Leadership for the electronic age: Towards a development-oriented, socio-technical ontology of leadership.

The idea of an ontology of leadership for the electronic age raises “big questions” from the perspective of leadership as a broad interdisciplinary practice. This article aims to capture the current dilemma in leadership research and practice that Hackman and Wageman (2007) concluded is “curiously unformed”. It aims to add a socio-technical voice, rarely heard in a fiercely behavioural school, even where global advances in ICT have tipped the scales towards reifying a more integrative view of leadership. It does not claim to present an integrated theory of leadership; rather, it seeks to elevate the socio-technical school within leadership theory and shift the discourse on leadership to be more inclusive of socio-technical thinking. The concept of “regional ontology”, derived from Heidegger, to refer to “as lived” practices and experiences of a particular social group (in this case Africa), is extended to discuss a development-oriented ontology of leadership. This enables us to recognise that effective organisational leadership in Africa and other developing countries should be anchored in local values; encourage netrepreneurship, take into account opportunities afforded by mobile computing platforms and high diffusion of mobile applications; focus on ethical leadership engagement to spur e-particpation and e-democracy; and develop national and regional innovation systems to enable Africa and other developing regions to participate in global knowledge flows

Grassroots community participation as a key to e-governance sustainability in Africa

This article explores the theoretical sustainability of e-governance in Africa by assessing the nature of participation of stakeholders. It adopts an explanatory critique, drawing on perspectives debated in scholarly literature and based on reviews of country approaches. The exploration takes into account historical antecedents to participation in e-governance in Africa, revealing that dominant stakeholder interests effectively lock out the majority of citizens from active participation in e-governance, except as consumers of public services delivered through e-government. It considers the nature of attachment of stakeholders to e-governance projects. Global stakeholders increasingly have a low degree of attachment, while there is a relatively high degree of enrolment of local actors. The concept of e-governance remains solid, but is dispensable, since although government agencies have “embraced” the message of e-government, certain local actors are weakly mobilised. The policy process has failed to nurture the heterogeneity of actors, specifically grassroots actors, that is required for effective e-governance.http://link.wits.ac.za/journal/journal.htmlam201

Emergence of the E-Government Artifact in an Environment of Social Exclusion in Kenya

Purpose: E-Government, introduced in African countries under the banner of New Public Management (NPM), is envisaged to fundamentally aid in improving governance in developing countries. The imported model of E-Government is therefore transferred to African countries as a panacea to bad governance by carriers such as international donor agencies, consultants, Information Technology vendors and Western-trained civil servants. Improved governance is expected to impact on the socio-economic development of these countries implementing E-Government, as an NPM instrument. This article recognizes that E-Government success, which is critically dependent on the World Wide Web, requires socially inclusive national information infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical analysis into the emerging E-Government artifact in the context of a developing country. By combining three independent research streams related to governance, social exclusion, and national information infrastructure, the emerging E-Government artifact was explored from a supply-side perspective. Design/methodology/approach: The research approach was critical in its philosophical orientation. The case study research strategy was adopted, which relied on various sources of data on E-Government policy and its related strategies in Kenya. Theoretical discourse analysis was employed as the predominant mode of analysis. Findings: The findings reveal that the emergent meanings of E-Government have strong managerialist intentions pointing to a thinly veiled control agenda couched in the language of a desire for efficiency in governance. An unexpected consequence of this conceptualization of E-Government is to help in solidifying and possibly exacerbating the social exclusion problem

Grassroots community participation as a key to e-Governance sustainability in Africa

