Ditta Mae Siena-De Guzman: Negotiating Definitions of Digital Transformation in Policy Implementation: Perspectives of Filipino Civil Servants

This study explores how Philippine civil servants define digital transformation and how these definitions shape policy implementation. Drawing on an integrated Multiple Streams Framework and Street-Level Bureaucracy theory, the study examines how digital transformation policies are interpreted and negotiated across organisational contexts and between management and frontline perspectives.

Preliminary findings suggest that differences in interpretation are not simply barriers to implementation but can create spaces for negotiation, adaptation, and the co-construction of policy meaning. By examining these differences as “distances” between policy and practice, the study highlights how civil servants’ situated knowledge and discretion contribute to how digital transformation is enacted. The research offers a grounded perspective on digital transformation as an evolving process shaped not only by policy direction, but also by the people who implement it. </p>