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When innocence is no protection: governance failure of digitization and its impact on local level implementation

Luthfi Ramadani (Department of Information Systems, Telkom University, Bandung, Indonesia)
Amalia Yovadiani (Department of Information Systems, Telkom University, Bandung, Indonesia)
Fitriyana Dewi (Department of Information Systems, Telkom University, Bandung, Indonesia)

Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy

ISSN: 1750-6166

Article publication date: 5 January 2022

Issue publication date: 14 February 2022

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Abstract

Purpose

Governance of e-government is rarely discussed in the initial digitization stage, especially in developing countries where the government’s focus is mainly to pursue rapid proliferation of digital adoption rather than to implement governance. This study aims to explore the consequences of this absence of governance at local level conditions.

Design/methodology/approach

An in-depth exploratory case study is conducted at a municipal health government in a southern city in Kalimantan Island, Indonesia, examining the conditions of local actors in response to various nationwide health digitization imperatives. The postcolonial theory with the critical paradigm is used to interpret and conceptualize the empirical findings.

Findings

This study identifies two critical failures of digitization governance that represent the mainstream condition: horizontal sectoral ego and vertical asymmetry and misalignment. These failures have resulted in undesirable consequences at the subalterns indicated by diverse ambivalence and de-voiced constructs displayed by the local actors.

Practical implications

This paper suggests that various issues that emerge from local level implementation in nationwide digitization agenda might not always be issues of local technology adoption, but rather negative impacts due to the absence of governance practice at the strategic level.

Originality/value

Through a critical perspective, this study unearths the underlying power and structural inequity responsible for generating the various issues and undesirable consequences that emerge at local levels related to the nationwide digitization agenda.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the editor, Anna Visvizi, and the two anonymous reviewers of TGPPP for their valuable comments and suggestions. The author wish to thank all the informants in Borneoraya who provided us the access to the site and their precious time.

Citation

Ramadani, L., Yovadiani, A. and Dewi, F. (2022), "When innocence is no protection: governance failure of digitization and its impact on local level implementation", Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 68-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/TG-09-2021-0142

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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