Citizen's Acceptance of Electronic Services

The Qatari government has launched Wireless Internet Parks (iPark) concept under their national electronic government (e-government) initiative with a view of providing free internet access for all citizens while enjoying the outdoors. By offering free wireless Internet access, the Qatari government hopes to increase accessibility of e-government services and encourage their citizens to actively participate in the global information society with a view of bridging the digital divide. This research proposes an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model for examining the adoption and diffusion of iPark services in Qatar. A pilot survey was conducted of iPark users using an extended version of the UTAUT model to explain the intention to use. The results of a multiple regression analysis are consistent with our predictions that effort expectancy, perceived technology, and Wireless Internet trust significantly influence intention to use. Implications of these results for practice and research are discussed.

Evaluating IT-Enabled Transformation in Public Services

While the paradigm for organizations evolves into an information perspective and information systems’ (IS) role shifts from efficiency to effectiveness, among the top issues of IS management is measuring and improving IS effectiveness. This chapter offers an IS effectiveness evaluation methodology applied on a government organization in Turkey. IS maturity is taken as a reference for determining independent variables of the research. The chapter supports that “IS effectiveness” is a relative term conceptualized by organizational features. The case study suggests future research areas. A number of findings and propositions have been presented, including the alignment of technology and business process, integrating stakeholders’ trust and commitment, the significance of top management support, top-down vs. bottom-up approaches, which can enhance the adoption and institutionalization of information systems implementations within a government organization.

The Call for Transformational Governance in the Knowledge Economy

Increasingly, regions are developing initiatives towards building a knowledge economy. This change is also bringing about a transition from more static forms of information technology (IT) work to more dynamic forms of knowledge work. It follows that knowledge industries will involve more multifaceted forms of collaboration among workers and organizations using IT. In view of the complexities in knowledge work, this chapter develops an argument for a transformational approach to governance, whereby policymakers create mechanisms to continuously evaluate local social contexts so as to continuously adapt policies to unique local conditions. This argument is based on the results of three markedly different case studies of knowledge economies: San Joaquin Valley, California; Ennis, Ireland; and Singapore. These data are used to show how local and unique social conditions influence the sustainability of a knowledge economy. Given the unique characteristics of local contexts, a transformational approach represents one useful approach to governance.

Interorganizational Communications in Disaster Management

In response to the lessons and criticisms over the recent large-scale disasters and relief activities during the disasters, many government organizations around the world have recently launched initiatives to improve their disaster management capabilities. While a revision of disaster management capability may entail transformation of organizational structures, business processes, and technical infrastructure across multiple organizations, the field of disaster management suffers from lack of theoretical foundation. With a special emphasis on information and communication technologies (ICTs), the chapter provides a review on various issues examined in the recent disaster management literature and develops a conceptual framework of the relationships between technological properties of ICTs and multiagency collaboration in disaster management. This chapter contributes to the theoretical foundation of the field by identifying major research issues in the disaster management communications and their relationships with relevant entities and environmental factors. Discussions on future research directions are also presented.

Communities of Purpose

The integration of organizational knowledge across functional communities is increasingly seen as important. The frameworks to do so are often referred to as a ‘higher order set of principles’ or as ‘overarching architectures.’ While recognizing these frameworks as a source of competitive advantage, this chapter underlines the importance of linking organizational knowledge to practice. At the operational level, actual practices are rarely aligned with canonical practices contained in manuals, training programmes, and computer systems. In this theoretical chapter we show that the divergence between actual and canonical practices is exacerbated by a number of communities of practice addressing conflicting stakeholder interests. It is the link between knowledge and actual practice that is of central interest to this chapter. Exploring this relationship necessitates a reexamination of the role of communities of practice and frameworks for bringing together conflicting stakeholder interests. Drawing upon literatures from knowledge management, communities of practice, stakeholder, and resource-based theory this chapter suggests an integrative Purposive Community metaframework. The proposed conceptual framework contributes to the resource-based view of the firm by linking organizational knowledge to actual practices and enhancing organizational capabilities by integrating diverse stakeholder interests and expectations through a shared common goal. Such a metaframework can enhance an organisation’s dynamic capability to respond to and create change in its external environment.

