ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Comparative Governance
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpos.2025.1560180
This article is part of the Research TopicDecoding the Indo-Pacific: The Region, Issues and ChallengesView all articles
Decoding Effectiveness and Efficiency in AI-Enabled Public Services: A Configurational Pathway to Citizen and Employee Satisfaction
Provisionally accepted
- 1Master Program of Public Administration, Universitas Muhammadiyah Palangkaraya, Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia, Palangkaraya, Indonesia
- 2Department of Marketing and Logistics Management, College of Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan
- 3Department of Business Administration, College of Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan, Taichung, Taiwan
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The integration of AI in public services often poses a paradox: while it can streamline operations, it may simultaneously undermine service effectiveness, ultimately shaping how both citizens and employees perceive service quality. Seeking to address gaps in our understanding of service-related factors in AI-driven settings, this study employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) on survey data collected in Indonesia over an eight-month period from 457 citizens and 429 employees. The results reveal six configurations underpinning employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction, alongside four configurations driving citizen satisfaction and dissatisfaction. On the employee side, satisfaction thrives when service accessibility, operational effectiveness, and resource utilization are well-coordinated, whereas dissatisfaction emerges in the presence of fragmented workflows and the lack of key enablers. From the citizen perspective, satisfaction is fueled by trustbuilding elements such as service accuracy, transparency, and perceived service value, whereas their absence or misalignment leads to dissatisfaction. By unraveling these pathways, this study extends public administration and AI adoption literature, offering insights into how AI-enabled services can balance organizational objectives with user-centric needs. The findings highlight the importance of harnessing AI's efficiencies without sacrificing core service qualities, ultimately guiding strategies to optimize public service outcomes.
Keywords: AI in public services, Efficiency vs. effectiveness paradox, Service Quality, Citizen satisfaction, Employee satisfaction, Configurational pathways
Received: 14 Jan 2025; Accepted: 20 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rulandari, Silalahi, Phuong and Eunike. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Andri Dayarana K. Silalahi, Department of Marketing and Logistics Management, College of Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan
Ixora Javanisa Eunike, Department of Business Administration, College of Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan, Taichung, Taiwan
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.