Conclusion and Recommendation for Future Enhancement of ICT Adoption in Public Sector

This chapter is devoted to recap the key findings in each chapter of the book. It also reflects on the findings with their relevance to technology adoptions and related human factors that could jeopardize the objectives of ICT utilization in the public sector. In addition, the chapter highlights some pertinent issues in adoption and using of ICT to carry out obligatory works ranging from service deliveries to meeting other non-service demands by the public mass at large. Therefore, this chapter touches on different aspects of what has been pointed out in each chapter of the book and lastly provides some crucial suggestions and recommendations that can be used for enhancement of ICT adoption and implementation in the public sector.

Investigation of ICT Usage in Malaysian Public Sector using Extension of TAM

In terms of student population, Universiti Teknologi MARA is one of the largest universities in Malaysia. It has adopted i-class system through which teaching and learning are facilitated as alternative method of delivering knowledge to students. However, the rate at which the targeted students are using the system is very poor. As such, the chapter revisits technology acceptance from the perspective of a problem-based study and uses the information gathered to extend the original TAM model. The significant contribution of the chapter is the focus on the external variables to perceived usefulness and perceived ease of using i-class. Since the majority of targeted students learning through this mode are adults, perceived computer self-efficacy, perceived convenience, and subjective norm are considered for extension. The results obtained show significant relationships between the causal links among the new constructs.

The Theory of Planned Behaviour and its Relation to ICT Adoption

Due to practical limitation found in the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) such as an inability to cater to non-volitional behaviour towards performing certain actions, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was developed in 1985. The main purpose of TPB was to improve the predictive power of TRA to be more applicable to any kinds of behavioural attitude and intention to involve in all type behavioural acts. Findings reflect the needs to carry out some elicitation study on antecedents of attitude, subjective norms, and even perceived behavioural control of the model. This chapter addresses the external influence such as self-efficacy and facilitating condition used as the determinants of perceive behavioural control. As such, attempts were made to pragmatically utilise the theory in research settings by many scholars as well as in this present book.

Models of Political Representation for ICT Adoption in a Networked Society

The Internet, a global network of digital technologies, is arguably the largest and most democratic system that human beings have ever created. It is often proposed that ICT revolution, particularly the Internet, could be well utilised by the parliamentarians to improve the responsiveness and efficiency of transactions between government and elected politicians, elected politicians and their constituents, public services and the citizen. Models of political representation in a networked society and the technological and the constitutional are addressed in this chapter. The former sees the transformative opportunities of the Internet, whereas the latter model sees the Internet as a support to existing relationships between parliamentarians and their constituents. To illustrate this, the chapter examines the role of parliament within contemporary democratic governance and political online communication. Different models of political representation and parliament as a symbol of political representation in the networked society is addressed.

ICT Adoption by Malaysian Parliamentarians for Communication with the Citizens

The adoption of ICT by MPs as mechanism for socioeconomic and political communications with their representatives in various constituencies has been investigated along side with system factor, social factors, individual factors, and trust in ICT system as moderator. The results show the existence of negative relationship between system factor and MPs e-communication. But when moderated with trust variable, a positive significant effect was obtained. The same moderating effect of trust was envisaged for self-efficacy variable as well as other social factors and individual factors in the model. The inclusion of pertinent variables such as system factors, self-efficacy, and trust make a difference to original Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in this chapter. Findings show that systems, self-efficacy in an individual, and word of mouth in social situations play important roles in the use of ICT by MPs to engage their electorates when these variables are moderated with trust in ICT.

The Wave of Digital Convergence on ICT Adoption and Application in Malaysia

How much Malaysian convergence policy has achieved in response to global reform since 1990 is intriguing. The chapter discusses policy and regulatory implications as well as the nature of new mode of governance with particular focus on policy networks. The analysis draws on the scope of collective action that has been compared with the widening of policy participation. Main sources include Malaysian government policy documents and semi-structured interviews with key policymakers, regulators, and experts of Malaysian ICT and convergence initiatives. It is found that those policy network structures are clearly reflected in the design of the current ICT framework. In view of recent institutional and regulatory reforms, the political process toward the removal of analogues laws also exhibits the weaknesses of policy in the networked governance. In sum, both the National IT Council (NITC) and the Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) remain vulnerable to pressures from politicians and other ministries.

Model of Digital Convergence of ICT Adoption within the Framework of Network Governance Policy

This chapter considers the literature relevant to a study of the impact of digital convergence upon governance that impinges the overall manifestation of ICTs in the public sector today. In addressing the issue, the discussion is made within the conceptual evolution and the changing paradigm of ICT and convergence, policy networks, and the related issues, locating them at the centre of network governance literature. The central theme of this chapter is to highlight the proliferation of ICT agenda, in particular reference to digital convergence and eventually how the mode of ICT governance is affected by three important factors: first, policy network; second, new legal or regulatory environment; and third, institutional reforms. Thus, to put things into perspective and as an indication of the genuine contribution of the study of knowledge in the field, these three important domains of analysis in line with the research questions are considered to be most relevant.

Empirical Investigation of ICT Usage in Malaysian Public Sector

Information technology has been playing some important roles in expediting service delivery in public organizations to meet the demands of the people in Malaysia and elsewhere in the world. However, some of the civil servants still have pessimistic perceptions of technology devices with negative attitudes towards them. Some even prefer to remain with their traditional ways of doing the obligatory works assigned to them. In this context, this chapter extends the theory of planned behaviour by examining the antecedents of attitude such as perceived usefulness. The findings of the study show that perceived usefulness of technology devices by respondents has a strong and significant influence on attitude towards the use of the system among the civil servants. The practical significant of this finding is that a technology must be very useful to users and meet their expectations in terms of accomplishment of their goals of using it.

Empirical Investigation of ICT Usage in Malaysian Public Sector using Extension of Theory of Reasoned Action

The primary aim of this chapter is to examine the TRA in relation to ICT adoption by the Malaysian public sector. Prior experience using ICT was found to be antecedent of attitude towards ICT use among the users. TRA was also extended to find the nature of causal link between subjective norm and attitude itself, and the findings of the chapter show positive relationships between them at alpha level of p < 0.001. The significant contribution to the public sector is that adoption of ICT relies on technical know-how and/or the experience of how to use ICT to accomplish the goal. Experience of ICT and the presence of important individuals would make a user form positive attitude towards using ICT to do work according to the findings. The implication of such findings for policymakers here is to provide adequate ICT training for civil servants to make it more meaningful to them.

Technology Acceptance Models (TAMS) and their Relations to ICT Adoption

The TPB might not be totally fit into technology acceptance in organizations unless certain elements are introduced. In the light of this, additional variables, such as perceived expressiveness, perceived enjoyment, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness have been introduced to TPB as determinants of attitude to optimise its prediction of intention-actual use behaviour towards technology to develop TAM. In other words, TAM model posits that if a user perceives that a given technology is useful, the person will hold a positive use-performance and strong intention based on his or her belief about it. Findings show that users are likely to accept application of technology when they perceive it easier for them to use, thereby inducing a positive attitude to their minds. However, some scholars have called for extension of TAM to meet the needs of different research settings, which has been discussed in other chapters of this book.