This article explores the theoretical sustainability of e-governance in Africa by assessing the nature of participation of stakeholders. It adopts an explanatory critique, drawing on perspectives debated in scholarly literature and based on reviews of country approaches. The exploration takes into account historical antecedents to participation in e-governance in Africa, revealing that dominant stakeholder interests effectively lock out the majority of citizens from active participation in e-governance, except as consumers of public services delivered through e-government. It considers the nature of attachment of stakeholders to e-governance projects. Global stakeholders increasingly have a low degree of attachment, while there is a relatively high degree of enrolment of local actors. The concept of e-governance remains solid, but is dispensable, since although government agencies have “embraced” the message of e-government, certain local actors are weakly mobilised. The policy process has failed to nurture the heterogeneity of actors, specifically grassroots actors, that is required for effective e-governance.http://link.wits.ac.za/journal/journal.htmlam201

National Culture and Organizational Capabilities of IT Offshoring Services in Kenya

The concept of outsourcing is a central narrative employed by Friedman (2005) to underscore the fact that globalization is principally driven by the Internet which enables a level playing field for various economic activities. From an information management perspective, the pervasive adoption of Information Technology (IT) with close to 80% of IT services outsourced in one way or the other (Lacity & Willcocks, 2001), has made the multi-billion dollar Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) industry become important not only to individual organizations, but to governments as well (Cullen, Seddon & Willcocks, 2005). The ITO market is thus continuing to mature, with an increasing number of suppliers of outsourced service providers and advancements in IT that are enabling the management, implementation and operations in IT-enabled services and relocation of firm value chains to other countries (Cullen et al, 2005; Hutzchenreuter, Lewin and Dresel, 2011).The global potential for offshoring remains huge, with estimates of the outsourcing market standing at $77 billion per year, with U.S. companies accounting for about$44 billion (Tucci, 2007). The concept of offshoring elevates the importance of country destinations where IT services are sent to or outsourced. India has been the leading Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services provider for a number of years, but is being threatened by a myriad of challenges. Key among these challenges is the labor crunch with rising wages and costs, which are converging towards the client levels of organizations that the BPO firms serve (Jorek, Gott & Battat, 2009). The other two top countries (China & Malaysia) in the 2009 and 2011 Global Services Location Index (GSLI) also face similar changes as India (Jorek, Gott & Battat, 2009; Kearney, 2011). Other destinations enumerated in the report as emerging offshore outsourcing destinations include African countries such as Ghana, Mauritius, Egypt and Senegal

The E-government artifact in the context of a developing country : towards a nomadic framework

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-325).This thesis is concerned with exploring alternative conceptualizations of the e-government artifact relevant to developing countries in Africa. The premise is that e-government, as an artifact of human conception, remains relatively poorly developed at the levels of theory, methodologies and practice. The investigation is focused on two problematic areas of e-government: its conceptualization and its operationalization as an artifact. There is evidence to suggest that conceptualization of e-government takes place at various levels: international, national, local

Enabling social sustainability of e-participation through mobile technology

The social sustainability of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) projects such as e-government in developing nations remains a vexing issue. Particularly pertinent to the concept of e-government is that of electronic participation (e-participation) of citizens in services offered over an e-government platform, yet studies claim that such initiatives exacerbate the social exclusion problem. Globally, and specifically in Africa, the ineffective participation of citizens is marked by waning confidence in service delivery capabilities of political institutions, yet e-government is considered as one of the reform instrument for the attainment of good governance. Governments and pressure groups in many countries are realizing that these trends are problematic and are seeking to broaden and deepen citizen participation in governance, notably through the use of mobile technologies that continues to play a vital role in the trajectory of ICT development in Africa. This study advances the prominent role that mobile technology will play in anchoring e-participation strategies and policies to improve the social sustainability of ICT4D projects geared toward improving governance. The paper presents the results of cluster analysis of a survey aimed at assessing the accessibility, attitudes and the skills necessary for embedding mobile technology as part of an e-participation strategy.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/titd202016-10-31hb2016Informatic

Global Diffusion of the Internet XIII: Internet Diffusion in Kenya and Its Determinants -- A Longitudinal Analysis

