A Logics Perspective On Digital Transformation In Public Administration : Ethnographic Insights From Germany

Titelangaben

García González, Anaís ; Hermann, Julia ; Kneissel, Katharina ; Kreuzer, Thomas ; Kuch, Felicitas ; Maronna Aigner, Karolina ; Oberländer, Anna Maria:
A Logics Perspective On Digital Transformation In Public Administration : Ethnographic Insights From Germany.
In: Proceedings of the 34th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). - Mailand, Italien , 2026

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Abstract

Digital transformation in public administration faces unique challenges. While digital transformation emphasizes agility, customer-centricity, and data-driven innovation, public administration is rooted in equity, accountability, and the obligation to serve the public interest. As these deeply embedded values coexist, they frequently collide, producing tensions that shape how digital transformation is interpreted and enacted. To uncover the tensions’ underlying root causes, this study adopts a logics perspective and explores organizing logics of digital transformation and public administration, and how they interrelate. Drawing on six months of ethnographic fieldwork in a German public digital agency and an assessing literature review, we identify three tensions in practices that emerge from the encounter of conflicting underlying organizing logics. Our findings advance Information Systems and digital government research by revealing deep structural value conflicts, and the role of logics in managing digital transformation in public administration.