EPAN egovernment working group

Transcription

1 Page 1/11 EPAN egovernment working group 10 th of January 2005 PREPARATORY SURVEY Organisational Changes, Skills and the role of Leadership required by egovernment Country Ministry or agency Office Web site The Netherlands Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Public Sector Innovation and Information Department Contact Person Name John Kootstra Address Schedeldoekshaven 200 Po box NL 2500 EA The Hague Telephone Fax John.Kootstra@minbzk.nl The questionnaire was filled in co-operation with Marc Vermeulen (IMAC) and Yvonne Philippa (InAxis) Please fill out and send back before the 4 th of February 2005 to the European Institute of Public Administration (see address page 3)

2 egov_study_skills_response_ _netherlands_en_v01.doc Page 2/11 Introduction to the questionnaire In its 2003 Communication the European Commission re-defined e-government as " the use of ICT combined with organisational change, new skills in order to improve public services and democratic processes and public policies" (The role of egovernment for Europe s Future, COM(2003) 567 final, adopted on 26 September 2003). However, egovernment is more than that: It implies major socio-economic innovations and politico-administrative institutional changes based on new IST applications and developments. Transforming culture is thus a key dimension of egovernment. It has been acknowledged that egovernment calls for strong leadership at different levels to provide a strategic vision for and operational implementation of innovation and change processes in public administration. The increasing importance of ICTs and the Internet for public administration calls for complex skills to drive change in government. In terms of e-government, ICTs and the Internet imply modernized service delivery processes regarding the sharing of data, business process redesign and human resources which in turn require organizational change, new top level leadership (eleaders), with mid-level leadership (echampions) supporting their work. Clerical staff as well as managers require a new and challenging set of skills. The Mid Term Programme for Cooperation in Public Administrations in the EU aims at identifying the acquisition of the different skills (not only technical skills) which are needed by managers (and clerical staff) to govern and manage change. By the end of 2005 the egovernment skills required will be appraised and recommendations will be agreed by the Member States (EPAN Mid Term Programme 2003). In response to these challenges, the Ministry for Public Service and Administrative Reform in Luxembourg has requested the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) to draft a report on "Organisational Changes, Skills and the Role of Leadership required by egovernment" to provide a basis for discussion during the EU Presidency of Luxembourg in the first half of It will also provide some input for the recommendations to be agreed by the end of The report will include a description of the context in the EU Member States, as well as an analysis of some case studies of good practices with regard to organisational changes, skills and leadership requirements.

3 egov_study_skills_deliverable_ _questionnaire_en_v01 Page 3/11 In case of any problem with this questionnaire, please feel free to contact European Institute of Public Administration Attn. Christine LEITNER O.L. Vrouweplein 22 P.O. Box 1229 NL BE Maastricht Tel.: Fax : n.karssen@eipa-nl.com with copy to c.leitner@eipa-nl.com in order to avoid any misunderstandings or problems and to help in the delivering of a good and useful report.

4 egov_study_skills_response_ _netherlands_en_v01.doc Page 4/11 QUESTIONNAIRE 1. Who is responsible at the central level for strategic aspects related to skills, organisational change and leadership development for egovernment, and how is the coordination between the different actors involved? Are there other entities at the regional and local level responsible for those aspects? The Dutch system is considered a decentralised unitary state. Not only do municipalities and other local and regional governments (provinces and waterboards) have considerable autonomy. Also the different ministries and the related executive agencies know a lot of independence, in the field of ICT policy, organisation and training. Concerning training in general the Ministry of the Interior has started different programs in order to recruit and train people (e.g. trainees and high level managers). Each ministry is responsible for the development of the right skills and the training and education of their staff. Information systems are being implemented in the organisation, and normally spoken guided with sufficient training and support. For example recently the Ministry of Interior has introduced a digital document system. Documents are automatically shared, archived etc. This means different procedures for all employees. Training for the new system is provided by the IT unit of the ministry.

5 egov_study_skills_deliverable_ _questionnaire_en_v01 Page 5/11 2. Do your action plans on egovernment include measures on : Skills Organisational changes Leadership Yes Planned No If yes or planned, please specify what kind of measures : The Dutch national e-government strategy, as laid down in the letter Towards an Electronic Government sent to Parliament last summer, should be considered in a more integral framework of the national public sector modernisation programme Modernising Government. The modernisations central themes are making improving service delivery, diminishing administrative burden for citizens, less regulations and reconsidering tasks. Administrative burden reduction is an important political asset. A 25% target has been set for this coalition period. Administrative burden reduction will be achieved by reducing legislation and development of electronic services. The administrative burdens are measured and the various ministries make plans how they attack the administrative burden in their competence. This can be done by changing work processes. Administrative burden reduction is considered an important driver for change. But change has to occur bottom up. The e-government strategy, developed by the Public Sector Innovation and Information Policy department of the Ministry of the Interior, is focussing on the development and implementation of a number of building blocks (e.g. unique identifying number, authentication, basic registers), for the required information infrastructure. The implementation of the building blocks is done by ICTU, managing a range of programmes, some of which are aimed at different target groups (municipalities or provinces). Two programmes aimed at innovation and skills like InAxis and IMAC are worth mentioning in particular. These are set up from the broader integral perspective, although not always explicitly mentioned in the strategies. InAxis InAxis central goal is to encourage innovation in the public sector, in order to improve service delivery processes. On the one hand InAxis is providing financial support for a number of experiments. These are closely monitored and analysed and the results are circulated and published. Purpose is that other organisations learn about and from these experiments and follow the example. On the other hand InAxis addresses important themes in innovation, like leadership, considered as a condition for innovation.

