Mobile government fieldwork: a preliminary study of technological, organizational, and social challenges

With its GoMobile project, the City of Seattle is pioneering the utilization of fully mobile wirelessly connected (FMWC) technology applications in fieldwork operations with the aim of significantly improving its operational effectiveness and efficiency as well as its quality of service. Our study analyzes and assesses the efficacy of this prototypical mobile Government project. Preliminary findings, based on the study of one division, show that beyond the expectable technology hurdles numerous unforeseen challenges in the organizational and social context emerge, which when taken together can present staunch and tall obstacles to arriving at the intended outcome. Our study uses a work-centered analytical framework for deriving and clarifying the strategic choices in such projects via a formative model. Our narrative model captures and surfaces the interaction and interdependence between major organizational variables and the work context. In this paper, we report on our early observations and high-level findings.