|
Volume 4 Issue 1 November 2006
e-Government: Five Key Challenges for Management
Stuart Dillon, Eric Deakins and Wan Jung Chen
University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
|
|
|
This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study designed to track the development of e-local government initiatives in New Zealand since 2000.
From sixteen key issues that the authors had identified to be addressed by e-government policymakers if e-government is to be successful, a validated instrument was employed to survey all local and regional authorities in New Zealand in December 2000, and again in December 2004. At one level the survey was designed to reveal the sophistication of local authority websites; at another it sought to understand the formal and informal policies that guided their development.
The findings from the identical surveys show heightened recognition by policy makers of the key policy issues and increasing sophistication of local authority websites. The results also indicate that, while the majority of NZ e-government websites appear to have been created to provide information to citizens, there remain many opportunities to use such a vehicle more strategically.
A possible limitation of the research is that the authors developed their framework from an extensive review of the US-based literature, because of its advanced level of e-government at the time and its dominance of the e-government literature. Also a 100 percent survey response rate from policymakers was not achieved, giving incomplete snapshots of the local e-government scene. The fact that the responding organisations are likely to be different also makes direct comparisons difficult.
It is anticipated that the results will be of interest both to local and central government policy makers, enabling them to appreciate what content should be appearing on a local authority website, what services should be supported, and what the other local authorities are doing about their e-government initiatives. In addition to the specific findings, the value of the work is in providing well-developed metrics with which to assess e-government effectiveness.
Keywords:
governmental issues, e-government, local government, policy
Download FULL PAPER
Back to Contents
|
