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This thesis critically examines the development and implementation of e-government projects in the Sultanate of Oman after 2003 when the government published its intention, in the spirit of new public management (NPM), to raise the quality and performance of key public services. At the core of the research is a comparative analysis of five in-depth case studies of representative service modernization projects driven by the introduction of new information systems. The goal of the research is to evaluate the performance of NPM inspired projects in Oman to learn lessons that might lead to beneficial changes in future policy and practice. The study considers inter alia the goals and strategy of the Omani government, the selections and design of modernization projects, problems of execution and obstacles to change, and the reasons for differing degrees of success achieved in meeting project objectives. The five case studies of Omani e-government modernization projects were developed mainly from interviews conducted with officials in government departments at different levels of management and managers directly responsible for project design and implementation. Further interviews with experts and policymakers focused on government strategy, policymaking and project monitoring. These interviews were especially important in locating the five case studies in a wider strategic, cultural and historical context. Documentary evidence was gathered whenever possible on individual projects and on government's strategic plans and policies. Taken together, the researcher accumulated a large and rich collection of data sources, which were analyzed taking a bottom up, inductive, grounded theoretical approach, enabling the researcher to develop fresh theoretical perspectives, interpretations and practical recommendations. The study is the first to document, analyse and evaluate the modernization of public services in Oman, and one of few to examine in-depth the adoption of NPM methods in developing countries. Lack of financial resources, failure to define appropriate measures of individual and organizational performance and lack of interest in training were found to be the main reasons limiting the success of projects. From a comparative perspective, however, degrees of success varied considerably, highlighting that proper planning, project management and training invariably paid dividends, explaining differences in outcomes. Finally, the research extends our theoretical understanding of NPM projects in developing countries, highlighting the importance of feasibility studies and stakeholder participation in formulating public sector improvement policies.

Many countries in the world recently initiated the Open Government Data (OGD) to achieve transparency, accountability, value from the data and to transform public sector into smart and open government. However, the (OGD) initiatives faces challenges that hinders the initiatives to achieve the desired objectives, particularly in developing countries. The information systems adoption literature indicates a lack of studies investigating OGD adoption at an early stage from the national ecosystem perspective. This research investigates the early stage of adoption of the national OGD. The study adopts the institutional perspective to investigate the role of institutional logics and institutional pillars. The research aims to answer the research question: How do the institutional logics affect the emergence and adoption of the Open Government Data initiative in the public sector? This study adopts the interpretive research methodology with data collected from a singleembedded case study that encompasses nine government organisations in Oman. It captures the institutional logics qualitatively, by applying pattern inducting technique, that affects the adoption of OGD in the public sector in a complex institutional environment. The phenomena investigated reveals that the institutional pillars affect the institutional logics in the institutional environment. It shows how the institutional logics and institutional pillars interplay at the macro- and micro-level. It also shows that normative and cultural-cognitive pillar have a prominent effect, whereas the regulative pillar has less-prominent effect. This study captured one dominant and three competing logics that enable/hinder the OGD initiative from achieving the desired objectives: Institutional Acceptance Logic (ACL), Institutional Roles Logic (IRL), Ownership and Control Logic (OCL) and Institutional Capabilities Logic (ICL). The findings show that dominant logic is complemented by three co-existing subordinate institutional logics. This research contributes to the IS literature and to the institutional theory and further explains how the institutional logics and institutional pillars affect the adoption of the OGD initiative. It outlines how institutional logics are shaped and reconciled in the complex environment at the national level. It offers a holistic view from an ecosystems perspective and explains how institutional logics interact in a heterogeneous institutional environment. Given the tensions between the dominant and competing institutional logics, the adoption progresses at a slower pace. These tensions exist between micro and macro levels, and contribute negatively to the adoption of the OGD initiative. The study suggests that in order to reconcile the competing logics, a combined collaborative initiative to be formed between regulatory authorities at the national level. In addition, it offers a conceptual framework for OGD adoption at an early stage, and assists the policymakers and practitioners by presenting a holistic view from the institutional perspectives to attain the desired objectives.

Electronic government (e-government) systems formed from the aggregation of various government organisations providing online services through web interfaces have become more common. This is a consequence of increasing use of the Internet to access information and services whereby governments engage new technologies to provide information and data to increase the effective adoption of their organisations' online services. One technology that serves to enhance the provision of online services is cloud computing. A cloud is a model that functions as a parallel system and a distributor; and consists of a set of interconnected virtual machines that are dynamically displayed and connected to share the service that has been established by the service provider. Therefore, if e-government organisations systems suffer from numerous barriers to the adoption of new technologies, that would have various impacts on the development of effective e-government. Most of the government organisations have been suffering to overcome the issues in the IT infrastructure of the e-government system. This research thus also assists the government decision-makers to understand these factors in seeking to improve e-government systems. The research aims to determine and examine the more critical factors that influence the adoption of cloud computing in an e-government system takes into account the experiences of top government management and IT employees in government organisations. The theoretical research model of adoption of cloud computing in e-government based on a Technology, Organisations and Environment (TOE) framework with extending a Social context. Consequently, a conceptual framework has proposed the successful development and adoption of cloud computing in the e-government system (ACCE-GOV). The research method has been applied a mixed methods research methodology; with quantitative (survey) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews) methods used in a complementary manner. The main method of data collection was quantitative and utilised a survey questionnaire. The target sample size was around 383 respondents. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics as well as the structural equation model (SEM). The qualitative research data were collected via 8 detailed semi-structured interviews to represent the perspectives of senior IT managers in eight Saudi government organisations. A thematic analysis was carried out to analysing data. The results of research make a significant contribution to investigate the critical factors that should be taken into account by the Saudi government to develop an e-government system via the adoption of cloud computing. This research investigated the critical factors identified in the theoretical framework (ACCE-GOV). The research findings provide valuable information for top management in Saudi government organisations about what needs to be considered for enhancing the adoption of cloud computing in e-government system. This study has confirmed that there is a significant relationship between both trust and attitude with the adoption of cloud computing, however, an awareness and compatibility show that no significant relationship with the adoption of cloud computing for e-government systems.

Information systems (IS) are currently used in various units of the eGovernment sector in order to improve the efficiency, quality, usefulness, rapidity and convenience of their services or products. However, not all governments are able to benefit from the full advantages of IS development due to a lack of alignment between the IS department and other agencies in the eGovernment sector. There is no common framework or model that can be applied globally. Each country develops its own eGovernment programmes based on its needs and other national considerations such as political, economic, cultural and social factors. The literature indicates that eGovernment adoption, uses and development have been considered extensively from the viewpoints of the organization and technical issues. However, there is a need for further investigation to inspect how eGovernment agencies can be aligned so that the efficiency of their services can be improved. A strong alignment not only assists any government in improving the performance of its services, but it also enhances public trust in the government's services. The concept of alignment is not new, first emerging in the 1970s. Since then, researchers and practitioners have studied the process of alignment in the context of organizational strategic alignment, structural and business goals alignment. This thesis proposes an ideal pattern of alignment for the eGovernment sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and proposes modelling IS requirements as a suitable solution for strong alignment. The ideal pattern of alignment consists of strategic, structural, social and cultural alignment between the IS department and other agencies in the eGovernment sector. The study uses a mixed (qualitative and quantitative) method approach to validate the proposed ideal pattern of alignment. For the qualitative study, initially the factors affecting the ideal pattern of alignment are extracted from the literature and validated by the eGovernment experts. The qualitative data were collected from 20 eGovernment experts from different eGovernment sectors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The thematic analysis approach is identified as a suitable approach to analyse qualitative data. For the quantitative study, the questionnaire was posted online and possible participants were contacted in the Saudi ministry. The data were collected from 200 eGovernment users in Saudi Arabia. To analyse the quantitative data, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model approaches are used. At the process modelling phase, a case study on patient visits to a healthcare clinic is used to validate the method of modelling IS requirements in the context of eGovernment alignment. The study results indicate: 1) if the eGovernment sector in Saudi Arabia is aligned through this ideal pattern of alignment, improved eGovernment performance and enhanced public trust can be achieved; 2) the eGovernment sector in Saudi Arabia can improve its internal and external relations by focusing on the ideal pattern of alignment; 3) modelling and analysing the government environment have a positive impact on the implementation of IS which meets the needs of the government and consequently positively affects the process of alignment.

The rate of citizens' adoption of e-government (e-gov) is one of the prime indicators of the successful implementation of an e-gov system. An in-depth review of the existing e-gov adoption literature revealed that few studies had investigated e-gov generally in less advanced nations, especially in the context of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This study therefore aims to conduct an investigation into the adoption of e-gov and the factors that impact it from the citizens' perspective. An adoption model that integrates the Technology Acceptance model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DOI), the Trust model, and the cultural dimension (Uncertainty Avoidance) were proposed and validated. The study is conducted deductively and the model was quantitatively validated by surveying 630 citizens of KSA. The data was analysed by employing two statistical packages, Warp Partial Least Square "WarpPLS" and Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis "fsQCA". The findings of the study were that trust toward technology, trust toward government, relative advantages and perception of ease of use are significant antecedents of citizens' trust toward relation to e-gov webpages. Furthermore, trust toward e-gov webpages, social influences, relative advantages, compatibility and complexity significantly affect citizens' intentions to adopt e-gov. Interestingly, the findings of fsQCA, revealed no single variable strengthened citizens' intention, but that a combination of variables did so. The study presents three configurations are that were shared by 82%, 74% and 18% of citizens respectively. The findings of this research contribute theoretically by developing an e-gov adoption model that investigates factors from TAM, DOI, and Trust, with culture as a moderator. They also contribute methodologically by utilising fsQCA to investigate the combined influence and the interdependent relationships between those factors and to provide different configurations of the factors given. The study also proposes practical managerial suggestions that could be considered as a guide to e-gov enhancement and promotion in KSA. Lastly, the limitations and the direction of further research are indicated.

Organisational effectiveness (OE) has been a major focus of attention of both organisational theorists and practitioners for many decades; however, its definition remains contested and there is little consensus as to how it should be evaluated. A number of researchers have proposed that definitions of OE are dependent upon theoretical perspectives, as well as individual perceptions of different stakeholders. In Thailand, the influence and role of stakeholder perceptions on OE have yet to be identified and understood, both in the public and private sectors. The focus of the study is to analyse how OE is viewed by stakeholders both idealistically and realistically, and more importantly, how such views are aligned between these stakeholders. In this research, the organisations in question are quasi-autonomous public sector organisations (QAPSOs) which represent a relatively recent form of government institutions in Thailand and have been granted considerable autonomy. In addition, these organisations' conception has been heavily influenced by New Public Management (NPM) principle. A qualitative method with sixty-three semi-structured interviews was employed to accumulate primary data. The findings confirm the influence of NPM on organisational and managerial form, culture, and OE, of QAPSOs; however, the perceptions among stakeholders seemed to be unaligned to each other because of information asymmetry, individual focus and preferences, and individual experience. It is suggested that, in order to fill those gaps, the government should be aware of current obstacles and exercises more effort in finding solutions through, for instance, more communication and active participation among all related parties. This research has addressed gaps by providing empirical evidence regarding the notion of OE concept in the context of the public sector in Asian countries and applying stakeholder theory as a theoretical framework to explain the perception of OE in the autonomous public organisations in countries which have been influenced by NPM. The findings have the potential to raise policymakers' awareness of the importance of communication strategies in delivering the right message to all targeted parties without misinterpretation, as well as emphasising the importance of governance structures of autonomous organisations.

