Public sector digitalization: opportunities and paradoxes

Digitalization allows public administration to improve services and processes, fostering communication with citizens and the collection of information generating new knowledge. Data and analytics can better activities, foster transparency, promote accountability, as well as improve decision-making, management, and control. Starting from an appraisal of the relevant literature and from the Italian case, the study highlights opportunities as well as critical issues and paradoxes for public administration digitalization. The paper points at the lack of a comprehensive and context-based perspective which could be crucial for promoting the digitalization of public sector organizations and proposes a framework to analyze the impact of digitalization on an individual PSO’s main components.