municipalities: how it influences IT end-user satisfaction.
Joris B. Tuijn
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen 03-03-2015
Author Note: Supervisor: Mrs. E. van de Mortel
Master thesis
Master: Business administration
2 Abstract
The investments in and dependence on information technology (IT) is increasing rapidly. It changes the ways organizations can provide service in revolutionary ways. However, this increasing dependence and investment into IT also mean that the consequences of failure are rising. One way to decrease the risk of failure is to make sure that the end users of IT are satisfied with their IT and information systems (IS). These same end users do need to be controlled and governed, which influences their IT satisfaction. This thesis explores the influences and dynamics of governance and enabling control on end user IT satisfaction. It is proposed that certain types of governance have related enabling or coercive control.
Additionally, it is proposed that these concepts influence end user IT satisfaction either positively or negatively. This is explored in a qualitative case study in four municipalities in the Netherlands. It was found that bureaucratic, network and enterprise governance are related to coercive, enabling or a combination of control respectively. However, in general both governance and control are minimally concerned about IT satisfaction of end users, focusing primarily on the functionality of IT. The results suggest that the possible role ambiguity and risks associated with enabling control is an important reason to prefer coercive control. Moreover, external pressures stimulate a bureaucratic governance style, suggesting that coercive control is always present in municipalities. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Key words: IT end user satisfaction, enabling control, coercive control, bureaucratic
3 Table of content.
1. Introduction
1.1 Research Question 6
1.2 Theoretical and practical relevance 7
1.3 Structure of thesis 8
2. Contextual information – Dutch municipalities
2.1 Dutch municipalities in general 9
2.2 Organizational structure of Dutch municipalities 9 2.3 Tasks and policy development of Dutch municipalities 10
2.4 Executing policies 11 3. Literature 3.1 Governance 13 3.1.1 Summary 15 3.2 Control 15 3.2.1 Enabling Control 16 3.2.2 Summary 17
3.3 End user IT satisfaction 17
3.3.2 Summary 20
4. Conceptual Model
4.1 Governance and enabling control 21
4.2 Enabling control and IT user satisfaction 24 4.3 Governance and IT user satisfaction 26
4 6. Results and analysis.
6.1 Proposition 1. Governance and enabling control. 37
6.1.1. Bodegraven Reeuwijk 38
6.1.2. Leiden 39
6.1.3.Schagen 40
6.1.4. Den Haag 41
6.2 Proposition 2. Enabling control and IT end user satisfaction 43
6.2.1. Bodegraven Reeuwijk. 43
6.2.2. Leiden. 44
6.2.3.Schagen 45
6.2.4. Den Haag 46
6.3 Proposition 3. Governance and IT end user satisfaction 50
6.2.1. Bodegraven Reeuwijk. 50
6.2.2. Leiden. 51
6.2.3.Schagen 52
6.2.4. Den Haag 54
6.4 Central government influences 56
6.4.1 Tactical baseline BIG 56
6.4.2 IS centrality versus autonomy of municipalities 58
6.4.3 Public tendering at municipalities. 62
7. Discussion and Conclusion
7.1 discussion of findings and propositions 65 7.2 implications of additional findings 67
7.3 Limitations and future research 69
7.4 Conclusion 70
Literature 72
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1. Introduction
Mahmood et. al. (2000) argued that the increasing investments in information technology (IT) would naturally lead to consequences of failure rising as well. They argued that to that date, the causes of failure in IT investments are still poorly understood. Unfortunately, this seems applicable to the Dutch government and its investments in IT. In the Netherlands it is
common news that governmental IT projects have failed (Deira, 2014). A recently established committee with IT experts was assigned to determine the costs and reasons for failure and mistakes of IT investments of the Dutch government (Committee, 2012). They made a rough approximation and found the staggering number of five billion euros lost every year (Deira, 2014). There are numerous examples of recent difficulties, small and big, in IT investment of the Dutch government. For example, a project that was initially setup with a certain budget, eventually had costs that were four times higher (Deira, 2013). Officially, the Dutch
government installed this committee to investigate why the “governmental information processes and streams are not in order” (Committee, 2012).
According to Mahmood et. al. (2000) one important factor for information system (IS) investment success is the end user satisfaction with the overall IS and IT. They found three factors in a meta-analysis that determined end user satisfaction with IT: the overall benefits of the IT for the users; top management support and motivation; and the user’s background. They argued that end user satisfaction of IT and IS (information system) is a leading indicator for its eventual success, since it indirectly covers aspects like ease of use and overall
usefulness. Other factors like experience with IT of the users, top management support, user attitudes to the information system (IS) and others were found. To give an example, it was found that the benefits of the IT in the form of ease of use, the usefulness and the expectations of an IS are strongly related to IT end user satisfaction (Mahmood et al., 2000).
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amplify their satisfaction with the IS. A certain typology of control that sounds particularly interesting for the issue regarding control and IT satisfaction is the concepts of enabling and coercive control. Enabling control is control that allows employees to understand and to some degree adjust the way they are controlled (Adler and Borys, 1996). Coercive control, on the other hand, can be described as a form of control where only top managers know what and why is controlled, without telling this to the employees, thus coercing them to a certain standards or rules. Whether coercive control leads to higher IT satisfaction, or coercive control only leads to low IT satisfaction and thus lower performance of the IT, are interesting questions not yet answered. Especially the latter is intriguing; in that end user IT satisfaction theory assumes that anything not leading to higher satisfaction in some way hampers
performance. Is that truly the case, or is it different for municipalities?
1.1 Research question
Dutch municipalities are chosen as research subject, because they are significant part of the government. Dutch municipalities are required to move to a more IT oriented way of service and working, thus making it interesting to see how these developments have gone so far (Bekkers, 2013; Homburgi & Dijkshoorn, 2012). Also how governance and control are related can be closely observed, since all municipalities have a certain degree of autonomy in IT, while also having more general rules they have to comply to.
