Inside the digital state

Frontline Work in the Context of Digital Layering

Bibliographic Data

ID6294355
AuthorsAnne Mette Møller (0000-0003-2328-8804, Copenhagen Business School, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume35
Issue2
Pages133-147
Publication date2025-05-16
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1053-1858 • E-ISSN: 1477-9803
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/jopart/muaf001
OpenAlexW4406289007
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited47

Following decades of incremental digital development, public agencies today are permeated by a plethora of digital systems and tools. Transcending the dominant focus on individual technologies in the extant literature, this study introduces the concept of “digital layering” to capture the characteristics of this setting and develop a unique contextualized understanding of frontline work in the digital age. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in The Danish Agricultural Agency and the Danish Tax Agency, the study shows that digital layering creates a context for frontline work characterized by the experience of complexity, fragmentation, and instability or fragility of digital technologies, which deeply affects both backstage tasks and public encounters. In response, frontline workers employ a range of compensatory practices in the organizational backstage, including workarounds, temporal flexibility, and collaborative IT support, and take on new organizational roles as “digital janitors” and “digital liaisons” to fix errors and raise awareness of the consequences of higher-level decision-making on the ground. During public encounters, they avoid or take precautionary measures when using digital tools and engage in digital detective work on behalf of citizens. Conceptualized as “digital repair work,” these compensatory practices and roles are aimed at protecting professional and bureaucratic values such as efficiency, transparency, responsiveness, and trustworthiness. The study results in a novel theoretical framework to guide future inquiry into digital layering and its implications for (frontline) work and organizations, including employee well-being, the continued enactment of professional and bureaucratic values, and citizens’ trust in government

Archaeology · Business · Context (archaeology · Geography · Layering · State (computer science · Work (physics · Computer Science · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · E-Government and Public Services · Engineering · Information Systems Theories and Implementation · Mechanical Engineering

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