining speed, resulting in a pressing need for increased inter-governmental integration and challenging the traditional silo structures of government. This has sparked the adoption of inter-governmental collaborative working arrangements and efforts to develop joint standards and solutions; yet little is known about how exactly this manifests itself in the context of ambitious digitalisation projects. This report provides new empirical evidence on the challenges and dynamics of collaboration within and between public organisations in order to drive digital transformation. The report begins with a literature review on collaborative management with a particular focus on collaboration in the context of government digitalisation. This literature serves as a basis for developing a set of five propositions regarding how intergovernmental collaborative digitalisation projects can be best designed and managed. Following the conceptual framework of the TROPICO project deliverable 6.3 developed by Rackwitz et al. (2020), the report investigates the interplay between system context, collaboration challenges and dynamics (i.e. complexity, risk and power imbalances), public management interventions (i.e. institutional design and leadership) as well as outcomes. Emphasis is placed upon the role of institutional design and leadership in order to cope with the challenges inherent to collaborative governance approaches. The framework and related propositions are then verified through the use of empirical findings from ten comparative case studies from five European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, and the United Kingdom). The case studies, presented in detail in TROPICO deliverable 6.3, examine the development of national government-wide online portals, as well as the implementation of municipal Smart City initiatives. The cases show that the system dynamics and challenges of digitalisation projects, such as size and scope, tend to generate resource-intensive and demanding working conditions. Creating hybrid structures that incorporate both network and hierarchical approaches has been a common approach to handling these conditions and balancing the demands of inter-departmental collaboration with the inherent accountabilities and existing working cultures of public organisations. At the steering level, a central coordinator with collaborative leadership skills was found to be key to driving the projects forward and achieving outcomes. Participatory, network-style approaches at the working group level were successful in balancing the demands of all collaborative partners and encouraging wide-scale engagement. In addition, opting for wide-scale inclusion, setting ground rules and clear processes as well as a focus on trust and social capital development proved essential. While most leadership approaches still maintain elements of transactional leadership in managing projects, collaborative leadership approaches such as bringing stakeholders together, mediating problems, and guiding and steering the process were used in many instances to handle the complexities inherent in the project objectives. In the conclusion of the report, contributions are discussed, followed by an outline for future research avenues.}, language = {en} } @article{BreaughRackwitzHammerschmid, author = {Breaugh, Jessica and Rackwitz, Maike and Hammerschmid, Gerhard}, title = {Leadership and institutional design in collaborative government digitalisation: Evidence from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, and the UK}, series = {Government Information Quarterly}, journal = {Government Information Quarterly}, doi = {10.1016/j.giq.2022.101788}, abstract = {Large-scale government digitalisation projects require collaborative approaches for their successful development and implementation. To shed light on these collaboration dynamics, the interplay between two integral parts of collaborative projects: the project rules, procedures, and structures (collectively known as institutional design) and the leaders managing these projects is studied. In doing so, the paper provides empirically grounded insights into the management of collaborative government digitalisation projects. Taking an institutional perspective, and the strategic-relational approach (SRA), we examine the extent to which institutional design constraints leadership behaviours, and under what conditions leaders begin to adjust and/or challenge these design features adding to the knowledge of managing digitalisation of government. To this end, we present a five-country case study of national digitalisation projects across Europe. Our results show that while clear institutional design features such as established rules, project structures, and standard operating procedures are essential at the initial stages of the projects, leaders' skills in understanding and tailoring these features are critical to handle project-related problems and moving forwards towards implementation. This underscores the importance of examining projects taking an SRA approach and the need to understand leadership behaviour in the context of the structures in which it is embedded.}, language = {en} } @article{BreaughRackwitzHammerschmidetal., author = {Breaugh, Jessica and Rackwitz, Maike and Hammerschmid, Gerhard and N{\~o}mmik, Steven and Bello, Benedetta and Boon, Jan and Van Doninck, Dries and Downe, James and Randma-Liiv, Tiina}, title = {Deconstructing complexity: A comparative study of government collaboration in national digital platforms and smart city networks in Europe}, series = {Public Policy and Administration}, journal = {Public Policy and Administration}, doi = {10.1177/09520767231169401}, abstract = {This research deconstructs complexity as a key challenge of intergovernmental digitalisation projects. While much of the literature acknowledges that the fundamental restructuring coupled with technical capacity that these joint projects require leads to increased complexity, little is known about how different types of complexity interact within the collaborative process. Using established concepts of substantive, strategic, and institutional complexity, we apply complexity theory in collaborative digital environments. To do so, eight digital projects are analysed that differ by state structure and government level. Using a cross-case design with 50 semi-structured expert interviews, we find that each digitalisation project exhibits all types of complexity and that these complexities overlap. However, clear differences emerge between national and local level projects, suggesting that complexity in digitalisation processes presents different challenges for collaborative digitalisation projects across contexts.}, language = {en} } @incollection{HammerschmidBreaughRackwitz, author = {Hammerschmid, Gerhard and Breaugh, Jessica and Rackwitz, Maike}, title = {Intergovernmental collaboration in the context of digital transformation: state-of-the-art and theoretical notions}, series = {Collaborating for Digital Transformation}, booktitle = {Collaborating for Digital Transformation}, editor = {Verhoest, Koen and Hammerschmid, Gerhard and Rykkja, Lise H. and Klijn, Erik H.}, publisher = {Edward Elgar}, doi = {10.4337/9781803923895}, publisher = {Hertie School}, pages = {31 -- 51}, language = {en} } @incollection{RackwitzBreaughHammerschmid, author = {Rackwitz, Maike and Breaugh, Jessica and Hammerschmid, Gerhard}, title = {Leadership for intergovernmental collaboration towards digital transformation}, series = {Collaborating for Digital Transformation}, booktitle = {Collaborating for Digital Transformation}, editor = {Verhoest, Koen and Hammerschmid, Gerhard and Rykkja, Lise H. and Klijn, Erik H.}, publisher = {Edward Elgar}, doi = {10.4337/9781803923895}, publisher = {Hertie School}, pages = {124 -- 143}, language = {en} }