City Managers as Digital Transformation Leaders: Exploratory and Explanatory Notes

This article examines the internal sources for digital transformation at the local level. It attempts to comprehend a public manager's individual role in the introduction of digital tools to lower levels of governance, traces the institutional and personal motivators that encourage city managers in framing digital transformation efforts, and identifies barriers that temper their efforts in practice. The empirical study based on forty-seven interviews with Russian city managers explores the peculiarities of digital transformation comprehension, the key barriers hampering digital transformation, and the detours that city managers use to implement digital tools. The study explores why and how, in a situation of limited resources, unclear political attitudes, and restricted opportunities, city managers act in the direction of implementing digital tools and digital government transformation. The flexible thematic analysis shows that digital transformation at the local management level has the potential for leadership, as city managers recognize and articulate the importance of digital tools in transforming the urban environment. Digital transformation is integral to the image of the city managers' profession and their mission to serve the local community. However, the leadership potential of digital transformation is significantly hindered by institutional factors, predominantly regulatory deficiencies, lack of resources, and social mistrust.