Electronic Government as a Strategic Intervention in Organizational Change Processes

Public administration employees’ readiness and acceptance of e-government

Despite the widespread use of digital technology in public administration, little attention has been given to understanding e-government adoption and acceptance by its employees. This paper examines the level of public administration employees’ ICT literacy and the extent to which they support e-government. The influence of background variables is also explored in the analysis. A structured online questionnaire was used to gather data from employees of Croatian central government bodies. According to the results, surveyed employees rated their general ICT literacy as high. They are more confident in their basic ICT skills than in advanced ones. The level of such skills is associated with socio-demographic characteristics. The findings also indicate that employees accept e-government, but they are less satisfied with its implementation. However, socio-demographic factors do not affect to a great extent employees’ acceptance and satisfaction with e-government. The study expands previous research by analysing the group differences at both manifest and latent levels. It also contributes to the identification of factors that may influence e-government success.

More than meets the eye: working around technology in cross-boundary work contexts

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore how organizational actors interpret and enact technology in cross-boundary work contexts during e-government implementation in a public organization in East Malaysia.

Design/methodology/approach

– Case study methodology involving semi-structured interviews, unobtrusive observations, and archival records was utilized in the study. Interview subjects include management staff, general employees, and information technology (IT) specialists to provide rich descriptions of their work practice.

Findings

– Three distinct contexts contribute to cross-boundary work practice in relation to IT use and non-use, namely, standardization (complete IT use), hybridization (partial IT use), and conventionalization (zero IT use). Technology enactment strategies such as acceptance, avoidance, adaptation, and configuration are employed depending on actors’ interpretation of technology complexity and task interdependency.

Practical implications

– Early interventions could involve examining how and why employees accept or avoid technology as part of their work practice and how they switch between enactment strategies. Organizations could ensure better team support to capitalize on the robust social interaction in cross-boundary work contexts to develop greater synergy in technology improvisations.

Originality/value

– The study extends the technology enactment perspective as it offers new meanings to structures of action by understanding the temporal agentic orientations and how these are constructed by cross-boundary work contexts. It also offers insight into how enactment strategies are developed according to the productive tensions that arise from the interplay of cognitive orientations.