A transformative change through a coordination process and a steering agency. The case of the financial information system of the French central state
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208523211058859 |
| Author | Samuel Defacqz,Claire Dupuy |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
A transformative change
through a coordination
process and a steering
agency. The case of the
financial information
system of the French
central state
Samuel Defacqz
Department of Political Science, Université Laval, Québec,
Canada, and Institute of Political Science Louvain-Europe,
University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Claire Dupuy
Institute of Political Science Louvain-Europe, University of
Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Abstract
Recent scholarship has focused on how coordination mechanisms are implemented by
public sector organizations, thereby paying attention to coordination as a process. This
article studies the coordination process that resulted in the implementation of the inter-
ministerial financial information system of the French central state—named Chorus.
Chorus is a case of an unlikely coordination process rolled out in the non-conducive
context of the French Napoleonic Administration. Chorus aimed at connecting all min-
istries’administrative services to a shared information system, while ministries were
previously using their own systems and applications. Based on the literature on mechan-
isms of coordination, and focusing on the role of existing institutions and the actors
involved in the coordination process, the analysis has two main results. First, AIFE
—“Agence pour l’informatique financière de l’État”, the agency in charge of the
Corresponding author:
Samuel Defacqz, Université Laval, Département de science politique, Pavillon Charles-De Koninck, local 4407,
1030 Av. des Sciences Humaines, G1V 0A6 Québec, Québec, Canada.
Email: samuel.defacqz@pol.ulaval.ca
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
2023, Vol. 89(3) 775–790
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00208523211058859
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implementation of Chorus—steered the process by developing a stepwise network-
based interministerial strategy. Second, the coordination steered by AIFE resulted in a
transformative change of the French state’sfinancial and accounting structures through
a layering process of change. Thereby, the article contributes to the empirical analysis of
public administrations’recent changes toward increased coordination at the central level
by studying recent reforms in France and their outcomes.
Points for practitioners
This article shows that coordination processes within public sector organizations are
context sensitive and depend on the behavior of the “agents of change”in charge of
these processes. In contexts that are non-conducive to transformative change (e.g.
siloed structures, presence of veto players), the set-up of agile, resourceful and autono-
mous change agents is key. When veto players may oppose structural change, the article
suggests setting up network-based coordination processes aiming at incremental evolu-
tions inducing transformative change.
Keywords
Information system, France, central administration, ICT, public management,
coordination, interministerial coordination, coordination process, public sector reform
Introduction
Coordination in the public sector is certainly amongst the most vexing issues that public
administrations themselves, and public administration scholars alike, have had to tackle.
From a scholarly perspective, post-new management reforms have urged to think about
this basic question anew (Bouckaert et al., 2010; Christensen and Laegreid, 2007).
Discussions of the drivers of coordination reforms have arisen (for a recent assessment,
see Trein and Ansell, 2020) and both the mechanisms of coordination and the combin-
ation of hierarchy, network and market, as well as the (sometimes) resulting hybrid
mixes, have also been thoroughly studied (Bouckaert et al., 2010; Laegreid et al.,
2014; Laegreid et al., 2015; Verhoest and Bouckaert, 2005).
More recently, research has focused on how coordination mechanisms are implemen-
ted by public sector organizations. It thereby pays attention to coordination as a process,
that is, “the strategies and instruments governments use to coordinate organizations or
programmes within the public sector”(Bouckaert et al., 2010: 16). Traditionally,
studies of coordination have zeroed in on outcomes (on this distinction, see Alexander,
1995), which can be analyzed based on several levels of coordination (Metcalfe,
1994). However, as existing research brings to light cases of failed or difficult implemen-
tation (Christensen et al., 2015), where the intended level of coordination is not reached,
the issue of coordination in action comes front and center stage. This scholarship on
coordination as a process also illuminates how, in the course of coordination, the mix
of hierarchy, network and market may evolve (Randma-Liiv et al., 2015), sometimes
776 International Review of Administrative Sciences 89(3)
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