Governing Ethics for the Digital Transformation: Developing, Testing, and Validating a Framework

Abstract

The digital transformation in the public sector and administrative organizations promises to enhance efficiency and personalized service delivery. At the same time, the usage of digital technologies such as algorithms, chatbots, and camera surveillance can jeopardize citizens' fundamental rights and public values, like autonomy and privacy. To mitigate risks of digital technologies, embedding digital ethics as an organizational practice is necessary. Current academic literature offers a rich understanding of the nature of digital ethics but provides limited guidance on its governance through organizational practices. To fill this research gap, we develop a Digital Ethics Governance Framework by drawing upon the fields of digital governance and ethics. The framework is empirically tested via an in-depth test in a local government organization and a broad validation by expert interviews and a focus group with representatives from other local governments. Our findings demonstrate how structural, procedural, and relational governance mechanisms contribute to different components of digital ethics as an organizational practice in administrative organizations. Ultimately, the framework produces an integrated understanding of governing ethics for the digital transformation. As such, it provides a basis for developing and assessing digital ethics in organizational practices to safeguard public values. • Digital ethics must be governed, not only deliberated, in administrative organizations. • Based on the literature, a conceptual framework for digital ethics is developed. • The framework is tested (in-depth) and validated (broad) empirically in multiple administrations. • Structural, procedural, and relational governance mechanisms contribute to digital ethics as an organizational practice. • The framework can be used to develop and assess the governance of digital ethics.