پیچیدگی‌های اجرا و نهادینه‌سازی خدمات الکترونیکی در بخش عمومی

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

With the emergence of e-service delivery in the public sector (ESD-PS) administrations around the world have realised the importance of making their service more efficient, transparent, and available to all stakeholders [1]. They have tried to emulate the private sector by offering more citizen-centric, accessible services [24]. Different researchers have identified factors that entice governments to implement e-services. For instance, Carter and Bélanger [4] argued that e-services can help restore public trust by coping with corruption, inefficiency, ineffectiveness and policy alienation. Conversely, lack of access them and the digital divide may influence trust and thus impede the addition of e-services. A common argument that surfaces is that ESD-PS offers many benefits and can potentially provide opportunities to governments [11]. Yet, its implementation has faced many barriers that have contributed to delayed projects and sometimes even failures. The reasons for such barriers are often triggered by the complexity of the changes that are introduced during implementation; these are primarily due to the use of the Internet and its array of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) compared to prior traditional reforms [9]. Although many studies have explored these complexities, few have adopted a critical and theoretical stance to understand their impact of ESD-PS. The State of Qatar in Western Asia was used as the empirical context for our study, as it involved a place where both high investment and strategic commitment were needed to make the radical transformations to the public sector using ESI. In this respect, our focus was intended to answer the question: what forces influence the institutionalisation of e-service delivery and its subsequent impact on reshaping the public sector organisation? Our research also used institutional theory to formulate a conceptual frame of reference to synergise e-service implementation (ESI) complexities in the PS and offer a reference point for practitioners and researchers involved in PS ESD to relate implementation paradoxes and associated complexities.

Public sector e-services are primarily enabled by the Internet and associated ICTs that continuously evolve. In addition, PS ESI initiatives have faced numerous barriers resulting in delays, unsatisfactory outcomes and failures. We have attempted to highlight some of the key complexities that can impede PS ESI. Clearly, there is a lack of prior published research that has explored implementation aspects, and the complexities of PS e-services from a theoretical angle. Hence, we aimed to gain a better understanding of the complexities influencing implementation and institutionalisation empirically. Our study offered a number of insights to policy makers and practitioners on the implementation and institutionalisation of ES in the PS. It highlighted the changing dynamics that ESI poses as a challenge to PS organisations in maintaining political will and commitment as well as ensuring the necessary infrastructure and resources throughout ESI projects. These dynamics force central governments to change their national priorities for ESD resulting in local government agencies/ministries having to respond promptly to make changes. PS organisations will need to exploit local resources, while at the same time maintaining flexibility to establish collaborative partnerships when needed, in order to ensure the stability and sustainability of ES implementation and institutionalisation. The aim of our paper was to examine the complexities of PS ESI and associated forces influencing institutionalisation. The strong strategic commitment, availability of infrastructure and financial resources made the State of Qatar a relevant and meaningful environment for a qualitative case study. While we acknowledge that the results of this study should be interpreted with this empirical context in mind, we argue that since the focus of this paper is on examining the PS ESI and associated forces influencing institutionalisation, our findings offer valuable insights to policy makers, practitioners and the community at large. In addition, it should be noted that out research only focused on the complexities facing PS ESI and did not investigate how these may influence citizens’ adoption of ES. The authors hope that this research has exposed a number of key forces that highlight the paradoxical nature of e-service implementation and institutionalisation in the Public Sector.