Agile Bureaucracy in the Digital Age: Assessing the Public Service Delivery in Jambi City

Introduction

Agile bureaucracy plays a crucial role in enhancing the efficiency of public services in the digital age by enabling flexible governance and responsive public administration. In this paper, we attempt to assess the readiness of Organisasi Perangkat Daerah/local government agency (LGA), to provide digital services to meet the changing demands of citizens. The discussion in this part starts by highlighting the background of the study, critical literature reviews, and the focus of debate, and by describing the concept of agile bureaucracy. Indonesia’s bureaucracy, which tends to be hierarchical and slow in decision-making and service delivery, has yet to be able to face the challenges of rapid and uncertain change. Hierarchy in bureaucracy signifies distinct roles and responsibilities at each level, complicated procedures and processes at various levels slow down service delivery. This bureaucratic service needs help to adapt to disruptive innovations that occur quickly and continuously (Cohen & Hertz, 2020; Yusriadi & Farida, 2019; Zarychta et al., 2020). On the one hand, the hierarchy of Weberian-style rational bureaucracy feels established with the existing system. On the other hand, the disruption era forces total transformation and reform in public service delivery, opening investment and adapting to change. There are at least four significant changes that require responsive efforts, including changes in interaction patterns due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the shift of the older generation to the younger generation (Gen-Y and -Z), the strengthening of flexibility and mobility of virtual communities, and the rapid digitalization and convergence of technology in various lives (Kadarisman et al., 2022; Zis et al., 2021).

The rapid digitalization in various aspects of life has changed the interaction pattern between society and the government, requiring bureaucratic reform. The government must provide public information transparently through various information channels so that it can be accessed by the public quickly, efficiently, and at an affordable cost (Hartati & Arfin, 2020). Traditional service and bureaucratic paradigms may need help to fulfil these demands, as they are stuck in manual processes and need more flexibility to adjust to people’s preferences and needs (Dwivedi et al., 2021). Therefore, fast and responsive steps are essential in decision-making and service delivery in the digital era. The government must be able to adapt to market changes and innovate continuously to be responsive in serving (Cichosz et al., 2020; Lestari et al., 2021). This is in line with what the president of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, has always emphasized on various occasions: The bureaucracy must work quickly and agile, be oriented towards the interests of public services, and open investment opportunities as much as possible in Indonesia (Prasojo, 2021).

Recently, governments have digitalized government services at various levels. Web-based applications for internal government use and public services, such as population administration, licensing, health, and education, are used. Unfortunately, digitalization in public service is still considered a project in building an agency Web site without being balanced with mature business processes, robust infrastructure design, optimisation, utilization, and bureaucratic readiness in digital services (Firdaus et al., 2021). For example, in the context of Jambi City, many complain about services because their quality does not meet community expectations (Riana, 2019; Tengkeran et al., 2023). This research builds on the basic assumption that, although information and communication technology (ICT) has offered great opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public services, the LGA is not always ready to adapt to ICT and utilize it as a tool in government administration.