Since the last decade of the 20th century, there have been rapid advances in information technology (IT). IT increases the efficiency of activities in diverse fields. The ability of IT to increase the efficiency of coordination of various activities makes it suitable in governance. E-governance increases the efficiency of government activities. In addition, e-governance reduces the costs of governance (Roberts, 2011).
However, e-government may face stiff opposition from the political class. This is because it may reduce the power of legislators (Stalebrink & Frisco, 2011). E-government should take full advantage of various technological tools to increase its efficiency (West, 2004).
Literature Review
Coordination is vital in the efficiency of virtually every organization. It ensures that the organization undertakes the right activities. Coordination helps in synchronizing the elements of a system to form a coherent and integrated whole. Roberts (2011) states that it is impossible understand coordination in terms of the results of the coordination activity.
However, it is easy to understand coordination using its efforts to integrate and design system activity. Therefore, coordination is just the means to an end. There are two different perspectives of coordination. These include focus on what is coordinated and focus on how coordination takes place. What is being coordinated determines the means of coordination that one may employ.
System parts and how the system parts differ from each other determine the system functioning and efficiency. System parts may have unique attributes that may hinder certain types of coordination mechanisms. Coordination of system parts is critical in efficient running of the government. Lack of proper coordination of system parts may lead to failure of government.
Therefore, it is vital for the government to ensure that there is differentiation and integration of system parts. This ensures the smooth running of government activities (Roberts, 2011). In the quest for system integration governments may employ different strategies. Technology is one of the tools that help in system integration.
Web-based technologies are some of the vital tools that help in system integration. Governments around the world use IT to improve their performance. E-government and the New Public Management practices, which include decentralization, privatization, and performance management, have revolutionized public management in the last 15 years.
E-government refers to the use of information and communication technology (ICT) by the government to provide information and services to the public. Use of ICT by the government has also led to the rise of e-democracy. E-democracy refers to the use of ICT by the government to provide citizens with access to information on political processes and choices (Lee, Chang & Berry, 2011).
E-government and e-democracy are important tools of modern governance. According to Lee, Chang, and Berry (2011) e-governance started in the early 1990s. This is the period when governments recognized the importance of web-based IT in outreach to citizens. However, Lee, Chang, and Berry (2011) believe that e-government and e-democracy abandon the conventional representative system.
Instead, they ensure that there is more direct citizen involvement. Use of technological tools in governance has various short-term and long consequences. Technological innovations usually focus on solving some of the short-term problems. However, history has shown that technological innovations have various long-term effects.
The development of the telephone and long distance broadcasting are some of the innovations that have various long-term effects. Scientists who invented the telephone and long distance broadcasting did not foresee some of the impacts that the two innovations currently have. According to West (2004), it is difficult to determine the long-term impact of e-governance.
It is impossible to determine whether certain technological innovation will result in large-scale or small-scale change. It takes years to determine the effects of technological changes. Therefore, researchers usually focus on the nature and direction of certain changes in the short-term. West (2004) examines the short-term nature and direction of e-government in public service delivery.
In addition, he determined the attitudes of citizens towards e-government. E-government should utilize various interactive features of the internet to increase the efficiency of service delivery. Integrative features of the internet make it be non-hierarchical, non-linear, and two-way. In addition, the services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
This makes the World Wide Web be distinctively different from traditional structures, which are “hierarchical, linear, and one-way” (West, 2004, p. 16). Therefore, features of the World Wide Web enable it to reduce bureaucracy. Reduction of bureaucracy increases the efficiency of the government. E-government helps in bringing members of the public closer to the government.
E-governance has various tools that help in increasing the responsiveness of the government. However, governments have not taken full advantage of the existing possibilities of the e-governance. In addition, there may political resistance to implementation of various policies that facilitate e-governance (West, 2004).
Failure of Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) to gain a foothold in congress is a clear example of how political resistance may hinder the success of e-governance. PART was vital in President George W. Bush’s budget and performance integration initiative. This initiative strived to increase the results of federal dollars.
The framework of PART included 25 to 28 standard questions that focused on four vital areas of a program’s performance and management. These areas included “program purpose and design, strategic planning, program management and program results” (Stalebrink & Frisco, 2011, p. 3). Despite the obvious advantages of PART, the program was unsuccessful in securing the support of Congress.
Various factors led to the lack of support of the programs by Congress. Stalebrink and Frisco (2011) conducted a research to provide insights on the congressional reaction to PART. The research determined the influences that personal experiences and ideological positions of individual legislators had on their perceptions towards PART. The results of the research showed that legislators who higher levels of business experience supported PART.
On the other hand, legislators who had served in congress for many years had negative opinions towards PART. In addition, the amount of campaign funds that legislators had received from political action committees (PACs) determined their perceptions towards PART. Legislators who had received vast amount of campaign funds from PACs had a negative opinion towards PART.
This is because PART reduced the ability of legislators to return favors to PACs. In addition, the research determined that senior legislators were more likely to have negative opinions toward PART. This is because the focus of PART on performance was a threat to the legislators’ ability to control the allocation of federal funds (Stalebrink & Frisco, 2011). The research highlights the importance of securing political support in various e-governance policies.
Common Themes
Each author theorized the importance of e-governance in ensuring the efficiency of government activities. The ability of e-governance to increase responsiveness and reduce bureaucracy is one of the major features increase its efficiency. Each author appreciates the importance of e-governance in future government activities.
