Changing civil servants’ behaviour concerning the opening of governmental data: evaluating the effect of a game by comparing civil servants’ intentions before and after a game intervention
| Author | Fernando Kleiman,Marijn Janssen,Sebastiaan Meijer,Sylvia JT Jansen |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020852320962211 |
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
| Date | 01 December 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Changing civil servants’
behaviour concerning the
opening of governmental
data: evaluating the
effect of a game by
comparing civil servants’
intentions before and
after a game intervention
Fernando Kleiman
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Marijn Janssen
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Sebastiaan Meijer
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Sylvia JT Jansen
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Abstract
Open data policies are increasingly being adopted by governments. However, civil
servants find it challenging to comply with open data policies. Gaming can help civil
servants to practise opening data and can change their behaviour to support the open-
ing of more data. In this article, the effect of playing a game is evaluated in an exper-
iment in which several factors that influence the opening of data are compared before
and after the game. The benefits appeared in unexpected ways and areas. Data
Corresponding author:
Fernando Kleiman, Delft University of Technology – Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management, Jaffalaan 5,
Delft 2628BX, The Netherlands.
Email: f.kleiman@tudelft.nl
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
!The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852320962211
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
2022, Vol. 88(4) 921–942
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
management, privacy and security knowledge was transferred using the game, the
perception of benefits showed significant changes, and behavioural intention was pos-
itively affected.
Points for practitioners
Civil servants’ behaviour influences how public policies are enacted. The release of
open data by governments is related by many as crucial for increasing public transpar-
ency and civic participation, and generating new economic opportunities. Games can
influence the attitude of civil servants and, consequently, change governments’ deci-
sions. Transferring knowledge and providing insights from new experiences can influ-
ence civil servants’ attitudes to open data. Moreover, governments can use games to
influence civil servants’ attitudes.
Keywords
behaviour,behavioural change, data management, freedom of information, gaming, open
data, open government
Introduction
Open government is a recent trend in public administration that aims to strengthen
the relationship between governments and their populations (Wirtz et al., 2017).
The opening of governmental data is an important part of open government pol-
icies, which aim to make public administration information available for firms,
citizens and other governmental units (Ruijer et al., 2018; Zuiderwijk et al., 2018).
Examples of such data include data on pollution, traffic, health, environment,
justice and economics, which are often collected for policy development and
decision-making. Open government data can be defined as raw data that are
published on the Internet by governments or publicly funded research organiza-
tions (Janssen et al., 2012; Matheus and Janssen, 2015). They are non-sensitive,
non-personal data that do not violate data protection or other regulations. They
can be freely processed, reused or distributed by others, which therefore democ-
ratizes data.
Governments are opening their data to the public to increase transparency and
participation, to improve public services, and to stimulate innovation (Hardy and
Maurushat, 2017; Pasquier and Villeneuve, 2007). However, many data sets
remain closed for various reasons, including inappropriate data infrastructures,
lack of knowledge and skills (Janssen et al., 2012), and the will of top-level deci-
sion-makers. Lower-echelon civil servants who support decisions to disclose data
sets have an enormous impact on the number of data sets opened (Wirtz and
Piehler, 2015). Civil servants can gain from opening data as others might provide
suggestions based on the data or create helpful insights.
922 International Review of Administrative Sciences 88(4)
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