The use of process automation has spread in Swedish municipalities to automate administrative processes, but the knowledge of how this plays out in practice is limited. The employee perspective is under-researched and more knowledge on how process automation is understood by and affects stakeholders is needed. Additionally, as process automation has proven difficult in practice, investigating these challenges can help practitioners. This dissertation investigates what stakeholders are involved in process automation initiatives in Swedish municipalities, how they view process automation, and what challenges are faced as part of these initiatives. These views and challenges are analyzed with a combined analytical lens of stakeholder theory and public value. This answers previous calls for research on how technology in public sector organizations relates to different underlying values. This is a compilation dissertation based on six research papers. The research process is based on a qualitative and interpretative approach, where most of the empirical material consists of interviews with employees involved in process automation initiatives in three Swedish municipalities. The analysis revolves around the identification of five stakeholder groups: Automation strategists, Support staff, Operational staff, IT personnel, and RPA companies. These stakeholder groups have different views on process automation and hold different perspectives of what the automation of processes will lead to. The challenges of process automation initiatives include the need for different competencies, lacking stakeholder buy-in, and difficulties in identifying processes to automate. Using the combined analytical lens of stakeholder theory and public value, these views and challenges are analyzed further, showing that they can be understood as different stakeholders striving for different sets of values as well as having different perspectives on how values relate to one another and how technology affects these relationships. The dissertation concludes that process automation has a more limited scope than was initially expected based on the policy push for process automation, that it is driven by and focuses on a particular set of values that are seen by some as incompatible with other sets of values, and that the challenges that emerge can be thought of as tensions that can and should occur to achieve a balance between different public values.

Användning av processautomation har spridit sig bland svenska kommuner för att automatisera administrativa processer, men kunskap om hur detta utspelar sig i praktiken är begränsad. Medarbetarperspektivet inom detta område är relativt outforskat och mer kunskap om hur processautomation förstås av och påverkar olika intressenter behövs. Då processautomatisering har visat sig vara svårt i praktiken kan praktiker också gagnas av en utökad förståelse kring utmaningar som uppstår. Denna avhandling undersöker vilka intressenter som är involverade i initiativ för processautomation i svenska kommuner, deras perspektiv på processautomation, och vilka utmaningar som uppstår som del av dessa initiativ. Dessa perspektiv och utmaningar analyseras med en kombinerad analytisk lins bestående av intressentteori och offentliga värden. Detta svarar på tidigare uppmaningar till forskning om hur teknik i offentliga organisationer förhåller sig till olika underliggande värden. Detta är en sammanläggningsavhandling baserad på sex artiklar. Forskningsprocessen bygger på ett kvalitativt och tolkande förhållningssätt, där huvuddelen av det empiriska materialet består av intervjuer med medarbetare som varit involverade i initiativ för processautomation i tre svenska kommuner. Avhandlingens analys involverar identifiering av fem intressentgrupper: Automationsstrateger, Stödfunktioner, Kärnverksamhet, IT-personal och RPA-företag. Dessa intressentgrupper har olika syn på processautomation och har olika perspektiv på vad automatiseringen av processer kommer att leda till. Utmaningarna med initiativ för processautomation är behov av olika kompetenser, bristande motivation hos intressenter och svårigheter med att identifiera processer att automatisera. Utifrån den analytiska linsen analyseras dessa perspektiv och utmaningar vidare, vilket visar att de kan förstås som att olika intressenter strävar efter olika värden, samt har olika perspektiv på hur värden relaterar till varandra och hur teknik påverkar dessa relationer. Slutsatserna visar att processautomation är i praktiken mer begränsat än vad som ursprungligen förväntades, att processautomation drivs av och fokuserar på en viss uppsättning värden som av vissa ses som oförenliga med andra uppsättningar av värden, och att utmaningarna som uppstår kan ses som spänningar som kan och bör uppstå för att uppnå en balans mellan olika offentliga värden.

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.

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. 

In this paper we explore the evolution of the use of digital technology in the public sector. We do so by analyzing a corpus of IT- and digitalization strategies from Swedish local governments, produced from two time periods, using topic modeling. Our analysis reveals salient topics covered in these two sets of strategies and classifies them into three types: topics that persist across the two periods, topics that are unique to each period, and topics that evolved in content. We suggest that local government strategies became more general and optimistic in terms of the technologies’ new opportunities, specific in terms of management practices, and increasingly blurry in terms of organizational and material boundaries.We also provide evidence of digitalization strategies becoming more homogenous in their covered topics than their IT counterparts. By doing so, we contribute to research devoted to analyzing the discursive landscape of digital government by investigating the official content found in these strategies. Thus, we contribute to research devoted to studying policy in order to historically situate contemporary use of digital technologies and its evolution. We conclude the paper with important implications for practice.

