Sorry gunna rant, but the subject is a hobby of mine, as I believe in a relatively peaceful transition into the future, and that having Local Governments act functionally, is most important - i.e. clean streets, less crime, functional housing etc.

Support your local Sherriff and Building Inspectors etc.

Re: the Digital Transformation (and no, it is not really Industrial Revolution 4.0 as some WEFfers try to make out). I can give you some keywords now, so you can search for yourself, on google scholar:

The cutting edge may be found with Public Service Motivation

Public Service Logic and the older Service Logic

Digital Transformation + Municipalities or Councils or Local Government

... and you can contrast the theories with the 40-year old, established management theory:

New Public Management + history and to embellish it, Productivity Management + Public Service

The key to thinking in the late nineties, was that people thought that computers (hardware) would finally gather enough data, and store it, to make a difference to the Public Service, globally. Of course they were premature, and the result was that computers were used for spreadsheets, and making graphs for execs to read, and not much else, while most councils continued using paper for their 'clients' to use, but at least they tried, right?

Then, quasi-academics/strategy aficionados tried to equate public service with the private sector - ring in New Public Management - and installed board structures and executive teams etc., with a goal to cut back on expenses and centralize everything - which gave some people the idea of an end-goal of World Government (hehehe, they were rubbing hands together and salivating): But the Local Governments were hampered by a lack of software, and arguably, a lack of understanding of how Public Service actually works differently from the Private Sector, especially post-transformation. Also, scholars did not anticipate the sheer diversity of public need - i.e. one council is not like the other - so that there was no one-size-fits-all solution, in terms of making Public Service employees work harder and faster, and furthermore, most councils only wanted to reduce their budgets.

Some of the most interesting reads are from scholars in Finland (at the leading edge partly because the diversity between councils is exaggerated), Poland/Ukraine (Lvov University, for Logic, pure and simple), and the Netherlands (for some of the productivity studies). As I said, the effects of a digital transformation in Public Service are well documented all over the world, and surprisingly, ex-Soviet countries are having similar beneficial results (in terms of what I was talking about, previously) to Western countries, - but I argue that USA, Australia and UK are lagging behind, for example, Japan and South Korea, because they are still mired in nepotistic hiring practices and closed-door decision making - not a meritocracy, that is more well-established in digital workplaces.

Also, the Turkish, Chinese, and Russian spaces need watching with the help of Google translate - but that is another ballgame.

Sorry gunna rant, but the subject is a hobby of mine, as I believe in a relatively peaceful transition into the future, and that having Local Governments act functionally, is most important - i.e. clean streets, less crime, functional housing etc.

Support your local Sherriff and Building Inspectors etc.

Re: the Digital Transformation (and no, it is not really Industrial Revolution 4.0 as some WEFfers try to make out). I can give you some keywords now, so you can search for yourself, on google scholar:

The cutting edge may be found with Public Service Motivation

Public Service Logic and the older Service Logic

Digital Transformation + Municipalities or Councils or Local Government

... and you can contrast the theories with the 40-year old, established management theory:

New Public Management + history and to embellish it, Productivity Management + Public Service

The key to thinking in the late nineties, was that people thought that computers (hardware) would finally gather enough data, and store it, to make a difference to the Public Service, globally. Of course they were premature, and the result was that computers were used for spreadsheets, and making graphs for execs to read, and not much else, while most councils continued using paper for their 'clients' to use, but at least they tried, right?

Then, quasi-academics/strategy aficionados tried to equate public service with the private sector - ring in New Public Management - and installed board structures and executive teams etc., with a goal to cut back on expenses and centralize everything - which gave some people the idea of an end-goal of World Government (hehehe, they were rubbing hands together and salivating): But the Local Governments were hampered by a lack of software, and arguably, a lack of understanding of how Public Service actually works differently from the Private Sector, especially post-transformation. Also, scholars did not anticipate the sheer diversity of public need - i.e. one council is not like the other - so that there was no one-size-fits-all solution, in terms of making Public Service employees work harder and faster, and furthermore, most councils only wanted to reduce their budgets.

Some of the most interesting reads are from scholars in Finland (at the leading edge partly because the diversity between councils is exaggerated, Poland/Ukraine (Lvov University, for Logic, pure and simple), and the Netherlands (for some of the productivity studies). As I said, the effects of a digital transformation in Public Service are well documented all over the world, and surprisingly, ex-Soviet countries are having similar beneficial results (in terms of what I was talking about, previously) to Western countries, - but I argue that USA, Australia and UK are lagging behind, for example, Japan and South Korea, because they are still mired in nepotistic hiring practices and closed-door decision making - not a meritocracy, that is more well-established in digital workplaces.

Also, the Turkish, Chinese, and Russian spaces need watching with the help of Google translate - but that is another ballgame.