Understanding public servants’ perspectives on return to office and digital government: lessons learned from Canada
Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy
ISSN: 1750-6166
Article publication date: 20 November 2023
Issue publication date: 23 February 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore public servants’ perspectives on return to office, hybrid work model and digital government. This is done by answering two research questions: what benefits and challenges public servants foresee with return to office and whether hybrid work enables or impedes digital government initiatives.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is designed as a mixed methods study of federal and provincial governments in Canada based on the analysis of Reddit data. Research methods include machine-assisted toxicity and sentiment analysis and manual content analysis to identify emerging themes.
Findings
The findings highlight public servants’ mostly discussed concerns with return to office. Other notable discussion topics include resistance to the hybrid work model and identifying the ways how it would be operationalized. Some supported return to office.
Research limitations/implications
This study’s limitations are related to using Reddit as the data source and user representation on Reddit. The main implications are its contribution to emerging literature on the future of work and digital government.
Practical implications
This study highlights that perspectives of public servants are paramount for development and implementation of transformational initiatives and offers insights for public sector managers on how to incorporate these into practice while improving the efficiency of digital government initiatives and the system.
Originality/value
This study addresses the gap in literature by seeking to understand the perspectives of public servants in a variety of roles as well as implications of transition to hybrid work on digital government and future of work initiatives.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank her research assistants – Tosin During and Ian Armour for their help with manual coding of Reddit data. Thanks are also due to Dr Mary Francoli and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript.
Funding: This study was supported by the Arts Research Board, McMaster University (Grant no. 20020984).
Citation
Gintova, M. (2024), "Understanding public servants’ perspectives on return to office and digital government: lessons learned from Canada", Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 118-130. https://doi.org/10.1108/TG-07-2023-0091
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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