UNDERSTANDING PROCESSES IN eGOVERNMENT: INTEGRATING HIGHER EDUCATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING IN AN INTERNATIONAL BLENDED LEARNING PROGRAM Steffen Gilge 1 , Eric Schoop 1 , Dalia Kriksciuniene 2 , Michael Breidung 3 Abstract: eGovernment seems to be a popular answer to the tough demands for change on the public administration of today. But eGovernment cannot be efficiently and effectively be integrated into the public institution, if there is no understanding of the underlying processes and the ways of enhancing them with modern Information and Communication Technologies. Hence, public administration institutions have a high demand for a sustainable qualification of current and future employees. This paper works out an eGovernment qualification program on the basis of a blended learning arrangement. It integrates four educational dimensions (intersectoral, interdisciplinary, international education and different learning arrangements) in a holistic approach and proposes a pattern based approach as a tool for the designer of a concrete qualification program. The overall concept presented here derives its basis from the empirical case-based research in the EU TEMPUS TACIS SCM project IQeG – Integrative Qualification in eGovernment (No. SCM-T037A05-2005). The findings show, that it is possible to implement an integrative eGovernment qualification program in the near future by using the courses designed as additional courses in present higher education institutions. Nevertheless it should be possible to further enhance the concept and build up an international eGovernment executive master program building upon the results of this paper. 1. Motivation and Objectives The professionalization of administrational structures and processes is a quest pursued by many public institutions in the western and eastern hemisphere. Public administrations on the local, intermediary and governmental level need to become more efficient and effective, since they are all facing a situation best to be described as a trilemma: 1) Effects of globalization both on society and on company level demand new, flexible and transparent administrative processes and international awareness by the process owners; 2) Accompanying the generally decreasing employment numbers, the average age of staff is high with substantial amount of employees close to retirement, which demands fast solutions for tacit and explicit knowledge exchange and documentation; 3) The modern information and communication potentials related to Internet technology and the growing claims by digitally literate citizens demand new process skills and media competencies within administrations. eGovernment seems to be a popular answer to these problems among public administrations around the world. For the public administrations and their consultants this term refers to a set of actions determined to use modern Information- and Communication-Technologies (ICT) as a means to enhance processes of information, communication and transactions within the public institution as well as between the public administration and citizens (G2C), business companies (G2B) and other public institutions (G2G). Thereby eGovernment is building upon principles from the domain of eBusiness and uses and adopts experiences from that field. Especially the core subject of process management is particularly relevant for both domains, since the leverage effect of modern ICT can only be fully reaped when underlying organisational processes are documented, understood and properly coordinated with the organisation’s IT strategy. Hence, for its sustainable introduction, eGovernment needs a broad offensive for public administrative process codification (to achieve a sustainable knowledge cycle), understanding (to develop a process management culture) and reengineering (to improve processes and adapt for eGovernment purposes). Additionally, the focus on process management in the domain of eGovernment seems to benefit the building of a professional, impartial and transparent public institution, being the general aim in the domain of public administration, since: • the codification of processes makes administrative rules and procedures transparent ; • the permanent process quality control by process owners and independent assessors lays the ground for impartial decisions; • the deeply rooted process management thinking, accompanied by ongoing process improvements, creates a professional and stable functioning public administration. 1 Technische Universität Dresden, Department of Business Management and Economics, Chair of Business Informatics, esp. Information Management, D-01062 Dresden, Germany, {gilge| schoop}@wiim.wiwi.tu- dresden.de 2 Vilnius University, Kaunas Faculty of Humanities, Department of Informatics, LT–3000 Kaunas, Lithuania, dalia.kriksciuniene@vukhf.lt 3 Municipality of Dresden, IT-Service Division, D-01067 Dresden, Germany, MBreidung@dresden.de