Treating Data-Driven Management Seriously:The Evolution of Public Administration Theory in a Digital World

Abstract

Major advances in technology can serve as harbingers of societal change, offering both the allure of progress and the portension of upheaval. For this reason, e-government scholars treat the information economy as both an opportunity to “transform” governance and service delivery (Mergel et al., 2009), but also a shift that brings major challenges to public administration (Desouza et al., 2015), both in how we theorize about the administrative state in the information age, and in how we prepare students to manage and lead modern organizations. This current moment of rapid change provides an opportunity to reflect upon how we conceptualize and teach public management in a data-rich world.

Keywords: data science, public management, artificial intelligence, evidence-based management, public administration