Digital Transformation of the Public Sector: Towards Agile, Human-Centered Public Administration

Digital transformation has challenged public administrations’ decision-making processes, relationship with citizens, and internal management issues (workflows, teamwork, leadership, culture, and human resources management (HRM)). Especially with reference to work and HRM processes, technology embraced organizational transformation and digitalization processes allowed the introduction of new forms of working that revolutionized traditional work practices. These issues have prompted research on digital transformation and the growing intensive use of agile forms of work from different angles, including organizational or job design, human-centeredness or the ethics of technologies adopted, and their effects on the quality of work, employee well-being, organizational models, and economies overall. However, the digital transformation of the public sector brings many challenges and contrasting effects on employees, organizations, and societies that still have to be tackled especially under a multi-level and across-level (micro, meso, and macro) perspective, considering the individual, organizational, and societal levels. The book addresses these issues using a comprehensive mixed methodology to explore the multifaceted and complex nature of this topic at different levels. In more detail, the book contributes to the literature on the public sector, exploring both the illuminated and dark sides of digital transformation and its effects on the public employees’ behaviors, discussing the role of technologies, and the impact they have on workplaces and organizational practices. The book provides a holistic picture of digital transformation that may be supportive for theoretical, practical and policy implications, supporting the understanding of how new forms of work may support the effective design of flexible and sustainable organizational models.