In election times, political parties promise in their manifestos to pass reforms increasing access to government information to root out corruption and improve public service delivery. Scholars have already offered several fascinating explanations of why governments adopt policies that constrain their choices. However, knowledge of their impacts is limited. Does greater access to information deliver on its promises as an anti-corruption policy? While some research has already addressed this question concerning freedom of information (FOI) laws, the emergence of new digital technologies enabled new policies, such as open government data. Its effect on corruption and government accountability remains empirically underexplored due to its novelty and a lack of measurements. The following pages aim to fill this gap. I propose a theoretical framework which specifies conditions necessary for FOI laws and open government data to affect corruption, and I test it on a novel cross-country dataset collated for this thesis. The results suggest that the effect of both FOI laws and open government data on corruption is conditional upon the quality of media freedom. Moreover, other factors, such as free and fair elections, independent and accountable judiciary or economic development, are far more critical for tackling corruption than increasing access to information. These findings have important policy implications. In particular, digital transparency reforms will unlikely yield results in the anti-corruption fight unless robust provisions safeguarding media freedom complement them. While a cross-country approach has revealed the importance of the media’s role as an information intermediary, it does not enable for an in-depth understanding of how media engage with government information. Therefore, in addition to comparative cross-country analysis, two empirical chapters focus on the UK case study. I combine various methods: survey of investigative journalists, qualitative interviews with civic activists and civil servants and quantitative text analysis of FOI requests sent to the UK central government from 2008 to 2017 to investigate how different groups engage with FOI laws and open government data and what their demand for government information is. I find that the use of FOI laws is very heterogeneous. By no means, the proactive publication of open government data could address such a diverse demand, and thus it could not substitute FOI laws. A substantial proportion of topics, which occur in FOI requests covers information in the public interest. However, some FOI uses for private ends could also be linked to the concept of accountability, as they often point to the failure of other government communication channels and poor explanation of newly introduced policies. My work also shows the potential of applying computational social science methods to FOI requests to study the impact of major changes in government policies on people, and rights infringements.

This research work focused on investigating factors impeding and promoting E-government development in Lagos State of Nigeria through the lens of the government’s e-Service initiates. Empirical evidence in this work suggest that E-government maturity in governmental Ministries in Lagos State are at mixed stages of development, ranging from ‘emerging’ to ‘transactional’ with reference to the United Nation’s E-government benchmarks on frameworks used in assessing developmental stages of E-government. Major factors found to impede E-government development in Lagos State Government Ministries are issues of inadequate E-government infrastructure and E-readiness issues, lack of technically skilled workforce, issues related to funding, inadequate political will to develop and support electronic forms of government initiatives, and resistance to organisational transformation and change. Major factors found to facilitate electronic government development in Lagos State Government Ministries are issues related to reduction in corrupt practises in public-sector organisations, encouragement of accountability and transparency in public-sector organisations, and reduction in overall cost of running public-sector organisations. The findings highlighted above can generalise across other regions in Nigeria and are consistent with literature on E-government development and implementation in emerging economies around the world. The research work was conducted according to the mixed-method research tradition. Using an exploratory sequential research design that uses both the qualitative and quantitative strands of enquiry, the researcher was able to investigate various factors impacting E-government development in Lagos State which can generalise to other regions across Nigeria. The E-government research framework is underpinned by relevant E-government theories, frameworks, maturity models and interrelated concepts of Network and cross-agency collaboration processes. Research participants used in this work are drawn mainly from selected Ministries of the Lagos State government in Nigeria. The techniques for collecting the research data included document reviews, research visits and interviews, and the use of survey questionnaire. Finally, the study revealed that Lagos State Government Ministries exist in silos, with non-existent cross-agency collaboration and Networking among governmental organisations.

This project concerns itself with the impact of open data on government accountability. It critically assesses open data’s ability to increase the accountability of government in practice. The study offers insight into the positive dividends and potentially negative consequences of open data. It considers the potential barriers to open data’s increased dissemination and its subsequent use. The project questions the appropriateness of open data dissemination as a means of enhancing the transparency and accountability of government. It positions 21st century open government data developments within the wider democracy, transparency, and accountability literature. It represents a cross-disciplinary perspective that marries social science insights with advances in technology as a means of advancing the field. The project operates on the basis of a comparative case study. The British and Irish parliaments and their respective committee systems are the central sites of analysis.

The influence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) particularly internet technology has had a fundamental impact on the way government is administered, provides services and interacts with citizens. Currently, the use of social media is no longer limited to informal environments but is an increasingly important medium of communication between citizens and governments. The extensive and increasing use of social media will continue to generate huge amounts of user-generated content known as Big Social Data (BSD). The growing body of BSD presents innumerable opportunities as well as challenges for local government planning, management and delivery of public services to citizens. However, the governments have not yet utilised the potential of BSD for better understanding the public and gaining new insights from this new way of interactions. Some of the reasons are lacking in the mechanism and guidance to analyse this new format of data. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate how the body of BSD can be mined, analysed and applied in the context of local government in the UK. The objective is to develop a Big Social Data Analytics (BSDA) model that can be applied in the case of local government. Data generated from social media over a year were collected, collated and analysed using a range of social media analytics and network analysis tools and techniques. The final BSDA model was applied to a local council case to evaluate its impact in real practice. This study allows to better understand the methods of analysing the BSD in the public sector and extend the literature related to e-government, social media, and social network theory.

The assessment of eGovernment capability has often focused on assessing website functions and their use, whereas relatively little attention has been given to other aspects of local authority operations, particularly back-office processes. The study provides a literature review, from which a model for the assessment of eGovernment at individual process level is derived. The study provides a maturity stage model for analysing eGovernment based on technology deployment, organisational capability and process efficiency dimensions. For each of these three dimensions, a number of key change factors are identified and assessed to allow a positioning of the organisation in the stage model; and this is applied at individual process level within the organisation, as well as for the organisation as a whole. This research reports on the use of the model in two case studies - Sabratha local authority and Rujban local authority in Libya. The study illustrates the potential of the model in assessing eGovernment readiness and identifying opportunities for investment and change. It highlights the need for process improvement to accompany technology deployment, and the key role of organisational factors in bringing about the necessary change for the move to e-Government. The potential of the three-dimensional maturity model for developing appropriate strategies and plans for a transition to eGovernment is evidenced in the case studies. At Sabratha and Rujban local authorities, processes are generally not well developed, although in terms of technology deployment and organisational capability, there are some processes which have a reasonable basis from which to move forward. It is clear, however, that process maturity is generally weak in the local authorities studied, and this area needs appropriate focus and investment to allow the authorities to transition to an eGovernment in a planned and effective manner.

Any e-government programme provides e-services as one of the most important means by which the interaction between citizens, businesses and governments takes place. This has brought great opportunities but also raises serious cybersecurity challenges. Critical information assets are facing various potential security risks and threats. Information systems security is necessary to mitigate those risks and threats that are faced by the e-government programme and to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the available e-services. In light of the above, the aim of this study is to examine how information security is managed and approached within e-government programmes and the case study of the Ministry of ICT in Jordan informs that aim. The study deconstructs information security through the Technical/Formal/Informal (TFI) framework and enriches that framework by customising it for e-government, expanding it also to include citizens’ online trust. To achieve this aim, a qualitative investigation of the Jordanian e-government programme was conducted by following the research design of a case study in the interpretivist tradition. Furthermore, a survey was used as a complementary phase to examine citizens’ perspectives on e-government security. By combining, analysing and reflecting on the empirical data, a consolidated information security framework was developed for different security aspects, based on the TFI model (technical, formal and informal). The dissertation contributes to the knowledge domain at the intersection of e-government and cybersecurity both practically and theoretically, focusing on technical aspects and non-technical aspects as well. The proposed framework provides an overview of the TFI-categorised elements that can help governments reflect on and manage the security challenges of their corresponding e-government programmes.

How is a post-bureaucratic reform under the rubric of eGovernment enacted at the street-level in a Middle Eastern, specifically, Saudi Arabian context? And ‘what insights can be gained from describing this enactment to advance debates on bureaucracy versus post-bureaucracy as well as debates on street-level bureaucracy?’ These questions underpin the focus of this ethnographic study. The conventional wisdom in the debate on bureaucracy versus post-bureaucracy is that the outcomes of post-bureaucratic reforms indicate hybridisation of bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic characteristics. In this thesis, I argue that this debate is limited by its overlook of the ‘pre-bureaucratic’ (Weber, 1978). The pre-bureaucratic manifests clearly at the street-level (Lipsky, 1983), where it has been argued that street-level bureaucrats exercise discretion in ways that deviate from the formal bureaucratic rationality toward the pre-bureaucratic. In the Middle East, the pre-bureaucratic at the street-level is intermeshed with local cultural practices that suffuse everyday work in bureaucratic organisations. Public sector post-bureaucratic reforms in the guise of eGovernment were poised to overcome not only bureaucratic inertia but also pre-bureaucratic practices in this context. The findings of this thesis demonstrate that eGovernment at the street-level is enacted through a negotiated order (Strauss, 1978) that indicates hybridisation of the pre-bureaucratic, the bureaucratic, and the post-bureaucratic. The emerging pattern is characterised, drawing on Gouldner (1954), as a ‘mock post-bureaucracy’ pattern. The theoretical contributions of the thesis are discussed in relation to the debates on bureaucracy versus post-bureaucracy and street-level bureaucracy. The thesis also extends empirical and methodological contributions.

