Exploring Civil Servant Resistance to M-Government

Author(s):  
Ronan de Kervenoael ◽  
Mark Palmer ◽  
N. Meltem Cakici

The concept of mobility, related to technology in particular, has evolved dramatically over the last two decades including: (i) hardware ranging from walkmans to Ipods, laptops to netbooks, PDAs to 3G mobile phone; (ii) software supporting multiple audio and video formats driven by ubiquitous mobile wireless access, WiMax, automations such as radio frequency ID tracking and location aware services. Against the background of increasing budget deficit, along with the imperative for efficiency gains, leveraging ICT and mobility promises for work related tasks, in a public administration context, in emerging markets, point to multiple possible paths. M-government transition involve both technological changes and adoption to deliver government services differently (e.g. 24/7, error free, anywhere to the same standards) but also the design of digital strategies including possibly competing m-government models, the re-shaping of cultural practices, the creation of m-policies and legislations, the structuring of m-services architecture, and progress regarding m-governance. While many emerging countries are already offering e-government services and are gearing-up for further m-government activities, little is actually known about the resistance that is encountered, as a reflection of civil servants’ current standing, before any further macro-strategies are deployed. Drawing on the resistance and mobility literature, this chapter investigates how civil servants’ behaviors, in an emerging country technological environment, through their everyday practice, react and resist the influence of m-government transition. The findings points to four main type of resistance namely: i) functional resistance; ii) ideological resistance; iii) market driven resistance and iv) geographical resistance. Policy implication are discussed in the specific context of emerging markets.

2012 ◽  
pp. 1554-1579
Author(s):  
Ronan de Kervenoael ◽  
Mark Palmer ◽  
N. Meltem Cakici

The concept of mobility, related to technology in particular, has evolved dramatically over the last two decades including: (i) hardware ranging from walkmans to Ipods, laptops to netbooks, PDAs to 3G mobile phone; (ii) software supporting multiple audio and video formats driven by ubiquitous mobile wireless access, WiMax, automations such as radio frequency ID tracking and location aware services. Against the background of increasing budget deficit, along with the imperative for efficiency gains, leveraging ICT and mobility promises for work related tasks, in a public administration context, in emerging markets, point to multiple possible paths. M-government transition involve both technological changes and adoption to deliver government services differently (e.g. 24/7, error free, anywhere to the same standards) but also the design of digital strategies including possibly competing m-government models, the re-shaping of cultural practices, the creation of m-policies and legislations, the structuring of m-services architecture, and progress regarding m-governance. While many emerging countries are already offering e-government services and are gearing-up for further m-government activities, little is actually known about the resistance that is encountered, as a reflection of civil servants’ current standing, before any further macro-strategies are deployed. Drawing on the resistance and mobility literature, this chapter investigates how civil servants’ behaviors, in an emerging country technological environment, through their everyday practice, react and resist the influence of m-government transition. The findings points to four main type of resistance namely: i) functional resistance; ii) ideological resistance; iii) market driven resistance and iv) geographical resistance. Policy implication are discussed in the specific context of emerging markets.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 699-712
Author(s):  
Anne-Flore Maman Larraufie ◽  

Peru is an emerging country showing strong potential for future luxury developments. It already holds luxury regular consumers, mainly in the Lima capital. However, it is currently approached in a standardized process by luxury firms, following what is done in other emerging markets for luxury. To be efficient, it is necessary to get more knowledge about Peruvian consumers. This is what this article aims at. After reviewing the historical background of the country along with its cultural dimensions, we present results from a two-stage analytic process based on data collected from secondary sources and interviews with consumers. We derive from that practical recommendations for luxury managers and propose some research questions and hypotheses to be further explored and tested.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1251-1272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Munro ◽  
Denni Arli ◽  
Sharyn Rundle-Thiele

