Evaluating the Validity of IS Success Models for the Electronic Government Research: An Empirical Test and Integrated Model

Introduction

Electronic government (also known as e-government) is the use of information technology to enable and advance the effectiveness, with which government services are made available to citizens, employees, businesses, and agencies (Carter & Belanger, 2005; McLure, 2001). Many governments have improved the infrastructure and services provided to their citizens (Kim et al., 2007). The introduction of e-government projects is a move undertaken by the governments to become more service oriented by focusing on the implementation and diffusion of the prevalent digital services through single-window access for citizens (Anthopoulos et al., 2007). Although, e-government provides clear advantages for governments themselves, businesses, and professionals, this is citizens who actually obtain the widest range of benefits (Jaeger, 2003). Systems that are developed for societal uses, such as e-government websites provide a varied range of innovative services to citizens. These services can be as simple as providing information on a website to a complex system involving transactional services such as filing of taxes (Hu et al., 2009).

The underlying concept of e-government has drawn attention of researchers for developing theoretical models in an effort to gain a better understanding of this effort (Floropoulos et al., 2010). Information systems (IS) success models developed by DeLone and McLean (1992, 2003) and Seddon (1997) are some of such most widely used models for measuring the success of any information system in question. As governments develop various e-government systems to deliver their services, there is a need for assessment efforts for them that could examine their effectiveness (Wang & Liao, 2008). Such estimation efforts can allow the government agencies to decide if they are capable of performing as per the expectation of citizens and are capable of doing assigned work (Gupta & Jana, 2003). The OPGRS system is one such e-government system which is primarily meant for addressing the grievances, issues, and problems of citizen’s everyday life and gets them resolved online by the high-level government officials designated for it. It provides a huge benefit to the people by solving their problems without much hassle.

Grievance redress mechanism is a part and parcel of the machinery of any administration. No administration can claim to be answerable, responsive, and user-friendly unless it has established a proficient and effectual grievance redress mechanism. In fact, the grievance redress mechanism of a firm is an estimate to examine its efficiency and effectiveness as it provides significant feedback on the working of the administration. The grievances from public are accepted at various points in the Government of India. There are mainly two designated agencies in the central government handling these grievances namely Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (under Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions) and Directorate of Public Grievances (under Cabinet Secretariat). The public grievance redress mechanism functions in India on a decentralized basis. An officer of the level of Joint Secretary is designated as Director of Grievances of the Ministry, Department, or Organization.