The complexities of electronic services implementation and institutionalisation in the public sector

Abstract

Electronic service implementation (ESI) in the public sector attempts to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of governmental departments. Despite having provided the necessary infrastructure and investment, many governments have struggled to realise such aims due to the various forces that challenge implementation and institutionalisation. Using institutional theory as a lens, we explored the forces influencing the implementation and institutionalisation of ESI in the public sector. While our results reinforced previous research in IT implementation and organisational transformation, they showed that the dynamic nature of technology poses unanticipated pressures, and that these can impede the implementation and institutionalisation process.

Social Media and Local Governments

“…Public agencies are now moving to scenarios in which citizens use public e-services to perform complex transactions with government authorities (Asgarkhani 2005 ) and in which the performance and the efforts of the government to deliver public services should be more effi ciently (El-Haddadeh et al 2013 ) with the aim at raising levels of accountability.…”

Digital Transformation and Public Service Delivery in Brazil

“…E‐government takes into account the availability of information technology but neglects the fact that the adoption of technologies and the consequent changes involves complex political preferences that take into consideration different problems and perspectives for the promotion of public policies and services. Digital transformation processes in governments involve management preferences, which are not always linear or caused by technological factors (El‐Haddadeh, Weerakkody, & Al‐Shafi, ; Janowski, ). Preferences occur in complex institutional contexts and involve bounded rationality and multiple uncertainties (Jones, ; Simon, ), which should not be disregarded in the process of digital transformation.…”

Developing Multi-Layer Information Infrastructures: Advancing Social Innovation through Public–Private Governance

“…As a result, it will have to be decentralized and the shared components of the infrastructure as well as the governance thereof have to be collaboratively developed by the stakeholders (Klievink, Janssen, & Tan, 2012). Previous studies on public sector innovations have found many social factors that play a role (e.g., El-Haddadeh, Weerakkody, & Al-Shafi, 2013). These factors follow from the fact that changes in public governance and specifically public-private collaboration are also a change in the structures, processes, and practices that shape the traditional ways of working.…”