Emerging scenario of online counseling services in India: a case of e-government intervention

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to understand the emerging state of online counseling practices in India, highlight the benefits of process transition and explore potential research issues in this domain. Changing demands of labor market and growing availability of wide range of education and training options in the higher/technical education sector underscore the need of counseling services for an individual’s career guidance requirements. “Online counseling” in this context, as an e-government intervention, is expected to meet this requirement by extending support to individuals’ decision-making process and optimally match their interest with appropriate kind of education.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors have highlighted some key contributions from the literature to build theoretical insight about contextual factors of counseling, and presented a detailed case analysis of online counseling practices in one of the states of India.

Findings

With a critical perspective, it is noticed that design of online counseling services in India has largely been developed from the requirements of service provider’s to support the conventional set of practices, with less attention given to students’ decision support. More research is required in the direction of service gap analysis, information quality issues and more interactive website functionalities from user’s viewpoint.

Research limitations/implications

Aligning the objectives of online counseling services with the relevant theories of career guidance should essentially be considered by the government/online counseling managers. Furthermore, managers must understand the importance of information quality and self-help tools for online information accessibility to facilitate student’s decision-making process.

Originality/value

The article reports a research scenario/case of a unique service of its kind under the education sector in India which is weighted high on both the dimensions – technical/operational elements, because of multiple stakeholders’ involvement, and informational service elements, as viewed through e-government service maturity research lens.

Citation

Amritesh, Chandra Misra, S. and Chatterjee, J. (2014), "Emerging scenario of online counseling services in India: a case of e-government intervention", Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 569-596. https://doi.org/10.1108/TG-10-2013-0040