Key Information Systems Management Issues for the Public Sector

The public sector has multiple, conflicting, and often intangible goals. It produces "public goods" for problems that should be solved (like crime and poverty), even though these problems may have no known feasible solutions; and it is heavily impacted by politics and bureaucratic red tape. These and other features of the public sector make it potentially a much different setting for IS management than the private sector. This article reports on the first national survey of public sector managers identifying their most important IS issues. The survey, covering respondents from federal, state, and local governments, drew upon prior survey research in the private sector and the literature on pubiic/private sector differences. This research was sponsored by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration and by the authors' affiliated institutions during the time of study: the Center for Governmental Services. Auburn University; the School of Information Studies. Syracuse University: the Schcxjl of Urban and Public Affairs, Carnegie Mellon University: and the Department ot Public Administration. George Washington University. While most of the top public sector issues also appear on the top private sector issue lists, the rankings show a tag in public IS development as compared to the private sector. Perhaps the most interesting results of the survey, however, are from a deeper analysis. At the main effects-level, we have preliminary evidence that (1) middlelevel (instead of top-level) public managers are critical for IS technology development; (2) smalt government agencies are more interested in IS technology transfer than targe ones; (3) governments with a lot of red tape tend to have flexible IS; and (4) local government IS issues are driven by transaction processing whiie state and federal governments have tS more suitable for their oversight mission. Keywords; MIS managers, opinion survey, information systems management, key issues, management priorities ACM Categories: CO, H.O, K.6.0