Over the past three decades, inter-organisational collaboration among public and private sector organisations has dramatically increased to the point where collaborative arrangements have become one of the hallmarks of the new millennium. Academics and practitioners treat collaborations as imperative to goal achievement and fundamental in the context of emergency services. Nonetheless, although the increasing popularity of such arrangements has generated interest, unanswered questions remain regarding how different collaborative arrangements are formed and managed, including those elements that sustain or influence them and tensions experienced in the collaboration process. More specifically, the literature review highlights a lack of empirical research on the collaboration process with respect to aligning information systems and technologies between multiple organisations in the public sector. As such, it is important to understand how multiple organisations collaborate during the development of collaborative information infrastructures and the elements that influence the process. To address these research questions, this thesis investigates two case studies in the UK, each pursuing a different collaborative arrangement model, taking an interpretative approach involving the use of semi-structured interviews, documents, and site visits. An activity theory perspective was used in order to frame an understanding of how these collaborative arrangements were managed, identify the elements that influence the collaboration process activity system, and summarise the components of this process. In exploring the collaboration process activity system, the research uncovered a number of tensions and contradictions when attempting to align technologies, information systems, and working practices. It became apparent that all tensions were the subsequent result of one major primary contradiction: poly-motivation. The research highlights that participants may appear to share similar understandings of the object by demonstrating similar behaviours on the surface, but on a deeper level, the object is meaningful in different ways. This is significant as the literature on activity theory and, in general the collaboration literature, motivation appears to be under-explored and analysed at a low level of sophistication. Furthermore, understanding and tracing poly-motivation also enables the identification and influence of power in such settings. The thesis posits a model to represent the collaboration process activity system and the elements that influence this, seeking to make contributions to the field of information systems and information management with respect to inter-organisational collaborations.

Today, governments worldwide are seizing the benefits of the Internet for better government administration. Governments must provide services to all citizens, but this is most challenging to achieve electronically when some citizens are offline, yet transformational to the government administration when achieved. Therefore, the thesis investigated the factors influencing egovernment adoption in Nottingham where social welfare benefits will be claimed exclusively online via the Universal Credit (UC) system. UC is an example of a government service conforming to the broader UK Digital by Default strategy for government administration, which supports the EU goal of improving social inclusion through digital inclusion. Therefore, the motivation for the thesis is social justice for those digitally excluded citizens who may be socially impacted by the unintended consequences of e-government initiatives. The study used an adapted Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) model to understand the factors influencing citizens' adoption of UC. The research model added Internet experience, awareness, security and trust as external factors influencing adoption, while hedonic motivation was modelled as an internal factor. UTAUT2 was also modified to reflect the broader goal of social inclusion. The study demonstrated that the behavioural intention to adopt e-government depended on whether the digital public service had a fall-back to use traditional channels or not. 61.3% of the benefits claimants were unaware of UC rollout in Nottingham, which indicates a lack of citizen readiness. Overall, the experience of using the Internet, facilitating conditions, behavioural intention and the habit of using digital public services determined usage behaviour. 40.2% of the participants thought digital inclusion improved their social lives, while 30.9% were indifferent. The 40.2% indicates a good starting point for e-government adoption. These findings led to the Modified UTAUT2 (M-UTAUT2) model, which is applicable outside the case study. The thesis also made other theoretical contributions. The findings and the conclusions from the qualitative and quantitative researches conducted as part of the build-up to the thesis were used to derive an e-government adoption process that considers the continued use of e-government, which leads to successful e-government. The model has two processes: awareness (with two stages: awareness and initial use) and habitual (with one stage: continued use). Additionally, the study recommended the global digital technology market as a new e-government actor due to the changing digital inclusion landscape.

There are benefits and challenges in cloud computing adoption, which could be affected by technological, environmental, organisational and societal factors. Cloud computing adoption has been sufficiently investigated; however, there is dearth of empirical research on cloud computing adoption in public sector organisations of developing countries that operate overseas such as embassies, trade and commerce offices and cultural bureaus. The aim of this study is to empirically identify factors that significantly influence the adoption of cloud computing in government organisations overseas. The methodology of this cross sectional study includes use of mixed method approach and data triangulation using exploratory semi-structured interviews with 10 IT experts, evaluation of a cloud computing research framework by 37 IT experts and an online questionnaire survey involving a convenience sample of 226 employees working in different overseas organisations of Saudi Arabian government. The survey data were analysed using the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). The results showed cloud computing adoption has statistically significant positive association with top management support (β=0.7, p < 0.001), data security (β=0.678, p < 0.001), trust (β=0.58, p = 0.001), cost of infrastructure (β=0.479, p = 0.001), usefulness of the system (β=0.449, p < 0.001), privacy (β=0.362, p = 0.001) organisation size (β=0.299, p = 0.001), employee readiness (β=0.26, p = 0.006) and quality of service (β=0.184, p = 0.009). Cloud computing adoption has statistically significant but negative association with culture of the home country (i.e. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) (β= -0.689, p = 0.001), legal and policy concerns (β= -0.559, p = 0.001), lack of IT standards (β= -0.519, p < 0.001), employee resistance (β= -0.364, p = 0.016), expandability of application to the cloud (β= -0.186, p = 0.015) and government intervention (β= -0.083, p = 0.001). There was no statistically significant association between cloud computing adoption and vision of an organisation (β= -0.083, p = 0.233), culture of (Saudi) government organisations overseas (β= -0.08, p = 0.214), change management competences (β= -0.038, p = 0.879) and internet speed and reliability (β= -0.014, p = 0.829). The present study has identified that top management support, data security, and cost of infrastructure are the three critical factors that could promote cloud computing adoption decisions in overseas government organisations of developing countries such as Saudi Arabia. However, the major barriers in cloud computing adoption culture in these organisations include the home country and legal and policy concerns, which need to be considered by managers and policy makers interested in cloud computing adoption. In addition, cloud computing services providers should address the critical barriers especially the lack of IT standards that have been identified as a key factor having a significant negative association with cloud computing adoption.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been adopted by many governments around the world in the form of e-government to support and facilitate their communication. In addition, ICT offers new ways of delivering government services to the public. Saudi Arabia is an example of a country that has adopted technology with these aims, but it has lacked in enabling the engagement of citizens with government to deliver public service projects with assured quality standards. The failings are blamed on the system's lack of support for stakeholder oversight. In addition, the official monitoring committee performed poorly during project construction and delivery. In light of these inadequacies, more effective monitoring of implementation and operation of projects is required in order to improve the quality of public services from a long-term perspective. Fixes have been proposed to the lack of two-way communication between citizens and the government by inviting feedback from citizens through social media and other communication channels, however, a cohesive overarching model that enables the engagement of citizens with government projects has yet to be devised. There is a clear need for a model that can be used to design official systems to facilitate consultation between the government and the public, and to invite feedback from key stakeholders throughout each stage of the project life cycle. Therefore, the aim of this research is to develop a conceptual model to engage citizens in monitoring the quality and the progress of public service projects. A model has been designed based on e-participation studies, theoretical work presented in the literature and case studies conducted to analyse and evaluate the available communication channels. As result, 10 different components were identified to assist proposing a model. The proposed model was developed and then evaluated by 14 experts. This evaluation led to the inclusion of a new component for dealing with emergency situations. Subsequently,an online questionnaire was distributed over Saudi municipality experts in two cities to evaluate and confirm the model components on a wider scale. Accordingly, 85 responses were collected and analysed; the results confirmed the relevance of the 11 model components. Furthermore, 23 experts working in Saudi municipalities were interviewed to identify the challenges that may be encountered on implementing the model. In addition, a revision of the available e-systems offered by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs in Saudi Arabia was made to determine their similarity to the proposed model. The baseline for comparison was made using the 11 components identified in this study to assist in identifying the challenges more precisely. As result, six main challenges affecting the existing E-Systems along with eight main challenges that may affect the proposed model were identified. Finally, this research recommends technologies and features that might facilitate the implementation of the model.

Despite the effort and copious resources Saudi Arabia is investing in its transition towards e-Government, it is hindered by the weakness of the Information and Communication Technology infrastructure in its government agencies. The development of a private government cloud is a solution for improving and standardizing the ICT infrastructure, but cloud computing is still in the early stages in the country. To effectively implement a private government cloud in Saudi Arabia it is necessary to identify the factors that will affect its success. Therefore, this research identifies the success factors for the implementation of a government cloud, and based on these factors, a framework for the successful implementation of a government cloud (FSIGC) in Saudi Arabia was developed. The framework was constructed by synthesizing factors identified from relevant studies concerned with the implementation of cloud computing for government and factors identified from studies concerned with the success of large scale IT projects in Saudi Arabia. A mixed-method research approach was followed to improve and confirm the initial 10 factor framework which was developed from a literature review. The ten factors identified were: Security and Privacy, Reliability, Cooperation and Coordination, Policy and Legislation, Leadership, Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR), Project planning, Top management support, Consultant and team competence, Clear requirements. First, interviews were carried out with twelve IT experts working in Saudi government organisations to review the proposed success factors and identify any additional factors not identified from the literature review. The expert review produced five additional factors to the ten proposed in the desk-based study: Communication, Standards, Training, Knowledge Management, Business continuity and disaster recovery. Next, an online survey of government IT employees was conducted to confirm the fifteen component framework. The results from the survey showed that all the factors in the framework were statistically significant. The validated FSIGC framework was applied in the construction of a measurement instrument called the Government Cloud Readiness Measure. Initially, the instrument was developed by proposing scales to measure each of the factors in FSIG from a desk based study. Then, the instrument was confirmed and validated in two stages. First, an expert review was conducted to confirm its content validity and identify any additional items. Then, the instrument was confirmed by 11 experts and then tested for reliability through an online survey of 153 government and semi-government IT employees. This research presents the detailed development of the FSIGC, its validation and application in the construction of the Government Cloud Readiness Measure. The findings of this study provide practical guidelines for government organisations in Saudi Arabia and other gulf countries to help increase the success of their cloud implementation projects, thus bridging the gap between theory and practice. This research can also be used as a starting point for other new technology implementation investigations in the public sector.

