Modern technological advancements modify processes and procedures in virtually every area of human activities today. When thinking about such advancements, one is likely to refer to industrial production (e.g. improved machinery) or scientific progress (e.g. new inventions and improvements in physics, biology, or medicine). However, public administration is a sphere that can benefit from the application of advanced technologies, too (Al-Khouri, 2012).
One of the main issues that public administrators face all over the world is the complexity of government mechanisms; carried out by many people in various structures that may not have a high level of cooperation among one another, these mechanisms often appear to be inefficient. It invites little doubt that poor governance creates serious risks for a country (Dixit, 2012), which is why the proposed research will focus on how governance can be improved in Dubai with the use of modern managerial technologies.
First of all, there is the need to formulate research questions and to identify the areas to which the study will be dedicated. The identified areas are smart automated government services and redesigned and re-engineered government processes. The first research question can be formulated as follows: In Dubai, what benefits can the automation of services bring? To answer this question, it will be necessary to review relevant literature and identify the potential benefits of adopting smarter governance processes.
In the UAE, a general trend can be observed of shifting from electronic services, which were an important part of improving governance, to smart services (“Making government ‘smarter,’” 2014). The shift is manifested in the way data is stored, shared, and retrieved with higher efficiency, the way services are delivered with a larger reliance on social technology, and the way partnership is aimed at creating value. Further review of the literature can show related trends and help answer the research question.
The second research question is: How current government processes in Dubai can be redesigned and re-engineered? Literature shows that redesigning and re-engineering a process requires a profound understanding of what elements the process encompasses and how those elements are interconnected; this understanding can be achieved through the use of flowcharts or other types of visual workflow representation (Sikdar & Payyazhi, 2014).
To answer this question, it will be necessary to review some of the existing government processes, translate them into flowcharts, and demonstrate how certain elements or stages of processes can be improved or removed for the sake of increasing the efficiency of the process overall.
Finally, the third research question is: What are the perceptions of smart government services and redesigned and re-engineered government processes among officers in Dubai who provide those services and implement those processes? To answer this question, it is needed to adopt such research methods as surveying or interviewing. The methodology can be both qualitative and quantitative; the choice will depend on particular services and processes explored in the proposed study.
The international experience shows that perceptions are important because the lack of correct understanding of new governance policies and practices are a threat to the success of innovating such policies and practices (Karunasena & Deng, 2012). Also, it should not be overlooked that the current perception can be further used in the processes of redesigning and re-engineering (Alhomod et al., 2012). With different research methods, answering all three questions will be pursued.
References
Alhomod, S. M., Shafi, M. M., Kousarrizi, M. N., Seiti, F., Teshnehlab, M., Susanto, H., & Batawi, Y. A. (2012). Best practices in E government: A review of some Innovative models proposed in different countries. International Journal of Electrical & Computer Sciences, 12(1), 1-6.
Al-Khouri, A. M. (2012). eGovernment strategies the case of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). European Journal of ePractice, 17(1), 126-150.
Dixit, A. (2012). Governance, development, and foreign direct investment. Web.
Karunasena, K., & Deng, H. (2012). Critical factors for evaluating the public value of e-government in Sri Lanka. Government Information Quarterly, 29(1), 76-84.
Making government “smarter”, cutting red-tape, and creating value partnerships. (2014). Web.
Sikdar, A., & Payyazhi, J. (2014). A process model of managing organizational change during business process redesign. Business Process Management Journal, 20(6), 971-998.