The introduction of eServices into the organisational processes of city councils in Australia

Submission note: A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Management, Faculty of Law and Management, La Trobe University, Bundoora.

The central aim in this thesis is to examine the effects of organisational change involving the introduction of new information technology on city councils in Australia. Organisational change theory identifies a number of organisational and individual (employee) factors that are related to the success or otherwise of innovative organisational change. This theory has been adapted to models of organisational change involving the introduction of new technology. Models of organisational change involving new technology have, for the most part, been limited to traditionally structured private and public sector organisations. City councils in Australia are adopting and implementing eService (web[-]based services) as an alternative to their traditional service delivery channels. City councils can be seen as a unique form of government organisation structure that operates following a private sector model. The actions of councils are led by voluntary councillors and are managed and run by paid employees. This thesis uses a sample of five city councils to examine relationships between organisational and individual factors that predict their degree of development of eService systems (Web services). In Study 1, the current website content (provision of eService services) of each participating city council is analysed and benchmarked against the eService development of two UK city councils. This thesis develops a novel method of evaluating the degree that these city councils have developed systems of eService (embryonic to advanced development). In Study 2, 23 individual interviews were conducted with senior management employees of the councils involved in the organisational change. These interviews were content analysed to ascertain management attitudes to the implementation of eService, and to identify factors consistent with organisational change theory as being significant variables in the change process. Data were also collected from a sample of employees (n=515) responsible for the implementation of eService systems in Study 3. Data collected involved employee perceptions of organisational and individual factors related to the successful implementation of organisational change. The thesis tests a structural model that hypothesises a set of relationships between these factors and the degree of eService development across the councils. Taken together, the data collected provides an original test of organisational change theory under conditions of an atypical organisational environment. The findings suggest that Australian city councils need to be better prepared to face the challenges of unfreezing their organisations for eService implementation.