Strategies on How to Overcome the Challenges in Automating the Operation of Government Processes - Essay Example

?Area of Study e-government. A Proposed of the Research Topic strategies on how to overcome the challenges in automating the operation of government processes Table of Contents Contents Area of Study 1 e-government. 1 A Proposed Title of the Research Topic 1 Table of Contents 2 Contents 2 Objectives 3 Background 3 Development of Research Problem 3 Theoretical Framework 4 Extended Literature Review 5 Methodology 5 Limitations 6 Research Planning and Timelines 6 References 6 Objectives E-government simply means automating the processes of government agencies. The processes should include the visible services that government provides to the public. There are many aspect of automation that needs to be resolve in order for the automation process to be accepted by both the public and the public servants to ensure that the process is not only successfully executed but also responsive to the needs of the public. In support of this overall objective it is the aim of the proposed thesis to determine the challenges that automation projects face in the course of its implementations. Another aim is to determine the most effective strategies that can be used to resolve the challenges listed. The final aim that supports the overall objective is to determine the possibility of success of the strategies listed. Finally in order to determine the relevance of this thesis, the proposed thesis shall determine the resulting success or failure of automation the processes of governments. Background Investment in e-government initiative is considers a significant investment by many governments worldwide (Hunter&Tan, 2006). It is unfortunate that many of these investments have been unsuccessful (Heeks, 2001). E-government simply is an electronic version of traditional governmental transaction and communication processes. As mentioned in the literature, many governments around the world attracted to adopt and implement e-government in order to improve their performance. Improve performance is a broad term that includes provide faster and better services at lower cost with a high level of confidentiality and quality. Also, such e-government investment creates many promising economical and innovative opportunities. Governments around the world provide their service to a large number of their citizens governmental bodies, and another public and private sectors (Alshehry, 2008). Thus, the traditional ways of managing government interrelated relationship with parties mentioned above have became a complex and exhausted process that need to be improved. Here, emerged the importance to adopt and implement e-government. Providing e-government services to citizens associated positively with citizen’s satisfaction by saving time, money, and effort (Kumar & Best, 2006). Also, e-government provides high level of transparency to all involved parties and increases the level of effectiveness and efficiency. Development of Research Problem E-government has been associated in positively building trust in the government through providing transparency and interactivity to people ( Welch, 2005). Also, e-government is associated with building and managing relationships (Layne& Lee, 2001) with citizens, public and private sector, and more which could create many of business opportunities. On another hand, an e-government initiative is still unmanageable and in its infant stage as mentioned by Layne& Lee (2001) including infrastructure, policy, interoperability. Successful initiative of e-government does not necessarily ensure the success of subsequent stages (Kumar & Best, 2006). Also, the failure rate in most of e-government projects relatively high (Lessa, Belachew, & Anteneh, 2011, Heeks, 2001). There are many challenges that hinder successful e-government projects. Thus, theses challenges need to be investigated. The focus need to be placed on understanding the factors that hinder the success and delay its implementation. As mentioned in the literature, the full advantages of e-government implementation have not been reaped yet; the challenges need to be identified in order to help to overcome these challenges. That will help to increase the awareness level e-government project team of these challenges they might face (Ebrahim & Irani, 2005) increase the likelihood of success. E-government adoption and implementation would vary from one government to another with differences in strategies, vision, culture, and the context (Hunter &Tan, 2006) which impose challenges to the adoption and implementation process. The failures in e-government projects can either be partial or full (Heek, 2003) translating to a significant value in terms of losses. The failure of e-government project means for governments loses in financial, political, opportunity, benefits, and future costs (Heek, 2003). Here, emerged the question of this research to investigate the challenges that hinder successful e-government implementation and delay its implementation, and how we can contribute to enhance the successful adoption of e-government. Theoretical Framework Developmental stages of e-government consist of four stages which are cataloguing, transaction, vertical integration, and horizontal integration (Layne& Lee, 2001). First stage is cataloguing which focuses on organising and presenting governmental information on-line for access and downloading. After cataloguing the governmental information then the focus will moved to connect the government internal systems to on-line portals in order to allow for interactivity. In second stage (transaction) people can interact with the government systems and perform some services online. In third and fourth stage focuses will be on integrate scattered transaction systems at different level (vertical integration) and at