Public service values and e-administration: an explosive mix? Illustration drawing on the case of the Family Allowance Funds (Caisses d’Allocations Familiales) in France

Abstract

Despite the fact that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are considered to be an important state modernization tool, resistance to change can sometimes be observed. The question is why? On the basis of intervention research mobilizing five different corpuses of material over eight years in the family branch of the French social security system, we have established that values can be an (accelerating or blocking) structuring element of an ambiguous e-administration development dynamic. In other words, in the process of enacting or activating technologies intended to modernize public services, sensemaking by managers faced with the conflicts of values generated or exacerbated by the introduction of these new management tools is fundamental to understanding the process of change. Based on this research result, recommendations for action have been drawn up for the managers, the aim being to elucidate these value conflicts within discussion forums, even if this implies a certain cost. Points for practitioners This article shows that the e-administration development dynamics depend in part on sensemaking by public service managers around technologies. Indeed, these technologies exacerbate or introduce conflicts of values. Interactivity (a property inherent to ICT that must be respected for the sake of the value of public service adaptability), in particular, may conflict with the value of public sector equality. This is at least what we have observed in the course of the research conducted for nearly eight years in the family branch of the French social security system. This therefore raises questions about the effectiveness of elucidating these value conflicts within discussion forums to facilitate the development of e-administration.