Layering of Hierarchy, Market and Networks Modes of Coordination: How did the French Napoleonic Administration implement an Interministerial Collaborative ICT-tool?
(2020) Tropicorn workshop — Location: KULeuven, Leuven (18.February.2020)
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- Digital collaboration is a hot topic for public administrations across Europe. More generally, the urge to greater collaboration within governments as well as between public and private actors has been understood as a functional response to “wicked problems” and in some cases as a reaction to previous reforms that emphasized fragmentation and specialization. Interestingly, some forms of digital collaborative arrangements have even been introduced in these administrative systems where managerial reforms have comparatively been limited and occurred later and which are deemed the most reluctant to change: Napoleonic bureaucracies. This article intends to contribute to the understanding of how formal and informal institutions contribute to shape collaborative governance in Napoleonic administration by zeroing in on the case of France. How can an interministerial digital collaborative venture be implemented in the French Napoleonic administration? We selected the case of “Chorus” to study this question. Chorus is the financial information system (FIS) of French central state administrations. It is based on a business-management software (SAP). This information system is an accounting tool used to collect, trace, store, and interpret financial data. It was introduced in each and every ministry through a stepwise interministerial collaborative process which started in 2007. It is now collaboratively steered through a dedicated administrative service. In order to account for collaboration practices through this ICT-tool, the paper considers different paradigms of governance (Old Public Administration, New Public Management and New Public Governance) and their related resource allocation mechanisms. In light of this theoretical framework, we identified several explanations of the implementation of Chorus that combine institutional, political, organizational and cognitive factors which relate to different paradigms of governance: (1) the administrative tradition and, specifically, the approach used to design and steer the development of the ICT-tool, (2) the political support, (3) the power relationship between ministries, and the configurations of leaders and followers, (4) the leadership of the agency dedicated to the development of the project and (5) the usage of private sector practices. Based on our case study, we submit that collaborative governance ventures can be implemented in Napoleonic administrations when they rely on different, but all crucial, resource allocation mechanisms which are hierarchy, market and networks. The case study relies on data collected through desk research and eight semi-structured interviews. Interviewees are officials from the agency in charge of Chorus’ development, the directorate of financial affairs of three different ministries (Environment, Education and Defense), and the ministry of public accounts.
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Defacqz, S., & Dupuy, C. (2020). Layering of Hierarchy, Market and Networks Modes of Coordination: How did the French Napoleonic Administration implement an Interministerial Collaborative ICT-tool? Tropicorn workshop, KULeuven, Leuven. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/244998