Technology for building trust in public organizations

Public institutions have to build and restore trust of citizens by enhancing interaction and communication with the public. The aim of this study is to elucidate how public organizations embracing technology tend to sustain... [ view full abstract ]

Public institutions have to build and restore trust of citizens by enhancing interaction and communication with the public. The aim of this study is to elucidate how public organizations embracing technology tend to sustain change by modernizing public administration, driving the transition from e-government to e-governance, fostering transparency for accountability in order to restore trust with citizens. The study relies on archival data drawn by the analysis and review of literature concerning the role of technologies in supporting public administration to rediscover public interest and behave as responsive and transparent organization in front of the citizens. Public sector reforms should drive public organizations to build and maintain trust with citizens. Since 1990s new public management doctrines emphasizing the performance achievement seem not to adequately develop the paradigm of democratic accountability in order to enhance the trust of the public in government performance (Behn, 1998). Public institutions have to develop continuity and credibility of organizational activities by gaining legitimacy and maintaining the organizational reputation in front of their stakeholders (Suchmann, 1995; Krause, Moynihan & Carpenter, 2012) by embracing technology in order to better deliver services and improve interaction with citizens (West, 2004; Dawes, 2008; Bannister & Connolly, 2012). New technologies driving modernization of public administration contribute to sustain change and promote trust by emphasizing transparency by leading the transition from e-government 1.0 only technology-driven to transformational government 2.0 enabled by ICT incorporating knowledge on the use of ICTs and relationships (Lips, 2012). Public organizations are moving from responsiveness to collaboration with citizens as partners that legitimize government by voice, support and satisfaction, being accountable and transparent in public sector operations to be continuously monitored for providing better economic performance (Vigoda, 2002; Denhardt & Denhardt, 2003).
The main activity and role of public administration should consist of building public trust in government for making a democracy possible (Goodsell, 2006). Trust is essential and central to democracy because of linking citizens to the institutions representing them by enhancing the legitimacy and the effectiveness of government. Trust seems to be a vague and multidisciplinary concept generally oriented to the future.
Institutions well performing tend to generate trust. On the contrary, untrustworthy institutions tend to communicate and produce distrust and disaffection. Trust and distrust tend to be rational responses to the performances of institutions. Trust in government is determined by the level of public satisfaction and public expectation of government performance. The decline of public trust undermines the legitimacy of representative government. Information technology seems to offer a useful opportunity to enhance and restore public trust and citizen satisfaction improving transparency, effectiveness and policy participation (Moon, 2003; Thomas, 1998; Welch, Hinnat & Moon, 2005). ICTs contribute to empower social and political interaction between public institutions and citizens driving government processes relying on collaboration and cooperation. Interactivity and transparence seem to be associated with citizen trust in government. Citizens expect that e-government should attend to issues of transparency and interactivity to engender citizens’ trust and acceptance of democratic and public institutions (Welch, Hinnant & Moon, 2005).