The extent to which (IT) control is perceived as either coercive or enabling depends on four factors (Adler and Borys, 1996). Internal transparency for instance is about the extent people can look into the factors that they are controlled on. Now for an IS that sounds
important as well, to what extent are the end users able to look into the system and determine how it works? Moreover, for municipalities the risk of a badly functioning or flaw full IS often concerns very delicate and private information, for instance of citizens getting their online identity “stolen”. Thus although enabling control sounds better in theory, it might be a risk for municipalities to install such control. Taking these risks into account is what a recent meta-analysis of Heeks and Bailur (2007) warned current E-government researchers for, being overly optimistic about E-government. E-government is the development of
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Control is not something that is specifically used and installed by top management, who instead determine the broad direction and purpose of control for the organization in the form of governance. The most commonly known form of governance, bureaucracy, can be defined as: “a classical system resorting to a recognized system of universal rules and ranks” (Considine and Lewis, 1999, p. 469)”. It is assumable that something as broad as governance has no real impact on eventual IT satisfaction of end users. However, governance should have some influence on the structure of the IS, since the IS that employees use is, also in definition, an internal recognized system. An IS most likely has universal rules, mostly because it would be very risky and unpractical for a governmental entity to have several IS for the same tasks. In other words for all governmental entities, including municipalities, there should be some form of (E-) governance installed for it’s IS. Whether governance is installed for IS could provide explanations for the recurring difficulties of IT investment in Dutch municipalities, perhaps signaling a lack of direction and thus governance. Ultimately, how enabling control influences IT end user satisfaction could be related to a certain style of governing. How these dynamics are is unclear.
This leads to the research question: “How is end user IT satisfaction of employees
influenced by the presence of enabling or coercive control in Dutch municipalities and to what extent is that dependent on the overall IT governance for municipalities?” Based on this
research question and the discussion above, related sub questions are the following. To what extent does governance overrule control, meaning that control is subjugated to governance? Which types of governance are prevalent in Dutch municipalities and how important is this factor for end user IT satisfaction? What perception of IT control do the end users have and how does this relate to IT end user satisfaction? Do certain combinations of control and governance have more satisfied IT end users and why? And lastly, what do the findings suggest for E-government theory?
1.2 Theoretical and practical relevance
The goal of this research is to determine how both governance and the extent of enabling control are of influence on end users of IT in Dutch municipalities. It thus also thrives to add to the literature of end user satisfaction in IT, which is argued to be one of the leading indicators of success of IT and IS.
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be possible or ideal for the sake of security of information and protection of privacy. These findings can contribute to the concept of enabling control.
Meanwhile both the theoretical and practical field of E-government is growing at an explosive rate (Heeks and Bailur, 2007; Moon, 2002). Municipalities are increasing their investment and dependence in IS, both for internal and external use in servicing companies and citizens. The description of the E- government field is discussed in general terms (West, 2004; Moon, 2002; Layne and Key, 2001). However, what factors make an E-government stand-out, or factors that are of significant importance for an E-government are less discussed. Moreover, Heeks and Bailur (2007) found that most research in E-government is based on questionable methodological grounds. Considering Heeks and Bailur’s (2007) critique on methods in E-government, this research will have a strong methodological basis.
The relevance of this thesis spans beyond the interest of municipalities alone. The Dutch citizens, being the indirect funders of these projects through tax payments, and the government in general have an important stake in this issue and would benefit from finding factors that influence these projects. However, not only money is of importance. The eventual end users in most cases are the municipalities or a similar entity on one side and citizens on the other. Thus it is of importance to look into this question in that regard as well.
1.3 Structure of thesis
To find an answer to the research question the thesis is structured in the following manner. First some general contextual information is described concerning the Dutch municipalities and their IT developments. Second, the literature covering the main concepts of this thesis is presented. Third, the conceptual framework, based on the literature and contextual
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2. Contextual information – Dutch municipalities and IT
How municipalities function in the Netherlands is discussed in this section. It provides a general oversight about how Dutch municipalities function. For each section, the importance of IT is mentioned. First, some general figures about Dutch municipalities are presented. Then three sections follow to describe the core characteristics of Dutch municipalities which are: the organizational structure; the tasks and development of policies and; the execution of policy and related ways of cooperation.
2.1 Dutch municipalities in general
The Netherlands consists of 393 municipalities in total as of 1-1-2015 (CBS.nl).
Approximately one third of these have less than 20.000 inhabitants. The Netherlands has the second highest number of average inhabitants per municipality in Europe, after Denmark. One of the goals for all Dutch municipalities is to be able to service citizens and organizations online by 2017 (VNG dienstverlening).
It’s becoming increasingly important for governments and municipalities to have a stable and useful presence electronically and online (Moon, 2002). The Netherlands is no exception to this trend and have been investing heavily in IT. An example of an IT project is operation NUP (National execution program agenda for service and E-government) which is a recently established program for Dutch municipalities (KING.nl, 2014). It entails “23 ICT building-blocks” which are deemed necessary to improve the basis of service and
communication between municipalities and citizens or organizations. For instance an instant fill in document feature has been developed, which connects several IS to find and fill in the right information instantly (KING.nl (2), 2014). This will lead to fewer mistakes made on both sides of service process, faster and efficient work, a uniform layout and fewer mistakes with addresses and delivery. Several projects with similar desired outcomes are running in 2014-2015.
2.2 Organizational structure in Dutch municipalities
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Unfortunately, while this is in theory what the Dutch governments wants all
governmental bodies to do, in reality things are not working out as expected. In the past three decades, the municipalities’ structure went from a secretary model, to a sector model to the now prevalent direction model. The direction model is primarily structured around the “citizen logic”, thus what their perception and expectations of the municipalities are (front office, back office, an office for policy etc.). The reason it developed to this direction model was due to flaws of the previous two structures (Aardema and Korsten, 2009). The secretary model stimulated a “fighting culture”, while the sector model stimulated too much of a negotiations culture. As mentioned earlier, the integral working style did not emerge as expected. They argued that any attempt at restructuring eventually lead to people trying to reclaim their original positions and in the process, not much changed. In theory however, most Dutch municipalities have a direction model aiming for more integral working.
2.3 Tasks and policy development in Dutch municipalities
There are a wide range of policies or tasks a municipality has to deal with. Although some tasks are shared by all municipalities, there can be significant differences in what some countries expect and do not expect from their municipalities. Moreover, there can also be differences between Dutch municipalities. Dutch municipalities are expected to cover tasks in the following areas: Social sector, physical sector, external service and internal service (VNG, 2010).
The social sector covers six tasks of which three are mainly based on legal
obligations: labor, societal support and welfare and public healthcare. The remaining three are: Culture, recreation and sports. These and the legal obligations are self-explanatory in a broad sense, but quite complicated due to being based on laws and regulations. In general, the legal obligations are often dealt with in IS by municipalities, but the underlying policies cannot be influenced by the frontline employees. Therefor these policy areas will not be discussed, but for additional information refer to VNG (2010).
