Public organizations are increasingly using automated decision-making (ADM) as a means for improving efficiency. The automation, however, risk undermining their legitimacy if not carefully constructed to preserve public values. This paper aims to provide a synthesis and analysis of literature on ADM in the public sector from various disciplines. We illustrate dominant themes in the public sector ADM literature and unveil areas that require further research. We call for (1) fine-grained conceptualizations of ADM, that accommodate differences in e.g., types of decisions and levels of government; (2) further attention to decision-making hybrids, where both humans and algorithms have agency, and how such hybrids should be developed to avoid biases; and (3) preventive safeguards that protect individual rights while ensuring the public interest in transparency. We thus contribute with an overview of the dominant themes in the public sector ADM literature, and directions for future research on this topic.

This paper explores organizational work environment issues related to Human Resource (HR) process automation. While HR process automation promises efficiency and productivity gains, it also introduces new challenges. These include organizational changes in the conditions and requirements for work, with the potential of significant impact on the employees’ working with these technologies. Our research examines this relationship, highlighting the need to consider organizational work environment issues early in the automation process. We present preliminary findings from a literature analysis and an ongoing case study on automation of the onboarding process at a large industrial company, emphasizing the need for user involvement throughout the design, implementation, and use of the automated system. The study contributes by illustrating the relationship between HR process automation and work environment. Our continued and future work aims to contribute with theoretical insights on, and practical guidelines for, organizational work environment interventions related to HR process automation.

Automation of public service provision has gained renewed attention as emerging technologies are said to enable automation of tasks that were previously seen as requiring human involvement. However, the merits of these automation technologies are often exaggerated. More knowledge is needed on public service automation, and much can be learned from adjacent research fields studying human-automation interaction. To lead by example, this work applies Bainbridge's (1983) concept of ironies of automation. The purpose is to (1) present ironies of automation, (2) explicate how these ironies can come into play when implementing automated systems in the public service context, and (3) outline implications that follow for public service automation. This is achieved by relating ironies of automation to contemporary studies on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) developments in Swedish local government. The analysis results in five ironies and a set of implications for public service automation. The ironies and implications for public service automation direct attention to key challenges that must be acknowledged in future automation implementations and show that further investigations and theoretical developments are needed on e.g., problems introduced by automation; tasks, roles, and responsibilities that follow on automation; how to design the interface between humans and automated systems in a way that facilitates monitoring, take-over, and maintenance; and, tools and methods for assessing the impact and quality of automated systems. This paper thus provides a foundation for future empirical investigations and further theoretical development on public service automation.

Citizens are oftentimes the central unit of analysis in e-government research and treated as one of the stakeholders receiving the most benefits from public sector digitalization. Still, they are mostly described in generalterms, and it remains unclear what roles they can assume in relation to e-government. Different understandingsof the citizens’ role in e-government may impact research, because they entail different axioms mainly in relationto the technological frame for e-government but also for the citizens’ relationship to public sector organizationsin general. The aim of this article is to investigate and conceptualize the citizens’ role in e-government based onpublic value positions. We depart from Rose et al.’s (2015) framework of value positions for managing e-government. After reviewing and analyzing extensive research on e-government, we use this framework tocontribute a clarification of the citizens’ role in each value position. Our analysis shows that the ideal citizen isconceptualized differently across the four value positions; ranging from an external entity that should servicethemselves using digital self-services, to an engaged agent that should be actively involved in policy making andservice delivery. In addition to this new perspective on the citizens’ role in e-government, we contribute with anextension of the public value positions framework. The extended framework presented in this article makes thesedifferences visible and we discuss consequences of the citizens’ role in e-government for other dimensions of theframework. 

Swedish municipalities are expected to contribute to the fulfilment of the Swedish Digital Agenda, by digitalizing and automating as much work as possible. There is currently a gap between the expectations, as expressed in policies, and the outcomes of digitalization and automation initiatives in municipalities thus far. The aim of this study is to address this gap by exploring the purpose of digitalization and automation initiatives as expressed by employees in three Swedish municipalities. We do this by applying a public values and pragmatist lens to identify ends-in-view, departing from an established model of public values. We conduct an interpretative analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with employees at three Swedish municipalities. Our findings illustrate discrepancies between employees’ ends-in-view, in comparison with those expressed in policies on local government digitalization and automation. Despite the official Swedish digitalization strategy expressing that digitalization “is not a goal in itself”, we illustrate how compliance with directives is an important driver, as well as a feeling of having to keep up with others and showcasing a “modern” organization. These ends-in-view illustrate that digitalization projects are indeed being initiated for the sake of digitalization (without clear long-term goals) rather than for particular purposes, potentially creating digitalization practices in which the end goals of digitalization are lost along the way.

The EGOV-CeDEM-ePart 2023 conference, or for short EGOV2023, is now in the sixth year of itsexistence after the successful merger of three formerly independent conferences, e.g., the IFIP WG 8.5Electronic Government (EGOV), the Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government Conference(CeDEM), and the IFIP WG 8.5 IFIP Electronic Participation (ePart). This larger, united conference is dedicated to a broad area of digital or electronic government, open government, smart governance, artificial intelligence, e-democracy, policy informatics, and electronic participation. Scholars from around the world have found this conference to be a premier academic forum with a long traditionalong its various branches, which has given the EGOV-CeDEM-ePart conference its reputation as the leading conference worldwide in the research domains of digital/electronic, open, and smart government as well as electronic participation.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 22nd IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference on Electronic Government, EGOV 2023, which took place in Budapest, Hungary, during September 5–7, 2023.The 28 full papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 106 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: Digital government; artificial intelligence, algorithms, and automation; open government and open data; smart cities, regions, and societies; innovation and transformation in government.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a popular software used for process automation in order to automate administrative tasks, traditionally performed by knowledge workers. The existing research on RPA is lacking in terms of what is known about how this type of technology affects the work situations of employees and their experiences with it. In this study, we seek to contribute to this knowledge gap by conducting an inductive analysis of employee experiences in three Swedish municipalities to explore the effects of RPA on their work situation. We find that RPA creates different effects during implementation compared to post-implementation, and that these effects can be positive or negative in both cases. Furthermore, we show that RPA may alleviate stress in one area of the organization, but that new stress emerges in another. We also conclude that the experiences on the individual level are interconnected with the organizational and managerial aspects of RPA, showing the need to further interconnect knowledge in these areas. Finally, we present some recommendations for future research, with an emphasis on studying employees’ work situations from a work environment perspective. 

Public service automation and no-stop government are currently two intensively discussed concepts in digital government literature. Although their definitions point to different meanings, some scholars equate the terms and use them interchangeably. Since a clear shared understanding is crucial for scholars to produce reliable research, this conceptual paper aims to shed light on the two terms and support conceptual clarity. We investigate the meaning and relationship between the concepts of public service automation and no-stop government in digital government research. We review the meaning of each concept and discuss the relationship between the two. Thereby, we show that both terms refer to the substitution of a human in public service delivery, but differences lie in the arrangement of the substitution. In automation, a machine substitutes a public official. In contrast, in no-stop government the public organization substitutes the client. We illustrate the relationship between the two concepts using a three-sided model, showing how the use of digital technologies can create an overlap between the two concepts. This conceptual understanding can be used to guide future research and theorizing in the digital government domain.