Editorial

Citation

Irani, Z. and Dwivedi, Y. (2010), "Editorial", Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Vol. 4 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/tg.2010.32604baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Volume 4, Issue 2

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the second issue of the fourth volume of Transforming Government: People, Process, and Policy. This issue encompasses papers that are exploratory in nature and deal with up-to-date e-government issues from a variety of angles and, providing a mixture of theoretical and practical contributions.

We start this issue with a viewpoint by Marijn Janssen and Bram Klievink, where they present their research agenda on gaming and simulation for transforming and reengineering government. In this research, the authors assert that while in the transformation process, governments have to deal with a host of stakeholders and complex organizational and technical issues. In this paper, an argument is made in favour of using gaming and simulation as tools designed to aid the transformation and reengineering of government. Based on the argument, a research agenda is proposed. The research methodology is based on a combination of literature research, argumentation and illustrations. Their findings exemplify that simulation and gaming have the potential to be used to activate and involve stakeholders at all layers of government in transformational efforts. These tools should be closely connected to visualization and interaction options, to facilitate communication and participation. Because the various stakeholders involved have different views and different approaches, it is both necessary and difficult to involve them in identifying problems and developing solutions. Given the considerable potential of these tools, more research is needed on the use and development of participative simulation and gaming tools. With regards to the research limitations, although gaming and simulation have been used in many domains, they have yet to be tried in the area of e-government. More research is needed into the instruments that can help governments in their transformation processes. The authors assert that e-government projects should be supported by tools like gaming and simulation to facilitate the participation, involvement [of] and communication among the various relevant stakeholders, to create a shared understanding of the problems and of future scenarios. The primary value of the piece of research lies in the analysis of the potential opportunities of gaming and simulation in terms of transforming and reengineering government and the research agenda that follows from this analysis.

Sinawong Sang, Jeong-Dong Lee, and Jongsu Lee explain e-government adoption in Cambodia. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors influencing end-user acceptance and use of Government Administration Information System (GAIS). A conceptual structural model of end-user acceptance and use of the GAIS was developed with technology acceptance model as a theoretical background and tested using a structural equation modeling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS) approach on a data collected from a survey among 112 public officers in 12 ministries in Cambodia. The results indicate that the factors influencing end-user adoption of the GAIS are significantly affected by perceived usefulness, relative advantage, and trust. Perceived usefulness of the GAIS is directly affected by subjective norm, image, output quality, and perceived ease of use. This study is the first to investigate end-user adoption of the GAIS. It is unique to Cambodia and adds to the limited literature on e-government in Cambodia. Simultaneously, the PLS approach use in this study is quite unique with government information system research. As such, it contributes to the methodology development in the government information system research field. The results are of practical significance to all those interested in this area, mainly the government policy makers and practitioners in Cambodia’s public services.

“Improving decision making in healthcare services through the use of existing simulation modeling tools and new technologies” is the area discussed by Korina Katsaliaki and Navonil Mustafee. In their paper, they investigate the viability of using distributed simulation to execute large and complex healthcare simulation models which help government take informed decisions. The study compares the execution time of a standalone healthcare supply chain simulation with its distributed counterpart. Both the standalone and the distributed models are built using a commercial simulation package (CSP). The results show that the execution time of the standalone healthcare supply chain simulation increases exponentially as the size and complexity of the system being modeled increases. On the other hand, using distributed simulation approach decreases the run time for large and complex models. Based on a feasibility study of the UK National Blood Service the authors demonstrate the effectiveness of distributed simulation and argue that it is a vital technique in healthcare informatics with respect to supporting decision making in large healthcare systems. This paper appears to present the first feasibility study in healthcare which shows the outcome of modeling and executing a distributed simulation using unmodified CSPs and a software/middleware for distributed simulation.

Market orientation, job satisfaction, commitment, and organisational performance are all discussed by Ana Paula Rodrigues and José Carlos Pinho within the context of a local public sector. This paper analyses the implementation of the marketing concept within both the internal (internal market) and external environments in the context of the local public sector. It also examines the impact of market orientation on employee’s job-related attitudes (job satisfaction and organisational commitment) and organisational performance. Ana Paula Rodrigues and José Carlos Pinho take a methodological approach that uses a survey method. SEM is employed to analyse the data collected from a sample of municipality executive board members in order to test the causal relationships proposed in the research model. The results of this empirical study demonstrate that internal marketing implementation has an important effect in fostering market-oriented behaviours of local public organizations. The effect of market orientation on both job-related attitudes and organizational performance was also empirically supported. However, the study’s findings do not support the hypotheses that increased levels of job satisfaction and organisational commitment enhance organisational performance. Despite claims that the implementation of marketing in the internal environment is vital for external marketing success, this relationship has not yet been extensively discussed in the literature. The study’s results provide quantitative evidence to support this relationship. Also, this study offers additional research on the role of market-oriented behaviours on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational performance, presenting interesting challenges for further research among practitioners and academics.

Finally, Eleni Kosta, Christos Kalloniatis, and Lilian Mitrou present a research note, where he examines how the introduction of new communication channels facilitate interactive information sharing and collaboration between various actors over social networking services. The research also shows how social networking fits in the existing European legal framework on data protection. The author also discussed specific data protection issues, focusing on the role of the relevant actors, using the example of photo tagging. Privacy in social networks is one of the main concerns for providers and users. In this paper, Eleni Kosta, Christos Kalloniatis, and Lilian Mitrou examine the role of the main actors in social networking, i.e. the providers and the users, scrutinised under the light of the European data protection legislation. Specifically, how social networking service providers deal with users’ privacy and how users handle their personal information, if this manipulation is complied with the respective legislation and how “tagging,” one of the most familiar services provided by the social networking providers, lurks privacy risks.

Social networking is one of the most remarkable cultural phenomena that blossomed in the Web 2.0 era. They enable the connection of users and they facilitate the exchange of information among them. However, the users reveal vast amounts of personal information over social networking services, without realising the privacy and security risks arising from their actions. The European data protection legislation could be used as a means for protecting the users against the unlawful processing of their personal information, although a number of problems arising regarding its applicability.

We hope you will find this issue interesting and though provoking, and hope to receive your valuable contributions for the coming issue.

Zahir IraniEditorYogesh DwivediEditorial Assistant