Implementation of e-Government IT system on public sector in Jordan

PhD proposal
Bader Methqal Alfawwaz

Introduction
The world is experiencing an information knowledge revolution that is basically transforming the way
in which business, citizens and government operate and interact. Governments in many countries
around the world are adopting e-government as a means of improving their services to businesses and
citizens, promoting economic and social development, and enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency
of government operations.

Under the name of e-government, a series of efforts are grouped, which tend to introduce the Internet
and computer networks into government actions. e-government lead to better delivery of government
services, improved interaction with business, industry and citizen through access to information, the
used of e-government is to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of government and change its
relationship with the public. Many users use e-government have several problems related to system’s
interface and usability. The users will have the opportunity to do their work productively to answer
their questions and reach their goals without any problems.

Research Objective
Electronic government is a means to achieve citizen and business focused governance. e-government
leads to an effective delivery of government services, improved interaction with business, industry and
citizen through access to information. The use of e-government is to enhance the effectiveness and
efficiency of government and change its relationship with the public. This study aims to identify the
influence of the user interface usability and the influence of the user interface design on the
adoptability of newly implemented e-government software.

Literature Review
E-Government has been described by Buckley (2003, p 456) as “implementing cost-effective models
for citizens, industry, federal employees, and other stakeholders to conduct business transactions
online. This concept integrates strategy, process, organization and technology”. Dempsey (2001) says
e-government as the change of government to make it more accessible, effective and more accountable
for citizens and the government its self by using the information and communication technology, the
important of e-government is to improve the relationship with citizens and business not to increase the
number of computers in governments’ departments.

e-Commerce and e-Government differ in significant ways; the e-Commerce business model aims to
create customer value and generating revenue, the e-government business model is based on laws and
regulations providing citizens and firms with access to government information and services and
reduces government bureaucracy, increase citizen participation in democracy.

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E-Government transactions have to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This provides citizens
and government employees with the flexibility to process transactions outside standard government
office hours (Pagani and Pasinetti, 2005; Scholl and Barzilai-Nahon, 2007).

Shawwa in his study (2004) under name “Public officials’ attitudes towards the application of e-
government in Jordan: a field study”, aimed to identify the clarity understandable the concept of the
electronic government of public sectors’ employees in Jordan and the restrictions which face the e-
governments’ implementation. As well to determine the suggested activation means in order to have a
successful implementation in Jordanian public sector institutions. The result of this study was as
following, there is a high orientation toward the awareness of e-government’s concept, also the
employees and administrations are concern in revealing constraints that stand in the way of
implementing e-government in public institutions, while there are variations with statistical
significance due to education, as well there are high orientation from employees toward the knowing
of activation means, which contribute to the success of e-government implementation, with no
variations in statistical significance due to the demographic variables.

e-Government Program in Jordan

e-Government program in Jordan comes to reduce the complexity for citizens in dealing with
government administration and help to make the government more transparent, accessible and
responsive through providing information and services online, also e-government gives the Jordanian
businesses the opportunity to reduce the cost in dealing with government and help to get a direct
access to government information through electronic service which provide by government, electronic
procurement and e-commerce that will help the Jordanian businesses to assist their business
development.

E-Government System Usability

Usability means making sure that the people who will use the website can use it to do their work
productively, to answer their questions, to reach their goals within their own physical and social
environments and they do not need to worry how to use it. In addition, Users prefer to easily navigate
to the applicable option on the website without dealing with advanced functionalities scattered on the
website. The delivery mechanism must be straightforward to use with minimum effort required.
(Pagani and Pasinetti, 2005; Degler and IPGems, 2004)

Improving Usability
Many researchers and practitioners alike have studied web usability in order to develop usable
websites that are navigable, consistent, appealing, clear, simple, and forgiving of user mistakes.
Becker (2002) stated that in terms of universal usability, the design and content of a website must be
adaptable to accommodate the needs of a diverse audience.
Usability requirements must understand of user needs. The risk of product failure will be high in the
absence of these requirements, and must be given to project ability in defining usability requirements,
and designing systems that meet these requirements (Bevan, Petrie and Claridge, 2007). When a site

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meets web design standards, usability is enhanced which in turn improves the user experience
(Hansen, 2007)
Research methodology
In order to accomplish this research, a qualitative research methodology will be identified and used to
assess the developed interface and evaluate its effectiveness. A quantitative research methodology will
be used to reach the results. Relevant questionnaires and a set of interviews will be conducted in
Amman, Jordan focusing on the public employees for the aim of this research. Afterwards, all the
resulted data will be analysed and tested using statistical package such as SPSS. Setting the
questionnaire of this study based on the experience of some employees working on public sector in
Jordan as well as the experience of the researcher.

References

• Becker. S, (2002), “Bridging Literacy, Language, and Cultural Divides to Promote Universal
Usability of E-Government Websites”.
• Bevan1. N, Petrie1. H and Claridge. N, (2007), “Improving Usability and Accessibility”.
• Buckley, J. (2003), “E-service quality and the public sector, Managing Service Quality”,
• Degler. D, (2004), “Overview User-Centered Design and Usability for XML and e-
Government”.
• Dempsey, J, (2001), “How E-Government Interacts with Its Citizens”, available at
http://www.worldbank.org/transitionnewsletter/janfebmar03/pgs39-41.htm
• Hansen.S, (2007), “USABILITY, CREDIBILITY AND E-GOVERNMENT ATTITUDES”
• Pagani.M and Pasinetti.C, (2005), “Accessibility, Usability, and Functionality in T-
Government Services”.
• Scholl.H and Barzilai-Nahon.K, (2007), “E-Commerce and e-Government: How Do They
Compare? What Can They Learn From Each Other?”
• Shawwa, N, (2004). “Public officials’ attitudes towards the application of e-government in
Jordan: a field study”. Amman, Jordan.