The successful implementation of e-government transformation: A case study in Oman

The aim of this paper is to investigate, and to discuss the key critical factors that facilitate the successful implementation of E-government projects. The nature of this research is mainly qualitative. This investigation uses a single case study and data was mainly collected by means of semi-structured interviews and organisational documents from the Ministry of Higher Education in Oman. The research findings suggest that there are three paradigms which each include a set of factors that impacts the success of E-government success namely, organisational paradigm, technology paradigm and end-users paradigm. The authors believe that, this paper demonstrates an added value to the current literature on transformation of E-government and to E-government projects success, within the wider context of E-government implementation projects. Also the research will benefit organisations in the public sector, as it has identified main key success factors in E-government transformations and implementations

The evaluation and the effectiveness of project management in transformational e-government projects

This paper forms part of an ongoing research of a PhD degree to describe, critically evaluate and examine the underlying barriers and challenges in large e-Government initiatives. The paper invites technology to be incorporated and inculcated into the art and science of project management, and be part of a passable solution as opposed to being distinct and separate from it. The tools used have to increase the novelty (art and science) of project management through human interaction, and empower the project manager and aiding his capacity in delivering the expected outcomes. Due to inadequate implementations of project management procedures and processes, many large information technology systems (ITS) projects failed. This becomes a characteristic and encompasses e-Government project initiatives, due to ambitious program changes, major innovations, large transformations, enterprise wide solutions, collaboration across organizations’ governments and private sectors, and the implementation of unprecedented (or ambitious) solutions. This research paper critically analyses and summarises a list of e-Government challenges and barriers arising from an e-Government survey administered on behalf of the World Information Technology and Services Association (WITSA) which represents the national technology associations in 70 countries. It compares these challenges to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), which is the North American standard in project management methodology. In addition, it highlights the weaknesses in PMBOK to address these challenges and offers a technology-enabled enhancement to the Project Initiation Phase, the area identified as being particularly weak and inadequate in addressing e-Government initiatives and requirements

The village and the city: a diagnostic study of the spatial embedding patterns in villages absorbed by cities in Bahrain

During the growth of cities villages are frequently absorbed into the fabric of that conurbation. But what are the consequences of this? To what extent and how well do these villages become part of the overall fabric of the city? What is the effect on the village and the wider city? How do these villages interact with the configuration of the city to create a rich spatial urban structure? This study focuses on the spatial distribution of the internal and edge commercial activity within the villages absorbed by Manama and Muharraq, cities of Bahrain, and their correspondence with the syntactic factors as a key factor for the subject. Fully understanding these interactions entails answering three critical questions: Does the commercial activity on the streets in the ten villages of Manama and Muharraq differ in configuration and scale? If yes, what is the level of the differences? How does the commercial activity in these villages relate to the structure of the city? Are the commercial activities related to the local or global structure of the city? Are the commercial activities in absorbed villages part of the context or are they distinguished? What are the spatial dimensions of the commercial activity of the village and how do they determine the means of creating a superior spatial structure in the city? Theses questions are addressed in this paper against the background of a coherent body of literature which uses the space syntax theory and methods, and offers a certain rigour in the analysis of spatial layout. Its syntactic concepts also provide a rigorous spatial framework for the analysis, enabling us to study the key attributes of the absorbed villages in a city context. It is the intention of this paper to develop deep syntactic studies of villages absorbed in a city's fabric by identifying different spatial factors, and looking at their performance over different scales from local to global radii. It focuses on explicitly exploring the properties of contextual structure in the formation of absorbed villages rather than simply the properties of the internal structure. It seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the spatial city structure. The framework is built through a comparison case study of ten villages absorbed by the cities of Manama and Muharraq. The paper explores the relationships between different components such as, on the one hand, spatial factors, and on the other hand, social and economic factors of the villages. It shows that the main dimension of spatial layout of commercial activity derives from a set of basic principles. Depending on the way a village's commercial streets become part of the context or are kept separate from the context, it is possible to distinguish different spatial relationships between the village and the city's fabric

The role and the contribution of business incubators in supporting economic developments

This paper reports, explores and investigates on the initiatives whereby incubators were used to stimulate the economy. Initially the study pursued the role of business incubator organisations and their impacts on the economic developments in the United States of America and the benefits in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. Incubation programs support diversify economies, commercialise technologies, create jobs and build wealth. According to the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA), business incubators help entrepreneurs translate their ideas into workable and sustainable businesses by guiding them from the beginning to being able to achieve a growing and thriving business. Business incubation provides entrepreneurs with expertise, networks and tools that they need to make their ventures successful. This paper provides evidence which based on current literature concerning business incubators as an effective and innovative tool of economic developments. The research methodologies adopted in this research study are desk-research and case study of 5 incubator organisations in the GCC member states. However, the paper provides guidance, suggestions and recommendations to change the adoption of such programmes in order to stimulat

The effect of knowledge management and organisational learning on individual competencies

Knowledge management (KM) is known for its positive impact on the strategy of organisations, but little is known and understood about the significance of competency and learning and its important effects on knowledge management in public and private organisations in different sectors of the economy in Kuwait. The problem is that many organisations deal with KM or new information or emerging information as a challenge of KM itself rather than a way of incorporating new knowledge into the organisation through the development of individual competencies, and hence developing both KM and individual competency. Based on interview data from Kuwaiti organisations, this paper argues that it is better to implement KM and maximize organizational learning in order to create more competent individuals based on the spiral of knowledge creation model or the theory of knowledge creation. The significant contribution this paper makes is that individual competencies have a reciprocal relationship with KM; the determining factors of individual competencies training, education, personal characteristics and culture affect KM success and are themselves affected by KM strategies. Some implications for managing organisational knowledge, organisational learning and development of individual competency are considered

Knowledge management: Exploring the relationship between human capital and organisation structure capital

Human capital and its impact on the organisation structure capital are of paramount importance in the modern business organisations. This research in progress, which investigates and analyses the role that human capital plays in the determination of the organisation structure capital. The study is based on wide spectrum of current literature, which presents theoretical and practical research on the subject of study. Knowledge Management (KM) is systematic process based on models and technological integration, which helps in the development of the conceptual framework. It is assumed that KM leads to benefits for the organisation and provides a platform for future research. Also, it addresses KM impacts on human capital and the enhancement of organisational effectiveness. The procedure is established for the measurement of the effectiveness of knowledge management criteria. The study aims at large businesses in Syria. It is confirmed through the results and findings that models and processing of information through systematic structure is essential for the development of the manager’s capabilities which plays an important factor in defining the impact of human capital on the success of the organisation structure of a business