Governing E-Government (E-Governance): An Operational Framework

Abstract

Public administrators face considerable challenges in their quest of reforming government. E-government initiatives are tiny steps taken in the above-mentioned direction. Various e-government initiatives have been categorically documented in the IS and NPM literature. However, a majority of these projects are either still underway or have failed due to the lack of a proper governance framework. The existing body of research on governance of e-government largely focuses on technological aspects. It has not put much emphasis on institutional structures such as control and monitoring, accountability, and responsibility that are antecedents to good governance. Moreover, a majority of existing models are conceptual in nature. They do not offer any mechanism whatsoever to operationalize the concept of governance for e-government. In this chapter, the authors propose a framework of operationalizing governance of e-government at the municipal level. The proposed framework is based on the RASCI model prevalent in the practitioner literature of the IS paradigm. Finally, the framework is linked with key performance indicators in order to validate it against set objectives of good governance.