The Key Organisational Issues Affecting E-Government Adoption in Saudi Arabia

The e-government paradigm refers to utilizing the potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the whole government body to meet citizens’ expectations via multiple channels. It is, therefore, a radical change within the public sector and in the relationship between a government and its stakeholders. In the light of that, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a keen interest in this issue and thus it has developed a national project to implement e-government systems. However, many technological, managerial, and organisational issues must be considered and treated carefully before and after going online. Based on an empirical study, this article highlights the key organisational issues that affect e-government adoption in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at both national and agency levels.

Evaluation of Arab Municipal Websites

High speed wireless networks and mobile and web-based services are changing the way we, as consumers of information, communicate, learn, do business and receive services. Successful e-commerce models have raised the expectations of citizens to have government agencies and organizations provide public services that are timely and efficient. With the growth and development of Arab cities, especially in the capitals, life becomes a little bit harder for citizens dealing with highly bureaucratic government agencies as their demands for basic services increase. Although e-readiness in the region has grown considerably with impressive progress, Arab cities have been clearly absent from studies on worldwide e-municipal websites. In this study, an evaluation checklist for was used to evaluate official municipal websites of Arab capitals. The study found that these websites were not citizen centered, suffered from fundamental problems, had some features that were inoperable and did not follow basic guidelines for any municipal website. These sites were dominated by aesthetics and technical novelties alone, providing inactive information rather than the inclusion of interactive e-services with immediate feedback and easy to use, navigable interfaces.

Global E-Government and the Role of Trust

Using cross-country data from 140 countries, this empirical study extends past research by examining the impact of trust on the level of e-government. The major empirical finding of this research shows that, after controlling for the level of economic development and other socio-economic factors, trust as measured by ethnic and religious diversity, is a significant factor affecting e-government usage.

Leaders as Mediators of Global Megatrends

The idea of eGovernment is moving rapidly within supra-national and national and local institutions. At every level leaders are interpreting the idea, attempting to grasp either the next step or indeed the very essence of the idea itself. This chapter outlines a diagnostic framework, resting on three different dimensions; translation, interpretative frames and sensemaking, to create knowledge about the translation processes and by doing so, emphasize enactment rather than vision. The diagnostic framework is then empirically examined to explore its possible contribution to the understanding of the complexity of leader’s translating and mediating the idea of eGovernment in their local context. In conclusion it is noted that the diagnostic framework reveals a logic of appropriateness between local mediators, eGovernment, different areas of interest and appropriate organisational practices.

Determining Types of Services and Targeted Users of Emerging E-Government Strategies

E-government strategies empower citizens through online access to services and information. Consequently, governments – including in developing countries – are implementing e-government. In this study, a survey examined available services and targeted users in Tanzania. Ninety-six government agencies responded: 46% had implemented e-government using websites. Most services (60-90%) relate to disseminating information; online transactions were the least available services. Government-affiliated staff constituted the majority (60-85%) of users. This implies that emerging e-government services mostly address internal needs (government-to-government), and one-way dissemination of information (government-to-citizen). While agencies exhibited a gradual extension to businesses (government-to-business), citizen-to-government and business-to-government relationships were minimal. Finally, the study compares Tanzania’s web-presence with select countries, draws its wider implications, and advocates further research on the nature and needs of users. Keywords: IT in Developing Countries; E-Government User Groups; E-Management; E-Services; G2C Interactions; G2G Interactions; Tanzania

Quality Enhancing the Continued Use of E-Government Web Sites

This study empirically examines Web site quality toward the enhancement of the continued use of e-government Web sites by citizens. The web site quality under examination includes three main aspects, which are information quality, system quality, and service quality. The participants were 614 country-wide e-citizens of Thailand. The data were collected by means of a web-based survey and analyzed by using multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that the three quality aspects enhanced the continued use of e-government Web sites, with system quality providing the greatest enhancement, followed by service quality and information quality.

A Multi-level Relational Risk Assessment Model for Secure E-Government Projects

In this chapter, the authors propose a model for a risk assessment tool directed towards and tailored specifically for e-government projects. The authors’ goal is to cover the particular threats pertinent to the e-government project context and provide an interface between the broader philosophy of IT governance frameworks and the technical risk assessment methodologies, thus aiding in the successful and secure implementation and operation of e-government infrastructures. The model incorporates a wide range of applicable risk areas, grouped into eleven levels, as well as seven accompanying dimensions, assembled into a checklist-like matrix, along with an application algorithm and associated indices, which an evaluator can use to calculate risk for one or for multiple interacting projects.

Relating Acceptance and Optimism to E-File Adoption

Electronic tax filing is an emerging area of e-government. This research proposes a model of e-filing adoption that identifies adoption factors and personal factors that impact citizen acceptance of electronic filing systems. A survey administered to 260 participants assesses their perceptions of adoption factors, trust and self-efficacy as they relate to e-file utilization. Multiple linear regression analysis is used to evaluate the relationships between adoption concepts and intention to use e-filing systems. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Integrating Public and Private Services

The advent and widespread use of the Internet enables governments to connect directly to citizens and businesses. This results in a decrease of the transaction costs and a reduction of the administrative burden for governments, citizens and businesses. One consequence of this is the bypassing of existing parties that are interacting as intermediaries between the clients and provider. Based on intermediation theory, two case studies are analyzed which counter the argument of the bypassing of intermediaries. It is possible to adopt a re-intermediation strategy, in which intermediaries are used as a value-adding service delivery channel. The empirical evidence shows that private sector intermediaries can be employed for service innovation. The intermediaries provide service delivery channels that are closer to the natural interaction patterns of the users of public services than direct service delivery channels. Furthermore, the intermediaries can bundle public services with their own. For governments, this implies that only adopting a direct interaction strategy, which is often motivated by a desire to reduce transaction costs, is too narrow an approach from the point of view of demand-driven government. As such, direct interaction strategies need to be complimented by a re-intermediation strategy employing private sectors intermediaries in order to advance towards a truly demand-driven and client centered government.

Digital Disempowerment in a Network Society

The objective of this article is to examine how the inequalities of participation in network society governmental systems affect the extent that individuals are empowered or disempowered within those systems. By using published data in conjunction with theories of communication, a critical secondary data analysis was conducted. This critical analysis argues that the Digital Divide involves issues concerning how democracy and democratization are related to computer-mediated communication (CMC) and its role in political communication. As the roles of CMC/ICT systems expand in political communication, existing Digital Divide gaps are likely to contribute to structural inequalities in political participation. These inequalities work against democracy and political empowerment for some people, while at the same time producing expanded opportunities of political participation for others. This raises concerns about who benefits the most from electronic government in emerging network societies.