Towards the Development of an Adoption Model for E-Government Services in Developing Countries

E-government services have become powerful tools in government organizations by offering different information instantly and effectively. Specifically, information and communication technologies have become very useful tools in developing the ability of staff to accomplish jobs effectively and efficiently. Unlike developed countries which face only few issues in the adoption of e-government services, developing countries encounter several adoption problems from the stakeholders’ point of view. Government-to-employee (G2E) is one aspect of e-government that covers activities and services that transpire between government units and their workers. This paper identifies the factors that improve the adoption of e-government services by employees in developing countries. The selected success factors (website quality, awareness, computer-self-efficiency, IT workforce capability and training) extended with Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) – an extensively used model. The final conceptual model is proposed and presented in this paper

Implementing e-Services in Lagos State, Nigeria: the interplay of Cultural Perceptions and Working Practices during an automation initiative : Nigeria e-government culture and working practices

Accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of Government Information Quarterly.The public sector’s adoption of Information and Communication Technologies is often seen as a way of increasing efficiency. However, developing public e-Services involves a series of organisational and social complexities. In this paper, we examine the organisational issues of implementing an ERP system, which was designed and developed within the context of Lagos State’s e-Services project. By doing so, we showcase the impact of organisational cultural perceptions and working practices of individuals. Our findings illustrate the strong role of cultural dimensions, particularly those pertaining to religion and multi-ethnicity. Our study provides insights to international organisations and governments alike toward project policy formulation within the context of ICT-based initiatives and reforms that aim to bring forward developmental progress.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Discovering citizens reaction toward e-government: factors in e-government adoption

E-government has been considered as one approach for changing the face of government in the eyes of the citizenry. Therefore, citizens’ socialization in relation to their engagement with e-government should be explored. This study argues that citizens played a significant role in determining the success of an e-government project in the Middle Eastern country of Jordan. This paper aims to provide insight and evaluation into the factors that could influence e-government’s effective functioning in the Jordanian social community through its interaction with citizens. The study collected data from 356 Jordanian citizens via a survey, to ascertain their understanding of 10 factors that may influence their intention to use e-government services. To investigate the adoption of e-government services in depth, two departments in Jordan were selected: the Jordanian Government’s Income and Sales Tax Department (ISTD) and its Driver and Vehicle Licenses Department (DVDL). The factor analysis technique was used to identify the main factors related to e-government services’ adoption. The results indicated that trust in the internet, website design, religious beliefs, internet and computer skill confidence, word of mouth, resistance to change, perceived usefulness, relative advantage and complexity are the main factors that should be considered when addressing the topic of e-government services’ adoption in Jordan. This study is different from most existing studies on e-government adoption as it empirically investigated the impact of word of mouth (WOM), wasta (favoritism), and resistance to change on e-government adoption. This study highlights the importance of considering the social cohesion of the Jordanian community when exploring factors related to e-government adoption

The legacy problem in government agencies: an exploratory study

Government organizations continue to be heavily reliant on legacy systems to support their business-critical functions. When practitioners embark on legacy systems replacement projects, they tend to use the legacy software’s features as business requirements for its replacement application. This unnecessarily reproduces the business processes that have often emerged from the very technical limitations of the legacy system that is being phased out – a phenomenon referred to as the “legacy problem.” Public agencies are missing opportunities for innovation when they carry out legacy replacement projects in this conservative manner. Overcoming the legacy problem is “wickedly” difficult because of the complex interrelationships of information technology, organizational culture, and government agencies’ normative environments. This paper reports on the use of an online survey and qualitative interviews with practitioners in government agencies to explore the legacy problem. The data revealed that public agencies tend to regard legacy system replacement projects as a distinctly technical issue, and that they do not engage in systematic practices to ensure that unnecessary carryover of the business model embedded in legacy technology does not take place. As a result, legacy feature carryover occurs frequently, because practitioners want to minimize business process changes during new system implementation. The study findings single out the procurement of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) software as the most common approach to the replacement of legacy systems. When COTS packages are implemented, vendors (technology providers) shape the requirements discussion and the business analysis surrounding feature selection and customization. These study findings can be instrumental when devising solutions to assist agencies in dealing with the legacy problem

Socio-Technical Analysis of Indonesian Government E-Procurement System Implementation

