OECD Peer Review of E-Government in Denmark - ePractice.eu

The Task Force has initiated a project focused on using ICT to improve the exchange of
information within a health-sector “service community” comprising hospitals and municipalities. This
is another example of the type of initiative that can drive organisational change through improved
information sharing. The project, which began in 2002, facilitates more unified treatment of patients
by improving digital communication between municipalities and hospitals related to hospitalisation
and discharge of patients. The project focuses on improving the exchange of information about patient
contact addresses between municipalities and hospitals at the time of hospitalisation. Similar
initiatives have been put in place in various areas of e-government (e.g. e-Agriculture, e-Business).
Impact on organisational structure
The use of ICT in government often cuts across core functions such as planning, budgeting,
human resource management. This provides opportunities for government to reshape existing
organisational structures and rethink traditional frameworks of responsibilities. Just over 50% of
respondents to the OECD survey indicated that e-government has had an impact on the definition of
such functions and responsibilities.
However, internal organisational rigidities seem to be reducing e-government’s ability to create
more flexible organisational structures. A review of major barriers to e-government in Denmark
conducted by the Digital Task Force in 2003 identified a “bunker” (or silo) culture as one of the key
obstacles to the development of e-government in Denmark. This issue is, of course, not unique to
Denmark. Throughout OECD countries, the silo structure of government organisations is widely
considered to be an obstacle to communication among agencies which prevents inter-organisational
thinking and action – specifically in the development of e-government, and more widely in the
development and delivery of policies, programmes and services. Some steps being taken to address
this problem through supporting increased levels of collaboration between government organisations
are discussed in Chapter 6.
The Task Force’s review indicated two major barriers to the organisational change ultimately
required for effective e-government in Denmark: 1) the absence of a culture that promotes staff
mobility and task reallocation across organisations; 2) a lack of incentives for organisations to
participate in cross-cutting projects. This is particularly true at the State government level, where the
Structural Reform process will have the least impact. A survey conducted by the Ministry of
Education also indicated that the biggest impact of ICT on organisational change in government is
considered by officials to be on improving the level of employees’ skills, rather than on changing
organisational structures. This is further evidence that e-government has had only limited impact on
organisational structures.
The OECD survey results show that e-government has also had an impact on the reduction of
staff costs (slightly more than 40% of respondents indicated such an impact). The introduction of
electronic archiving and document management has freed resources and brought staff reductions in
some ministries, though is it not clear whether these individuals have been reallocated or made
redundant.
Impact on organisational processes
In addition to affecting organisational structures, the use of ICT can have a positive impact on
organisational processes by speeding them up, reducing errors and eliminating duplication, enabling
process re-engineering (both within and across organisations) and generally enhancing process
automation. More than 70% of OECD survey respondents stated that e-government has had an impact
on both front- and back-office business processes. Interviews with officials revealed that a large
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