Better Public Services through e-government': Academic Article in support of Better Public Services through e-government. Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, HC 704-III, Session 2001-2002: 4 April 2002

Abstract

E-government is about making the full range of government activities - internal processes, the development of policy and services to citizens - available electronically. Despite the bursting of the over-inflated dot com bubble, electronic interactions have rapidly shown astonishing potential for transforming the internal activities of all kinds of organisations and dramatically altering the relationships between organisations and those who use them - in particular, firms and their customers. As a Dutch parliamentary committee put it, 'Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is not a supporting technology, but coincides with the primary process and touches government at its core' (ICT and Government Advisory Committee, 2001: 9). Yet (in the UK in particular) the potential of web-based technologies are taking much longer to be realised in government. Why? What are the obstacles to the development of e-government - do they come from within government organisations themselves, or from society? Are they ingrained in organisational structures and societal interactions - or can they be overcome and if so, how? This short paper reviews and categorises the cultural barriers to e-government, drawing on experiences from overseas and the private sector; cultural theory; social psychological research into societal use of information and communication technologies; and organisational research into the relationship between such technologies and organisational change. It goes on to consider how these barriers can be overcome. Appendix one provides - for the supply side - a short quiz that a civil servant in charge of the development of e-government should consider undertaking to identify the cultural barriers within their own organisational unit.</p