Computer Applications in Public Administration

Information Systems in Healthcare

What does the author mean by informatization?

The concept of informatization is predicated on using information technologies (IT) to attain higher levels of process efficiency, performance, collaboration, communication and decision-making throughout an organization (Kernaghaii, Gunraj, 2004). The author continues with five core aspects of informatization to further illustrate this concept and its effects on organizational performance. The first is the development and introduction of IT systems to shape and define the information and data retrieval process as it relates to automated IT systems, while the second is the re-arrangement of information flows and information relationships to enable the more efficient management of IT (Kernaghaii, Gunraj, 2004).The third is one of the most challenging, and that is the change of an organizational structure and its processes based on the information generated and created using IT systems (Kernaghaii, Gunraj, 2004). The fourth point the author makes with regard to informatization is that it is essential for the development of information policies by decision area of the organization, with the fifth attribute being the development of internal expertise developed for analyzing, generated and using the information and insights gained from the system (Kernaghaii, Gunraj, 2004). On this last point the author notes that the continued adoption of IT systems leads to the development of entire teams of specialists to support the line-of-business and analysis of data so it can be more effectively used in decisions. All of these factors together show how pervasive IT is in completely changing the culture and structure of an organization over time, especially in the government sectors (Kernaghaii, Gunraj, 2004).

Describe what the author says are obstacles to the potentially powerful impact of IT on Public Administration. There are many obstacles that the author mentions for Public Administration to gain the greatest value from IT. The first and most significant is resistance to change on the part of government workers, supervisors and managers, many of which chose government professions due to the stability and lack of change. The change that IT requires continually be made in government and public-based organizations can be unsettling and lead to fear and mistrust. Often government organizations must take change in a gradual series of steps for it to be effective. The second is the lack of interprocess integration and lack of communication between departments. This leads to exceptionally challenging system design and development challenges over time. Third, the lack of budgets for IT spending and the latest technologies often forces Public Administration programs to settle for previous generation technologies with known limitations. Finally, the lack of consistent measurement across government entities also leads to significant gaps in IT performance (Kernaghaii, Gunraj, 2004).

Based on the article describe how you think IT influences public organizations- provide an example.

IT influences public organizations by creating a single system of record that can be used for planning more effective policy decisions and implementing greater change in the regions served. There is also the significant impact on budgeting and spending based on the analytics and reporting gained from using IT in Public Administration to streamline reporting.