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is a recent virus attack on the IS of several municipalities, the dorifel virus. The aftermath of the virus was that all municipalities had to increase IT security.
The external services areall services a municipality delivers to citizens and
organizations: service, social property, subsidy and generated income. Most of these services are facilitated by IT and online, excluding property. Service can be divided in transactional service and composite service. The difference is that transactional service covers all simple civil services like taxes and permits. Composite services are complicated decisions, for instance regarding residential facility. Social property concerns all property that is in use for public functions, for instance schools. Subsidies are all societal support the municipality delivers to citizens. Last, generated income can be divided in own generated income, for instance taxes, and benefits received from funds.
The last of the four sectors is internal services, the factors that are crucial for internal organization and thus indirectly important for the primary processes. It concerns digitalizing and business operations. As is also prevalent in academic literature, digitalizing governments is a big issue and the interest and publishing in it are increasing significantly (Heeks and Bailur, 2007; Moon, 2002). Overall, digitalizing governments means that municipalities have to use IT more, better and smarter and Dutch municipalities are actively developing this. Business operations are all (primarily internal) tasks that are required to execute the primary tasks. In other words, business operations are all tasks required to execute all policies
previously mentioned in the external services, social sector and physical sector. In the Netherlands this is based on PIOFACH; personnel, information, organization, finance, atomizing, communication and housing.
2.4 Executing policies
The execution of policy and related ways of cooperation is how municipalities work internally and with external partners to execute the previously mentioned policies (Bekkers, 2013). Originally, the Dutch government and municipalities did not put much effort in executing policy. It was assumed that if a good policy was developed, execution would follow naturally. Luckily this mentality has changed, for the better. In this section the major developments in Dutch policy execution are discussed.
According to Bekkers (2013) the general management perspective of Dutch
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often comprehensively described and programmed with little room for flexibility.
Additionally, due to the centralization responsibility is easy to track. This leads to a very mechanistic government. This is however, the general management perspective and not empirically backed up, while at the same time generalizing all municipalities. This study will empirically determine if this bureaucratic governance is indeed prevalent.
Bekkers (2013) gives an interesting insight in how Dutch municipalities changed from a street level execution to screen level execution. Street level can be defined as executing policy almost exclusively with human input, screen level as almost exclusive execution with IT. This development can be contributed to the development and possibilities of IT. What in the past used to be done manually and was time consuming changed to being almost entirely atomized. IT went from being supportive to being leading, from pure registration to full execution and control without human interference.
Another development in the execution of policy is the increased use and reliance on
partners (Bekkers, 2013). Three reasons are responsible for this increasing reliance on
partners: an increasing need to deal with the complex society and fragmented government; the fact that different units share responsibility for a problem; and the lack of central authority. Bekkers (2013) gives the example of dealing with children dropping out of school. Why did it happen: did the parents do wrong (and should they be addressed by parental advisors); is it drugs or alcohol; low education etc. Often a combination of several factors requires case specific solutions and thus, leads to interdependent and shared responsibility. The example shows that determining who the central authority is in these situations is not always evident. Bekkers (2013) then provides several solutions, which indirectly indicates that no real solution for dealing with partners has revealed itself in practice.
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3. Literature
Based on the research question: “How is end user IT satisfaction of employees influenced by
the presence of enabling or coercive control in Dutch municipalities and to what extent is that depended on the overall IT governance for municipalities?” the following literature is
discussed to give insights into the concepts and their development. First the literature of governance is discussed, to indicate how public governance differs from corporate
governance and also showing several types of governance. Second the literature of control is discussed, with a clear focus on the enabling and coercive control concept. Last, end-user IT satisfaction and the related literature is discussed, presenting the most important related factors and a closely associated model to IT satisfaction, TAM.
3.1 Governance
In the last decades, the focus of governance theory has been primarily on corporations (Shleifer & Vishny, 1996). The premise of public governance and corporate governance is similar in that they have to structure and deal with a wide arrange of activities that cannot be handled by a few people anymore. Other than that, corporate and public governance are fundamentally different. Corporate governance ultimately is aimed to make profit and/or long term survival for the corporation (Shleifer & Vishny, 1996). Public governance is much more delicate, leaning on executing citizens demands and keeping the nation as a whole moving forward (Weiss, 1999).
Traditionally, governance is argued to be the execution of a classic bureaucracy (Considine and Lewis, 1999). It is a combination based on the military’s unified chain of command and adding a layer of specialization with experts, based on the church lines. This procedural, or bureaucratic, form of governance can be defined as: “a classical system resort to a recognized system of universal rules and ranks” (Considine and Lewis, 1999, p. 469). However, they argued that is not the only form of governance and that, in fact, these newer forms are probably growing in popularity.
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The types of governance can be described according to four characteristics: Source of rationality; form of control; primary virtue; and service delivery goal. Considine and Lewis (2003) eventually identify three types of governance. For an oversight of these three types of governance refer to figure 1. First is what they call procedural governance, which is the bureaucratic view. The source of rationality is the law and the form of control is rules. Its primary virtue is reliable and stable treatment and its goals are universal, meaning it strives to cover all demands that are available.
The second governance type they found was the enterprise governance, a combination of two distinct types they originally hypothesized. It is a combination of corporate governance and market governance. No clear mentioning of its characteristics are provided, however it is a combination of the corporate’s output focus combined with the market’s focus on gaining maximum financial output’s. Considine and Lewis (2003) mention four core characteristics that enterprise governance consists of: target drive, related to organizational goals, attentive to financial goals and focused on priority groups.
The last type of governance is the network governance. They argue that it is a
combined effort of both profit and non-profit entities to achieve a joint goal. Thus their source of rationality is based on the same culture they have and the form of control is the fact that they co produce and thus are inherently dependent of each other. Its primary virtue is
flexibility with the service focus being clients, thus this type of governance sees its main goal as helping and caring for clients.
Bureaucratic Governance Network Governance Enterprise Governance Source of rationality
Law Culture Competitive
management
Form of control Rules Coproduction Plans and contracts
Primary virtue Reliable Treatments Flexible Target driven
Service focus Universal Clients Priority groups
Figure 1. Three types of governance
An increasingly discussed type or part of governance is IT governance. Webb, Pollard and Ridley (2006) looked at several IT governance definitions and argued that one
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towards the right direction. More importantly, regardless if practitioners or academics would adapt this definition, they want to increase the popularity of the concept IT governance. They argue that controlling and governing IT has some unique characteristics that need to be broadly controlled for, for instance privacy (Webb, Pollard and Ridley, 2006).