E-government has become an essential means for delivering government services in effective, efficient and transparent way. While the implementation and adoption of the e-government services have been rapidly expanding, the governments of the developing countries are facing enormous challenge to make them sustainable. The sustainable e-government services require high level of agility and elasticity while keeping the government expenses within the budget. Traditional e-government projects have become more expensive and less affordable for the countries those have tight budget and resource constraints they require more time and more money to deploy. Beside this, sustainability of the e-government has been affected by the different factors, i.e. technology centric e-government design, human resources, access to the information communication technology and digital divide. Along with these factors, e-government maturity model has been identified in the existing literature as a major contributor of the e-government project failure. Studies shows that the development of the e-government projects in the developing countries does not align with the stages defined by the existing e-government maturity models. To verify the findings of the previous studies, we have critically reviewed the existing maturity models for their impact and contribution on sustainability of the e-government projects and made several observations, i.e. lack of detailed activities, technology-centric nature, emphasis on implementation, and lack of an adoption perspective. The review showed that it is imperative to develop a new maturity model in order to deliver sustainable e-government services in the context of the developing countries. Therefore, this research contributes towards proposing a sustainability-driven e-government maturity model (SDEGM) to design and deliver sustainable e-government services. The SDEGM adopts holistic approach of e-government sustainability that gives equal importance to the implementation and adoption dimension of the e-government services. Five determinants are considered, i.e. a detailed process, streamlined services, agile accessibility, use of state-of-the-art technology, and trust and awareness for a sustainable e-government services from the perspective of developing countries. To guide the government in e-government implementation process, SDEGM introduces list of concepts, and assimilation process. The concepts supports government to define different requirements, i.e. goal, approach, services, stakeholders and risks. Similarly the assimilation process serves as a detailed strategic guide to implement SDEGM. The SDEGM is evaluated through real e-government project in Nepal by following empirical investigation that adopts methodological triangulation. Since the sustainability has been defined from the different perspectives, i.e. implementation and adoption, the methodology employed to evaluate each dimension also differs. The triangulation includes, case-study, expert opinion and survey methods. Implementation dimension of the SDEGM has been evaluated by adopting the case-study method that verifies whether the sustainability goal of SDEGM, i.e. cost, time, usability and adoptability have been met or not. Similarly, survey method has been adopted to evaluate the sustainability of the SDEGM from the adoption or user perspectives that evaluates if the government services are aligned with the user requirements. Finally, the expert opinion is used to generalize the findings and validating the model. The empirical research findings confirm that the proposed model is able to deliver sustainable e-government services.

E-government is basically described as using all available electronic media to provide an online public services companies, agencies, citizens or persons in certain country or region. This provision can be provided by the government institutions, agencies, or organisation, in addition to public and private sectors subject to government policies and legislation. Political instability, armed conflict, corruption and chaotic situations are considered to be an obstacle confronting public services delivery and governance in some developing countries around the world. Therefore, Libya is selected a case study of this research. Post the 2011 ousting of the Gadhafi regime in Libya, the country has been experiencing a severe and deep-rooted environment of conflict and chaos, which has destabilised and in some cases dismantled government institutions throughout the country. Within this environment, the original aim of this study was to explore the possibility of implementing e-government services that can provide public services to citizens and, if so, how and what services could be utilised. An exploratory qualitative pilot study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of e-government implementation in Libya utilising the knowledge of government officials. The study found that, the Libyan government had recently and successfully implemented an online e-passport service. An extensive literature review carried out in relation to e-government implementation to help understanding lesions learned and factors behind such success then to utilise the knowledge for further services implementations. Critical success factors of e-government implementation were addressed but available ones are related to stable countries under normal situations. This research is aiming to investigate its implementation in chaotic environment where not much of research is available. During the chaotic environment and instability, different factors may emerge to drive the implementation and the usage of e-services such environment. From government perspectives, it is noticed that cases of corruption, lack of citizens' safety and poor infrastructure were found to be drivers behind the success of existing government institutions and departments of implement e-passport system. Social collaboration and trust in government institutions' commitment were emerged from the citizens' perspectives as factors encouraged the citizens to use the e-passport system. Quantitative data analysed using structural equation modelling techniques using SmartPLS (3.2.7) together with the SPSS 23 were used to analyse the collected data. The outcome were used to propose a framework that can improve the implementation of public e-services while the country at unrest. Another contribution of this studies is the proposal of social collaboration model towards better e-services in such environment.

Government agency reliance on legacy systems is problematic: they are costly to maintain, difficult to integrate with and they hinder innovation. However, the replacement of legacy systems is not a straightforward endeavor, and it often results in technology substitution that is not accompanied by business process change. The focus of this dissertation is on the phenomenon of legacy system replication wherein the requirements for applications replacing outdated technologies mimic legacy features and reflect status quo operational processes that have been historically shaped by the legacy system itself. This problem is referred to throughout the dissertation as the “legacy problem.” The dissertation investigates its roots and proposes an approach to overcome it. Specifically, a mixed method research approach is taken, including a survey of public sector practitioners to explore the extent of the legacy problem, and a series of semi-structured interviews with government information technology and management professionals to delve into the dynamics of legacy system replacement projects. Findings indicate that the legacy problem often stems from a lack of critical analysis of business requirements and the desire to minimize the risks associated with organizational change, which often result in missed opportunities for digital government innovation. As a consequence, the dissertation proposes a candidate approach to deal with the legacy problem in the development of a requirements game (RE-PROVO) which supports requirements discussions structured around the themes of legacy (or heritage) preservation and innovation. The game is evaluated by local government practitioners through several iterations and their feedback is analysed to gauge the potential utility of the approach. The results indicate that with a streamlined user interface and accentuated game elements RE-PROVO can be a valuable and effective tool for requirements analysis in legacy system replacement projects.

Although Organisational Development (OD) has become a feature of large contemporary organisations there remains a lack of OD research in the Middle East. A number of factors exist within Arab countries that could facilitate or inhibit OD interventions, thereby questioning the validity and generalisability of Western theories and models when applied to the Middle East. The purpose of this study was to explore different aspects of OD in public sector organisations in the UAE. The research aims to determine the attitudes of leaders and employees towards OD interventions and resulting change within a traditional organization. It also examines problems of achieving fundamental attitude change in the top management of traditional organisations. Additionally, it also contributes towards Human Resource Development thinking on the context, role and impact of OD interventions and identifies practical challenges confronting leaders in transforming traditional public sector organisations into project-oriented organizations. The research utilises a mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) approach. The findings of the study indicate that ISO implementation as an OD intervention can help traditional organisations to transform into a project-based organisations by improving overall effectiveness, reducing costs, improving the overall service quality. Other useful findings include managing resistance to change, institutionalising change, and training the employees to implement ISO as an OD intervention. The study has some limitations including small sample size; time available with respondents; and questionnaire response rate. Nevertheless, this research contributes to our knowledge of the utilization of ISO interventions for Organisation Development and offers some practical evidence-based strategies for transforming traditional public sector organisations into project based organisations.

The evolution of mobile-phone technologies such as Smartphones Applications and Services enabled the emergence of digital and smart economies, governments and nations. Many developed and developing countries, like Oman, have considerably invested in the area of Smart Technologies, and initiated countless number of projects such as Smart Governments, also known as Mobile or M-Government, to provide timely, secure, satisfactory and high quality of services for the citizens, businesses and other governmental agencies. Although many scholars have investigated this area of interest with huge amount of efforts, the adoption and actual use of M-Government applications and services, remain problematic and face many challenges. In this area of interest, two major themes of research were reported in the literature: User-centred (i.e., Human-Computer Interaction perspective) and System-centred (i.e., Software Engineering perspective). The first theme remains a hot area of interest mainly due to the importance of the role of end-users in the adoption and success of the new technologies like M-Government. Therefore, this study attempted to develop and empirically validate a novel Mobile Government Adoption Model (titled: MGAM) within the culture of Oman. The MGAM model integrates a well-known theory in this domain, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), with other theories including Psychometric Paradigm Theory (PPT), Customer Culture Theory (CCT) and Personality Trait Theory (PTT) to identify key factors related to the end-users or citizens; those included their Perception of Risk, Culture and Personality Trait. The study adopted quantitative research with Survey method as a research strategy for data collection and quantitative methodology for data analysis. A new data collection instrument was developed for the purpose of this study and distributed through online facilities to collect data about the variables of the MGAM Model from Users in Oman using the M-Government applications and services. Around 450 samples (302 males and 148 females) were collected and considered for the purpose of data analysis in this study. Several statistical tools and means have been used to analyse the data and valuate the MGAM model including Descriptive and Inferential Statistic, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), Comparative Fit Index Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with Statistical Software Applications, SPSS and AMOS Applications. The study revealed that most of the users in Oman using M-Government applications and services were very positive about the Perceived Ease of Use and the Perceived Usefulness of the technology with very positive Attitude and Behavioural Intention towards this technology. The findings also showed that the research participants have a slightly negative Perception of Risk when using the M-Government applications and services in Oman, and positive perception of Culture in this domain. With reference to the MGAM Model, the model was tested and validated, and the findings indicated that the Personality Trait moderator can strengthen the link between Behavioural Intention and Actual Use of the technology. Based on the findings, the study provided key recommendations for the governmental personnel dealing with the development of M-Government applications and services in Oman, and for public users in Oman. Among those, the study recommends for considering this initiative in Oman as a real and strategic shift in public administration, and to make easy, flexible and dynamic M-Government applications and services through taking into account cultural issues and user-related preferences. The study also recommended offering more than a service in one visit by the users, providing information prior to services and training governmental employees on this technology. The main contribution of this work is the development and validation of a new adoption model in the area of M-Government, the MGAM model. Theoretically, the MGAM Model extends the TAM Model through the integration process with with other theories including PPT, CCT and PTT to identify new key factors with impact on the adoption of M-Government infrastructure. This work also makes a novel contribution in terms of research methodology by developing and applying a new data collection tool, i.e., Mobile Government Adoption Questionnaire. This tool can be used by other researchers to collect data on the same research problem from contexts similar to the Omani one. Practically, this work attempted to identify the key prerequisites for the adoption and actual use of technology in the area of public services administration, and then making contribution towards the success of M-Government initiatives. The use of different tests and methods to statistically understand how the Omani end-users make decisions on the use of M-Government is also a novel practical contribution of this work.

Public sector modernisation has focused on achieving greater efficiency within the institutions and agencies of the state. In comparison the relationship between citizen and state as a basis for service improvement has received less attention. This study helps to redress this balance by exploring the role that trust can play as a mechanism of accountability of the state to the citizen, and as a consequence improving their mutual cooperation. This poses a challenge for the state; to be trusted by citizens, the state must be trustworthy in the eyes of those citizens. Establishing the citizen’s view of the characteristics of the trustworthy state, and how this differs from the norm of trust currently in use within the state, is the subject of the research. The question is addressed through a process of dialogic action research with users and frontline staff of two public services (a housing benefit service and a GP practice). The output of the study is a relational diagnostic, applicable across the public sector, derived from a synthesis of the tests applied by the citizen as they assess the trustworthiness of a public service. The diagnostic is structured around the essential elements of the citizen/state trust relationship. It tests the citizen perception of the respect with which they are held as trustor, the sense of responsibility they perceive in the state as trustee, and the degree to which their consent is important to the governance of the relationship. Applying these tests sets a demanding agenda for change in the management of the state and its agencies, in organising to create a more responsive relationship with service users. The diagnostic structure and tests are designed to be used by public services and citizen groups to improve relationships across the public sector.

