Agility in uncertain times: local government approaches to multiple technological and political uncertainties in the UK and France

COVID-19 and Brexit have created unprecedented uncertainty. The research question of this study – How do local governments address and adapt to multiple technological and political uncertainties? – aims to understand how local authorities develop strategies to implement digital regulation while dealing with multiple uncertainties (COVID-19, Brexit and digital uncertainty), through a comparative case study of UK and French local governments.

Primary data for the research involves 37 semi-structured interviews (23 UK, 13 French and one European Commission participants) and four focus group discussions (two per country).

Complexity theory is used to understand how local authorities approach the implementation of digital regulation through agility (ability and flexibility to adapt quickly) under multiple uncertainties. While the concept of double uncertainties is found in the environmental, ecology and mathematical literature (Polasky et al., 2011; Jenkins and Lund, 2000; Li et al., 2020) it is not used in the organizational studies literature. This research contributes to organizational literature, specifically complexity theory, by explaining how multiple uncertainties encourage agility/agile responses by local governments. This study introduces two key theoretical concepts: Multiple Uncertainty Agility (MUA) and Digital Strategy Agility (DSA). MUA is the process of embracing multiple uncertainties, adapting to them and thriving through new ways of working. DSA is the process of organizations using agility when dealing with rapid changes to digital requirements – resulting in technological changes; MUA and DSA were observed in local governments in the UK and France, as significant outcomes of the multiple uncertainties in play.

This research observed that the uncertainty of the pandemic caused a combination of urgency, necessity to act, and an importance of digital access that required local authorities to react quickly and work in an agile way to meet the demands of the context. Unprecedented ways of working emerged from this combination of factors (urgency, speed, agility), resulting in a more proactive role through defining, translating, and advocating digital priorities and working in partnership with local constituencies. The outputs were innovation through digital projects with lasting operational and external implications. A key empirical finding is identifying a significant difference between the countries’ post-pandemic operational strategies. While in France there was an expectation to return to “normal”, in the UK there was a willingness to “change things for good".