Deadlock or Catalyst? How COVID-19 Management has Influenced Digital Transformation in Borken District's Citizen Centers

The research of the bachelor thesis aims to add valuable insight from the field of citizen service offices in the rural district of Borken. Thereby, this embedded case study observed the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the digital transformation of citizen centers. The research is based on the Institutional Change Theory by Paul Bush (1987), and it uses the Technology Enactment Framework (Fountain, 2001) as a conceptual model for analyzing institutional changes. Through interviews with several managers of the correspondent citizen centers, the results show that in the district of Borken, only a few changes have occurred. While measures to adapt to the changed conditions were mainly analog, it should nevertheless be emphasized that the perceived urgency to digitalize has increased significantly. In summary, the impact of the pandemic caused both managers and employees to recognize vulnerabilities that, although they were not insurmountable, could have been more easily addressed through digital approaches.