Prior research has shown that there are a variety of ways in which business-IT alignment (BIA) can help an organisation. BIA can increase the UK's e-government maturity level, improve the quality of e-government and service redesign process, and ensure the establishment of an integrated, coherent, user-centred, and agile digital culture. However, business-IT alignment is challenging when there are many organisations (central and local government organisations) involved in the process. This research aims to increase our understanding of the 'process of aligning' - vertically (between central and local government), and horizontally (across government agencies). Data analysis was conducted by the use of grounded theory. A number of factors that influence alignment in UK service redesign were identified and discussed as 'enablers' or 'inhibitors' of alignment. This thesis captures alignment in both 'theory and practice'. It includes multiple case studies to explore business-IT alignment in the context of the UK government. Additionally, this study not only provides 'theory for explanation', making it scientifically useful, but also offers 'theory for design', for practical uses. During the analysis of the case studies governance is found to be one of the alignment enablers, and a number of governance frameworks were designed to facilitate alignment in UK service redesign. This thesis presents a theoretical model which demonstrates the interrelationships found between the alignment key factors (i.e. standardisation, shared domain knowledge, business-IT engagement and silo-based systems associated with localism) with the core factor: communication. Network theories are used in this research to propose actions. It therefore proposes the adoption of a goal-directed network aimed at alignment in service redesign. This research links alignment, e-government, service redesign and networks together, a connection which is not fully explored in the literature.

This PhD thesis examines the E-government implementation in Dubai and examines the critical success factors and barriers to a successful E-government implementation. The study is based on primary research conducted on the subject of E-government in the United Arab Emirates. The thesis critically reviewed extant literature on E-government implementation. The methodology used for this research is a mixed-methodological design comprising of quantitative survey of 450 employees of the Dubai Smart Government Department. A survey questionnaire was designed to assess the impact of various independent and dependent variables on the effectiveness of E-government implementation. To complement the shortcomings of the high level of abstraction often associated with quantitative methodology, a qualitative methodology was used which involved in-depth interviews with 25 middle and high ranking officials in the Dubai Smart Government Department. The results of these questionnaires and interviews helped provide a theoretical framework for the postulation of standard operating procedures, which could ensure the success of E-government implementation, in Dubai. The research analyses and discusses the primary data (questionnaire and interviews) to generate insights regarding the success of E-government implementation in Dubai. The analysis also examines the various factors which limit and hinder successful E-government implementations and offers recommendations for improvement. The study finds that some of the major barriers to E-government in Dubai include: technology, security, legal, monetary and strategic. Employees surveyed also generally expressed fear of complexity, system integration, data security, and job losses. Researchers have repeatedly shown that there is need for empirical based studies to understand contextually relevant aspects of E-government implementation in non-western contexts. This PhD thesis contributes to this debate with fresh empirical data sets from Dubai on E-government implementation including the identification of critical successes factors and barriers of a successful E-government implementation. This study also contributes theoretically by challenging the popular normative stage models with a more robust theoretical framework encompassing both human centeredness and context relevance. In so doing, the study came up with a tripartite approach comprising management support, cultural change, and system design. The study concludes that dynamic interplay between internal and external forces; socio-economic and technological factors (including maturity of ICT capabilities) are all relevant for a successful implementation of E-government in Dubai. This study?s key significance lies in its contribution to improve the implementation of a successful E-government in the UAE context, thereby leading to a development of a road map for facilitating practical implementation of strategies and reversing the declining trend of E-government participation in Dubai. In addition, the study?s emphasis on the public sector, could lead to strengthening of the role of E-government for administrative and institutional reform and inclusion in the public sector. The study could provide a useful guide both for the Dubai Smart Government Department and other E-government agencies in Arab regions and for internal stakeholders in the field who wish to gain insight into the process of E-government globally.

The rapid development of information and telecommunication technologies (ICTs) in the 21st century has changed society at all levels: individual, group, company and government. As a result, there has been a significant rise in the availability of ICTs and related technologies around the globe, including in developing countries. ICTs include internet infrastructure such as the use of mobile devices, the internet connection and the affiliated platforms of online social networks (OSNs). The provision of online products and services by the government is known as electronic e-government. From a theoretical literature review it was found that research emphasising the use of OSNs in e-government and OSNs in Oman was scarce. Further, studies investigating and explaining the use of OSNs in the public sector and government were few. This motivated the researcher to explore and understand this issue, leading to the formation of the aim of this research: To explore and understand the use of e-government/OSNs in a public sector organisation in a developing country, in this case, government organisations in Oman. To achieve this, a comprehensive and detailed literature review of e-government/OSN research in developed, developing and Gulf countries was completed. Additionally, related theories on ICT diffusion and adoption, institutional theory and culture theory were used as a lens through which a better understanding of e-government/OSNs would be provided and to develop the initial conceptual framework that was then applied in practice. To acquire the data for this research a qualitative research approach involving the use of a case study was employed. The data collection techniques used included observations, interviews and a review of related archival documents. A total of 44 people were interviewed and an additional 37 participants assisted with the observational part of this study. The research results revealed that government organisations adopted OSNs to explore the use of the technology and to cope with the increasing public demands of government. The study revealed many benefits for government organisations after OSNs were adopted, including greater public interaction and participation, increased information transparency, better understanding and increased public awareness of government services, leading to better work efficiency and effectiveness. Further, public interaction and participation was noted to be important for the government as it helped government employees be more responsible and accountable for their work actions. Additionally, due to the application of OSNs, organisational and national cultural changes were identified that led to government work process and procedures being amended such that there was more public participation and interaction. This led to an influence of government policies and decision-making with regards to public services. After the applied part of this study, the initial conceptual framework was revised to reflect the practical aspects of this research. The contributions of this study are: for e-government research, it will add to the increasing body of knowledge in this area. For Omani theoretical literature, it will widen the boundaries of knowledge and OSN use, particularly for the Omani government and other governments in developing countries that seek to use e-government solutions. In countries where cultural aspects are important, this study can provide insights that may not have been considered before. Further, this study has shown that understanding organisational changes and the cultural contexts with respect to e-government and OSN use is important; therefore, more knowledge in this area can be provided by this study. For policymakers, the contribution of this research is the provision of an understanding of a wide range of issues surrounding the adoption of new technologies. In turn, this can assist policymakers with policy-formation such that their institutional purposes and roles can be fulfilled. This study contributes to private sector organisations including internet and OSN providers by explaining and illustrating the benefits of using OSNs in a developing country with an autocratic regime that seeks to provide citizen benefits.

This research looks at using Inclusive Design as mean to bridge the age-based digital divide, by conducting Action research in a Local Council in the UK. Research on the digital divide looks at the inequality in technology access between different demographical characteristics. While this is very useful to highlight access inequality, it fails to address the steps required to bridge the gap. Some research even suggested that the digital divide is bridged and that research in this field is irrelevant. This is due to the narrow focus of some researchers about the digital divide. The focus should be not on whether older people possess Information and Communications Technology (ICT) products; it should be on how they use their products and what we can do to improve the person-technology fit. On the other hand, inclusive design has been a main driver to ensure that buildings and products do not prohibit people with disabilities from utilising the building or product. However, there is limited research about the extension of inclusive design practices in Information Systems (IS), particularly interface design and system design. Most of the current design guidelines and best practices do not provide a holistic view of the inclusive design process, thus leaving the designers on their own in terms of producing an easy interface for users, by just merely implementing the accessibility guidelines provided by the W3C to ensure inclusivity of the website or online service. Assuming that inclusivity is reached only by including screen readers and magnified modes to prospective users. The aim of the research is to provide a clear picture to discover the main challenges to Inclusive Design as well as provide a holistic and thorough inclusive design metric that allows designers to ensure that their proposed website or online service is inclusive of users from different age groups and capabilities. This design methodology can customisable according to the website or online service requirements, highlighting the important features to ensure inclusivity. Using Action research as methodology to investigate and improve design practices in a local council. The research employed a mixture of research methods to understand and intervene in the creation of an inclusive e-service during the implementation of the Care Act 2014 in the Local Council. First, semi structured interviews were conducted to provide insights of the changes that the Care Act 2014 which brought upon social care and the way that social care services are being provided in the county. Then, observations were performed during the design sessions of the online services in the Local Council to see how the design process is being carried out to ensure that the website is inclusive of all prospective users. Finally, when the website is fully developed it was tested on various users with from different age groups using the inclusivity index developed as part of the evaluation phase of the design methodology. In addition, interviews with older adults were conducted to understand the issues that make them using ICT difficult so the needs of these users were documented to help in the design process later on. The research indents to advance knowledge about inclusive design from practical and theoretical perspective. Practically, this research will help web designers and organisations looking to cater online services to as many people as possible and design methodology that fosters inclusivity. Moreover, this will help older adults to use online service by themselves, thus ensure that they can remain independent and exercise control over their needs from the government or otherwise. Theoretically, this research will help to shed the light on the digital divide and the ways to bridge this divide. By creating an inclusive design methodology that can fundamentally address the causes of the divide rather than just simply patch existing design methodologies.

Technological amplification has expended the involvement of information and communication technology in public sectors and enhanced governmental dependence on information systems which restrains the management attention towards improving the effectiveness of e-government services. Based on the analytical review of literature, it was found that most of the e-government evaluation models address the e-service dimensions that assess the quality of e-government websites. This gives a very constrict perspective to e-government and ignores the key dimensions. It becomes important to understand how citizens perceive and evaluate e-government services. This involves defining what e-government service is, identifying its underlying dimensions, and determining how it can be measured. Therefore, periodical evaluation of the effectiveness of e-government services becomes essential. Foregoing discussion clearly indicates the necessity of developing a well founded e-government e-service effectiveness evaluation framework which not only evaluates the e-government service effectiveness but also evaluates the e-government service quality criteria and the citizens‟ perception in the form of citizens‟ trust in offered e-services. Thus, the objective of this study was to develop a framework (E-GEEF) "e-government service effectiveness evaluation framework" that assesses e-government service effectiveness from the citizens‟ (G2C) perspective. A systematic study of the existing e-government service assessment frameworks has been carried out to establish the basis for conceptualizing a theoretical framework called e-government service effectiveness evaluation framework (E-GEEF). In this research, the author attempts to explore the underlying dimensions and factors of e-government services, and has proposed an effectiveness evaluation framework (E-GEEF). Present empirical research adapted DeLone and McLean, (2003) IS success model as base model which is upgradable and extendable, hence additional dimensions were incorporated to develop a novel framework (E-GEEF) for evaluating the effectiveness of e-government service. The suggested framework has identified number of measuring dimensions and associated items within each dimension for (E-GEEF). System quality, information quality, and service quality dimensions were adopted from DeLone and McLean (2003) IS success model and “intention to use and user satisfaction” dimensions were re-specified in proposed framework (E-GEEF) as “citizens‟ use / usefulness” and “citizens‟ satisfaction”. Further, "citizens" trust, perceived e-government service quality, and perceived effectiveness” were incorporated as new dimensions in the proposed framework (E-GEEF). Three new dimensions were identified and two existing dimensions were re-specified for evaluating the effectiveness of e-government service. Sixteen hypotheses were formulated from literature on existing e-government assessment frameworks to test the proposed framework (E-GEEF). In order to test the proposed framework and their associated dimensions, Indian e-tax service was considered, because e-tax service of Indian e-government is utilized by several Indian citizens for filing their taxes. Preliminary qualitative study was carried out carefully to ensure whether all important dimensions and measurement items were included in the proposed framework E-GEEF in the right research context or not. Empirical research has used quantitative analysis for validating the proposed framework (E-GEEF). Data collection was done using survey which was conducted among citizens of India who have been utilizing e-tax service as users. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed to ensure the data normality by using SPSS 20. Structural equation modeling statistical technique was applied using AMOS 21 on the collected data for testing the hypotheses. The empirical research findings have confirmed most of the hypothesized relationships within the validated framework (E-GEEF). Consequently, in terms of the theoretical implications, this study emphasizes the significance of such hypothesized relationships when performing empirical research in e-government context. Key findings demonstrated the strong relationships of perceived e-government service quality with system quality, information quality, service quality, and citizens‟ satisfaction. Further, citizens‟ trust exhibited direct relationships with perceived e-government service quality and perceived effectiveness of e-government service. Thus, as a major contribution to the proposed research, the identified new dimensions “perceived e-government service quality, citizens‟ trust, perceived effectiveness” and re-specified dimensions “citizens‟ use/usefulness and citizens‟ satisfaction” have shown great significance in evaluating effectiveness of e-government e-tax service in Indian G2C context. The developed and validated framework (E-GEEF) provides government agencies with an appropriate approach and dimensions in order to evaluate the effectiveness of e-government services.