Fountain (2002) attempted to determine how the traditional governance will change or develop with the increasing importance of IT governance. For instance she argued that the internet allows for incredibly improved information sharing and that the hierarchical ladders can be of less importance. However, on the foreseeable future it is unlikely that bureaucratic governments and municipalities will disappear. She compares IT developments and its impact with the steam engines in the past. More importantly is that this time, it is not physical labor that is revolutionized but services. There are five processes that resemble and underpin an organization and thus need governance: production, control, coordination, direction and integration. IT has the potential to influence or revolutionize those processes. It is possible to have an information centered and sharing form of bureaucratic governance (Fountain, 2002). She argues that bureaucratic governance will not necessarily be exchanged by network or enterprise governance due to more IT.
3.1.1 Summary
There is a distinction between corporate and public governance. Public governance has three main types: procedural governance, network governance and enterprise governance. The type of governance can be described according to four characteristics: Source of rationality; form of control; primary virtue; and service delivery goal. With the growing importance of IT in all forms and layers of an organization, academic literature is increasingly exploring the
importance and relevance of IT governance.
3.2 Control
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these streams can be classified as being either the mechanistic view or the organic view. The mechanistic view is based primarily on controlling by budgets and monitoring results. The organic view focusses on the people aspects of control, meaning that control is mainly achieved by controlling people. One control theory that has an organic view on control is the theory of enabling and coercive control (Adler and Borys, 1996).
3.2.1 Enabling control
There is a narrow view of control that looks into whether the controlling elements enable employees to better do their job, or hampers them in doing their job. It is related to the organic view, since the premise of the theory is that if control is not perceived as helpful by the controlled people, it is failing. Adler and Borys (1996) refer to it as enabling or coercive control. They argue that control that is only aimed at monitoring employees causes them to be coerced, since it provides no insights into how they are controlled and why. Coerced
employees feel less motivated due to the fact that they are constrained in their work, while opportunities to improve are also prevented. However, if control is open for employees to look and even adjust, it can be enabling. The extent to which control is perceived as either enabling or coercive is based on four elements: Internal transparency, global transparency, flexibility and repair.
Internal transparency is to what extent employees can have insights into how, why
and when they are controlled. Thus, how your performance is measured and on which parameters this is based. For example one can look at the factors of the three legged stool of control (Widener, Shackell and Demers, 2008). If an employee has no clear insight into how his performance is measured (PMS), how the decision rights are delegated (DDR) and how incentives are compensated (IC) the control has low internal transparency.
If the control is internally transparent, that does not necessarily mean that it is also logical compared to similar organizations or other companies. This is the second factor,
global transparency and means to what extent control is logical and understandable compared
to other organizations, or if it is comparable to begin with. Thus global transparency is how good the MCS is compared to the “outside world”. An employee could have a clear insight into how the three legged stool (e.g. delegation of decision rights, incentive compensation and performance measurement) inside the organization is organized, but compared to other
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Third, flexibility is the inherent capability of control to adapt to new situations, for instance when competition is growing fast, or when an influential technological breakthrough influences the way you do business. If a control system is rigid and focused only on output, while the company is becoming more service oriented, this would result in poor control since output could decrease while service income is increasing. A flexible control system would be able to adapt to new strategies and still efficiently monitor and reward people in their jobs. Last, repair is the ability for employees to adjust or improve the controlling system. Contrary to flexibility, repair is actually adjusting, removing or adding elements on top of an existing IS.
Initially, internal transparency is required for the other factors to develop. Without an indication of how and why something or someone is controlled, it cannot be compared to anything else resulting in low global transparency. Also the ability to repair or be flexible is dependent on how much is clear of the control system.
Adler and Borys (1996) argue that the effects of formalization can be positive or negative. Formalization as in rules and role descriptions can be positive since it decreases role ambiguity. It thus allows employees to better understand their job. The negative side of formalization is that it decreases autonomy, and in the process motivation and having less chance to contribute to innovation.
3.2.2 Summary
Enabling control is an organic view on control, arguing that employees that have insight into the control system (internal transparency) of an organization could ultimately improve their performance. With insight, the control system could be compared (global transparency), improved (repair) or redirected (flexibility). Having a purely coercive, or purely enabling control systems is neither optimal, since too much or too little formalization both have downsides.
3.3 End-user IT satisfaction
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End user IT satisfaction is one of the most influential factors for IT investment performance (Mahmood et.al., 2000). Before explaining their actual meaning and relevance, the definition of IT end user satisfaction and an IS are discussed. The recent meta-analysis of Mahmood et.al. (2000) discussed the importance of IT end user satisfaction and the related factors and developed framework. Interestingly, they do not provide a clear definition of IT end user satisfaction nor what an IS is. Moreover, several other influential papers concerning the importance of either IT satisfaction or technological acceptance (TAM) did not give a clear definition of an IS (Venkatesh et. al., 2003; Legris et. al., 2003; Mahmood et. al., 2000).
This thesis defines IT end user satisfaction according to what Mahmood et al. (2000) mentions as most important factors: “All the perceived benefits and convenience of, the user’s background with and organizational support for a specific or set of information technology”. An Information System, with lack of a more specific and parsimonious definition is defined as: “A set of integrally linked information technology, which are interdependent and together function more efficiently then all IT parts individually”.
Mahmood et al. (2000) developed a framework with 3 main factors influencing IT satisfaction, which in turn had several factors influence those as well. First there is perceived benefits with elements of ease of use, user expectations and perceived usefulness. Second, organizational support is comprised of the elements user attitude towards information
systems, actual organizational support and perceived attitude of top management. Last there is a more sociological element concerning user background with the user experience, user skills and the involvement of the user in development. These three main factors with their related factors are discussed below.