Abstract: E-governance has become increasingly important to deliver better public services, and increase public trust. One of Indonesia’s e-government reform initiatives was to improve public spending efficiency through public e-procurement system. It is argued that an effective national e-procurement system will potentially generate great savings in the government expenditure, assist in delivering better public services and increase trust. Despite the reform, Indonesia’s public e-procurement has not been very successful due to socio-economic problems. With a specific focus on e-procurement and the issues of transparency and accountability in Indonesia, this research aims to investigate the role and barriers of information technology in enhancing information transparency and accountability to the public. Actor-network theory and the notion of delegation approach are employed in this research. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with the developers and management of Indonesia Government e-Procurement System, which includes the e-Procurement Directory staff in the Institution of Government Procurement Policy (IGPP), and the users of an e-procurement system. This research concludes that information technology was delegated to automate the procurement process to increase transparency, accountability and prevent fraud. However, barriers of e-literacy, lack of leadership, a reluctance of implementation, and lack of infrastructure created obstacles to attain the goals. This infers that social and technical aspects are interrelated and empower each other to support the technology in enhancing information transparency and accountability. This research suggests that there should be an increased collaborative approach between the developers and users in the application development and implementation to improve e-procurement system implementation to achieve transparency and accountability.Abstrak: E-governance telah menjadi semakin penting untuk memberikan layanan publik yang lebih baik, dan meningkatkan kepercayaan publik. Salah satu inisiatif reformasi e-government Indonesia adalah untuk meningkatkan efisiensi belanja publik melalui sistem e-procurement publik. Dikatakan bahwa sistem e-procurement nasional yang efektif akan berpotensi  menghasilkan  penghematan  besar  dalam  pengeluaran  pemerintah, membantu dalam memberikan layanan publik yang lebih baik dan meningkatkan kepercayaan. Meskipun reformasi, e-procurement publik Indonesia belum berhasil karena masalah sosial-ekonomi. Dengan fokus khusus pada e-procurement dan isu transparansi dan akuntabilitas di Indonesia, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menyelidiki peran dan hambatan teknologi informasi dalam meningkatkan transparansi informasi dan akuntabilitas kepada publik. Teori jaringan aktor dan gagasan pendekatan delegasi digunakan dalam penelitian ini. Enam wawancara semi-terstruktur dilakukan dengan pengembang dan manajemen Sistem e-Procurement Pemerintah Indonesia, yang mencakup staf Direktori e-Procurement di Lembaga Kebijakan Pengadaan Pemerintah (LKPP), dan pengguna sistem e-procurement. Penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa teknologi informasi didelegasikan untuk mengotomatiskan proses pengadaan untuk meningkatkan transparansi, akuntabilitas dan mencegah penipuan. Namun, hambatan e-literacy, kurangnya kepemimpinan, keengganan implementasi, dan kurangnya infrastruktur menciptakan hambatan untuk mencapai tujuan. Ini menyimpulkan bahwa aspek sosial dan teknis saling terkait dan memberdayakan satu sama lain untuk mendukung teknologi dalam meningkatkan transparansi informasi dan akuntabilitas. Penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa harus ada peningkatan pendekatan kolaboratif antara pengembang dan pengguna dalam pengembangan aplikasi dan implementasi untuk meningkatkan implementasi sistem e-procurement untuk mencapai transparansi dan akuntabilitas

Model for e-government initiative in public sector in Jordan

E-government has become a global interest since it extended the public services through information communication technology (ICT) to allow access to information, improve transparency and efficiency. Many governments are interested to implement successful e-government initiatives. However, e-government implementation is not a simple task since the developing countries cannot directly adopt the implementation of e-government model which is mainly built in the context of developed countries. Previous studies have shown that many egovernment projects in developing countries, like Jordan have encountered various problems after implementation phase. Hence, the objective of this study is to develop an e-government initiative model for the public sector in Jordan. In this study, unstructured interviews were conducted as a method for collecting the data. Thirty respondents involved in e-government projects such as managers, general managers and other levels of decision makers were selected from three Jordanian ministries namely the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labour. The initial success factors for e-government initiatives in Jordan were identified and analyzed qualitatively. Delphi technique was also used to determine and validate the critical success factors (CSFs). Ultimately, a novel Ali, Syazwan & Ruzaini’s e-government initiatives model for has been developed in this research. The model has four stages: (1) Emerging and Information Dissemination; (2) Two-Way Communication; (3) Integration and (4) E-democracy. The findings also revealed seven CSFs that should be taken into account to implement the e-government model which include top management support, vision and strategy, funding, information technology (IT) infrastructure, user computer efficacy, awareness and resistance to change. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in Socio Technical Theory (STT) toward the development of egovernment initiatives model for public sector in Jordan. The empirical data from the study may provide input for government agencies to plan, design and implement future ICT projects in Jordan