Interoperability and Constituents of Interoperable Systems in Public Sector

This chapter, based on analysis of literature, introduces a definition and a layered architecture for government information systems. It argues that the interoperability of information systems is essential in providing integrated government services, but unfortunately there is no consensus on what interoperability is and what constitutes interoperable information systems. By analysing available academic literature and government reports on interoperability, the authors have attempted to address this problem. Based on the study, a comprehensive definition of interoperability is presented here. Further, the authors have identified four constituents of interoperable system and finally, a layered architecture for interoperability of government information systems has been presented. The authors believe that an unambiguous definition and clear idea about constituent of interoperability would remove much confusion in conceptualisation, design, and development of interoperable systems in government.

Transformation Strategies for Shared Service Centers in the Public Sector

This chapter presents a set of critical choices for initiating a Shared Service Center (SSC) in a large public organization and the management of the transformation process towards it. A move to concentratingorganizational support functions in SSCs in public administration is encouraged by successes in the private sector. There is a lot to gain by concentrating functions including improved services through specialization, efficiencies through standardization, and cost reductions through economies of scale. Yet the transformation process does not resemble the simplicity of the concept of SSC and many challenges need to be bridged. In this chapter, the complexities of transformation processes of the introduction of a government wide SSC for human resource management are studied. By analyzing the perceptions of key stakeholders from a policy network theoretical lens, we found some major patterns determining success or failure in both designing and implementing SSCs. By listing these, we aim to clarify the complexities of transformation processes towards SSCs in public administration and provide some strategic suggestions for these transformations.

The Social Shaping of Transformational Government

Public Sector Transformation initiatives do not exist within a vacuum. This chapter analyzes how Public Service Transformation initiatives are intrinsically linked with the values, norms, informal rules, and taken for granted beliefs (in short: institutions) that characterize the context in which the initiatives are introduced. Using two case studies (describing the Criminal Justice System in the UK and social security in Belgium and The Netherlands) it is exemplified how Public Service Transformation initiatives sometimes transform institutions, whereas at the same time, institutions, through judicial and professional norms, and through power structures and path dependencies, shape ways in which technologies are designed and used in specific practices. The chapter argues for a better understanding of the working of institutions in specific Public Sector Transformation initiatives, in order to be better able to deal with the difficulties, contradictions, and sometimes mindboggling features of Public Sector Transformation.

IT Governance in the Public Sector in a Developing Country

This chapter focuses on IT governance in the public sector organizations in a developing country like Tanzania. Today in many organizations in the public sector, the use of IT has become crucial in sustaining and extending the organizations’ strategies and objectives. This pervasive use of technology has caused a critical dependency on IT that calls for a specific focus on IT governance. In this chapter, we provide its overview and, based on the analysis of five case studies indicate the current practices, problems, and consequences in the Tanzanian public sector environment. Moreover, we reveal twelve key issues to consider for effective IT governance together with the trends and future research in improving ICT-enabled transformational government in public service delivery in this environment. In this context, the chapter contributes to an understanding of the IT governance practices and related ICT-enabled transformational government issues and complexities involved in the transformational phase for better public service delivery in a developing country like Tanzania.

The Myth of E-Government

The idea of e-government is spread at a rapid rate. In almost the entire world governments are attempting to adapt to the suggested changes which implies that e-government has become a global phenomenon. We suggest that the idea of e-government is best understood as a mythologised megatrend. It has become a symbol for the modernised government of today. A symbol which, in some sense, has to be demythologized in order to to be able to be realised. It is argued that it is possible to gain further insights into, and tools to cope with, the gap between myth and reality by differentiate between general and specific interpretations of the idea. By analysing these interpretations the myth can be partially unravelled, which is illustrated by a large scale study based on 2,624 employees in public administration. The result indicates a loose coupling between the general and the specific level.