Transforming government: people, process and policy

Citation

Irani, Z. and Kamal, M. (2014), "Transforming government: people, process and policy", Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Vol. 8 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/TG-07-2014-0024

Transforming government: people, process and policy

Article Type: Editorial From: Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Volume 8, Issue 3

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the third issue of the eighth volume of Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy (TGPPP). Over the years, the constant update of the journal’s scope to advocate theoretical as well as empirical research has led to an increase in the quality of submissions and citations. The papers in this issue of TGPPP are mainly exploratory in nature and provide a rich contextual background into e-Government and public domain.

This issue commences with a research paper by Csaba Csaki, Ciara Fitzgerald, Paidi O’Raghallaigh and Frederic Adam, entitled “Towards the Institutionalization of Parliamentary Technology Assessment: The Case for Ireland”. The research presented in this paper is carried out as part of the European FP7 project called Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment (PACITA). PACITA seeks to study knowledge-based policy-making on issues involving science, technology and innovation in Europe. However, the research reported in this paper relates to the issues of Parliamentary Technology Assessment (PTA) and citizen participation in related processes. PTA is directed at policy-oriented decision-making processes within the parliament. According to Decker and Ladikas (2004), PTA is a specific form of technology assessment dedicated to the Members of Parliament but often includes a wider audience. The concept of PTA was initially conceived “as an analytic activity, aimed at providing decision-makers with an objective analysis of the effects of technology on political agenda, decision-making processes and society as a whole” (Delvenne et al., 2011, p. 36). The main question in this paper concerns probable future institutional arrangements facilitating PTA in a region with no formal PTA structure. The findings are presented in the form of a case study, i.e. the case of Ireland is explored, a region with an emphasis on science and technology, yet, with no formal PTA in place. In doing so, an embedded case study approach was utilised based on three main sources of evidence:

1. relevant published documents pertaining to science and technology governance;

2. interviews with key decision makers; and

3. illustrative case of “hydraulic fracturing”, demonstrating key issues stemming from the lack of a formal PTA structure.

Therefore, this research seeks to answer the following research question:

RQ1. What institutional arrangement is feasible to support the implementation of PTA structures in a country without a formal PTA agency?

Following the above parliamentary technology assessment-based research study, we have another research paper by Andreiwid Corrêa, Alexandre Mota, Lia Mota and Pedro Corrêa presenting their research, entitled “A Fuzzy Rule-Based System to Assess e-Government Interoperability Maturity Level”. Government agencies verified that the development of interoperability architectures is a way to overcome problems regarding heterogeneous implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure. The authors claim that the latter approach makes it necessary to measure interoperability initiatives and to classify them to guide and to assure their adoption. To make it possible, a defined maturity model and its assessment process is an essential tool to show the society how a government agency is committed to interoperability. In doing so, this research presents a fuzzy rule-based expert system, i.e. NEBULOSUS for assessing the maturity level of an agency regarding technical interoperability. This technique raises the assessment process to the level of management without bumping into technical details, apart from handling process imprecision and uncertainty. The authors validate NEBULOSUS through implementing and testing part of the Brazilian technical interoperability maturity model (based on the Brazilian Government Interoperability Framework), which was developed in the previous work of Corrêa et al. (2011). The authors claim that the proposed system will serve as a tool and contribute to governments expectations of the continuous improvement of their ICTs resources.

Thereafter, we have Tayebeh Nikraftar and Reza Shokri presenting their research entitled “Dominant Concourse about Important Barriers to Promoting Coordination in Iranian Government Machinery”. Tayebeh and Reza argue that policy implementation brings together multiple agencies and public officials to operate collaboratively to achieve established national goals. Literature suggests that the close and peaceful cooperation of all involved, working together effectively, is one of the significant challenges facing the national-level administration. However, in the latter context, Brinkerhoff (1996) argues that this is a challenge that requires creative and flexible solutions. Peters (2005) emphasises the strategy of collaboration for achieving enhanced coordination and synchronisation in the government. According to McGuire (2000):

Collaboration in government refers to the “process of facilitating and operating multi-organisational arrangements for problems that cannot be solved, or solved easily, by single organisations.”

Thus, the consolidation of the synchronisation of government machinery is one of the commitments of the Iranian Government; nevertheless, one of the main influences on harmonisation and coordination in the government is the approaches and opinions of governing elites. This paper, therefore, aims to reveal concourse around barriers of coordination in government web, thereafter, collecting the dominant concourse about barriers to alignment along the web of governmental machinery from the perspective of Iranian practitioners and scholars. In doing so, this study combines the strengths of both the qualitative and quantitative research traditions. One important finding of this study is that the popular stereotypes that emphasise public policies are not implemented as a result of the fragmentation within the public administration.