Smart services are advocated to enable institutions to provide a not only continuous, but also ubiquitous support to their users, with the aim to reduce the time and effort required from both parties from the establishment to the finalizing of any transaction. Nonetheless, the adoption of Smart Services could face different obstacles including those related to infrastructure, legislations, usability when accessed through mobile phones and the lack of standardization. Furthermore, one of the main obstacles relates to users perceptions of smart services, their ease of use as well as the usefulness. On the other hand, in order to change people behaviour and attitude, such services can be designed to embed certain persuasive techniques and would need to be introduced in a way that makes them accepted by present and potential users. Consequently, this thesis addresses this problem and proposes design principles and processes for augmenting smart services with persuasive elements, and also for the introduction of such services in a way that take full advantage of the motivation of the anticipated users. Nonetheless, motivation and persuasion can be significantly affected by the socio-cultural framework of the users, therefore the thesis focused on the UAE as a hosting environment. In addition, e-government smart services are the main domain of applications to investigate in this thesis. As a matter of fact, the thesis is built on two main models: - Fogg’s eight steps process for designing persuasive technology - Technology Acceptance Model and proposes amendments. Additionally, the thesis is adding additional considerations to the two different models based on the investigation and the data analysis that took place during the study. Moreover, the thesis followed an empirical approach and involved key stakeholders, including present users as well as experts from various domains that are linked either directly or indirectly to the topic of discussion, through a series of empirical studies. As a result, the proposed process and design principles were validated with key informant and, accordingly, it was concluded that the proposal is both valid and useful for supporting the decision making and process of designing and introduction of smart service in a persuasive and motivational style.

Electronic Government (E-Government) has become very important in recent years. It can be described as a system of digital interaction between a government and other parties, such as citizens, companies, employees, ministries and other government organisations. One of the most important elements of implementing E-Government systems is the interaction between users and E-Government systems, specifically the adoption and utilisation by those users, who are the main target of such systems. However, e-Government systems are still in the early stages in most developing countries including Saudi Arabia, and face many issues related to adoption, implementation and utilisation. Moreover, there is a lack of studies that investigate and analyse users' adoption and utilisation from different perspectives and also a lack of comprehensive frameworks specifically developed for such analysis. Thus, this research aims to investigate, analyse and understand the key factors that influence users' adoption and utilisation of e-Government systems and services in Saudi Arabia with a holistic approach. This could be used to enhance the current acceptance and use level and also would contribute to providing a user-centred path for designing and implementing new e-Services and government electronic systems. This study also aims to fill the knowledge gap in current e-Government literature about what might constitute a comprehensive framework on which to base such investigations. In order to achieve the research objectives, a comprehensive conceptual framework, namely, E-Government Adoption and Utilisation Model (EGAUM), was developed from a critical evaluation of several common models and theories related to technology acceptance and usage, in conjunction with a review of e-Government adoption literature. The developed model was then utilised to investigate and understand the influential factors on the adoption and utilisation of different types of users; namely, citizens, government employees and users from the business sector. A multiple method was employed in this research which includes a quantitative approach (as a main method) and a qualitative approach (as a supportive method). Several analysis procedures were employed, including descriptive and statistical analysis to validate the research model and to determine the significant influential factors. The results revealed that the user's Education Level, Perceived Benefits and implementing Regulations and Policies related to the e-Usage are common significant factors for the adoption and utilisation by all types of users. Moreover, the Functional Quality of Service/System, Perceived Simplicity and Socio-Cultural factors were found to be significant for the adoption and use of government employees and citizens. It was also found that Awareness plays a significant role in enhancing the adoption and use of public employees and users from the business sector. As a result of these findings, the research developed number of recommendations that can serve as guidelines for successful implementation of e-Government systems and services based on users' perceptions, attitude, beliefs, needs and choices.

Purpose: The relationship between context and e-governance has been gaining a significant momentum in academic circles due its social and technical complexities. There are many challenges posed by the disparity between the context and the system when it comes to e-governance in developing countries. This research aims to reveal more successful adoption of e-governance initiatives and exposes factors that hinder its implementation. We develop a conceptual framework showing the reciprocity between the context and the system or what is termed “Context-System Gap”. Therefore, this research will study the appropriateness of the context and its influence on the system and the influence of the system on the context. The purpose of this research is to explore the factors that enable successful e-government adoption in Lebanon, where e-governance is still at its initial stage. Most empirical research and theories on the implementation of e-governance in developing countries remain at the macro-level and miss out on the complexities of the context of deployment and the role of the gap between the citizens and the government. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an empirical model differentiating between the electronic context and the electronic system and shed a light over a new gap, government-citizen gap, in the adoption of e-government. Design/methodology/approach: Following previous research on e-government services adoption, this study uses several technology use and acceptance models and literature to examine the elements behind the adoption and use of e-government services in Lebanon from citizen and government perspectives. The research strategy is a quantitative method approach employing questionnaire. Quantitative data will be collected from e-government users (citizens) and statistical tests will be conducted in order to examine the relation between variables. Practical implications: The findings are useful for policy-makers and decision-makers to develop a better understanding of citizens' needs. The proposed model can be used as a guideline for the implementation of e-government services in developing countries. Originality/value: This study is the only one to examine the dimensions influencing citizens’ adoption of e-government technologies in developing countries using a unified model merging context and system elements.

The general aim of this study is understanding the role of service integration in egovernment implementation in Jordan as a developing country. Mixed method approach was selected to achieve this aim through construction and validation of the proposed research model using semi-structured interviews as a qualitative research method and questionnaires as a quantitative research method. The main contribution of this study is developing a model towards understanding the role of service integration in e-government implementation in Jordan. This model is based on studying and analysing the critical factors affecting e-government service integration from the perspectives of providers and users of e-government services. Those factors are divided into managerial, cultural, social, political, legal, technological, and economic factors. The construction of our model took into consideration the overall objectives, benefits and challenges of e-government mentioned in the literature, as well as an original contribution regarding the evaluation of current situation of service integration in Jordan. This is a significant addition to the literature which is lacking empirical investigation considering service integration in general, and within the context of Jordan in particular. In this study, the analysis process is done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to examine the attitudes of respondents towards the role of service integration and the critical factors affecting that role, in addition to the other statistical analysis such as analysis of Means, Medians, Standard deviation, Chai squared and Mann Whitney U test. Investigating the attitude of respondents revealed an agreement between providers and users of e-government services regarding the critical factors affecting the role of service integration in e-government implementation in Jordan. They see neutral impacts of current situation, legal and technological factors on the role of service integration in e-government implementation in Jordan. However, they agree that managerial, social, and political factors have significant impacts while cultural and economic factors have insignificant impacts on the role of service integration in egovernment implementation in Jordan. Based on the results of the analysis, this study suggests a set of recommendations in order to reach the highest level of e-government maturity in Jordan, namely the e-government service integration.

Despite the importance of citizens’ trust toward the successful adoption of e-government, the majority of the extant research focuses only on two dimensions to investigate the role of citizens’ trust in e-government which are, trust in technology and trust in government. Hence, there is an absence of research into the multi-dimensional nature of trust and in particular how demographic aspects such as citizens’ personality, culture, gender, experience, education level, beliefs and value systems influence citizens’ trust in e-government. This research particularly aims to investigate and analyse the critical factors influencing citizens' trust in e-government from different aspects including: technology, government agency, risk and citizens' perspective. To achieve this aim, this research undertook a comprehensive review of the e-government and trust literatures, followed by a systematic review of relevant academic articles to identify the factors influencing trust in e-government. The existing literature considered technical factors, government agencies, risk and citizens' aspects. Thereby, a conceptual framework was developed by extending the updated DeLone and McLean’ IS Success Model. To validate the framework, empirical research was preformed, followed by the distribution of a questionnaire to participants who have a past experience in using e-government services, within three ministries in Saudi Arabia. Of 1076 completed survey responses received, 912 were considered valid to use in this study. This study has applied structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the proposed research framework using SmartPLS 3.0. The final developed framework was then refined and presented along with the findings regarding the significant factors influencing citizens’ trust in e-government. The findings of study revealed that while technical factors and disposition to trust have a positive influence on trust in e-government, factors related to government agencies and risk have negative impacts on citizens' trust. With regard to the citizens' aspects, the findings reveal that the female respondents demonstrate a more positive evaluation of online services as compared to the male respondents, with the female group reporting more significant and positive influences of the technical aspects on trust in e-government as compared to the male group. Interestingly, this study found that old people display greater trust in e-government as compared to levels of trust reported by younger people. The findings also highlight that internet experience has a positive influence on citizens' trust, as increased levels of Internet experience increased the level of trust in e-government. Finally, the study found non-significant support of the influence of education level in terms of trust in e-government. Lastly, the strategies that governments use to build and develop citizens' trust were identified based on the findings of the study. The originality of this study is that it tries to provide new insights on the subject of citizens’ trust in e-government in Saudi Arabia, as limited studies investigate and analyse how citizens’ differences in gender, age, education level and internet experience can influence their trust in e-government. This study attempts to provide a validated conceptual framework that integrates different antecedents of trust in e-government. Also, the impact of additional factors such as citizens’ satisfaction, intention to continue use e-government and the moderating effect of different demographic factors (gender, age, education and internet experience) are considered in this research, complementing and enhancing the existing literature on trust in e-government. Also, this research offers several implications to practitioners (decision maker) and stakeholders who are involved in e-government initiatives by providing new insights into e-government adoption from a citizens’ perspective.

