Discussion |
A number of the observations made during the POT project are in alignment with those of other research. This is especially the case regarding the importance of interveners' actions before and during the introduction and use of new technology. The findings related to the core of the project -- the use of information technology to improve information flow among politicians and to strengthen the support provided to politicians by local government administrators, seem however to be rather unique. Thus, these findings represent a contribution to knowledge on the use of computer-mediated communication for strengthening democracy. Also, the focus on improving access to and use of organizational memory might benefit local democracy and help fulfill the ultimate goal of improving political decision making. |
On the adoption of information technology |
The organizational behavior and innovation literature have strongly linked the success of technical innovations to the presence of one or more champions (e.g., Kanter, 1983; Kimberly and Evanisko, 1981). Information technology champions are managers who actively and vigorously promote their personal vision, pushing the project over or around approval and implementation hurdles (Beath, 1991). Champions are important to the implementation of information systems because of their skills in achieving organizational change. A new information system, like POT, requires some change in work practices (and might eventually also lead to changes in organizational structure and processes). Such changes are often met with resistance (Markus, 1984), and successful implementation of systems often requires adjustments to reward schemes, changes in authority or responsibility patterns, or shifting power centers (Rockart, 1988). We observed, in the initial phases, the importance of the mayor as a project champion. It is possible that the loss of this champion slowed change of political work practices in Salangen and preserved resistance to innovation (see Figure 12). The technology implementation and use literature has identified several types of interventions that often contribute to the successful assimilation of new technology. Training, both as part of the initial introduction of technology and as an ongoing activity, has received attention (e.g., Johnson and Rice, 1987). Individual training sessions in the homes of several politicians and a follow-up course on software in March, 1994 were followed by an increase in POT usage (see Figure 12). Studies of ongoing interventions in information technology use have identified the influence of other organizational actors, including (Okamura et al, 1994):
In a study of the use of a computer conferencing system in one organization, it was found that so called technology-use mediators play a central role (Okamura et al., 1994). The mediators adapted the technology to its initial context and shaped user interaction with it. Over time, they continued to modify the technology and influence use patterns to respond to changing circumstances. Okamura et al. (1994: p 63) propose:
In the POT project, the importance of the appearance of technology-use mediators became visible through more innovative and widespread use of the system for political purposes in certain party groups in contrast to others. |
Computer-mediated communication and democracy |
A system designed to support an entire group must be used by essentially everyone in the group. In the POT project, we had to deal with a problem that is beyond what has become known in groupware adoption as lack of a critical mass of users (Markus and Connolly, 1990). For democracy, complete participation in the use of the system is a goal. Critical mass is not enough because it would imply some were excluded, an unacceptable outcome in a democratic setting. Previously, we referred to the finding that a minority of politicians are deciders, and the majority are followers (Larsen, 1992). Through extensive use of e-mail, the essential information passed between the most active politicians, the deciders, could now be easily shared with other politicians. In turn, this might make the followers more aware of the current situation and increase their level of activity. This suggestion is supported by a study of effects of CMC on group interactions by Siegel et al (1986), who found that social equalization was higher in CMC groups, where CMC group members participated more equally in discussions. CMC groups also exhibited more uninhibited behavior. In this respect, e-mail has the potential of serving as a democratic medium contrary to telephony that can cement the existing information flow structures. An interesting observation in this respect is the fact that Grudin (1989), after examining several groupware developments, describes e-mail as a success. He argues that with e-mail there is a relatively equitable division between those who do the work and those who get the benefit. In some situations, everyone takes equal turns sending and receiving. At other times, the person with a message to communicate does a little more work to type it, while the receiver easily reads it or ignores it; thus the primary beneficiary does more work. Grudin's descriptions easily conform with our ideas of information flow in an ideal political environment. Furthermore, the use of e-mail to notify politicians of the occurrence of new issues increases politicians' opportunities to achieve a higher degree of influence (see Decision process). This use of e-mail can be an important enhancer of democracy. There has, however, been indications that some politicians are reluctant to use the system because they fear that the fast and easy electronic distribution of information might threaten their influence and position in the local party group. This observation supports the picture of POT as a possible can-opener in groups where information is held by a few. It also illustrates that the barriers to communication are clearly more social and political than technological issues. Also, reluctance to adopt might be ascribed to differences in status among organization members (deciders and followers) and in addition reflected the different parties' values and structures. The realization of the possible benefits of new communication technology
The assumption that CMC, and especially e-mail, are instrumental in fostering democracy in organizations has been promoted by Sproull and Kiesler (1991). The claims about CMC's equalizing effects and abilities for overcoming social barriers (including status, gender, and competence) have been critically examined by Mantovani (1994), who argues that the result of introducing e-mail depends more on the organization's culture, social actor's goals, and on local circumstances than on technology per se. Furthermore, he argues that CMC is deeply situated, its social and technological contexts are always highly specific, and therefore that generalizations about CMC effects may be misleading. This should also be noted when it comes to making generalizations about possible effects on using communication tools like POT within other groups of politicians (also see the discussion on a possible Hawthorne effect). |
Organizational memory and the quality of political decision making |
The municipal political system may be viewed as one, or several, decentralized organizations characterized by an unstable network structure, in the sense that more than 50 percent of politicians do not stand for re-election. This may jeopardize sharing of knowledge and cause loss of organizational learning (Davidow and Malone, 1992), and with it, the ability to learn from the past, to generalize across problem environments, to recognize synergistic opportunities, and to transfer learning quickly and efficiently throughout the organization. The obvious thing to do in this respect is to try to increase the portion of politicians standing for re-election. It might, however, well be the case that this objective is very hard to achieve. Hence, an alternative is to focus on empowering politicians to do as good a job as possible while in office. The municipality's issue information system, storing issue descriptions and decisions, constitutes a major part of the politicians' organizational memory. With POT, politicians can e-mail their requests to the administration, which can easily reply by e-mail with the requested issue information attached. During the early phases of the project, it was proposed to give politicians direct access to the municipality's issue information system. However, it was subsequently decided to not offer this access, mainly because of ease of use considerations. During the latter phases of the project, access to issue information again surfaced. Limited trials have been completed, providing some of the politicians with a MS Windows help-file containing the Salangen municipality's archived issue information. The information is dumped into a file and indexed by MS help file tools. Issue information from one year in help file format requires about one Mbyte of disk space. The help file format also allows the politicians to make their own bookmarks, comments, and indexes to the file. Keys for doing searches include meeting date, issue number and others. Access to issue information was highly appreciated by the involved politicians, and in June 1995 a file including issue information from the period January 1993 to May 1995 was distributed to all politicians. This simple but effective way of improving access to the organization's memory may contribute to the politicians' ability to make better decisions. |
