A new system dynamics model to improve internal and external efficiency in the paper digitization of Italian Public Administrations

In this paper, we developed a new System Dynamics model in order to identify the benefits arising from the digitization process in the Italian Public Administration. Our study initially describes the problem in terms of its underlying structural relationships among the variables that constitute the system. A systemic approach allows to consider many crucial aspects of the problem and provides a rich analysis that shows how issues brought by social and psychological factors may become a great obstacle to organizational change. In particular, the analysis has been focused on the interaction between the “world of citizens” and the “world of the administrations”, in a domain of the 8101 Italian municipalities . By means of the System Dynamics approach, it has been possible to study the structure of the system both from a qualitative and quantitative point of view. The study has allowed to identify public management policies and management leverages that constitute the main variables on which the Italian Public Administration would have to act in order to improve its internal and external efficiency and in order to confer an added value to the services being offered