6 egov_study_skills_deliverable_ _questionnaire_en_v01 Page 6/11 InAxis commissioned research into connective leadership, and published the results ( Verbindend Leiderschap written by Harrie Aardema published by Elsevier Overheid in 2004) and held workshops on the subjects. It was the first step to draw a distinction between management and leadership. Both are needed, but innovation flourishes with leadership. At this moment, 2005, the boundaries of political and official leadership are explored: what is an innovative leader, what are the differences and similarities between political and official leaders, how do they keep themselves and each other in balance and what is necessary to make this relation effective? To get these questions answered Les Salons Savoureux are being organised: during a quality dinner members of the Commission for Innovation in Public Administration (also top officials) and by them invited guests debate under guidance of a well-known Dutch expert about topics on leadership from different scopes. Les Salons Savoureux consists of four evenings and four themes: Leadership in enterprises and public administration: what can they learn each other? Official and political leadership: are they friends or enemies? A historical view on the relation citizen-government Political and official leaders: confrontation or conversation? Stopping the gap. Incorporate innovation and (connective) leadership in ones leadership style can be learned. SIOO (Stichting Interacademiale Opleiding Organisatiekunde Foundation for Interacademic Education in Organization Theory of Practice) has developed a series of lectures on local leadership together with the VGS (Association for Clerks to the Council) and they are developing a course of instruction) for registrars based on the InAxis ideas of connective leadership. IMAC Public servants are being asked to achieve more with less. Effective cooperation within and between governmental organizations is therefore necessary. The creation of horizontal linkages among intermediate functions such as information managers, account managers, business analysts, information architects and policy advisors will play a crucial role in increasing the effectiveness of the government in these areas. These functions, which connect the organization with information and communication technologies (ICT), will be increasingly important for the central government. We call them verbinder (connectors). This new reality, and the notion that no university was offering this practice oriented curriculum, led to the founding of a Government Academy for Information Management (IMAC). IMAC is a unique collaboration between nine government organizations: The Centre for Work and Income; The RDW Centre for Vehicle Technology and Information; IB-group for student grants and information management The Union Employers Insurances; The Dutch Tax Administration of the Ministry of Finance; The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality; The Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations; and The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment.

7 egov_study_skills_deliverable_ _questionnaire_en_v01 Page 7/11 The Academy s first task is to develop and strengthen the group of connectors within the central government. To do so, an ICT and Government programme has been developed. The programme consists of one basic module and four theme-modules that are clustered around the information management cycle: innovation, policy, operationalisation and evaluation. The basic module consists of the following topics: Position of the connectors within the public sector; Presentation and discussion of the participants work-related struggles; Innovation, government and communication with citizens; Innovative linkages within the public sector; and Intervision Besides, IMAC offers the course Winst met ICT which means profit through ICT. It s not a structural course, but will be offered demand driven. The Academy involves distinguished professors in the field of ICT and government, like Professor Arre Zuurmond and Professor Victor Bekkers.

8 egov_study_skills_deliverable_ _questionnaire_en_v01 Page 8/11 3. Are there specific instruments to identify skill gaps? Yes Planned No If yes or planned, please specify what kind of instruments are used and what actions have you taken or have been planned to meet the needs identified (for example, coaching, training, recruitment, etc)? At central level the Innovation monitor has been developed. The monitor is a self assessment tool for advice on the innovation strategy. The tool is measuring innovation pressure (e.g. external factors, political pressure, societal dynamics) and innovation power (the extent to what the organisation meets an innovative organisation, including strategy, leadership, cooperation, learning and adopting, experiments). These are linked to actual performance (including benchmark). It s aimed at identifying gaps in innovation power rather than on concrete skills.

9 egov_study_skills_deliverable_ _questionnaire_en_v01 Page 9/11 4. What programmes do exist? Imac offers the following in its programme Type of training Yes Planned No Continuous training Short-term training Other (specify) Other:. on a monthly base the next couple of years Target groups Yes Planned No Top-level managers Middle management Other (specify) Methodologies Yes Planned No Traditional training (*) Elearning Coaching Other (specify) (*) Traditional training : seminars, workshops, etc. IMAC is using different methodologies and methods in several learning programmes. Coaching and traditional training and teaching in combination. They are developing blended learning; coaching, teaching and e-learning in one programme.

10 egov_study_skills_deliverable_ _questionnaire_en_v01 Page 10/11 5. At the University level, are there : Post-graduate programmes Full-time / part-time (executive programmes) Other (specify) Yes / Number of Universities Planned No x x x Some universities and academies have specialities in the field of Information Management, ICT and social change, Change management etc, but a very practice oriented curriculum is lacking. IMAC was set up to cover the need for this specific domain.

11 egov_study_skills_deliverable_ _questionnaire_en_v01 Page 11/11 6. What can be done in the framework of the European Public Administration Network in this field? It would be interesting to find out to what extent in European countries similar academies like IMAC exist, and what programmes they offer. Furthermore it would be interesting to make visible to what extent modules are offered through e- learning and are open to public servants in other countries. Away from that it would be interesting to see how innovation in the public sector is given shape. Do comparable programmes like InAxis exist? And what are there main theme s. (end of the document)