The Public Sector

The public sector has multiple, conflicting, and often intangible goals, producing "public goods" for problems of social significance (e.g., crime and poverty) and heavily impacted by politics and the weight of bureaucracies (Caudle, Gorr, & Newcomer, 1991). These and other features of the public sector raise specific questions regarding the role and functions of public Management Information Systems (MIS) departments. It is the purpose of this report to examine several aspects of this issue. Included are: 1) identification of the most significant and highly prioritized public sector MIS department activities; 2) unique difficulties and challenges encountered by such departments; and 3) optimum long-run MIS strategies for the public sector and methods of realizing these strategies in a timely manner.

Executive Order 13011: A Normative and Practical MIS Framework

This discussion is positioned within the context of Executive Order 13011 - Federal Information Technology - issued July 18, 1999, by the Clinton Administration. The Executive Order stated that a government that works better and costs less requires efficient and effective information systems, and explicated the White House interpretation of elements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996 (Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, 1996). Though the Executive Order spoke most specifically of the actions to be

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for decision-making; . formalization of organizational practice; . differentiation of products or services; . modeling future economic conditions, products, environments; . production control. What should a public sector MIS "do" or accomplish for its users and operators? The foregoing listing of some of the critical capabilities of advanced MIS suggests the answer t this question, which must nevertheless be approached from the unique and individual needs of the user agency an the governmental organization of which it is a part. Davidson (1997) believes that "profitability" - expressed as a cost-effective relationship between the costs of services and their benefits - is as important in the public sector as it is in the private sector. Accordingly, MIS actions and priorities should be inclusive of those activities that will result in greater efficiency, and, therefore, greater "profitability" as the public sector defines this term. The Challenges & Responses of Public Sector MIS Departments Pynes and Bartels (1996) have maintained that IT is rapidly (one might say hourly) changing, creating a situation in which public sector MIS departments are being challenged to constantly upgrade and "improve"
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Approximate Word count = 3661
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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