New trends in government.(News & Numbers)(Brief article)

Governments are being challenged to perform in different ways as the times change. A new report from the IBM Center for the Business of Government identifies six trends that are transforming government today.

* Trend One: Changing the Rules. Governments are increasingly discarding one-size-fits-all approaches and are permitting managers more flexibility to customize operating procedures and approaches to service delivery. At the same time, managers are being held to greater accountability for performance.

* Trend Two: Using Performance Management. The emphasis has moved from compliance to performance. Linking organizational goals to intended results leads to performance planning and reporting.

* Trend Three: Providing Competition, Choice, and Incentives. Worldwide trends reflect an increase in market-based approaches similar to the private sector, such as vouchers, shared services, and tradable permits.

* Trend Four: Performing On-Demand. Government is being pushed by citizens to be as responsive as private-sector services leading them to develop new capacities to serve citizens "24/7."

* Trend Five: Engaging Citizens. Social networks on the Internet, such as MySpace and YouTube, are influencing how people interact.

The landscape of citizen involvement with government is expanding from the traditional exchange of information to a real-time engagement in learning, decision making, and service delivery.

* Trend Six: Using Networks and Partnerships. Government increasingly needs to respond to non-routine and large-scale challenges, such as natural disasters, requiring collaborative approaches across agencies.

The report notes that public managers cannot afford to be late adopters of innovation as citizens will not tolerate it. "Six Trends Transforming Government" is available at www.businessofgovernment.org.

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