IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 36
hazard to which IT specialists and
end users alike too often fall victim: It is nearly always a mistake to
assume a separation between our
tools and us. Technology does not
simply appear but is the outcome
of a complex and socially situated
development and design process [2].
There are equally complex and
socially situated dynamics in our
interactions with technology, such as
generational differences in the use
of social media, the gradual blurring between physical and virtual
realities, or our attention (or inattention) to issues of privacy or cybersecurity. Orlikowski & Iacono [1] call
attention to socio-political forces
when they contrast the experience of
browsing the Internet in the United
States, or China, or Saudi Arabia.
As participants in this process we
must probe for and be alert to rules
reflecting the work being automated,
necessary resources (human and
non-human), and rules that define
the organizationally sanctioned way
of executing that work [5]. Furthermore, we must closely examine
these production systems and recognize they comprise a web of interacting parts that collectively (or not) feed
a value chain to produce value.
End users, design eng ineers,
subject matter experts, business
process analysts, project managers,
and executive sponsors must all be
active participants. None can work
in isolation.
We ignore this intra-relationship
at the peril of inappropriate decisions during design, selection and
implementation of technology, and
misunderstood processes and uses,
because means and ends cannot be
separated. Doing so demands the
social and technical exist as distinct
entities that we can somehow "add"
together. They do not. Tools constitute
us as much as we constitute them [2].
We must challenge ourselves to
transcend our familiar notion of the
36
Public Value
IT artifact as just an inanimate tool
standing by for our use like some
sort of mechanical device, neatly
separable and distinct from us. It is
far more productive to view Information Technology as practice. Here,
the term "practice" does not refer to
our own recitals, but to people interacting with the technology and vice
versa from which outcomes emerge
[5]. Outcomes may be predictable
and positive but they can also be
damaging. Examples of the latter
include people misusing or misinterpreting information, and people
being unaware of or ignoring basic
cybersecurity practices. All can have
serious consequences.
Here lies a challenge for which
our academic experiences, our organizational structures and, indeed,
our own career ambitions, ill equip
us. These norms, career patterns,
and reward structures are the ingredients of our daily routines and do
not impel us to question our familiar
boundaries. Our challenge is to critically examine these boundaries. We
must challenge our understanding
of what the practice of Information
Technology is and means.
Business leaders and users alike
must not compartmentalize Information Technology as a set of tools
separate, distinct, and external to
their core missions. The assignment
of IT to "something the technical
people take care of" is a common
manifestation of this view. Its associated premise: "I don't know (or
need to know) anything about IT" is
a false and empty conceit. It is us and
we are it.
Likewise, technologists must
not isolate themselves to the comfort of their hardware and software.
They must become attentive to and
fluent in the business domains
within which Information Technology
is embedded. They are co-participants
in the City Enterprise, in which Information Technology is of its very fabric.
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE
I now turn to outcomes of Information Technology as practice; specifically, the production of public
value by the City Enterprise. Political debates about what constitutes
public value aside, I believe it reasonable to assert that public value
is the net difference between public
benefit and resources used to create
that benefit, where benefit is concerned with financial value, political
value, and social returns.
Numerous researchers over the
past few decades have explored
the meaning and measure of public
value [1], [6]-[9]. What follows is a
brief synopsis of the current literature on the matter of public value.
Public value differs in fundamental ways from value accounting in
the private sector, where principal
concerns are customer loyalty, profitability and growth. One can point to
shareholder value as the measure
of success for a publicly traded company; however, there is no easily measurable 'bottom line' in the public
sector. Citizen trust and confidence
in the public institution and notions
of the public good are, in many ways,
the bottom line for the public sector,
or a reasonable proxy for it [10].
The concept of customer satisfaction differs between the private
and public sectors. Private-sector
customers engage in voluntar y
transactions, as individuals, which
may or may not be satisfying and
which they are free to repeat or not.
The City Enterprise does not generally "sell" products or services in
the familiar sense of the word. Building contractors and their clients are
obligated, by the authority of the government, to pay for various permits
and submit to inspections. An efficient process will lower their costs
of doing business in the City and,
in some sense, "generate satisfaction." Regardless, the transactions
remain involuntar y. The value of
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