Digital Leadership in Local Government: A Case Study of the Tulungagung Office of Communication and Informatics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.68211/sogpa.v1i1.22Keywords:
Digital leadership, digital transformation, local government, public value, e-governmentAbstract
Digital transformation has increasingly reshaped how local governments communicate with citizens,
organize digital services, and create public value. However, the presence of digital technologies does not
automatically indicate that local government organizations possess the leadership capacity required to
translate technology into sustained institutional transformation. This study examines how digital leadership
is manifested in the digital transformation practices of the Tulungagung Office of Communication and
Informatics (DisKominfo). The study employs a qualitative descriptive design based on documentary
analysis of official institutional information, digital platforms, social media content, government
documents, and relevant scholarly literature. The analysis combines digital leadership literature with
Rogers’ (2016) five domains of digital transformation: customers, competition, data, innovation, and value.
The findings indicate that citizen-oriented digital communication and service provision are most visible
through the agency’s institutional website, evolving service menus, and use of Instagram and YouTube.
Innovation is illustrated by the agency’s involvement in the SI-TRUST tuberculosis specimen tracking
initiative and its cross-sector collaboration. However, the available documentary evidence is insufficient to
establish the agency’s digital transformation practices in the domains of competition and data governance
comprehensively. The study contributes empirical evidence from an Indonesian subnational government
context and demonstrates how publicly observable digital practices can be examined as manifestations of
digital leadership. The findings suggest that local digital leadership should be understood not merely as
technology adoption but as the organizational capacity to connect digital technologies with citizen needs,
innovation, and public value.
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