Transforming Government Entities into Smart Organizations - Literature review Example

 Literature Review: Transforming Government Entities into Smart Organizations Introduction This study is based on previous research papers and scholarly articles so as to determine the challenges and opportunities which are associated with transforming government entities into respective smart organizations. Various perspectives will be analyzed in this particular study in relation to United Arab Emirates or Dubai and even instances taking place across the globe. The word “smart” basically means to be more focused on results and effectiveness with high cost savings and efficiency. In a smart organization, the entire system is more open or transparent and accountable. The factor of sustainability is an essential component in these transformations to smart organizations as more focus is on environment, social, financial and political sustainability. However while undertaking an initiative to transform government entities into smart organizations there are diverse challenges which are observed that restricts the path to attain specific goals or to sustain service. These challenges are linked with various fields and are often the primary cause behind failure of smart government initiatives. In this particular study, not only will the opportunities be highlighted which is associated with such transformation but it will even encompass the probable challenges that can be regarded as an area of concern for such government entities. Smart government initiative can be considered to be an agenda which is echoed by everybody in present scenario due to various reasons. It is an initiative that is undertaken so as to apply information technology, communication and operation across wide range of jurisdictions, processes and domains, with only one purpose, that is to generate sustainable public value (Hevner & Chatterjee, 2010, pp. 27). . The two factors which are common in any smart government initiative are flexibility and effectiveness. Success of any such initiative is majorly because of its alignment with mission, effectiveness of service and operational efficiency which provides required flexibility in any particular situation. This study will outline the various approaches related to smart government which is taking place in different countries along with Dubai. At the end a conceptual model will be incorporated to determine the failure and success factors related to smart government. Further analysis conducted in this study will be based on the adopted conceptual framework. Successful Smart Government Initiatives Introduction on this part According to Bettencourt & West (2011), smart government initiatives can be considered to be steps taken by government in order to develop smart cities. On the basis of these initiatives, a smart city is developed which looks forward in terms of people, economy, mobility, governance, living and environment. All of these are a combination of activities and endowments of aware and independent self-decisive citizens. It can be stated that such initiatives are based on other factors such as those in context of regional competitiveness theories. These factors comprise of ICT economies and transport, social and human capital, natural resources, society’s participation in respective cities and quality of life. An initiative can be regarded as smart, when investments in social and human capital, modern infrastructure of ICT and traditional transport system fuels economic growth so as to be sustainable (Bettencourt & West, 2011, pp. 156-163). As stated by Glaeser & Saiz (2003), this investment is done through proper management of natural resources with the support of participatory governance. Smart government initiative is an expansion of previous e-government initiatives, open government and joined-up government so as to explore all possible benefits of information and technologies. This helps to improve the quality of service offered by the government so that it is measurable, sustainable, quick and affordable (Glaeser & Saiz, 2003, pp. 177-178). As stated by Atkinson & Castro (2008), the success of such initiatives enables effective collaboration between non-profit organizations, government entities and public or private sector organizations (Atkinson & Castro, 2008, pp. 137- 145). Smart Government Initiatives Worldwide As per Bloomberg (2011), there are various smart government initiatives designed across the globe to achieve desirable objectives. The concept of ‘intelligent transport’ is deeply integrated in many cities such as in Singapore, which wanted to enhance overall experience of more than 5 million people who travelled each day across the city. There was an integrated payment means designed in the city for transportation. In present scenario the same payment card is used by people travelling by bus, trains or any other transport form. The major aim behind such a smart government initiative was to make movement faster and enhance the level of efficiency of transport system across the city (Bloomberg, 2011, pp. 155-160). According to Caragliu, Del & Nijkamp (2009), in United States, Houston was a Centre Point Energy company that delivered a combination of natural and electric gas. It had implemented such smart initiative in the form of an end-to-end meter management and monitoring system that delivers status updates and real time reporting in context of distribution network. In New York in accordance to public safety, the police department of the city has developed a data warehouse that was highly efficient to bring together information which was buried in some cabinets, handwritten notes or index cards (Caragliu, Del & Nijkamp, 2009, pp. 45-59). As stated by Hevner & Chatterjee (2010), RTCC or Real Time Computer Complex in current scenario stitches more than 120 million criminal complaints of New York City, public records of 33 billion and national crime records of 31 million. An integrated operations centre has been implemented in Rio de Janeiro so as to provide a common dashboard for the critical system of the city so as to ensure that civic authority can effectively manage the scenario (Hevner & Chatterjee, 2010, pp. 9-23). According to Iivari & Venable (2009), the city agencies through this smart government initiative possess required information on medical services, weather and traffic, which helps them to overcome any problem and prepare for big events taking place in the city. In India, a micro finance bank known as Grameen Koota uses a banking platform based on open source for more real time and accurate information so that they are able to predict capital requirements in