The first element which is also argued to be the most important one is perceived
benefits (Mahmood et al., 2000). Perceived usefulness, the first element of the benefits and
end user satisfaction as a whole are strongly connected. Moreover, it is often argued that this results in more productivity, because a system that is easy to use means that there is more time left to do other work. The actual ease of use that is experienced is perhaps an
overarching factor, since a system that is too hard to understand or operate is probably not used as it should nor perceived as satisfactory. The initial expectations of an upcoming or recently implemented IS is important for eventual satisfaction. If employees have a negative expectation and beliefs before actually using the new technology, these beliefs and
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Mahmood et al. (2000) refers to the second factor as organizational support and
encouragement towards IT. Thus it does imply the extent top management supports or
influences IT investments or usages, but in more general terms the actual acceptance of IT in an organization. It does include top management support of IT in the organization, both in the perception of users and actual training that top management uses to make IT successful. However, it also covers the overall end user predisposition towards IT and IS. In other words, whether the actual users of the IS are in favor of the organization developing in a
technological direction.
The last factor, as mentioned a more sociological factor, is the user background. This covers the user’s skills with IT, how long they have been using IT and the involvement they have in IT. These factors thus indirectly cover aspects like age, intelligence about IT and their desires to understand IT.
Igbaria and Tan (1997) found that user satisfaction with IT was an important factor for both eventual actual system usage and that it had a strong effect on individual impact.
Individual impact is the increase in productivity for the individual. They also argued and found that user satisfaction is a leading indicator for eventual acceptance of IT. This indicates that regardless of the new IT installed, if it is not accepted or satisfactory in use, it could very well fail.
The IT acceptance and IT satisfaction are two variables that are used sometimes as synonymous and sometimes differently. The TAM, technology acceptance model, is an example of a theory that seems to be the first, thus a synonymous, although it is more concerned with acceptance (Legris et. al., 2003). This makes sense, since even if people are very satisfied with a new IT, that does not mean it is accepted correctly nor used correctly. Consider giving every employee an Ipad, they may be satisfied, but what it should be used for could remain unclear. The TAM model looks at the same factors as the IT satisfaction model, either directly or indirectly. For instance job relevance is related to the benefits of the IT. Others, like ease of use and experience are the same. Two factors however, are more unique to the TAM model, output quality and result demonstrability. The TAM models are much more complex and comprehensive in that they try to combine several theories and also cover psychological reason more deeply (Legris et. al., 2003). Ultimately, the IT end user
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have successful IT investments and also success in use on the long term, the most important factor is the eventual end user.
3.3.2 Summary
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4. Conceptual model
In this section a theoretical framework based on general propositions is discussed to clarify the research question. First the relation between governance and enabling control is discussed. After that the relation between enabling control and end user satisfaction with IT is presented. Third, discussed is how governance and end user IT satisfaction are related.
4.1 Governance and enabling control
Governance and control are related to each other, in the sense that the chosen governance has direct and indirect implications for the control that should be executed. For instance typical bureaucratic governance will have employees reporting directly to their supervisors and make sure their actions are according their plans. Thus control is setup by the supervisors or
managers. However, the reason they installed this control is because in a bureaucratic and thus primarily hierarchical organization it is expected and mandated that the manager is the person responsible. Moreover, this manager is also in service for another senior manager. This “chain of command” is typical for bureaucratic governance. Without control installed at any level of this chain of command, there is no governance that is being maintained.
This raises an interesting question; can governance actually be “installed”? Based on above discussion it seems that control is the main indication of governance. In other words, if one would change the way people are controlled this will cause an automatic shift in the way there are governed as well. Changing the style of governance is a strategic decision that requires actions to become effective. This is also in line with the difficulties the Dutch government has had with trying to implement new governance, mentioned in section 2.3 (Bekkers, 2013). Long has the assumption of the Dutch government been that if a new general structure is planned, or new governance plans are released, it will automatically get
implemented in practice.
It is that aspect that sets control and governance apart. Governance provides broad guidelines and indications for control, thus one could argue that governance in essence is the strategy for control. Assume that top management makes no clear decisions on how, to whom and why one should report front end managers are left to their own devices and imagination. There are two possible outcomes. It is possible that by complex social dynamic the managers will converge to a certain form of control primarily through consensus. For Dutch
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organization and its control and the ways of setting up and achieving goals will be wildly divergent.
Governance and control are therefore not only related per definition and in theory, but are vital to be connected in practice as well. Looking at the premises and core characteristics of the coercive and enabling control typology on one hand, and the governance typology developed by Considine and Lewis (2003) on the other, one can identify certain touching points between the two typologies.
Having nothing to say about how and why one is controlled is related to a bureaucratic or procedural governance, top down organization mandating targets and goals to employees. The bureaucratic form also specifically refers to a set of rules and systems, indicating that they are not something easily changed. Considering that the law is the primary virtue of procedural governance and is based on rules which cannot be broken nor changed, it is not likely to find bureaucratic organizations with enabling control. What could be expected is high internal transparency, since it the primary virtue is the law. That could indicate that everyone knows internally why and how they are controlled, but other than that, they have no influence over it.
In essence, the network governance type already supports the internal and global transparency aspects of enabling control. The premise of network governances is employees across units and even organizations provide and ask for support and have good
communication. It is thus assumable that these people know what everyone is up, the premise of internal transparency. Moreover, since this networking governance is on so many fronts and different levels, the overall logic of those controls or goals will be clear as well, the premise of global transparency.
All this transparency, both global and internal, does not necessarily lead to high
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network governance does not only function efficiently with enabling control, it has a tendency to develop towards enabling control.
Considine and Lewis (2003) initially did not expect enterprise governance, instead expecting a market oriented and corporate oriented types of governance. They found a combination of the latter two which they summarized as being target driven, related to organizational goals, attentive to financial outcomes and focused on priority groups. These elements do not directly point strongly to an enabling control style, contrary to network governance. However, it is still likely that enterprise governance is related to an enabling style of control.
Looking at four core elements of governance types, it seems that the market driven governance is coercive in nature, while the corporate governance is enabling in nature. Looking at the primary virtues and source of rationality of corporate and market governance one can identify elements of enabling and coercive control. The source of rationality for market governance is competition and for corporate governance it is management. Competition is more coercive in nature, in that it reacts to external pressures while
management is more enabling, since it assumes a more “inside out” problem solving. Second, the primary virtues also indicate a certain tendency of control. A goal driven, corporate orientation indicates that by “any means” the goal must be reached, while the cost driven market orientation coercively forces people to think in numbers. Third, the form of control for corporate governance is based on plans, while market governance is based on contracts
(Considine and Lewis, 2003). A contract is in essence a document made to create coercion, while plans allow several means to reach an end. Last, the service delivery focus for corporate is target groups and for market it is price. It can be argued that target groups require flexibility and transparency, while price is a very simplified delivery focus.