Home  Service Automation in the Public Sector  ChapterOrganizing for Robotic Process Automation in Local Government: Observations from Two Case Studies of Robotic Process Automation Implementation in Swedish MunicipalitiesIda Lindgren, Maria Åkesson, Michel Thomsen & Daniel Toll ChapterFirst Online: 15 March 2022571 Accesses5 CitationsPart of the Progress in IS book series (PROIS)AbstractAutomation of internal administrative processes tied to the delivery of public services is outlined as a continuation of the development toward a more digital, efficient, and effective local government. However, this development is often based on unrealistic expectations of the transformative power of digital technologies. It is therefore important to further understand automation as a driver of digital transformation of local government organizations. Automation, in this chapter, is understood as a change from a function previously carried out by a human to being performed by a machine agent (e.g., robotic process automation). We explore and compare how initiatives to implement robotic process automation (RPA) are organized in two Swedish municipalities. Our analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with employees working in the two municipalities. The analysis shows interesting patterns across the cases concerning dissonances and disconnects between stakeholders on different levels in the organizations, making this kind of development difficult. Our results contribute with (a) empirical illustrations that show how general policies on process automation promoted by policymakers are influencing the organization of IT and work in local government practice; (b) challenges that affect the implementation of RPA in local government; and (c) point to a set of observations that require further research.

In the last few years, Swedish municipalities have striven to adopt automation to increase their internal efficiency by automating administrative processes. This E-Government initiative is taking place as part of the ongoing digitalization efforts by Swedish municipalities. To be able to automate processes, municipalities are introducing new types of software, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA). This allows the need for human involvement to be reduced, by letting a software robot perform processes instead. In adopting automation, several different stakeholders are involved, ranging from the original suppliers of the software to the case workers performing processes that might be automated. The aim of this thesis is to explore and understand different stakeholder perspectives on automation. This is done by identifying sociotechnical imaginaries of automation amongst involved stakeholders by conducting a qualitative and interpretive analysis of the contents of the five papers that are part of this thesis. Sociotechnical imaginaries of automation are visions of the future that stakeholders imagine automation as able to bring. Three sociotechnical imaginaries of automation are identified: Automation is a new era of digitalization, Automation is a powerful tool, and Automation is just another software. These imaginaries are held and performed by six stake-holder groups: Suppliers, Developers, Policymakers, Strategists, Civil serv-ants, and IT Department. Underlying interests, closeness to real-life-practice, experience with automation and how stakeholders influence each other are discussed as possible reasons for there being different sociotechnical imaginaries. From this, it is concluded that different stakeholders have different ideas of what automation entails and thus what “the automated municipality” looks like. Contradictions between different sociotechnical imaginaries are potential obstacles of communication and co-operation as different stakeholders may plan and approach automation differently. This thesis contributes a novel way of how the adoption of automation in Swedish municipalities can be understood.

Municipalities in Sweden are recommended to pursue process automation to face upcoming societal challenges. This paper focuses on a case where these recommendations are operationalized. Views on process automation held by different stakeholders, in relation to value ideals they prioritize in their respective areas of work, are explored by combining stakeholder theory and a model of public value ideals. Our findings show that, different stakeholder groups prioritize different values and that their views on process automation as an enabler of these value ideals are either optimistic, undecided, or pessimistic, where the latter two can be considered obstacles. This paper contributes, with an empirical illustration of how process automation is operationalized, answering previous calls for more research on this topic. We also elaborate on the use of stakeholder theory and public value as an analytical lens, contributing to the growing body of research attempting to understand process automation. 

Local government organizations in Sweden are under pressure from policy makers and leading politicians to accelerate digital transformation of administrative tasks, in order to make public service provision more efficient and effective. As part of this digital transformation, local governments are currently investigating and implementing digital technologies that can execute administrative tasks automatically, without involvement of administrative staff. We explore an automation initiative in a Swedish municipality using a qualitative case study. Our analysis is conducted from a stakeholder perspective, investigating (1) how different stakeholders interpret automation as part of the municipality’s ongoing digitalization, and (2) their views on expected outcomes of automation of administrative tasks. Our analysis shows that different stakeholder groups hold different definitions of what digitalization and automation means for their organization, and what outcomes can be expected of automation of administrative tasks in their organization. The analysis further shows that national policy documents encourage local governments to use a specific technical solutions for automation (robotic process automation); however, this technology is viewed as somewhat problematic by the stakeholders working with IT in the organization. Our analysis contributes with an illustration of challenges that municipalities face in their endeavor to find ways of developing automation of administrative tasks, and call for further research on this topic.

This paper is part of a research project that investigates and provides guidance regarding the adoption and implications of automation in the Swedish local government. Automation technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), are well established in the private and the public sector. In this paper, we discuss whether the adoption of RPA can be seen as migration towards automation. The aim is to evaluate the Push-Pull-Mooring (PPM) framework to understand better what factors influence local government adoption. By analysing RPA suppliers, RPA developers, and local government representatives' perspectives, we have identified push, pull, and mooring factors potentially influencing the decision to adopt, i.e., accepting or rejecting RPA. We, therefore, argue that the PPM framework seems to be a fruitful way of researching factors influencing the adoption of automation and the concept of automation as migration further.

There is currently an ongoing, global race to develop, implement, and make use of AI in both the private and public sectors. How AI will affect responsibilities and public values to be upheld by government remains to be seen. This paper analyzes how AI is portrayed in Swe-dish policy documents and what values are attributed to the use of AI, based on an established e-government value framework. Statements are identified in policy documents and are coded into one of four value ideals, as well as being either a benefit, a consideration, or a risk. We conclude that there is discrepancy in the policy level discourse concerning AI between the dif-ferent value ideals and that the discourse surrounding AI is overly optimistic. A more nuanced view of AI in government is needed to create realistic expectations.