Purpose Internationalization has witnessed rapid growth of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in emerging markets, requiring reflection on how to operate within these markets. The purpose of this paper is to assist MNEs to adapt to these markets, and adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy with social initiatives (SIs), relevant to stakeholders, including their employees and the communities they reside in. The current paper does this by examining the relationships between employee identification with the organization’s SIs (SI-I) and their engagement in them (SI-E), alongside their perspective on the general importance of CSR (ICSR) and employee values to help with CSR (VCSR). The findings will better prepare managers in pre-emerging and emerging markets to design CSR strategy and SIs relevant to these markets and their communities. Design/methodology/approach Guided by social identity theory, this paper examines local employee identification of SI (SI-I) and engagement in SI (SI-E), in two MNE subsidiaries across varying emerging market levels in developing countries, utilizing a quantitative survey design. Structural equation modeling is utilized to analyze responses of N=544 employees in two South East Asian countries, namely, Indonesia (as an emerging country) and Vietnam (as a pre-emerging country), to determine any differences that may exist between the two countries. Findings The findings reveal that SI identification (SI-I) has a strong effect on employee engagement in SIs (SI-E) and also the importance they attach to organizations conducting CSR (ICSR). However, employee values to help with CSR activities (VCSR) has an effect on Vietnamese employees but not Indonesian employees. Likewise, SI-I mediates the effect between ICSR and SI-E for Vietnamese employees but not for Indonesian, suggesting differences exist between these two developing countries where the less developed country, Vietnam, is defined as pre-emerging and Indonesia as an emerging market (MSCI, 2016). Practical implications An awareness of the differences that may exist across employees in emerging markets will assist managers to design CSR strategy relevant to the level of market emergence of the host country, allowing for better CSR SIs identification and engagement in these countries. Originality/value The research model for this analysis utilizes constructs based on past Identification literature, while including new constructs for this study adapted from past literature, and underpinned uniquely by social identity theory in an International Business setting. The findings indicate differences between emerging and pre-emerging markets for particular constructs, which suggests the importance of considering the market level when implementing MNE CSR strategy. Limited research has been conducted examining the differences between emerging and pre-emerging markets, so further research is required to replicate these findings and provide insight into the differences that may exist for CSR SIs in emerging markets.


Author(s):  
Ronan de Kervenoael ◽  
Vasileios Yfantis

For the last several years, mobile devices and platform security threats, including wireless networking technology, have been top security issues. A departure has occurred from automatic anti-virus software based on traditional PC defense: risk management (authentication and encryption), compliance, and disaster recovery following polymorphic viruses and malware as the primary activities within many organizations and government services alike. This chapter covers research in Turkey as a reflection of the current market – e-government started officially in 2008. This situation in an emerging country presents the current situation and resistances encountered while engaging with mobile and e-government interfaces. The authors contend that research is needed to understand more precisely security threats and most of all potential solutions for sustainable future intention to use m-government services. Finally, beyond m-government initiatives' success or failure, the mechanisms related to public administration mobile technical capacity building and security issues are discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 69-90
Author(s):  
Morten Kyed