order to expand banking functions, microloans and insurance accounts (Iivari & Venable, 2009, pp. 1-13). Smart Government Initiatives in the United Arab Emirates As per the words of Komninos (2011), the government of Dubai in recent years has made a lot of developments in the field of technology by adopting various electronic transformation initiatives. E-government can be regarded as one such initiative which enabled government services to be easily accessible by citizens through Internet. Dubai encompasses a department devoted towards smart government initiatives which are responsible for supervising and managing all forms of transformation that take place towards realization of efficient and effective government (Komninos, 2011, pp.37-41). According to Peffers, Tuunanen, Rothenberger & Chatterjee, (2007), in context of smart city developments, Dubai witnessed this phase in early 1990s, when key areas for development were identified that had great potential and alternative techniques was designed. However there have been successful government initiatives in this city in the form of e-learning, providing Wi-Fi spots where internet can be accessed by public, developing better transport system, optimum utilization of resources to build residents, transformation of the city into tourist hotspots, etc (Peffers, Tuunanen, Rothenberger & Chatterjee, 2007, pp. 45-77). Summary There have been various smart initiatives adopted by government in different cities across the globe which has proved to be successful for long term. In some cities such initiatives are focused towards designing smart transport system while in some, the focus has shifted towards restructuring educational system. E-government is regarded as a common initiative that has been adopted by many metropolitan cities in order to provide a platform through which government services can easily be accessible by public. The immense opportunity which is now available in these cities is due to such initiatives that have been able to transform the entire scenario. Failure Smart Government Initiatives Introduction on this part As stated by Vaidya & Kumar (2006), the smart government initiatives fail due to many reasons and are dependent on the nature of technique utilized to implement such initiatives. Success or failure of smart government initiatives depends on the motive to be served by those initiatives. There is couple of reasons due to which such failures majorly occur in smart government initiatives. These initiatives are majorly driven by IT professionals and they consider it to be a procedure through which business attention can be dragged towards IT departments and in such scenario push more of IT solutions (Vaidya & Kumar, 2006, pp. 1-29). According to mGovernment (2014), the current thinking towards public policy design is not an appropriate approach due to increasing interconnected and complex challenges that is faced by different cities. On the other hand, relentless pursuit in order to reach economic efficiency creates excessive pressure in terms of achieving uniformity in public services (mGovernment, 2014). As per Vasseur & Dunkels (2010), there is more time invested in order to develop better solutions rather than thinking creatively or smartly in context of challenges which are faced by cities. Most of these smart government initiatives are considered to be projects which are linked with some form of revolution rather than evolution (Vasseur & Dunkels, 2010, pp. 335-351). The list of failures of such initiatives varies across different cities and will further be analyzed in this particular study. Smart Government Initiatives Worldwide According to UNPAN (2010), there are many such instances which occurred worldwide that denotes failures in respect to smart government initiatives. For instance in United States of America which is considered to be a leading manufacturer, security advisory expert and financier, had witnessed a lot of turmoil regarding such initiatives. Such innovative programs in the initial phase have witnessed many hurdles, to the extent that tax payers had their money wasted in order to avail required services. The project of Solyndra clean energy had failed miserably in United States of America which was a smart initiative implemented by government so as to provide clean energy to the citizens. A total investment of $535 million was made in this particular project but there was no such results obtained from the government undertaken initiative. The major reason behind such failure was that complicated IT solutions were incorporated in the project which in turn made it difficult to focus on major objective of the project (UNPAN, 2010). As stated in World Economic Forum (2014), in UK, there have been significant developments on information sharing, building infrastructure and setting up of networks, but in the recent times the approach towards cloud computing has witnessed failures (World Economic Forum, 2014). According to Tubtimhin & Pipe (2009), the UK government had spent approximately 6.9 billion Euros in the overall process but the project was not able to deliver desirable results. There are certain percentages of citizens who are not able to utilize this technology due to lack of knowledge (Tubtimhin & Pipe, 2009, pp. 14-36). Though this technology has been incorporated in all large enterprises but it is still not common in SMEs. It can clearly be stated that cloud computing was not proposed as a smart initiative by government but it was rather outlined as an ICT project. This was a major reason behind its failure as people not possessing technical expertise resisted towards adopting this new technology into the system. Smart Government Initiatives in the United Arab Emirates According to the official portal of the United Arab Emirates (2014), United Arab Emirates has been able to occupy a significant position amongst successful nations due to valuable contribution made by smart government initiatives. However these initiatives have been unsuccessful and uneven in various sectors. The economy of UAE is totally dependent on gas and oil but it has even tried to develop various possible alternatives such as trade and tourism. There was an initiative taken by UAE government after analyzing that over 14 million of residents were subscribers of mobile phone. This was done to provide a platform through which government services can be accessed via mobile phone by citizens. The smart initiative was designed so as to properly manage customer complaints, initiate best practices, innovation techniques, corporate social responsibility and governance. Major reason behind failure of this initiative was inability to