Happiness

November 29, 2009

One of the columnists in the New Statesman magazine is Professor David Blanchflower, of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA and the University of Stirling, Scotland. I’m no expert in economics but since my son is a student of it, I’ve tried to grasp the fundamentals, which Professor “Danny”  Blanchflower is excellent at providing.

A recent column (9 November 2009) was entitled “Happiness is U-shaped“, which I initially didn’t associated with my own research, but after some pondering did. Prof. Blanchflower is the guru of happiness economics, which in the current climate must require a great deal of faith or optimism.

The question posed in Prof. Blanchflower’s surveys is – ” On the whole, are you very satisfied, fairly satisfied, not very satisfied or not at all satisfied with the life you lead?” The first point for me that this is a four point scale with no middle ground for fence-sitting, the second point is that this is not much different from asking people about the service they are getting and whether they are satisfied.

More support for a simple satisfaction measure, if I’m not mistaken.

1 Comment | customer satisfaction, e-government, engagement, Metrics | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by greatemancipator

Benchmarking the mire

November 25, 2009

One of the documents considered around the Malmo meeting of ministers is the Smarter, Faster, Better eGovernment, 8th Benchmark Measurement report by Capgemini etc for the European Commission. Its available on the Capgemini site.

I’ve not taken much notice of the previous seven for the very fact that they are focused on central government so much and, as in the case of this report, not all the services being benchmarked are delivered centrally in the UK. In fact, in the UK we need to remember that 80% of interactions with the public are delivered by local government (according to one academic report I read recently!)

In the context and content of the report, Capgemini place the control for e-government in the UK to the Cabinet Office – I wonder where the ODPM were in 2000 – 2006, then the DCLG, or for that matter the 300 plus local authorities?

One thing the report has finally started to pick up on is citizen satisfaction and the need for feedback channels. Unfortunately, they seem to have got the impression that this is somehow a strongpoint in the UK, whilst it’s still really only in its infancy.

I’m not sure what the value of such a report is, apart from shoring up the egos of those ministers in the top few, or highlighting the dismal failure of those less successful, but I’d like to see another report examining those countries whose citizens are most satisfied with service delivery across the channels – now that would be interesting!

Leave a Comment » | citizen, customer satisfaction, e-government, engagement, Metrics | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by greatemancipator

E-government – back in the news?

November 22, 2009

On Thursday 19 November 2009 The Guardian’s Michael Cross published a piece entitled “It’s now time for e-government policy to take the spotlight.”

In his usual charming manner Michael highlights the ignorance of one minister just three years ago, but concludes that 13 years on from the Conservative Green Paper, something might finally happen. I suspect that 13 years is still too soon and Micahel is being optimistic, but what is the cause of his optimism? It’s the EU Ministerial Conference in Malmo, Sweden. For the UK, Bill McCluggage, John Suffolk’s deputy was talking about “A Future that is Efficient, Sustainable and Responsible.”

Andrea di Maio picks up the latest declatation on his blog and does his usual thorough analysis and ends up slightly confused as to where it stands with Gov 2.0, although I suspect for the UK this probably takes on the observation by Michael Cross as to which way we go next year after the election – there are, of course, at least two choices, open up the data or give it to the private sector to open up!

William Heath was also in attendance anf he praises Ton Zilstra’s summary of the event.

Leave a Comment » | e-government, engagement, transformational change | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by greatemancipator

E-Parliament

November 19, 2009

A recent post (11 November 2009) on the World Bank’s blog brings into play another “e” word! This time its E-Parliament. Paul Mitchell, who recently spoke at the World e-Parliament 2009 Conference in Washington D.C., USA,  is the author and is very confident of the value ICT might have, although he does state that it’s about providing better service delivery.

As I’ve stated before, having read numerous papers and books on e-government, e-governance and similar phenomena, I struggle to see how, apart from a little increasing transparency, anything will change when the representatives of representative democracy are going to be unwilling to hand over some of their decision making powers to the electorate.

Two recent posts on the E-government Bulletin reinforce this from different angles: “ The Future of Politics: A Gathering Storm” and “Political Parties Could Be ‘Swept Away’ By Social Networks“. I suspect both are a storm in a tea-cup, since the main result of this lack of transparency appears to be citizen apathy.

Leave a Comment » | citizen, e-government, engagement | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by greatemancipator

Jobcentre +

November 15, 2009

Hot off the press (10 November 2009) from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) comes ”A qualitative study of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with Jobcentre Plus” by Dr Alex Nunn, Fiona Walton and Sukvinder Jassi from the Policy Research Institute at Leeds Metropolitan University.

At 152 pages its a lengthy read but a very comprehensive and worthwhile study. Some of the conclusions could be considered to be common sense but its nice to see well evidenced qualitative research supporting them, such as on page 74 – “The website was not used by many respondents because they did not have internet access or computer literacy. The dissatisfaction experienced with this channel was contributed to by the lack of online experience and computer skills.”

Similarly, on page 84, it presented a  conclusion that “customers feeling that they cannot access the information that they need through the website, resulting in them using another channel.”

From a researcher’s view, two of the “considerations for future research”  jump out. These are (from p.103):

  • “the importance of disagregating satisfaction with intended and unintended consequences of service provision, to isolate what elements of satisfaction are related to the means of service delivery rather than contextual or policy/legislative dynamics;”
  • “the importance of assessing customer satisfaction with provider services on longitudinal and comparitive basis.”

Interesting stuff!

Leave a Comment » | citizen, customer satisfaction, e-government, engagement, Metrics, Systems thinking, transformational change | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by greatemancipator

« Previous Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.