Trods den vedvarende kønnede ulighed i forekomsten af arbejdsulykker og utallige studiers beskrivelser af sammenhæng mellem maskulinitet og risikoadfærd, har kun ganske få studier undersøgt sammenhængen mellem mænds køns- og sikkerhedspraksis på arbejde. Baseret på 575 timers etnografisk feltarbejde og 20 interviews med mandlige ambulancereddere belyser denne artikel nogle centrale sammenhænge mellem mandlige ambulanceredderes maskulinitets- og sikkerhedspraksis. Artiklen viser, hvordan mandlige ambulancereddere bl.a. praktiserer sikkerhed ved at positionere sig i opposition til en kollektiv fortælling om fortidens ”John Wayne- og Tarzan Syndrom”. Undertiden udtrykkes denne symbolske skillelinje mellem traditionel og moderne maskulinitetspraksis eksplicit, men oftest forekommer den implicit i de mandlige ambulanceredderes kulturelle praksis. Denne kulturelle sikkerheds/ maskulinitets-rekonfiguration indebærer bl.a., at de mandlige ambulancereddere eksplicit tager afstand fra den maskuline helterolle, som medierne tilskriver dem. En anden måde, opgøret med den tidligere maskulinitetspraksis træder frem i det empiriske materiale, er gennem reddernes udbredte fremhævelse af det, jeg kalder et ”forløsningsfællesskab” i forbindelse med kollegial bearbejdning af barske ambulanceopgaver. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Morten Kyed: Emergency Medical Ambulance Work, Safety and Masculine Reconfigurations: Ethnographic Tales about Cultural Practices Undergoing Change Despite the continuing gendered inequality in the incidence of work-related accidents, and countless descriptions of the relationship between masculinity and risk behavior, few studies have examined the relation between male gender and safety practices at work. Based on 575 hours of ethnographic fieldwork and 20 interviews with male EMTs, this article explores some key associations between masculinity and safety practices among male EMTs in Denmark. The article shows how male EMTs practice safety by positioning themselves in opposition to a collective narrative of the past: The ”John Wayne and Tarzan Syndrome”. Sometimes this is expressed explicitly in symbolic boundaries between traditional and modern masculinity practice, but mostly it is expressed implicitly in the male EMTs’ cultural practices. This cultural safety/masculinity reconfiguration involves, inter alia, that the male EMTs explicitly reject the masculine heroic role the media attribute to them. Another way of breaking with former masculinity practices that emerges in the empirical material is the widespread emphasis on what I call a ”community of relief” in the context of collegial processing of harsh ambulance experiences. Keywords: masculinity, safety, practice, ambulance work.


2018 ◽  
Vol 165 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-132
Author(s):  
Sarah C Wattie ◽  
R S Bridger

IntroductionUK Ministry of Defence (MOD) policy and strategy recommend the use of a ‘Defence MODified’ version of the Health and Safety Executive Management Standards Indicator Tool to help managers identify risks of work-related stress among Defence personnel. The Defence MODified Tool (‘Stress Indicator Survey’) asks personnel to rate their perceptions of eight working conditions known to be significantly associated with work-related stress. MOD psychologists are developing a Defence norm group against which future survey scores can be compared. This article describes the use of the Stress Indicator Survey in MOD and gives an overview of findings from 2016 to 2018.MethodMOD psychologists conducted 27 Stress Indicator Surveys in 2016–2018. Data were collated from 6227 personnel for the Defence norm group and comparisons were conducted between Service personnel and MOD civil servants, and between Services (Royal Navy/Royal Marines (RN/RM), Army and Royal Air Force (RAF)).ResultsService personnel had significantly more favourable perceptions than MOD civil servants of most working conditions. The RN/RM had significantly more favourable perceptions than either the Army or the RAF of all working conditions. These findings indicate differential risks of work-related stress in different groups of personnel.DiscussionPossible explanations for the observed differences in risk of work-related stress are discussed, including the nature of military life and planned changes to Defence civilian headcount. Examples of managerial actions to improve working conditions based on individual survey findings are given.


2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
M. Linden ◽  
B. Muschalla

Background:Conditions at the work place affect in many ways the well being of empoyees. One frequent reaction is anxiety because opf threads by superiors, colleagues or customers, the possibility of failing and not fullfilling job demands, accidents, or the possiblity to lose the job.Method:230 patients (71% female) from a psychosomatic inpatient unit were interviewed with as DSM-based half standardized interview in respect to work related anxiety.Results:58% of the patients reported about work related anxieties.Across all areas generalized work related worrying is most frequent (26% service, 35% office/civil servants).Anxieties related to specific situations at work were most frequent in patients working in schools/education (32%) and in production/construction workers (28%).Anxiety related to feelings of insufficency and adjustment related anxiety were most often seen in office workers/civil servant (37% and 26%).Hypochondriac anxieties were mostly reported by school/education employees (18%) and construction/production workers (17%) but to a much lower degree by health workers (6%).Work related phobic reactions were reported by 17% of all patients and most frequent by office workers/civil servants (22%), followed by health workers (21%), service jobs (16%), construction/producrtion workers (11%) and patients working in schools and education (9%).Conclusion:Work related anxieties are frequently seen in patients with mental and psychosomatic disorders. There are different types of anxieties which are differently related to different types of jobs.


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