In addition, the authors appreciate the fact that e-governance may have several limitations. The limitations may be inherent in the system parts that use e-governance to increase their efficiency. This section will discuss the impacts of e-governance on service delivery and effect of accessibility to IT tools on the efficiency of e-government.
E-governance and Service Delivery
All authors unanimously agree that web-based technology has greater impacts on the efficiency of service delivery. The fact that web-based technology is non-hierarchical, non-linear, and two-way makes an efficient tool in service delivery. In addition, the fact that web-based technology is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, makes it a readily available tool for service delivery.
Therefore, efficient implementation of web-based tools in e-governance may have great impacts on the delivery of services to the public. In addition, e-governance improves the perception of citizens towards the government. Web-based technologies reduce the costs of coordination of government activities. This may lead to a significant reduction in the costs of running the government.
Roberts (2011) argues that Web 2.0 is a game changer in how organizations and networks function. This tool may enable the government to operate its activities from a wiki or web platform. This would enable the government to articulate a problem and invite the public to search for a solution to the problem across a wide range of government institutions, non-profit organizations, businesses, and other people.
This would help in the formulation solutions that are responsive to the needs of the public. Therefore, it is vital for e-government to take full advantage of the existing possibilities of web-based platforms. West (2004) argues that e-government reduces the need for representation of the public by legislators.
This is because people can use various web-based tools to interact with relevant arms of the government that would help in solving the problems that they face. This may reduce the control that legislators may wield on allocation of funds. According to Stalebrink and Frisco (2011), legislators had a negative opinion towards PART since it reduced the ability of legislators to control the allocation of federal funds. This is despite the fact that the initiative would have increased the results of federal dollars significantly.
Access to IT Tools
The authors argue that the accessibility of IT tools is vital in e-governance and e-democracy. Lee, Chang, and Berry (2011) argue that the efficiency of e-governance and e-democracy is dependent on the ability of the public to access various IT tools. It is vital for the government to ensure that citizen have access to the internet.
The government should collaborate with the private sector to ensure that it provides the infrastructure that would increase access to the internet by the public. Internet access increases citizen participation in e-governance and e-democracy. Lack of internet access is one of the major factors that limit the efficiency of e-governance and e-democracy among developing countries.
Governments of developing countries lack funds to invest in the development of IT infrastructure. This reduces the efficiency the efficiency of e-governance and e-democracy of developing countries. In addition, lack of IT infrastructure reduces the productivity of and competitiveness of these countries. This is because IT infrastructure is one of the key drivers of global competitiveness (Lee, Chang & Berry, 2011).
The government must also have the capability of handling the requests of the public. It is vital for the government should ensure that information overload does not occur. Information overload reduces the efficiency of web-based platforms significantly.
In addition, the government must be responsive to the concerns of the public in various web-based platforms. This necessitates the government to have personnel that would be able to handle the concerns of the public using the web-based platform or from the field (Roberts, 2011).
Solutions
The implementation of various initiatives that increase the efficiency of e-governance may face stiff opposition from the political class. This is despite the fact that the initiatives may increase the efficiency of e-governance significantly. Legislators may have a negative opinion towards various e-governance initiatives if the initiatives reduce the control of the legislators towards the allocation of government funds (Stalebrink & Frisco, 2011).
Therefore, it is vital to ensure that there is active participation of politicians in the formulation of e-governance initiatives. The initiatives should not reduce the power of the legislators. This would reduce resistance towards the initiatives.
The perception of citizens towards e-governance is one of the major factors that influence the efficiency of e-government. The content of government websites determines the efficiency of e-government. It is vital for the government to provide information that is relevant to the citizens. The websites should have the ability to provide information that satisfies the needs of the public.
In addition, the government should make use of the capabilities of web-based tools that ensure that there is active participation of members of the public. The government should avail platforms that would enable the public to air their grievances. The government should also be responsive to the needs of the public. The government should have personnel that can respond to the needs of the public (West, 2004).
However, free-flow of information on the internet poses a security threat to e-government. It is vital for the government to ensure that it employs various tools that would enhance the security of e-government. The major aim of e-governance is to increase the efficiency of government activities and reduce the costs of governance. It is easy to determine the efficiency of e-government.
However, the complexity of e-governance makes is difficult to determine the social and political costs of e-government. Therefore, it is vital to formulate a model that would help in calculating the costs and benefits of e-governance.
It is a fact that adding more elements to a system increases the costs of managing the system. At a certain point, the advantages of adding more elements to a system may be less than the costs of managing the system. Therefore, it is vital to determine costs of e-governance to determine the ‘tipping point’ of e-government.
Conclusion
E-government is a phenomenon that is likely to continue in the near future. Therefore, it is vital for the government to formulate strategies that would aid in the development of e-government. Providing infrastructure that would help in increasing the access to various technological tools is one of the strategies that the government may employ. Efficiency of e-governance would improve the perception of citizens towards the government.
References
Lee, C., Chang, K. & Berry, F.S. (2011). Testing the development and diffusion of e-government and e-democracy: A global perspective. Public Administration Review, May/June, 444-454.
Roberts, N.C. (2011). Beyond smokestacks and silos: Open-source, web-enabled coordination in organizations and networks. Public Administration Review, Sep/Oct, 677-693.
Stalebrink, O.J. & Frisco, V. (2011). PART in retrospect: An examination of legislators’ attitudes toward PART. Public Budgeting & Finance, Summer, 1-21.
West, D.M. (2004). E-government and the transformation of service delivery and citizen attitudes. Public Administration Review, 64(1), 15-27.