Ultimately, assuming that market governance is primarily coercive in nature while corporate governance is primarily enabling, could mean that enterprise governance may have best of both worlds. It is thus likely that enterprise governance shows elements of coercive and enabling control, be it positive or negative. Whether this mix is an actual balance, or leans to either side is unclear.
The arguments presented in this section lead to the following propositions.
24 Proposition 1b. A high level of network governance is expected to have a more enabling control installed.
Proposition 1c. High levels of enterprise governance have a mix or balance of both coercive and enabling control.
4.2 Enabling control and IT user satisfaction
Enabling control factors reparability and flexibility are of great importance for an IS. Also the transparency, or what “engine” an IS runs on is important to be aware of. However, the enabling control factors should not be mistaken with purely technological aspects. It is unlikely that front end personnel are IT experts and are capable of understanding the transparency of the IS’ engine or network. Whether the IS is controlled in an enabling manner, is for instance reflected in how easy it is for end users to change the way their IS works. In failing IT investments it is those factors that are prevalent reasons (Mahmood et al., 2000). Thus front end personnel that does not understand the use of the (new) system, or how it works. However, investing time and training for employees to understand the “superficial” part of the IS, could improve their work efficiency greatly.
Consider an IS for permits in municipalities. The employees do not need to know how the system is developed or how it performs in technical terms. What could help them is: task related information of the system (internal transparency); the ability and freedom to solve issues themselves (reparability); the ability and freedom to adjust the working of the system (flexibility) and; the possibility to compare it with other systems (global transparency). It’s these types of transparency and reparability factors that make control less required, while also increasing work efficiency in the process.
However, teaching people why and how an IS works is time consuming and the gain of the knowledge and the related gain to efficiency will not offset the high costs of teaching them. Additionally, providing them with that information might make their job description less clear and lead to role ambiguity. Thus sometimes employees are not told why the need to do something and are instead told that it is mandatory to do a specific task. This coercive control is also necessary and even important, even though it will often be perceived as negative. This would suggest that it may be hard to have an accessible and flexible IS for all employees.
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server is down, that information is missing etc. Or they will know that making a small typo in certain forms will result in errors down the line that take considerable more effort to fix.
Mahmood et al. (2000) presented very strong evidence for how certain factors influence IT end user satisfaction, but the factor control has not been studied yet. Moreover their findings were all based on quantitative data and more importantly, perceptions of the participants. This is of course inherently related weakness of quantitative research, but that does not mean that it should therefore be accepted. This research using interviews does not only gather the perceptions, but also opinions, feelings and other indications of exactly how important certain elements are for end user IT satisfaction.
Overall Adler and Borys (1996) looked at their developed typology and used
technology and machines to explain how it works. They used the example of a large company printer, which is quite sophisticated especially when it breaks down. The problem with IT end user satisfaction and enabling control is that there are contradicting conditions. For instance, considering ease of use it can be an indication of enabling and coercive control, depending on its interpretation. With coercive control, people (or in this case IT users) know what is going on, it either works or doesn’t. If it functions correctly they use it and if it does not function, they expect experts to solve the problem. Thus the system is very easy in use in that regard. With enabling control, people are ought to solve these problems themselves. In the short term that means a hard to use IS, since they are required to learn themselves how to solve their problems. However, on the long term it will be ease to use, both when repairing and when it is functioning. Moreover, being able to fix it most likely is also dependent on the background of employees, a factor for IT end user satisfaction. This suggest that enabling control does not automatically lead to higher IT satisfaction.
Ahrens & Chapman (2004) found that an enabling approach to control helped employees to do their jobs more effectively while also offering managers the chance to contribute to objectives of both flexibility and efficiency. They argued that traditional contingency based literature about management control had difficulties of combining efficiency and flexibility, something the coercive and enabling typology did. In their case study they found that enabling and coercive control were legitimate and distinct forces of control that could be monitored. More importantly is that they found that enabling control was a useful tool to improve the ability of employees to work with their IS.
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Indeed they found that information system integration improved all factors of enabling control. Based on these findings it is thus assumable that an enabling IS leads to more satisfied end users. Chapman and Kihn (2009) mentioned how integrating several systems into a new one was generally received as positive. That can be interpreted as satisfied end users.
As is clear, the argumentation on one hand is clear, indicating that enabling control leads to higher end user IT satisfaction. However, there are some interrelated factors at play that make it hard to make a proposition that covers the “universal truth”. As Adler and Borys (1996) already mention, there are two sides in this debate, one that argues that control leads to positive emotions by providing job clarity and one that argues that control leads to negative emotions, since it hampers autonomy. Too little control, however, can lead to unclear job descriptions and lead to role ambiguity. Still, there is a prevailing logic that expects enabling control to provide more end user IT satisfaction. Based on previous research and the most prevailing logic, the propositions are as follows.
Proposition 2a: Information systems with high indications of enabling control are expected to have higher IT end user satisfaction.
Proposition 2b: Information systems with high indications of coercive control are expected to have lower IT end user satisfaction.
4.3 Governance and IT user satisfaction
Something as broad as governance may not have a direct influence on IT satisfaction. That is, a change in structure, or a bureaucratic environment does not directly lead to lower end user IT satisfaction. Indirectly, the combined relation of control and governance and the synergy between those two concepts can have positive or negative influences on IT satisfaction. Governance is in a sense a way to deal with the environment and stakeholders of an
organization. How important could the governance of, for instance, municipalities be for the end user IT satisfaction?
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but it cannot indicate if it is actually done and to what extent. Thus it is argued that for any type of governance it is hard if not impossible to influence the user background. Moreover, it sounds rather weird to say that a company can govern their employee’s background.
Perhaps the importance of an IS for municipalities over-rules the importance of end user satisfaction. In other words, people using the system have no position to demand or expect a user friendly IS and so governance should perhaps not even have to consider IT satisfaction. This is because of the fact that municipalities deal with private and confidential information. This could imply that governance for municipalities can ignore end user
satisfaction with IT, since they are in the position to prefer the functioning of the IS over the user friendliness.
However, Adamson and Shine (2003) found that even for environments that have a mandatory environment, both user friendliness and the function of the IS are of crucial importance for IS success. They examined IT usage in banks, which are often using IS that are focused on privacy and safety of information. This is similar to municipalities, which should have the same reasons as banks to have certain IT. Based on those findings one could argue that regardless of the eventual influence, governance should at least consider the idea of IT end user satisfaction.
