The Digitalization of Duty: Interpreting the New Social Labor of Civil Servants in Indonesia’s Smart City Bureaucracy

Abstract

The digital transformation of global cities toward the Smart City paradigm fundamentally reconfigures the social contract and cultural practices of public governance, heavily relying on Civil Servants (ASN), to actively forge a new digital-social ecosystem. This study proposes and explores Digital Organizational Citizenship Behavior (Digital OCB) as a new concept lens, integrating traditional OCB with the dynamics of online participation to interpret the voluntary, non-mandated digital labor of civil servants within the bureaucratic structure. specifically designed for public organizations that are becoming more digital. By analyzing data from 397 civil servants in five smart cities in Central Java, Indonesia, the study shows that digital OCB has four parts: digital altruism, digital civic virtue, digital conscientiousness, and digital voluntary engagement. The results, which explain 50.7% of the overall differences, strongly confirm that Digital OCB is a valid concept and expand the use of Social Exchange Theory (SET) and Perceived Organizational Support (POS) to the digital world. The implications are significant for understanding how to organically cultivate a culture of voluntary digital citizenship among civil servants, which. Is crucial for fostering social legitimacy and a sustainable culture of democratic innovation beyond more technical efficiency. This study addresses a gap in the literature by providing a solid theoretical and methodological foundation for future research on digital voluntary behavior in the public sector.