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interact with citizens - gathering opinions, eliciting information needs, or
seeking participation of the hard-to-hear, have in many cases, lacked the
necessary guidance and training. (This issue of improved sharing knowl-
edge and experience will be addressed in more detail in subsequent sec-
tions).
8.4 Changing Organizational Culture
Shifting the focus of ICT development projects from the technical to the
sociotechnical represents a significant change in culture for many IT de-
partments and organizations engaged in developing systems and services
for the public. For citizen engagement to become a routine and, more im-
portantly, a valued part of ICT developments, the organisational context
must be one that promotes, supports and rewards citizen engagement ac-
tivities.
A first step is to create readiness for change and for this to happen re-
quires that there is understanding of the need to change. Achieving the
shift in ICT design focus, like any other major change, will be facilitated
by using an established change management approach. This involves the
three steps (see Gleicher's formula - Chapter 7) to be addressed at the pro-
ject level, within the organizations where ICT developments take place,
and in wider society. Essentially, everyone involved in making the shift
towards citizen participation/engagement in ICT development needs to
have the opportunity to develop the following:
•
understanding of the need for change - the 'Know Why' of Citizen En-
gagement in ICT design;
•
knowledge of what needs to be done to achieve the vision - the 'Know
What'of Citizen Engagement in ICT design;
•
knowledge and skills to carry out the necessary steps - the 'Know How'
of Citizen Engagement in ICT design.
As already described in 8.2.2, an important precursor to achieving the
engagement of citizens/users as a routine matter in ICT development pro-
jects is achieving a shift in the design focus of key stakeholders (e.g. senior
managers, project managers, IT development staff, practitioners) from a
technical to a sociotechnical one. This requires changing attitudes and per-
ceptions. With the objective of persuading these role holders to take ac-
count of human, social and organisational concerns as a normal part of the
project agenda throughout the development cycle. Educational processes
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