It is likely that procedural governance entities argue more in line with the functioning importance over the end user satisfaction argued in the previous paragraph. Bureaucratic governance is not very interested in end user IT satisfaction, they are concerned with getting the job done and satisfaction plays a minor role in that. Network governance was argued to be interrelated with enabling control, meaning that network governance does not only lead to more enabling control, but also the other way around. That is, network governance and enabling control most likely share an amplifying dynamic with each other. That leads to the assumption that network governance is indeed related to providing end user IT satisfaction, be it through mediation of enabling control. Additionally, in network governance it could be easier to perceive organizational support due to high levels of communication. Colleagues could repeatedly mention to each other that they use this part of the system for a particular reason. Mahmood et. al. (2000) also refers to “group work”, in which individuals learn to use a (new) IT by working with other colleagues. It is likely that network governance aims for group work and in the process higher IT satisfaction.
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balance of good functioning IT (market governance) and good end user IT satisfaction (corporate governance). This is however, again argumentation based on mediation, since it is assumed that governance has an influence on control and control on IT satisfaction. If control has no meaningful influence on IT satisfaction, then the previous argument has no grounding. In other words, if the first argument and thus the first proposition prove to be wrong, then the strength of the argument for governance on IT satisfaction is hampered.
Could enterprise governance have some direct influence on IT satisfaction? In enterprise governance it is assumable that top management makes a decision based on costs (market element of enterprise governance) and organizational goals (the corporate governance element). These factors are easy to understand for employees and could lead to their support. Additionally they will have at least moderately positive expectations, since they understand the upcoming purpose of the IT. In most cases the reason for governments or municipalities to invest in new IT is to improve efficiency or for the sake of modernity. Thus it is likely that the end users will have some perception of usefulness before the investment in new IT is finished.
Proposition 3a. Procedural governance is primarily concerned about the functionality of the IS that is installed.
Proposition 3b. Network governance is primarily concerned about the end user satisfaction of the IS that is installed.
Proposition 3c. Enterprise governance aims to have both end user satisfaction as well as good functionality of the IS that is installed.
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5. Methodology
In this section the methodology of the study is discussed. First the methodology, based on a case study is described. Second, the data collection and selecting of participants for the interviews is described. Finally the way of analyzing is described.
5.1 Research Method
To find an answer to the previously mentioned propositions this research will take a
qualitative approach in the form of a case study (Yin, 2003). The aim of this study is theory development. As has been discussed in the previous sections control, governance and IT satisfaction already have a considerable body of literature and theory. It is the goal of this thesis to find and describe, thus develop theory about the relation between these three
concepts, which received little attention. Qualitative research is well suited for understanding phenomena within their context, uncovering links among concepts and behaviors, and
generating and refining theory (Miles & Huberman, 1994). According to Yin (2003) a case study is best when a “how” question is asked and is also a good instrument for the replication of logic.
This research does a focused multiple case strategy. Four municipalities, part of the same government, are investigated. The focused multiple case study design allows for replication logic and to record interesting patterns, while also confirming or disconfirming them between cases (Yin, 2003). This study also aims exclusively at municipalities, which is in line with Dubois and Gadde’s (2002) critique on multiple case strategies. With the multiple case strategy they mean case studies that have cases that are different in several ways and overall not share any connections in their way of functioning. They argue that such multiple cases do not provide the depth required to provide meaningful conclusions, instead
developing broad and not very enlighten conclusions. To what extent the findings of this study are generalizable to other governmental bodies or even organizations is more questionable, but they do provide meaningful, in depth findings that theory development needs.
5.2 Data collection
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a decent guideline and starting point for the interview questions. For instance, governance has three quantitative measures to identify what type of governance is prevalent. These questions are used as starting point in the interviews. In other words, the measurement scales of
quantitative research function as the “structured” part of the interviews. These questionnaire based questions are adopted from: Governance type, Considine and Lewis (2003); enabling or coercive control, Chapman and Kihn (2009); IT end-user satisfaction, (Doll and Torkzadeh, 1988).
In the appendix the list with questions can be found. These questions were initially based on questionnaire questions, but rephrased and translated to open ended questions. Based on exploratory interviews in the UWV and municipality of Heerhugowaard, several questions were dropped due to irrelevance or gaining duplicate answers. The UWV is a large
organization dealing with people who lost their job and are helped in the process of getting a new job. The UWV is a non-profit organization that deals with similar IT issues as Dutch municipalities.
The participants for the interview will be the IT end users or people directly involved with IT in a municipality, for two main reasons. Most importantly because they know what they like about a system, if it satisfies and all the other factors mentioned earlier. Their managers or other people that are not directly related to the IS would only result in less reliable answers, since they are asked to have a say about other people’s opinion.
The end users of municipalities in the Netherlands are defined here as users that, as one can expect, are the actual users of the system. Additionally, the people directly related to the IS like application and system developers, maintenance or IT policy developers are questioned as well. The actual users and related people are thus employees of municipalities that are in contact with the IS on a regular basis to provide service to citizens, organizations or internal. As has been discussed in section two, municipalities have several functions they are obligated to execute, of which a few are not very IT centered. For instance, outdoor
maintenance are employees responsible for cleaning public areas. Only employees that are using and in contact with the IS on a day to day and regular basis are considered for the research.
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possible changes can be appointed to the important differences among the cases. In this research all cases are Dutch municipalities, focusing on end users of IT, a specific identity that connects all cases from the start.
There are four differing factors which can have implications for the eventual conclusions, which were mentioned in chapter two. First is the organizational structure of municipalities is checked via their organogram. It would be interesting to see to what extent the “direction model” is in place and how it is related to governance (Aardema and Kortsen, 2009). To identify how much (or little) of influence a differing organizational structure is, the structure that a case municipality has is compared to the actual governance and control that is in place.
Second, the overall policy planning and execution is examined to determine if the situations of the municipalities are similar regarding the same policies. For this thesis, it is examined to what extent the policies they have to do are supported by, or completely based on IT. Based on what Bekkers (2013) mentioned, it is interesting to see if municipalities are very IT centered.
The third and final differing factors are the geographical location and size of the case municipalities; based on which province the municipalities are part of and the number of citizens, respectively. By examining municipalities that are not near each other, the overall governance can be more easily generalized. That is, if some issues or factors remain constant over this longer distance, it can be more strongly argued to be government influence, opposed to local control and governance.