This paper assesses Internet diffusion and its determinants in Kenya using the Global Diffusion of the Internet (GDI) framework. Kenya was selected due to its strategic importance for the economic progress of the great lakes region of Africa. An understanding of Internet diffusion in Kenya provides preliminary insight into how the process might unfold in Eastern Africa. The analysis shows that in 2008, less than 10 percent of the population accessed the Internet, with a majority of users clustered around two major urban centers. There is an indication that across the sectors of education, commerce, health, and public service, the Internet is being embraced, with potential for further diffusion. The underlying national Internet connectivity infrastructure is well established, but skewed in favor of urban centers that have high levels of electricity penetration. Vibrant competition exists between Internet service providers despite a persistent monopoly in national fixed line telecommunications provision. A few sophisticated applications of the Internet were found in several sectors. A snap shot of the state of Internet diffusion in Kenya reflects, on average, good performance on the various dimensions of the GDI framework. However, this overall picture masks the reality that the majority of the population, mostly in rural areas, lack access to basic amenities such as electricity, and hence infrastructure to support the Internet. The trajectory along which the Internet is diffusing has therefore led to the exclusion of this majority. The critical role that governments in developing countries play needs to be brought to the fore in order to ensure that the Internet diffusion trajectory is not left entirely to the commercial sector. The government’s ability to marshal resources, execute telecommunications regulation, as well as enable change remains pivotal to ensuring inclusive Internet diffusion

Missed opportunities for introducing transformational government : assessing the contentious e-toll project in South Africa

PURPOSE : The purpose of this paper is to trace the trajectory of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, an electronic tolling (e-tolling) programme based in South Africa, to argue for the importance of taking advantage of similar public project opportunities to introduce the concept of Transformational Government (t-government). DESIGN / METHODLOGY / APPROACH : The research uses an interpretive perspective and utilizes actor–network theory (ANT) to identify the roles and interests of the various stakeholders within the project and assess how each stakeholder could have better influenced the project’s sustainability using a t-government approach. FINDINGS : The findings suggest that in the midst of waning global actor interest, and strong local displeasure about specific public projects, public participation offers an ideal opportunity to introduce the notion of t-government, the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to transform government for citizen benefits. The research allowed the authors to posit that public participation projects are solid and indispensable avenues for introducing t-government. Part of this claim is hinged on the view that the specific e-toll project carries a visible ICT artefact, which has embodied its own patterns of use characterized by various viewpoints, values, opinions and rhetoric. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS : The paper elevates the importance of t-government as a means to bring about practical transformation in government using public projects. The paper suggestshowgovernments can use public participatory approaches to assimilate a new way of working in government. ORIGINALITY / VALUE This paper contributes to research on the emerging discourse on t-government. The paper also highlights the utility of ANT as a tool for understanding the dynamic public sector ICT programmes, their associated complexities and unintended consequences.http://www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/tghb2016Informatic

Leadership for the electronic age : towards a development-oriented, socio-technical ontology of leadership : scene setting

The idea of an ontology of leadership for the electronic age raises “big questions” from the perspective of leadership as a broad interdisciplinary practice. This article aims to capture the current dilemma in leadership research and practice that Hackman and Wageman (2007) concluded is “curiously unformed”. It aims to add a socio-technical voice, rarely heard in a fiercely behavioural school, even where global advances in ICT have tipped the scales towards reifying a more integrative view of leadership. It does not claim to present an integrated theory of leadership; rather, it seeks to elevate the socio-technical school within leadership theory and shift the discourse on leadership to be more inclusive of socio-technical thinking. The concept of “regional ontology”, derived from Heidegger, to refer to “as lived” practices and experiences of a particular social group (in this case Africa), is extended to discuss a development-oriented ontology of leadership. This enables us to recognise that effective organisational leadership in Africa and other developing countries should be anchored in local values; encourage netrepreneurship, take into account opportunities afforded by mobile computing platforms and high diffusion of mobile applications; focus on ethical leadership engagement to spur e-particpation and e-democracy; and develop national and regional innovation systems to enable Africa and other developing regions to participate in global knowledge flows.http://link.wits.ac.za/journal/journal.htmlam201