We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Conceptual issues in the study of centralization and information technology.
- Authors
Sitarski, Christopher
- Abstract
Growing government reliance on information technology for decision-making and the delivery of public services spotlights the contemporary relevance of the centralization debate. The view that the employment of advanced technology by bureaucracies will dispossess local actors of their policy-making autonomy provides the foundations for a substantial body of literature on information technology and organizational change. The reliance of past research on anecdotal or case data casts doubt on the theoretical and empirical soundness of this proposition. Findings have contributed few reliable generalizations about the ways in which the locus of authority between a government agency and its field service shifts. This paper offers a revised approach to characterizing an administrative system as moving towards centralization over time. Assumptions about the nature and direction of causal influence for conceptualizing centralization as a dynamic process are explored. An issue-centred approach and process orientation are proposed to assess changes to the relative distribution of power between field and headquarters. An acknowledgment and understanding of these refinements serve as a basis for future empirical research.
- Subjects
INFORMATION technology; DECISION making; POLICY sciences; DEBATE; MUNICIPAL services; GOVERNMENT agencies; BUREAUCRACY; INTERORGANIZATIONAL relations; PUBLIC administration
- Publication
Canadian Public Administration, 1991, Vol 34, Issue 4, p641
- ISSN
0008-4840
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1754-7121.1991.tb01490.x