Public Sector Transformation Through E-Government Read online

  fficient and available in order to gain citizens’ trust,

  which has often eluded many governments and political leaders in modern

  society. Such eff or

  ff ts are now seen by governments as a necessity rather

  than an option, whereas citizens consider it as their right to have access to

  government services at anytime from anywhere. In this backdrop, Public

  Sector Transformation through E-Government e

  t xplores the influenc

  fl

  e that

  e-government has on transforming public sector institutions and the result-

  ing organizational complexities that need to be tackled as well as its impact

  on citizens and democratic society. This book does this in the context of

  experiences in governments in Europe and North America.

  E-government can be broadly viewed as the adoption of information and

  communications technologies (ICTs) in government institutions to improve

  public services. For many countries, e-government implementation efforts

  began in the late 1990s. Since then, the e-government infl uenc

  fl

  ed imple-

  mentation of ICT in public administration has enabled governments to

  off

  ffer better, faster, and a more transparent way of delivering services to

  citizens and other stakeholders. Equally, it has also created a platform for

  better collaboration and information sharing between various government

  institutions. In the last few years in particular e-government implementa-

  tion eff

  fforts in most countries have evolved from basic information provi-

  sioning online to more integrated service off

  fferings. The implementation

  of such integrated online services has enabled public institutions to offer

  more joined-up and citizen-centric service facilitated primarily through

  cross-agency process and information systems transformation. However,

  public sector service transformation is a complex undertaking involving

  distributed decision-making that requires a good understanding of the

  political context, business processes and technology as well as design and

  2 Vishanth Weerakkody and Christopher G. Reddick

  engineering methods capable of transcending the traditional boundaries

  that exist between departmental silos in public institutions. Conversely,

  from a demand perspective extensive eff

  fforts are required to increase citi-

  zens’ awareness about the transformation of the delivery of government

  services and their online availability.

  Transformation through e-government involves fundamentally changing

  the relationship between how governments interact with citizens as well as

  other stakeholders such as businesses and non-governmental organizations.

  In the context of highly strained economic resources and related social

  consequences, governments have been devoting significant eff

  ffort on reor-

  ganising public institutions through examining strategies for eliminating

  non-essential back offi

  ffice operations and management activities and provid-

  ing platforms for diff

  fferent stakeholders to collaborate, participate, share

  resources to undertake work traditionally seen as the sole preserve of the

  public sector. In this respect, many governments have embraced new tech-

  nologies such as Web 2.0 based social media applications to engage citizens

  in policy modelling through e-participation and worked towards enhancing

  transparency of their governance processes.

  Yet, sceptics have argued whether these new ICT tools save the pub-

  lic sector money and make it more productive, as well as provide more

  trustful, engaging and useful services for citizens. Further, the continued

  debate about adoption looms large particularly in Europe as the take up of

  e-government services have been disappointing due to issues such as digital

  divide and social exclusion. In fact, the European Commission has repeat-

  edly called for research into social inclusion in the realm of public service

  transformation and digital era government. In order to prevent digital divide

  and social exclusion in terms of using e-government services, it is neces-

  sary that citizens from all facets of society are equipped with basic ICT

  skills as well as access to high-speed Internet connections. Yet, despite the

  availability of innovative technologies, governments are faced with many

  technical, organizational, and socio-economic challenges that need to be

  addressed when developing, adopting, and diff

  ffusing e-government systems

  and services. Furthermore, from an organizational perspective e-govern-

  ment has introduced an environment where most public institutions such

  as healthcare, social services, education, employment and law enforcement

  have struggled with the need to balance issues such as transparency and

  opaqueness, or social inclusion and professionalism.

  Consequently, there has been increasing pressure on the academic and

  practitioner communities for research that focuses on bridging the gap

  between e-government theory and practice as well as availability versus

  demand for services. In such as backdrop, various researchers and practi-

  tioners have attempted to off

  ffer insights into the implementation (Irani et

  al., 2007; 2008; Weerakkody & Dhillon, 2008; Weerakkody et al., 2007a;

  Janssen et al., 2007; Weerakkody & Choudrie, 2005; Kamal et al., 2009;

  Beynon-Davies & Martin, 2004), acceptance (Carter & Belanger, 2005),

  Public Sector Transformation through E-Government 3

  and diff u

  ff sion (Alshafi

  fi & Weerakkody, 2008; Warkentin et al., 2002) of

  e-government services. The last few years have seen e-government being

  regarded with the same level of importance that electronic business (e-busi-

  ness) was treated with in the mid-1990s.

  When examining e-government literature, it can be concluded that

  principally three key themes have emerged in published research on e-gov-

  ernment. These include (a) research that examine the implementation of

  e-government from a policy-oriented perspective that includes strategic,

  organizational, technical, and wider socio-political dimensions (Irani et

  al., 2007; 2008; Weerakkody & Dhillon, 2008; Beynon-Davies & Martin,

  2004; Ramaswamy &Selian, 2007; Janssen et al., 2005; 2007); (b) studies

  that take a citizen-centric perspective on e-government through adoption

  and diff

  ffusion or in other words e-participation research (Niehaves et al.,

  2009; Niehaves & Becker, 2008; Al-Shafi & W

  fi

  eerakkody, 2008; Carter &

  Belanger, 2005; Warkentin et al., 2002; Welch et al., 2005; Huang, 2007);

  and (c) research that explore the complexities of transforming governance

  practices in an e-government context (O’Donnel et al., 2003; Ramaswamy

  & Selian, 2007; Irani et al., 2007; Weerakkody at al., 2007b). Therefore,

  the themes of policy modelling, participation and governance emerge as

  key areas for research in the area of e-government infl

  fluenced public sector

  transformation as this book explores.

