Aim/Purpose
To diagnose the internal state of municipal digital transformation by identifying and characterizing the perception gaps between employees’ current and targeted states of back-office e-government systems (process efficiency, data integration, technological competence, digital stress).

Background
Despite large investments in municipal ICT and national digital strategies, back-office integration remains understudied; employee experiences may reveal implementation shortfalls that system metrics alone miss. This paper mobilizes a socio-technical and public-value perspective to address that gap.

Methodology
Online survey of municipal employees (final analysis, N = 386) using 30 paired Likert items (current vs. targeted). Quantitative analyses included paired-samples t-tests, effect sizes (Cohen’s d), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), K-means clustering, MANOVA/MANCOVA, and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Missing data and standard diagnostics were reported and handled as described in the manuscript.

Contribution
Provides a diagnostic assessment of employee perceptions, offering an informative foundation for understanding the discrepancies between digital policy goals and operational realities.

Findings
Large perception gaps exist in all four dimensions: process efficiency, data integration (the largest gap), technological competence, and digital stress (current stress > target). Gaps vary by municipality type (districts have larger gaps than metros) and department (IT has smaller gaps). EFA supported three latent constructs; clustering yielded four user profiles (optimistic adapters, process challengers, technology strugglers, comprehensive gap experiencers).

Recommendations for Practitioners
Prioritize cross-departmental data integration, adopt a process-first IS redesign, expand distributed competence-building beyond IT units, and implement design/support measures to monitor and reduce digital stress, with a special focus on district municipalities.

Recommendations for Researchers
Use longitudinal and mixed methods designs to triangulate subjective perceptions with objective usage logs and performance metrics; evaluate targeted interventions experimentally; and conduct cross-national comparisons to assess contextual generalizability.

Impact on Society
Closing identified gaps can increase operational efficiency, equity of access, and public value of municipal services; failure to act risks deepening service inequalities and producing persistent administrative burdens and employee burnout.

Future Research
Longitudinal studies tracking perception change after targeted interventions; integration of system logs and outcome indicators; causal evaluation of training/process-redesign programs; and comparative studies across governance contexts.