inculcate initial leadership’s pioneering capacity (The official portal of the United Arab Emirates, 2014). As per United Arab Emirates (2014), On the other hand the major challenges which were faced by UAE in such smart initiatives were obtaining possible buy-in from stakeholders belonging to private sector, inclusion of various poor areas within the program, sustaining participation and interests of stakeholders, funding and resourcing the program taking into account the high costs of development and obtaining participation of residents. These factors restrict the success which is associated with smart initiatives undertaken by government. Often it becomes difficult to strike a balance between requirements of stakeholders with that of residents (United Arab Emirates, 2014). As stated in Government of Dubai (2014), this in turn creates further problem that discourages effective participation of residents which is an essential component in overall success of smart initiatives (Government of Dubai, 2014). Summary The above analysis on failures of smart initiatives state that there are several factors which needs to be taken into consideration while designing such initiatives. Major focus of government while undertaking such initiative is collaborating technology with necessary tasks so as to make life simpler for people. It is even observed that major challenge which is faced by government is to satisfy stakeholders as well as residents. Often these initiatives are regarded as a project and hence more technical aspects are incorporated in the process which results into failures. UAE, United States of America and United Kingdom had witnessed such failures while implementing smart government initiatives. The common reason behind such failures was that the government was not able to set proper objective for the initiative taken and focus shifted from enhancing effectiveness of entire procedure to gaining return on high level of investment. These programs are even at times not completed in various regions, simply because of lack of natural resources and funding problems. Smart Government Success & Failure Factors Introduction on this section A conceptual model which will be used for this particular study in order to determine the list of success and failure factors is SCID framework. This framework describes the entire mechanism on basis of which a smart government performs to set high standards. In this model there are set of enablers and priorities that helps to determine the success of a particular smart initiative (Mälkiä, Anttiroiko & Savolainen, 2004, pp. 90-91). Figure 1: SCID Framework (Source: Zygiaris, 2012, p.95) Figure1 represents the SCID framework, which states how a particular initiative can create an impact on a city’s policy. There are six major components of this framework such as smart city initiatives which specifies the kind of program to be implemented, domains of city policy that describes probable impact which can be created by smart initiatives, transformation outcome for city and stakeholder’s that highlight the expected impacts which will be created on the city or stakeholders, enablers which are governance, partnerships or institutional mechanisms that help to address challenges or critical success factors, success factors that comprise of certain conditions which contributes to overall success of a smart initiative and challenge which represent possible difficulties that may arise during initiative implementation (Zygiaris, 2012, pp. 95-99). The priorities and enablers of the framework also play a key role to determine success and failure factors associated with smart initiatives. Priorities of smart government are majorly, smart villages and cities, growth and smart jobs, smart investments and trade, smart education, smart healthcare and smart infrastructure (Nam & Pardo, 2011, pp. 157-159). The enablers for smart government are innovation infrastructure, shared ICT infrastructure and services, ICT skills and capacity, policy, laws, standards and institutions (The Government Summit-UAE, 2014). Smart Government Success Factors Introduction The conceptual model which has been selected will be used to identify the possible success factors that are associated with smart government initiatives. It can be stated that major aim of such initiatives is to achieve a balance between various social, human capital, infrastructural investment with that of basic necessity of residents. In overall context smart government initiatives are undertaken in order to eliminate the traditional approach and incorporate modern technology in the system. IT is considered to be the backbone behind such initiatives and this factor contributes towards success of smart initiatives (Bettencourt & West, 2011). However there are even other factors or rather priorities of smart government which are thoroughly analyzed before framing initiatives. Critical success factors can be subdivided into various parts but the main focus is towards adhering quality throughout the system. List of Factors with details as per the research findings As per the literature review and the conceptual framework it can be stated that there are various critical success factors linked with smart government initiative. Those factors are political leadership which makes such initiative successful and gives accessibility to required resources and adoption of holistic, whole of government and integrated approach so as to develop smart initiatives (Mahizhnan, 1999). Apart from all these factors there are other factors too which contribute towards overall success such as development of research institution in order to support the program, core or non-compromise values, ensuring affordable solutions through creativity, master planning that is comprehensive by nature, set standards and regulations for stakeholders, and building industry partnerships along with stakeholder collaboration (United Arab Emirates, 2014). There are certain aspects which are taken into consideration by those smart government initiatives which achieve success such as maintaining transparency in the system, efficient management of resources and focus towards sustainable development (Bimber, 1999, pp. 419-421). Summary The analysis on basis of the conceptual model and literature reviews state that there are multiple factors which can be considered as critical success factors of smart government initiatives. All these factors are common for any smart initiative which is undertaken as they relate to overall effectiveness of chosen initiative. The factors are directly related to priorities of smart government as described in the SCID framework. On basis of the model it