Information Technology Governance (ITG) is one of the most innovative practices through its provision of support for decision-makers in organisations. Interestingly, it has increasingly become a de facto strategy for organisations that are seeking to optimise their performance. ITG has emerged to support agencies in the integration of information technology (IT) infrastructures and the delivery of high-quality services. On the other hand, decision-making processes in public sector organisations can be multi-faceted and complex, and decision-makers play a major role in the adoption of innovation and technology in the government agencies. While formally adopting IT governance (ITG) has numerous reported benefits, many studies have shown that few organisations have adopted the ITG practice, particularly in the government sector. Therefore, this study attempts to identify and understand the dimensions that hinder ITG adoption and its successful use. The main objective of this research is to investigate and develop a theoretical model of the obstacles preventing formal ITG adoption, from both institutional and individual perspectives. Based on empirical evidence gathered via semi-structured interviews (n=32) with IT directors in government organisations as a qualitative inquiry, this study attempts to investigate institutional and individual dimensions that impact decision making for the adoption of ITG in the context of the public sector in development countries such as Oman. Furthermore, this study focuses on combining institutional and individual perspectives to explain how individuals can make decisions in response to institutional impacts via the integration of theories such as Institutional Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). It also explores the key dimensions that influence decision-making in the public sector concerning the adoption of ITG. The findings of this study illustrate and analyse the institutional and individual dimensions that impact on decisions for the adoption of ITG and contribute to the body of knowledge by highlighting the dimensions impacting decision-making for adopting ITG in public sector organisations. In doing so, this study contributes to better understand the applicability of integrating both TPB and IS theories to explore and develop a model of ITG adoption in the public sector organization and advances the scholarship by developing a more holistic model. This adoption has benefits such as reaching organisations' strategic goals, improving performance and conferring other competitive advantages. As a final point, this study advises accelerating the adoption of ITG to increase the efficiency, productivity and transparency of government work as well as to make available integrated smart electronic services. Further studies on the adoption of ITG in the public sector in different contexts, or comparative research, may help to develop a deep understanding of the value of ITG innovation in government organisations to enable evaluation of its significance in enhancing e-government.

Participation in government activity is compulsory and is needed on one level or another for activities across multiple fields including politics, economics, education, health, planning and others. E-Participation is a growing area of research. It is dynamic, complex in both nature and execution and has multiple dimensions. The aim of this research is to better understand the role of technology in the participation processes available, focusing on the education and planning fields in the UK and Indonesia. The Actor-Network Theory (ANT) has been used as a theoretical lens through which to analyse the in-depth comparative case studies presented in the UK and Indonesia. Both countries are separated in different parts of the world, which may have both similarities and differences regarding their respective socio-cultural influences, politics, the economy, history and other contextual backgrounds. This cross comparison between a set of case studies with a different context provides the base from which to explore the participation processes and to capture any generic attributes that arise. The research includes a novel-structured literature review of 612 papers. Also included are four sizeable case studies that took around six months each involving field visits to Indonesia and similar field work in the UK. This research provides contributions, such as a suggested new method for exploring e-participation and a literature review, new models and definitions of e-participation that covers schools and planning which were not well covered in the previously existing literature. Finally, it will contribute a base theory of e-participation.

Information security has become an important issue for countries in providing government services for citizens, due to the rapid growth of electric government (e-Government). Many security failures which have occurred are due to internal factors. Even though previous research has emphasised leadership, however, no studies have studied leaders’ capabilities and engagement as a factor in causing internal security failures. This thesis is concerned with issues relating to leadership skills in managing e-Government information security management. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to invent a relevant key leadership by example concept to perform efficient top-down management that can be applied to e-Government information security management. The main objective of this research is to analyse security strategy in development and management within the Malaysian government and its impact on employees by referring to three different elements of values, observation and assumptions from Zakaria’s security culture (2007). In contradiction with previous research, findings from the case study demonstrate that inappropriate leadership skills, which are due to incompatibility in information security and disorganised security structures, create a lack of motivation in employee security practices. It appears that leadership skills are a root-cause factor in security incidents that occur by insiders. The main contribution is a model of key factors including the 3Ps of ‘People’, ‘Process’ and ‘Product’ as a guide to the concept of leadership by example in improving government IT services security. In conclusion, this research shows that to resolve the problem of security in e-Government, which is caused by internal factors, we need to further improve the quality of leadership skills. The model of key factors defines the quality of leadership skills in e-Government which, in turn, can help to reduce internal security failures.

Insourcing, outsourcing and co-sourcing are three approaches to procuring an information system. This research contributes to the body of knowledge on insourcing an information system; exploring and discussing the enabling and inhibiting factors of the insourcing of an information system in selected government agencies in Malaysia. This study was undertaken in response to a paucity of similar projects and a limited literature focused on developing countries. It considers the post outsourcing context following the decision to insource a major Malaysian Government Information System in 2011. A qualitative research method was used to obtain empirical evidence from selected government agencies through 69 semi-structured interviews in two data collection periods: 2013-2014 and 2015. Interviews were conducted with civil servants at all levels, from senior management to clerical staff, including users of the government information system. By using coding principles from grounded theory to analyse the data, seven exciters and six inhibitors of insourcing a government information system were identified and mapped in the analytical framework. Further, this is the first research to use an enhanced model, devised by combining the OPTIMISM model and two distinct theoretical traditions: institutional theory and the capability approach; in order to analyse the insourcing of government information system adoption. The enhanced model was created by mapping the OPTIMISM model (that has a set of dimensions) to an analytical framework comprising the capability approach, institutional theory and technology (ICTs). The main research contribution of this thesis is in the area of capacity building of the internal development team. The increased budget for training, the selection of appropriate training providers and knowledge sharing among experienced and novice developers all contribute to building capacity in the internal development team; and consequently help to improve the quality of the system which will improve service delivery to the general public. The approach and findings of this study contribute to the body of knowledge and understanding of the subject in government information system development and implementation, and can also be applied to improving the quality of service delivery. While this study has focused on government information systems, the wider area of eGovernment, and applications serving the needs of the general public, is equally important, and therefore the researcher suggests that insourcing eGovernment applications would also assist in the capacity building of internal IT staff.

Given the vast and rapid developments in using e-government services, many countries all over the world commenced to improve the quality of their e-government services especially the ones concerning the business sector. Accordingly, the issue of evaluating the quality of e-government services from the perspectives of business firms became a crucial aim. This study addressed the topic of evaluating e-government service quality in Jordan from a business perspective. The study problem stemmed from the paucity of research that addressed evaluating e-government service quality form a business perspective at the local and global levels. Moreover, the literature review showed the lack of effective model for assessing the quality of e-government services based on the business perspective. Furthermore, frequent international reports showed that Jordan occupy low rank in E-government readiness at the global and regional levels. The current study aimed to fill the existed gap in literature related to evaluating the quality of e-government services from the business perspective by adding to the present literature body. In order to fulfill the study's goals, a conceptual framework was developed and proposed. The framework included two scales: a SERVQUAL questionnaire and Barrier-Enablers questionnaire. The proposed model was verified according to the validity and reliability indicators. The study methodology adopted an explanatory mixed approach of quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative method involved questionnaires that were applied on 300 employees who were working in the business sector and in direct contact with e-government services. However, the qualitative method involved 11 stakeholders who are in charge for E-government services within two major governmental departments were interviewed. In order to verify the model's measures and gather data; means, standard deviations, internal consistency, t-test, ANOVA, simple linear regression and Factor analysis were used. Based on the proposed model, the study results revealed various gaps between the actual and expected e-services from the business firms' perspective. All the expected e-services scored higher than the real ones. All the gaps in the proposed SERVQUAL questionnaire indicated statistical significant differences in the overall dimensions except the Security and Privacy dimension that revealed no statistically significant difference. Moreover, the results revealed various gaps between the actual and expected barriers/enablers from the business firms' perspective. Similar to the expected e-services, all the expected barriers/enablers scored higher than the actual ones. Furthermore, the qualitative results indicated a number of barriers and enablers that influence using e-government services from E-government perspective in Jordan. Furthermore, based on the results of the analysis, the proposed model was revised and modified. The results introduced a number of implications for the public agencies that provide E-government services. Moreover, the results lend themselves to researchers who are interested in furthering the current study by revising the resulting model and addressing more perspectives or variables.

Since the advent of Internet and communication technologies, E-government has become a Subject of considerable importance to the developed and developing countries, providing these countries with many potential opportunities to improve the quality of public services, provide cost-effective service delivery, and promote a better relationship between citizens and governments than that associated with traditional modes of public services delivery. However, the few existing studies in the field of IS related to the adoption and diffusion of online public services in the context of developing countries reveal that citizens remain sceptical about accepting internet-based technologies. This raises the question among researchers, scholars, and practitioners involved in the development and implementation of ICT, of how governments can increase citizen adoption and level of usage of the new electronic delivery channel in respect of public services in developing countries. The primary objectives of this study are twofold. Firstly, it aims to identify the critical success factors in respect of E-government adoption and implementation in Libya, from the citizen perspective, and secondly, it aims to determine the inter-relationships among these factors in the Libyan context. In doing this it assesses the usefulness of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a basis for the development of a conceptual framework enabling rational, informed decisions underlying and predicting citizen satisfaction with E- government services in Libya. To achieve its aims, the study undertakes five main tasks, these being: (1) a review of the literature, (2) a preliminary field investigation to ensure the appropriateness of the research approach chosen for the study, (3) a pilot study to assess the reliability and validity of the research model, (4) the development of hypotheses and scales, and (5) the development and validation of a research model via a questionnaire survey. Triangulation of the data is achieved by using qualitative interviews as well as a quantitative survey. The data from the study is then compared and contrasted with the literature from which the theoretical framework for the contextualisation and interpretation of findings was developed.

