Table 1.

Discussion Matrix on the Five Building Blocks of Innovation

Building Block
1.

Information
Technology

Description

Obstacles
Bureaucratic

Political

Ingenious applications devised by

middle managers with technical
backgrounds who saw opportunities of
which politicians and agency heads
were unaware
E.g. databases, intranet, internet,
information systems

Negative attitudes
toward IT

Inadequate resources i.e.

up-to-date computers,
internet service provider

IT viewed as both
cumbersome and unreliable

Technology-based

Technological capacity
of people

Laws and regulations on

budget allocation for
capacity building and
procurement of equipment

Competition with the private

sector service providers

Situations

Environmental

Inventory

2.

Systems
Approach

can occur through formal partnerships /

programmes but also wider interorganizational arrangements.

Unwelcoming attitude
towards innovations
from other organization

Incompetence of other
organization

Whether technology will then

drive organizational structure
and lead to reorganization

Road widening

3.

Process
Improvement

Designed to make governmental

processes faster, friendlier, or more
accessible

Stuck in traditional
processes

Judicial process is
expensive, adversarial, and
time consuming

Doubts of the target to the

effectiveness of the process

Business
permit

4.

Private
Sector/NGOs

Includes initiatives opening up some

public sector activities, such as
municipal services or military supply, to
private sector competition
Partnership entailing private sector
delivery, particularly in the area of
technology
Use of voluntary or non-government
organizations for program delivery
Involvement of individual volunteers in
public sector programs

Difficulty in
coordinating with the
different organizations
involve due to their
own due processes

Certain program or project

is being politicized by the
political personality
involved; project is being
carried in the name of the
political personality as form
of marketing

Opposition by the private

sector interests with the
program being established,
that as a result of the
innovation, would be forced to
compete with the public
sector

MRT3

Building Block
5.

Empowerment

Description

Consulting with the communities,

citizens or staff in policy implementation
Inviting them to play a role in policy
implementation
Staff empowerment involves
encouraging frontline staff to take
initiatives for change and showing
greater tolerance for risk taking
The new management philosophy
encompasses initiatives such as
participatory management, continuous
improvement and restructuring

Obstacles
Bureaucratic

Political

Environmental

Difficulty in maintaining
the enthusiasm of the
program staff due to
oppositions the
program may
encompass and with
the hostile or skeptical
attitudes of the key
players

Political opposition
(the
target group may not be
pro with the personalities
involved

Difficulty reaching the

programs target group due to
public doubts

Situations

Villages
providing
students