 
; From a conceptual angle, a review of the extant literature also suggests

  that despite committed eff

  fforts, many countries have struggled to success-

  fully achieve transformational change in public institutions due to various

  organizational, social, political and technology related challenges (Irani et

  al., 2007; 2008; Beynon-Davies & Martin, 2004). Studies have confirmed

  that implementing transformational change in the public sector through

  e-government involves a radical paradigm shift in comparison to any previ-

  ous eff

  fforts of organizational change seen in the public sector. Moreover,

  to realize transformational change, public institutions will need radical

  changes in core processes across organizational boundaries, in a manner

  that has not been seen before in the public sector (Andersen & Henriksen,

  2006; Kim et al ., 2007; Weerakkody, & Dhillon, 2008).

  Consequently, success will require the ability to rethink processes in a

  cross-functional way as championed by management approaches such as

  business process reengineering (BPR). In this respect, public sector agencies

  have indeed tried to replicate concepts such as BPR, Lean Management,

  Total Quality Management, and Public Value Management with a view of

  improving key public services such as healthcare, social service, education,

  transportation and local government. Yet, although large sums of money

  have been invested in transforming such key public services in recent years,

  research has shown that these initiatives have not met the expectations

  of stakeholders and delivered policy outcomes which have resulted in ser-

  vices that facilitate social inclusion and democratic processes. Rather, the

  application of these management concepts to transform public institutions

  4 Vishanth Weerakkody and Christopher G. Reddick

  has resulted in the tax payers’ money not being sensibly utilized and in

  some cases created social exclusions. A broader example would be that of

  e-business ideas being borrowed from the private sector and applied in the

  context of e-government resulting in major digital divides and exclusions

  among citizens and inequality of service provision. While the implementa-

  tion of such approaches and management concepts have proven difficult

  in the private sector, research suggests that government entities face even

  greater challenges (Fagan, 2006; Tan & Pan, 2003). Indeed, while much

  of the early e-government research eff

  fforts have focused on identifying

  and analysing these challenges that impact implementation, more recent

  research has emerged that identifi

  fies determinants of adoption and diffu-

  sion from a citizen-centric perspective. Nonetheless, very few studies have

  attempted to systematically synthesise theory with practice to generate

  knowledge about the gaps that exist between implementation and diffu-

  sion (service provider or government’s perspective on policy formulation

  and governance) and adoption (service recipient or citizens’ perspective on

  participation). This book attempts to provide both theory and practice of

  transformational change from e-government. This book offers readers the

  theoretical context of the potential of e-government to transform public

  services, and practical examples are provided from leading public sector

  institutions that have attempted to use e-government to bring about trans-

  formational change.

  2 PLAN OF THE BOOK

  The four main objectives of this book are to:

  1. Understand the importance of e-government as a force for change in

  public sector organizations and how it has changed, or has not changed,

  service delivery in European and North American governments.

  2. Understand both the benefi

  fits of e-government and transformational

  change for government and citizens and some of the challenges and

  complexities in its implementation in Europe and North America.

  3. Explore the major schools of thoughts on e-government and related

  transformational change, and provide examples of public sector insti-

  tutions through case studies that have used e-government to change

  their organization.

  4. Understand the relationship between citizens and government and

  how they are aff e

  ff cted by transformational change through e-govern-

  ment policies and programs.

  There are three sections to the book that examine these objectives: (I)

  Transformation E-Government, (II) Benefits and Barriers to Transforma-

  tion, and (III) T-Government and Public Service Delivery. Section I has

  Public Sector Transformation through E-Government 5

  chapters that deal with the important theories and concepts in transfor-

  mational e-government research such as open government, service deliv-

  ery reform, economic constraints, internal organizational change, and

  performance improvements. The overriding contribution to the research

  on transformational e-government is that change can occur as a result of

  e-government, but it is a slow process and often incremental process.

  Section II discusses some of the benefi

  fits and barriers to transformation

  change from e-government. Again repeating some of the themes from Sec-

  tion I, the benefi

  fits are improvements in service delivery and increased par-

  ticipation by citizens in the process of governance. However, the barriers

  are the digital divide, or those groups that are left out of the development

  of e-government for transformation change.

  Section III, the fi

  final section of the book, focuses on transformation gov-

  ernment or T-Government and public service delivery. As we learned from

  previous chapters the overriding and notable contribution of T-Govern-

  ment is to improve service delivery for public sector organizations. This

  chapter as a result provides examples of improvements in service delivery

  through increased collaboration, improved technologies, shared services,

  and increased channel choice.

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