Then, we have a paper by Manmohan Chaturvedi, Abhishek Narain Singh, Manmohan Gupta, and Jaijit Bhattacharya entitled “Analyses of Issues of Information Security in Indian Context”. This paper highlights that a macro perspective is easier to build if there is clarity about multiple factors that describes the prevailing environment of an information security threat (Catrantzos, 2010; Colwill, 2009). Westby (2010) reports that organisations have now started establishing cross-organisational teams to discuss and manage security issues and threats. Moreover, knowledge of their relationships augments the capability to derive an appropriate policy and prepare effective action plans. The impetus of this research is drawn from the existing literature that emphasises a holistic approach in addressing national and organisational information security factoring; both technical and social issues. Through this research, the authors claim that there is a clear need of a framework that may support in guiding the users in developing insights for strategy in the maize of vital information security issues and their complex interdependencies. The authors further argue that an insight into their causal relationships is anticipated to support policymakers both in government and the private sectors. As a result, this paper aims to identify macro-level key issues of information security at a national level and establish a hierarchical relationship among them. The authors rely on the proven Delphi methodology for this research where, not only many issues are confronted but also the complexity of their interplay is beyond an individual’s understanding.

Subsequently, we have Christopher Reddick and Leonidas Anthopoulos presenting their research, entitled “Interactions with E-Government, New Digital Media, and Traditional Channel Choices: Citizen-Initiated Factors”. This research argues that even though more than two decades have passed since the initiation of e-Government, digital channel choice is still being probed compared to traditional channels, and the level of selection with channels is being investigated. According to Kernaghan (2013), there is a need to greatly focus on developing research studies in the area of channel choice management. As a result, this paper aims to investigate the factors that may support in predicting citizen-initiated contact with e-Government as an endeavour to recognise important differences between service channel selections. Based on this aim, the authors propose to seek responses to the following three research questions:

RQ1. What are the factors that can predict e-Government use by citizens?

RQ2. Do factors that predict the use of traditional channels differ from the ones that predict e-Government use?

RQ3. Have the e-Government and new digital media channel choices changed traditional ways that citizens initiate contact with their government?

The above three research questions are answered through a literature review and statistical analysis of a survey in a developed country. More specifically, it identifies the factors that impact channel choice and validates them with survey results. To this end, this paper utilises data from a national Canadian survey, where citizens empirically evaluated their channel choice – e-Government, new digital media and traditional service channels – for government contacts. The results of this study highlight the importance of a multi-channel public service delivery, which has a positive impact on e-Government. Certain channels are proved to be more suitable for specific purposes, such as e-Government for information retrieval and traditional channels for individual problem-solving (Reddick and Turner, 2012).

Thereafter, we have a paper by Hossein Mohammadi, entitled “The Moderating Role of Individual and Social Factors in Internet Banking Loyalty: An Exploratory Study”. This paper aims to fill a research gap through addressing the reasons behind the low prevalence of Internet banking among Iranian users. The latter is achieved by exploring the factors that impede their’ loyalty which are rarely used as barriers including low ease of use, low usefulness, lack of compatibility and low levels of awareness. Finally, having examined the mediating role of usability, the authors intend to provide valuable insights into how individual and social stimuli such as subjective norms, personal innovativeness, self-efficacy and perceived image moderate the negative effects of impeding factors. In doing so, the main research objective formulated in this paper is:

• Do the individual and social factors moderate the effects of impeding factors on users’ attitudes towards intention to continue using Internet banking?

Based on the consumer data collected through a survey, structural equations modelling and path analysis are used to test the proposed research model. The sample is taken from the population of Tehran public Internet banking users. To further the understanding of the users’ patterns of behaviour, the authors included usefulness as mediator and subjective norms, perceived image, self-efficacy and personal innovativeness as moderators. For bank managers, the outcomes provide invaluable information on the users’ patterns of behavior.

Finally, we have M.P. Gupta, Sreejith Alathur and P. Vigneswara Ilavarasan presenting their research, entitled “Determinants of Citizens’ Electronic Participation: Insights from India”. This research investigates the determinants of citizens’ electronic participation with respect to the communication aspects. To accomplish this objective, the authors describe some factors (such as individual, governance and technology factors) that determine and the theories that can explain citizens’ e-participation (Witschge, 2004; Sørensen and Torfing, 2009; Cruickshank and Smith, 2011; Shareef et al., 2011). An empirical analysis of citizens’ democratic communication through multiple e-participation forums was carried out, and the determinants of electronic participation are described in the paper. Citizens’ participation efficacy, value system and participation freedom were found to determine different e-participation initiatives. Further, e-participation is also found to be varyingly determined by the governance and technology components.

We hope you will find this issue interesting and thought-provoking, and hope to receive your valuable contributions for the forthcoming issue.

Zahir Irani - Editor

Muhammad Kamal - Editorial Assistant

References

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Catrantzos, N. (2010), “No dark corners: a different answer to insider threats”, Homeland Security Affairs, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 1-20.

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Cruickshank, P. and Smith, C. (2011), “Understanding the ‘e-petitioner’”, Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 319-329.

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Peters, B.G. (2005), “The search for coordination and coherence in public policy: return to the centre?”, unpublished paper, Department of Political Science University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.

Reddick, C.G. and Turner, M. (2012), “Channel choice and public service delivery in Canada: comparing e-Government to traditional service delivery”, Government Information Quarterly, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 1-11.

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