is clearly evident that transparency and sustainability are the major elements which contribute towards success. Apart from these elements, political leadership and integrated approach are other critical success factors for smart government initiatives. Hence every aspect is essential to be analyzed for proper development and success of smart initiatives. Smart Government Failure Factors Introduction Critical success factors can be easily determined while analyzing various scholarly articles that are related to smart government initiatives. However on basis of conceptual model it can be stated that there are certain challenges which are witnessed by such initiatives resulting into its failure. These challenges are basically related to funding problems or lack of participation by stakeholders and residents. In many cases failure of smart government initiatives arise due to not being aligned towards the set mission or objective. These initiatives are often considered as projects based on advanced technology. Since integrated approach is utilized to make initiatives appear to be smart in terms of efficiency it is often subjected to technical failures. As per the model, enablers such as ICT infrastructure and skills which serve as a medium to develop smart initiatives can be major reasons behind failure of such initiatives (Zygiaris, 2012, p.83). This model even states that in order to facilitate sustainable development through smart villages and cities, often possible funding sources are not well analyzed and neither proper measure are taken to satisfy various needs of stakeholders. List of Factors with details as per the research findings  As per the research findings based on the conceptual framework and review of selected literatures it can be illustrated that there are set of challenges which has an impact on smart government initiatives (Abhichandani, 2008, pp. 78-79). The programs which has been considered in this study comprise of certain challenges such as difficulties in gaining buy in from private sector stakeholders, incorporation of multiple poor areas within the program, sustaining participation and interests of stakeholders, funding and resourcing particular program which takes into consideration high development costs and obtaining effective participation from residents (Telecommunication regulatory authority, 2014). These challenges are normally witnessed by all smart government initiatives. According to SCID framework it can be stated that finance is a major factor of concern for these programs. This is because such initiatives are based on complex integrated IT infrastructure which requires desirable amount of investment (IBM, 2013). Often acquiring such funds is a major issue that has been observed in many regions which had undertaken smart government initiative (mGovernment, 2014). Allocation of funds posses a great challenge and often it is not easy to convince stakeholders. Summary On basis of above analysis it can clearly be determined that challenges are greatly associated with smart government initiatives. In most cases failures of such initiatives is due to lack of resources, or ineffective participation of residents. The failures related to technology are also common in this particular aspect. These programs that help to built smart government is often based on comprehensive and integrated technology. Technology though proves to be major backbone in the overall process but is even responsible for causing any operational failure in such initiative. Technical failures can be regarded as a common mechanism in the entire procedure and it leads to more of complexity in the system. Those residents who lack technical expertise often are afraid to utilize such initiatives based on advanced technology. This in turn results into failure of smart initiatives. Apart from all these issues, stakeholder’s participation and achieving balanced growth between sustaining economic growth and maintaining high level of quality forms other vital failure factors for smart government initiatives. Conclusion The review conducted in this study on various scholarly articles state that smart government initiative has various opportunities and challenges. These initiatives are subjected to success or failure depending on its mission and its set of priorities and enablers. In various countries across the globe smart government initiatives is considered to be a major tool to enhance overall effectiveness at least cost possible. Through this approach resources are managed more effectively with an aim towards sustaining economic growth and causing no such impact on the environment. It can be stated that different countries across the globe has different ways of incorporating these initiatives. Like in UAE, these initiatives have been implemented in the form of eGovernance, eLearning, etc., laying more emphasis on electronic platform and considering it is a medium to communicate with residents. However the approach is totally different in Singapore, where smart initiatives are undertaken in such a manner that technology is integrated with transport system to provide better facilities to people. Thus it can be said that it totally depends on motives of the government to design and implement a smart initiatives. To broadly state the major factors which result into success or failure, a model has been incorporated in the study. This model describes the priorities and enablers which are directly related to development of smart government initiatives. These factors need to be taken into consideration while implementation as they form the primary reasons behind success or failure of any such initiatives. On a broader context it can be stated that the factors are the major pillars of smart initiatives. Political leadership is often considered to be the most influential factor behind success of an initiative, while generating funds or gaining buy-in from stakeholders are regarded as the factors that results into failure of any such smart government initiatives. Reference Abhichandani, T. (2008). Evaluation of e-Government initiatives for citizen-centric delivery: analysis of online public transit information services. Germany: VDM Verlag Publishing. Atkinson, R.D. and Castro, D. (2008). Digital quality of life. The information technology and innovation foundation, 78(5), pp. 137–145. Bettencourt, M. A., & West, G. B. (2011). Bigger cities do more with less. Scientific American, 305(3), pp.156-163. Bimber, B. (1999). The Internet and citizen communication with government: Does the medium matter?. Political Communication, 16, pp. 409-428. Bloomberg, M. R. (2011). 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