5.3 Case description
In this section the municipalities that agreed to participate are presented. First a general oversight of the municipality is given, in terms of structure and policy. The organograms of the municipalities are provided to give a general indication of the structure. Second, the people that are interviewed are introduced. The municipality of Leiden, Bodegraven
32 Bodegraven
Reeuwijk
Leiden Schagen Den Haag
Inhabitants (approx.)
33.000 122.000 46.000 515.000
Province Zuid Holland Zuid Holland Noord Holland Zuid Holland
Interviewed 1.Griffie 2.Griffie employee 3.Head automation and IT 1.Information manager 1.Junior system maintenance 2.Information and security advisor 1.Senior information advisor 2.Senior functional maintenance 3.IT Auditing employee
Notable Merger between Bodegraven and Reeuwijk since 2011. Forms dens agglomeration with 3 nearby municipalities Merged with 3 other municipalities in 2013 Third largest city/municipality of the Netherlands Figure 3. General information case municipalities.
5.3.1. Bodegraven Reeuwijk
Bodegraven-Reeuwijk is a municipality in the western part of the Netherlands, in the province of South Holland with a population of 33,036 in 2014. It was established by a merger of Bodegraven and Reeuwijk on 1 January 2011.
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Figure 4. Structure of Bodegraven Reeuwijk
5.3.2. Leiden
Leiden is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 122,000, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration with its suburbs Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten and Zoeterwoude with around 190,000 inhabitants.
One information manager was contacted in Leiden which spoke on behalf of her department. The interview was 50 minutes. The organizational structure of Leiden can be found below in figure 5.
34 5.3.3. Schagen
Schagen is a city and municipality in the northwestern Netherlands and is in the province of North Holland. In 2013, Schagen merged with Zijpe and Harenkarspel. Together they have formed a new municipality, which is also called Schagen. It had a population of 46,160 in 2014.
In Schagen one junior system maintenance employee and the advisor of information and security participated in the research. They were interviewed together for approximately one hour. The organizational structure of Schagen can be seen in figure 5. Looking at the organogram of Schagen, it can be considered a flat organization, with on top the “COO” and below that seven departments.
Figure 6. Organogram Schagen.
5.3.4. Den Haag
Den Haag is the seat of government in the Netherlands, and the capital city of the province of South Holland. The municipality has a population of 515,880 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2015) and including the suburbs over one million and is the third-largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
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Figure 7. Organogram Den Haag.
5.4 Data analyzing
Dubois and Gadde (2002) argue that case studies and interviews are not something one can analyze statistically. Additionally, data collection and analyses is more a process than a stage, meaning that there is a constant shift in gathering data and analyzing it. The goal of the analyses is to provide logical coherence, while actual fact finding is more relevant in (possible) deductive follow up studies.
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However, this is not the goal of this research. It relies on analytical generalization to provide interesting insights which could be further developed (Yin, 2003).
A concrete indication of how the analysis is done is as follows. It is based on themes, which are based on the literature. For governance, each three types were asked for indirectly to determine which one is dominant. That is, whether the governance was enterprise,
bureaucratic or network oriented. The extent of enabling control was based on the factors and thus four themes flexibility, repair, internal transparency and global transparency. IT end user satisfaction is determined similarly; determining the presence of the following factors thus themes: content, accuracy, timeliness, ease of use and format. Then for each proposition connecting statements with possible new themes are determined if possible. This is first done per case and proposition, after which general developments are highlighted looking at
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6. Results and analysis
In this section the collected data is analyzed. These results are structured by the theoretical propositions of the case study (Yin, 2003), which will be linked to the investigated cases. Thus, based on thematic analysis, the main themes and their linkages of this research are identified in the interviews and reported for each proposition.
First, the proposition concerning enabling control and related governance types is analyzed. Second, the proposition of enabling control and IT end user satisfaction is analyzed. Third, the relation between governance and IT end user satisfaction is treated. These are all done per case with each proposition. Lastly, three general governmental influences are evaluated, determining their overall effect on municipalities’ control, governance and IT satisfaction. In figure 8 a general oversight of the results is presented. At the end of this chapter an oversight of the findings and implications for the propositions is presented in figure 9.
Governance style Focus IT control Focus IT satisfaction Bodegraven
Reeuwijk
Network Enabling Average
Leiden Enterprise Enabling+Coercive High
Schagen Enterprise Enabling+Coercive Low
Den Haag Bureaucratic Coercive Low
Figure 8. Governance, IT control and IT satisfaction in cases.
6.1 Proposition 1. Governance and enabling control
The first proposition is as follows:
Proposition 1a. High levels of procedural/ bureaucratic governance are expected to have a more coercive control installed.
Proposition 1b. High levels of network governance are expected to have a more enabling control installed.
Proposition 1c. High levels of enterprise governance have a mix or balance of both coercive and enabling control.
38 6.1.1 Bodegraven Reeuwijk
Head atomizing had discussions and communication with several other municipalities, indicating network governance. That argument is strengthened by the fact that eventual IT investments were always counselled with both internal and external co-workers. What this indicates is that at the manager level, people were aware of how and why certain systems could or would work, indicating high internal and external transparency.
Two specific examples. If the city council opens their Ipad and everything they need is there, then we as registrar department did our job. If their mail and devices work, then IT did their job. Whether that is done in 30 minutes or a day, that doesn’t matter (Registrar, Bodegraven Reeuwijk)
Here the registrar indicates that in the end, the results are what count. This is in line with enterprise governance. In their eyes, everything is a team effort and a co-production, also clearly in line with network governance.
There was no indication of bureaucratic governance. They mentioned earlier in the interview that superiors did not know what people did. A budget was of importance and tracked closely, but was more for informative purposes and staying on track, while they relied on cooperation and getting the tasks done. This is in line with both an enabling control and network
governance.
Additionally, for a relatively small municipality, it is likely that front office people are not purely specialized in one service, since this would only fill in a part-time day job. Instead, they are required and capable of doing several services. When compared to Den Haag, there are certain employees that work full time in helping jobless people. Ultimately, this could indicate that employees in small municipalities as Bodegraven Reeuwijk are in contact with more IS and have a more general picture of the services they deliver. In other words, they have internal transparency, because they have a better oversight. Because they deliver several services, this could also indicate a flexible system. Thus an enabling IT system.
