Transformation of Management in the Public Sector: Exploring the Strategic Frameworks of e-Government

Defining E-Government

Despite the fact that e-government has emerged as a popular catch phrase in public administration (Yildiz, 2007), it still remains one of those concepts that mean a lot of different things to a lot of different groups (Grant & Chau, 2005). The goal of e-government is to make government services more accessible, more citizen-focused, more relevant to citizens as well as more responsive to their needs and expectations. E-government comprises the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in delivering public services to citizens and businesses. It entails the transformation of public services available to citizens using new organizational processes as well as new technological trends (Gunter, 2006). Furthermore, it is regarded as a player with a significant role in enabling greater citizen involvement in civic and democratic matters in the sense of direct democracy as the one practiced in the city-states of ancient Greece (Angelopoulos et al. 2010; Angelopoulos, 2010). E-government is also designed to facilitate a more integrated mode of government, while it encapsulates the relationships between governments, their customers and their suppliers by the use of electronic means (Means & Schneider, 2000).

Until now, researchers have not been able to come up with a universally accepted definition in order to describe the e-government concept (Halchin, 2004). The United Nations and the American Society for Public Administration (2002) defines e-government as the utilization of the World Wide Web for the delivery of government information as well as services to citizens. Jaeger (2003), believes that it may also include the use of other ICT in addition to the World Wide Web, such as databases, networking, discussion support, multimedia, automation, tracking and tracing, and personal identification technologies. However, Doty and Erdelez, (2002) propose that e-government should enable an open government with transparency as well as responsiveness. Ε-government is the use of technology, especially web-based applications in order to enhance access to and efficiently deliver government information and services (Brown & Brudney, 2001).