For public managers at all levels of government, the phenomenal growth of the new cyber-technologies has been accompanied by a growing frustration as to how these technologies might be effectively integrated within existing technological structures. Part of the difficulty has been managerial: ensuring that the new technologies neither duplicate nor undermine those that already seem to work successfully. However, some interesting questions have been raised for public managers and how they carry out some of their normal functions, now that cyber-technologies have, seemingly forever, changed their working environments. For many of these questions, traditional management does not provide easy answers, though it appears the answers may have as much to do with the securing and training of qualified personnel as with the securing and installing of network protocols that make provisions for security. For example, managers now need to establish not only that their employees are technically proficient at using the agencys Internet services, but that these services are not mis-used by outside intruders.
This article discusses cyber-technology and its effective integration in government and public agencies; it presumes a novice, but thoughtful, readership. Thus, while the technology problems of individual agencies may flow from the particulars of their environments, much can be said in general. What conclusions can be drawn from this discussion? This is not an easy question to answer. Unfortunately, those who draw the wrong conclusions may have a worldwide audience to explain the error of their ways.
The focus of this article rests on four essential questions regarding the technological integration process: (1) Which types of goals are reasonable for cyber-management? (2) Which initial steps should an agency take to integrate its existing technological structure with the requirements of cyber-technology? (3) Is there a need for separate Intranet (internal web) and Internet (external web) policies? And, (4) which cost and effectiveness factors should be used in creating a World Wide Web (Internet) service, and in maintaining an effective presence on the Web? A final section highlights some of the problems involved in determining the economic reasonableness of creating a Web site. While the article also presumes its readers are reasonably familiar with the basic terminology of information systems technology we begin with a brief discussion of a key term, cyber-management, and of how it is used throughout this piece.
What is cyber-management?
There has been little agreement on the exact definition of cyber-management, mostly because the term lies beyond the grace of common usage. However, as a point of reference, cyber-management is here considered a subset of traditional public management; the objective of both being the effective achievement of pre-determined goals in the most efficient manner possible. Distinctions between the two become apparent when one considers how they achieve goals.
Under traditional management, goal achievement is largely effectuated by an ongoing monitoring of management information systems (MIS). Budgets, for instance, represent a basic tool of traditional management in that these are used to monitor expenditures, revenues, average cost of services and other indicators of performance. In so doing, budgets ensure that each indicator is effectively tracked, remains within pre-determined limits while the agency achieves its goals. Advances in information systems technology have done much to provide this type of information. For example, it is no longer uncommon for managers to use budgets as a basis for manipulating data to generate "exception reports" that zero in on potential problems.
Cyber-management extends the reach of traditional management considerably, by incorporating several types of computer services, including terminal emulation and remote system access (telnet), file exchange (ftp), electronic mail (smtp), and a number of other services for exchanging information from any other networked computer in the world. Within this context, networked information services can be used in conjunction with MIS to evaluate the operation of the agency against a set of pre-determined standards which define for it an optimal state, much like traditional management.
However, where traditional management is animated by information and decision-making systems that are highly programmed, hierarchical, rational and pre-planned, cyber-management is animated by systems that are flatter, more questioning, flexible and ad hoc (Dumaine, 1994). The latter incorporates an element of critical thinking, and it is within this more critical context that cyber-management provides managers with more room for exercising their years of experience, wisdom, intuition and personal judgment in the achievement of agency goals (Schmidt, 1993). This is an area of administrative studies this contrast between traditional and cyber-management that deserves immediate and further investigation.
Over the long haul, it is possible to see how organizations, both public and private, may become synonymous with their information systems because cyber-management creates the possibility of organizing without geographic or political boundaries. In actuality, cyber-management makes it possible to organize without having a physical structure in place, or for that matter, the capital costs that incur to such structures.
More immediately, cyber-management creates the possibility of decentralizing the nature and control of work, allowing managers to swap secured data between disparate agencies, or to conduct videoconferences and training programs via computer. Massive networks such as these increase the productivity of management and staff by saving money for their agencies. Multiple fee-based networks can, for instance, be consolidated into one free Intranet, allowing state agencies, local governments, libraries and other institutions to share data quickly and securely as in the state of New York (Government Technology, October, 1997: 14).
Author: Steven A. Maclin, Ph. D.
About the Author: Dr. Maclin has been a university professor of public administration and policy since 1994. Recently, from 1998 - 2004, he lived and worked with American military troops in Japan, Okinawa, and South Korea. He has previously edited and published dozens of articles in professional administrative journals and recently, in his ‘spare time,’ he’s been building websites for distributing materials to his graduate students. Hes now stateside, teaching graduate students online, writing articles and developing a small online business (see
http://buyfromart.com); he can be reached at info@buyfromart.com.