The UAE has a vision of delivering unified e-Government services across numerous departments of seven emirates. The primary goal is to bring all aspects of the government information services online for every citizens and business by completely replacing the existing paper-based bureaucracy. This creates significant risks and information security challenges which the UAE e-Government is seeking to address. This thesis makes a comprehensive review of the UAE e-Government’s information security posture. An analysis of the current strengths and weaknesses of the e-Government was carried out, SWOT analysis was employed and based on the results, a TOWS matrix was constructed facilitating the development of new e-Government strategies to mitigate external threats. To implement an Information Security Management System (ISMS) across the e-Government departments, a framework was developed based on a multi-layered approach that is used to structure the information security program. It considers three factors; technology, operations and people (employees), to increase the effectiveness of information security system. To implement the framework, several international standards were evaluated and subsequently the ISO 27001 standard was used as a benchmark for achieving a secure e-Government. A Gap Analysis was carried out to evaluate the current state of the security culture within the e-Government against the standard and a Risk Assessment was carried out to demonstrate the existing risks faced by e-Government services. A comprehensive series of penetration tests were commissioned on e-Government network infrastructure. Having made interventions to improve the security of physical information technologies and organisational operations, a comprehensive questionnaire was developed to obtain quantitative evaluation of the security culture within the organisation. Subsequently, a training programme was devised and developed for the employees to demonstrably improve the security culture as measured by this approach. Finally, the findings, in conjunction with a consultation with security heads within the UAE e-Government, are used to construct a single comprehensive information security policy that can be rolled out to all e-Government departments within the seven emirates.

This study explores the challenge of low citizen engagement and participation in e-Government in terms of lack of knowledge, experience, trust in e-Services and government itself. The research addressed the issues of factors that influence citizens' acceptance and adoption of e-government services in Libya, how to overcome the barriers, and determine serious games can promote citizen usage. This study applied an integrated approach utilising the Technology Acceptance Model and Trustworthiness Model theoretical models in a focused framework of intention to use. This research applied mixed research methodology, with exploratory sequential case study (quantitative) and qualitative investigation of the Libyan e-Government project and barriers to its implementation by semi-structured interviews. Furthermore, a quantitative survey questionnaire was used to validate the proposed framework, and a post-test questionnaire was also used to evaluate the effectiveness of the serious game. A conceptual framework was developed for all factors that may affect users’ intention to use e-Services and determine the adoption needs: the two main factors are e-Government adoption issues (including citizen trust in government, e-Services and the internet) and knowledge and experience. Using serious games is of a great value in learning and expanding knowledge, practicing and training, building self-confidence, and increasing security and privacy mechanisms. It would build trust between users and agencies by experiencing e-Services’ reliability, dependability, efficiency and capability, thus promoting adoption and use.

e-Government is an increasingly important strategy to enable the public sector to realise the benefits of the Internet and a shift to digital technologies. This research reports on and addresses the challenges faced by e-government initiatives that are intended to facilitate efficient and effective service delivery and meet citizens' expectations. Specifically, e-government in the UK and the Republic of Ireland is claimed on the whole to be successful, yet this and prior research identifies significant challenges. Studies of IT alignment with strategic objectives have been conducted mainly in the private sector and there is a shortage of research focusing on the public sector. Given this and the mismatch of expectations and results, an exploratory research methodology has been adopted, within a conceptual framework derived from prior studies. As a result, this research was conducted from an interpretive stance utilising case studies and qualitative data sources such as semi-structured interviews, milestone documents and archival records. The scope comprises two substantial public-sector IT projects, namely the Directgov Portal (UK) and Revenue-on-Line (ROI), offering a longitudinal perspective covering a period of over ten years. One key finding has been that e-government is often overly concerned with technical delivery and efficiency savings, and not as much with the required organisational and business change. Furthermore, initiatives fail to engage sufficiently the multiple stakeholders and intended users. Larger, complex projects are more likely to fail for reasons such as over-ambition in the planning process and overstating the benefits of the intended system. Lack of understanding by the commissioning bodies as to the intricacies of IT projects can also inhibit success and thus the attainment of best 'value for money'. Many of these points can be categorised as alignment issues. The conclusions, and new issues that emerge from the study, help to conceptualise the successful strategic alignment of the adoption of e-government services. The resulting conceptual framework, along with recommendations, adds value to the existing body of academic knowledge with regard e-government projects, and offers insights for further research. In addition, the results are intended to introduce practitioners and policy-makers supporting the evolution and implementation of such systems to an efficient, effective, and citizen-centric design paradigm that yields public value.

Governments around the world have continuously embraced e-government development in an endeavour to achieve social, economic and environmental goals (United Nation E-Government Survey, 2012). In this research, e-government is considered from an information systems (IS) perspective underpinned by the aims of achieving efficiency and effectiveness in public sector organisations. Evaluating the effectiveness of adopted e-government IS is a critical process, as it provides necessary data for cost-benefit analysis of governmental investment in technology and the value it creates, allowing decision makers to judge whether required and specified needs have been met successfully. IS end-user satisfaction is identified in the literature as a surrogate measure for IS effectiveness. The construct of IS End-User Computing Satisfaction (EUCS) was conceptualised and developed in the late 1980's in the context of work-setting mandatory use of systems by organisations, but it still is being used today as a valid and reliable instrument to measure IS end-user satisfaction. With technology becoming advanced and ubiquitous, end-users are now empowered to use egovernment through multi-channel access. End-users are also empowered to become active content-generators through the use of social media in cyberspace, rather than passive consumers of static information. By adopting a quasi-experimental design, the researcher will challenge the standard measure of IS satisfaction, the construct of EUCS, by conducting a behavioural experiment in real-world settings by comparing and contrasting two methods to evaluate IS end-user satisfaction. These two methods utilise social media data of Twitter and the EUCS instrument adopted from Doll & Torkzadeh (1988). Such findings will contribute to improving understanding of the nature of IS end-users, and help determine if the current conception of EUCS is still valid, or whether the ubiquitous nature of IS and expanding role of IS end-users requires the formulation of a new conceptualisation.

As a theoretical contribution to the body of knowledge, e-working is conceptualised in and by this study to be both a way of being a worker and the way, or mechanism, for carrying out the work task. It is a conceptualisation which responds to the indeterminacy, dynamism and unfolding nature of e-working in the contemporary context. This study takes a local government focus, using a single case study. The chosen case is a local authority which perceives itself as an 'exemplar' with regard to operational practice despite, at the point of examination, having only recently acknowledged the need to make active use of e-working practices; practices which are common elsewhere. This study provides empirical, theoretical and methodological contributions. Theoretical contribution is primarily offered through a new and more effective conceptualisation of e-working. This conceptualisation, derived from an analysis of the existing literature, is used to investigate the experience of e-working change in a local authority context during a period of significant e-working change (Research Objective 1), resulting in the theorising of the implications of e-working change for managing and working in contemporary local authority organisations (Research Objective 2). Subsequent to this, reflections on use of the processual approach are also provided. In using the empirical data to build a rounded picture of the e-working change experience, and by endeavouring to use a 'pure' plurivocal approach, this study establishes what the participants perceive as causing their operational environment to be changed through the increasing use of e-working; their perception of the nature of e-working change; and what influences their experience of the e-working change process. Through the adoption of a processual approach to understanding organisational change allied to a plurivocal stance (reflection on endeavouring to apply a 'pure' plurivocal approach and explanation as to why researchers may be tending to use alternative or variant methodologies being presented as a methodological contribution) this study provides a better understanding of e-working change in organisations as a process: one that acknowledges its indeterminacy, dynamism and unfolding nature. The study identifies the key points of the e-working change experience relate to the work location; working agenda; living with the unknown; resourcing of change; culture and the issue of trust; and the communicative approach. Amongst the theorised findings is identification of the need to manage perceptions of vulnerability, especially in the light of cost saving intentions, as well as the need to question the applicability and influence of an historical approach. With communication reasoned to reflect honesty within the organisation, the requirement to clarify expectations and make effort to understand and respond to reluctant engagement, as well as responding to (e-)socialisation requirements, are identified.

Significant attempts have been made by national governments to provide services and information on the Internet via information and communication technologies. However, the accomplishment of these efforts strongly depends on how the targeted users, such as citizens, trust, use and adopt such services. As a consequence, a common interest in understanding the adoption and diffusion of electronic government has emerged in both developed and developing countries. Several impediments could prevent citizens from adopting e-government services such as trust, which consider as one of the major barriers. Many citizens are reluctant to adopt e-government services due to lack of trust, and this concern are not without merit. Citizens' confidence in government and technology is a salient inducer to the wide distribution of e-government adoption. Several studies that have focused on the adoption of e-government services have suggested that trust is a cornerstone for long-term e-government adoption. Therefore, this study aims to break down the complicated concept of trust to understand the factors that build citizens’ trust and the influence of citizens’ trust on the behavioural intention to use and adopt e-government services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This study focuses on understanding the impact of trust, trustworthiness and social influence on citizens’ willingness to use and adopt e-government services. In addition, it propose a model of trust that comprised of trustworthiness of government agencies, trust in the Internet, trust propensity, trust in e-government and social influence. To fulfil this aim, a quantitative research approach was employed to explore the role of citizen’s trust in e-government in Saudi Arabia, using a survey. This phase was followed by a qualitative research approach using semi-structured interviews to achieve deep understanding of any outstanding results from the conducted survey. From the data analysis, it is evident that all the exogenous variables—government ability, government benevolence and integrity, trust in Internet, trust propensity and social influence—were found to significantly affect citizens’ trust in e-government services. In addition, citizens' trust in e-government and social influence were found to be significant predictors of citizens' behavioural intentions to use e-government services. This study contributes by providing a conceptual model that is useful for studying citizen’s trust and usage behavioural of e-government services in Saudi Arabia.

The use of e-government has increased in recent years, and many countries now use it to provide high quality services to their citizens. As user acceptance is crucial for the success of any IT project, a number of studies have investigated the user acceptance of e-government via the use of adoption models, such as the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model. However, these models do not pay sufficient attention to security. The lack of security is one of the key issues associated with the adoption of e-government. Thus, this study aims at investigating the role of security in the behaviour intention for using e-government services. In addition, this study seeks to determine the factors influencing end users’ perceptions in e-government security. Therefore, in mind of achieving the aim, the research followed a mixed-methods approach, which divided the research into two phases. The first phase is a qualitative study aiming at exploring the factors influencing end users’ perceptions in e-government security. The second phase is a quantitative study aiming at identifying the role of security and its antecedences in the behaviour intention for using e-government services. To achieve this goal, a research model was developed by integrating trust, security and privacy with the UTAUT2 and tested via Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The findings show that user interface quality, security culture and cyber-security law positively affect security perception. These factors explain 54% of security perception variance and strongly influence trust in e-government services. The findings also show that trust is ranked as the third most critical factor affecting behaviour intention after performance expectance and habit. The results make a significant contribution to academic research as this research is the first that investigated the factors that influence the security perception in e-government services. This will provide opportunities for further research to investigate further contributing factors and validate the security antecedences explored in this study. This research has practical implications regarding understanding the role of security in e-government adoption and the factors affecting end users’ perceptions of e-government security. This will help the decision makers in government to increase users’ trust in e-government by focusing more on these factors.