C-suite Leadership of Digital Government

Abstract

Despite decades of digitalization in day-to-day government operations and in the governance of the public sector, there is a major research gap in understanding the nature of digital government leadership (DGL) and the diversity in how top managers are leading the digital transition and transformation of government. Based on a structured literature review and in-depth inductive analysis of previous research within the domains of e-government, information systems, and public administration research, this article explores how the C-suite level of government is leading the digitalization. In the article, we propose a definition of DGL and a leadership framework to capture the nexus and direction of leadership. Also, the article proposes distinct leadership roles and actions to forward digital government.