different functionality (horizontal integration). Extended Literature Review The benefits associated with the adoption and implement of e-governments mentioned and summarized in the literature. But there are some challenges that hinder to reap the full advantage of e-government. Some challenges of e-government in developing countries summarized by Ndou (2004). These challenges include resistance to change, assuring service quality, training programmes, leadership, technological skills and capabilities, cost and finance of project, and more. Architecture framework for e-government adoption presented by Ebrahim & Irani (2005) in order to help in guiding the IT mangers to identify the technological and organisational requirements. Also, there are seven dimensions in e-government projects summarised by ITPOSMO acronym (Heek, 2003) that are necessary to be considered in order to provide better understanding for e-government projects. ITPOSMO acronym stands for Information, Technology, Processes, Objectives and values, Staffing and skills, Management systems and structures, Other resources: time and money. As mentioned in the literature, considering these six dimensions will help in reducing the failure risk of e-government projects by understanding the amount of change between what is exit in the reality and the proposed development project. The target of e-government is broad including citizens, business, governments, and employees (Ndou, 2004) and there are three main domain that covered by e-government which are e-administration, e-services, and e-society (Heek, 2001). First one e-administration that focus on governmental processes and how they can be enhanced, while the other two focus on providing services to citizens and building relationship with them.. But, some argued in the literature the privacy threats that impose by adopt and implement e-government (Kessler et al., 2011). Methodology This research might be carried out in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia or any other country. No research site identified till now. As long as the research site is identified, that will facilitate the study to be comprehensive and understand how e-government implementation and management could be carried successfully, and contribute to achieve the strategic objectives of the government and facilitate improved management practices and operations. Also, identify the challenges that delay the implementation of e-government projects and understand how the innovation can emerge from the investment in e-government. At this point, the suggested research methodology will be a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The respondents might be the people who are involved in making decision including top management. Limitations The proposed thesis shall limit itself to a single government process of a single country. Due to funding limitations extensive the proposed research shall confine itself to secondary research. To determine the success of an automated government process a satisfaction survey shall be conducted amongst the actual beneficiary of the automated government process. Research Planning and Timelines The following are initial project plan. The proposed research has five work packages (WP). They are: WP 1: identify current challenges of e-government projects. WP 2: develop research instrument. WP 3: empirical research within the case study organisation WP 4: finding and recommendation. References Alshehry, A. (2008) ‘Transformation towards e-government in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: technological and organisational perspectives’, Welch, E. W., Hinnant, C. and Jae Moon, M. (2005) ‘Linking Citizen Satisfaction with E-Government and Trust in Government’, Graduate Program in Public Administration, University of Illinois at Chicag, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Vol. 15, no. 3 © 2005 Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Inc.; all rights reserved. Layne, K. and Lee, J. (2001) ‘Developing fully functional E-government: A four stage model’ ,Government Information Quarterly ,18 , pp. 122–136. Kumar, R. and Best, M. L. (2006 ) ‘Impact and Sustainability of E-Government Services in Developing Countries: Lessons Learned from Tamil Nadu, India’, The Information Society journal, Lessa, Lemma; Belachew, Mesfin; and Anteneh, Salehu, "Sustainability of E-Government project Success: Cases from Ethiopia" (2011). AMCIS 2011 Proceedings - All Submissions. Paper 411. http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2011_submissions/411 Ndou, V. (2004) ‘E-government for developing countries: opportunities and challenges’, The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 18 (1), pp. 1-24. Ebrahim, Z. and Irani, Z. (2005) ‘E-government adoption: architecture and barriers’, Business Process Management Journal, 11 (5), pp. 589 – 611. Hunter, M. G. and Tan, F. B. (2006) Advanced Topics in Global Information Management. 5th edition. Idea Group Publishing. Heeks, R. (2003) ‘Most egovernment-for-development projects fail: How can risks be reduced? ‘, iGovernment Working Paper Series, paper No. 14, available at http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/research/publications/wp/igovernment/igov_wp14.htm [accessed on 1st May 2012]. Kessler, K., Hettich, N., Parsons, C., Richardson, C. and Triana, A. (2011) ‘A Framework for Assessing Privacy Readiness of e-Government’, iGovernment Working Paper Series, paper No. 21, available at http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/research/publications/wp/igovernment/igov_wp21.htm [accessed on 1st May 2012]. Heeks, R. (2001) ‘Understanding e-Governance for Development’, iGovernment Working Paper Series, paper No. 11, available at http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/research/publications/wp/igovernment/igov_wp11.htm [accessed on 1st May 2012]. Read More