Sesgos cognitivos y uso del e-gobierno. Una perspectiva conductual

El e-gobierno se presenta como una herramienta al servicio de la mejora de la eficacia y eficiencia en la prestación de los servicios públicos. Pero, pese a los esfuerzos por lograr una adopción generalizada del e-gobierno, éste presenta unas tasas de uso inferiores a las anheladas. Si bien dicho fenómeno ha sido estudiado desde diferentes perspectivas, en el presente trabajo se presenta la perspectiva conductual como enfoque que responda a tal reto. Para ello, se analiza la relación entre diferentes sesgos cognitivos vinculados a la tendencia del statu quo (hábito, inercia y resistencia) con la intención (de uso para los usuarios y de continuación para los usuarios). Los datos fueron captados tras un trabajo cualitativo (dos sesiones de grupo) y un trabajo cuantitativo (923 cuestionarios), dirigido a dos muestras diferentes de ciudadanos (no-usuarios y usuarios del e-gobierno). Los resultados constatan la presencia de la tendencia al statu quo en el uso del e-gobierno. Mientras en el caso de los no-usuarios del e-gobierno se encuentran presentes los sesgos cognitivos analizados, llevando a dilatar su uso, entre los usuarios del e-gobierno carece de relevancia el hábito, por lo que se mantienen en su uso como canal de acceso a los servicios públicosE-government is conceived as a tool to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of public services. However, in spite of the efforts to achieve a widespread adoption of e-government, it has lower usage rates than expected. Although this fact has been studied from different viewpoints, in the present work the behavioral perspective is presented as an approach that may answer to this challenge. To get it, the relationship between different cognitive biases linked to the SQB (habit, inertia and resistance) with the intention (of use for users and continuation for users) is analyzed. The data were collected after a qualitative (two group sessions) and a quantitative work (923 questionnaires), aimed at two different samples of citizens (non-users and users of e-government). The results confirm the presence of the trend towards the status quo in the use of e-government. Besides, while in the case of non-users of e-government the cognitive biases analyzed are present, leading to delay its use, among the users of e-government habit lacks relevance, so they remain in use as a channel of access to public services

Resisting government rendered surveillance in a local authority

The paper illustrates and discusses how the performance management systems in a UK local authority are transformed into a surveillance system. A case study analysis reveals that the surveillance is engendered by central government and enacted by senior managers who conform to policies demanding the introduction of strict performance management systems that dehumanize work processes because employees are deemed untrustworthy. The paper shows that employees resist this government rendered surveillance because they believe it undermines their interests as well as the interests of the public by damaging the quality of the services delivered

Road funding options : a case study of how Gauteng can cover the 14.1 billion rand e-toll debt and 6.9 billion rand refunds

Papers presented virtually at the 41st International Southern African Transport Conference on 10-13 July 2086Most motorists applauded the announcement of scrapping e-tolls on the Gauteng Freeways. Most media outlets interpreted the scrapping of e-tolls as a debt victory for the South African National Road Agency SOC Ltd. (SANRAL). The decision taken left the Gauteng provincial government and national government with a debt of 47 billion rand, which is split into a proportion of 30/70. On top of the latter decision, the Gauteng provincial government would cover its estimated road maintenance costs of over 2 billion rand each year for the upcoming three years. Moreover, the Premier of Gauteng agreed to refund 6.9 billion rand to motorists who have been complying with their e-toll payments. This is a scholarly research paper that examines possible ways available to the Gauteng provincial government to cover the latter debt, the refund, and continue to maintain good freeways. Possible solutions suggested by the Finance Minister and the Premier includes the building of manual tolls, increasing fuel costs, and increasing licensing costs within the province. The researcher in this scholarly research paper also discusses the road funding options used in South Africa and elsewhere. Finally, the researcher recommends the optimal solution for the Gauteng provincial government

Electronic Government Adoption Model Among Business Organizations in Jordan

E-government adoption involves a significant change in the way government administrative operations with its stakeholders are being conducted. Past studies have tended to view e-government adoption in terms of a dichotomous outcome; either e-government is adopted, or it is not. Such studies give little indication of the diffusion of e-government applications. The aim of this study is to address this gap in existing research by investigating both the level and extent of usage of e-government applications. In so doing, the study draws on research in the area of innovation diffusion theories. The population of this study consisted of firms listed in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) that have adopted B2G (business-to-government) e-government. The main objective of this study is to characterize B2G e-government adoption among businesses listed in ASE. It also aims to identify factors associated with the adoption of B2G e-government and to determine the impacts of its adoption on these businesses. A total of 113 usable responses were generated for further analysis. Based on two parts, the level of e-government adoption and the extent of usage for each application, two groups of adopters were identified and labeled as basic-adopters and advanced-adopters. Technological, organizational and external factors were found to have influenced e-government adoption among businesses in ASE. It was also found that advanced-adopters had gained more significant benefits from e-government adoption than basic-adopters. In particular, advanced-adopters achieved time saving, lower cost and efficiency as well as gaining strategic benefits such as better work efficiency, lower operational cost, and reduced work-process time