Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

As the continuous waves of new technology, there has been an explosion of electronic access to government information. It has undeniably not only led to a dramatic change in the way people communicate, but also increased the ability of institutions, businesses and individuals to channel information. Among various formats of electronic access, the World Wide Web (WWW) is the most powerful way to disseminate information. Governments are well placed to take advantage of the Internet's ability to disseminate electronic documents quickly, cheaply and efficiently. Moreover, as new communication technologies make it possible to establish a closer relationship between citizens and their governments, it is increasingly likely that the Internet's role in the political process will evolve beyond the mere dissemination of information. The intention of this study is to compare the Technology Acceptance Model to a traditional version and a decomposed version of the Theory of Planned Behavior in terms of their contribution to the understanding of the government web sites usage. Data from a field study of 207 students are used to test these models using structural equation modeling. The results are concluded as follows: The coefficient of determination R2BI of the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior is about 0.4, in other words, approximately 40% of the variation in behavioral intention is explained by linear regression of behavioral intention on attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. In the view of behavioral intention, the explanatory power of the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior is equivalent to the Technology Acceptance Model, and is moderately better than the Theory of Planned Behavior. There are several managerial implication. First, the designers of the government web sites should pay more attention to understand the information need of users, not just put effort on technical level. Second, Ease of use with readable format is the best discipline of the government web sites design. Third,. The designers may have to enrich the content of the government web sites so as to enhance intention of users.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2009. / "Fall 2009." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-75).

Engagement of stakeholders in government website communication has emerged as an important strategy that can build trust, improve transparency and strengthen loyalty between governments and their citizens. This is because websites provide access to a broader spectrum, offer unlimited storage of information and rapid feedback. This main purpose of the study therefore was to find out how the Lesotho and South African national governments utilise their websites to engage stakeholder’s in websites communication for maintaining and building mutual relationships. The literature review for this study covered the role of public relations in government, different kinds of governments’ stakeholders and the importance of engaging stakeholders in website communication for relationship building and maintenance of such relationships. The methodology that was employed involved analysis of twenty websites which were selected using purposive sampling technique. Coding sheets were designed and used to collect data based on the three principles of dialogic communication namely: Ease of interface, Generation of return visits, Usefulness of information and the two models of communication which are One-way communication and Two-way communication. The results revealed limited efforts for stakeholder’s engagement in both Lesotho and South African government ministries and made recommendations on how this challenge can be addressed. The study concluded that the two countries can improve stakeholders’ participation and engagement in websites communication by aligning their websites with the three principles of dialogic communication and two models of communication.

Ph.D. / Electronic government (e-Government), implemented towards transformation of public service delivery, aims to contribute to effective information management practices between the government and citizens and/or businesses. E-Government is not a panacea to problems associated with government service delivery and issues such as corruption, but it may go a long way in mitigating its existence in the public service delivery value chains. Many studies have documented the benefits associated with successful implementation of e-Government initiatives: it facilitates interactive, vertical, collaborative and participatory engagement of citizens, businesses and other governments, reducing the cost of service delivery; encourages global participation of citizens in the decision-making processes; provides an opportunity for governments to rethink and reformulate their administrative praxis and provides a framework where governments continuously re-engineer their business processes to retain currency and relevance to best practice. E-Government may further be utilised to mitigate corruption levels in the public sector. For example, the introduction of e-Procurement and e-Tendering can greatly reduce corruption in tendering processes. Zambia has started putting in place initiatives to aid e-Government implementation in the public delivery frameworks. Despite this being the case, there are no strategic initiatives to propagate e-Government. The motivation for this study stems from the fact that, apart from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) global e- Government assessments (at macro or global levels), little has been done to assess e- Government interventions and development in Zambia at the community, household, and individual level (that is, at micro levels). This being the case, factors to embed into the development of strategic initiatives for e-Government development in Zambia may not come from the present state of affairs on the ground. The UNDESA and other generic e- Government assessment models mostly assess e-Government readiness considering global metrics; in general, assessment is approached at a national level rather than at the micro level (such as a public organisation, community or individual level). With such generic e- Government assessment frameworks, the role of the private sector and other potential consumers of e-Government (such as citizens) is sometimes overlooked.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Charles R. McClure, Florida State University, College of Information. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 9, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 261 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

The number of citizens, who access e-Government websites, is growing significantly and their expectations for additional services are increasing. The Internet has become an essential instrument to distribute information to citizens. Poorly designed websites, however, can divide governments and its citizens. Consensus amongst researchers is that user experience (UX) is an important factor in designing websites specifically e-Government websites. Problems, experienced with website usability, prevent people from accessing and eventually adopting technology, such as e-Government. Countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, have shown increased support for UX in e-Government websites. At present, a number of guidelines and design principles exists for e-Government website UX design; however, the effectiveness of the implementation of these guidelines and principles depends on the profiles of the individuals on a website development team and on an organisation’s understanding of UX. Despite the highlighted importance of UX, guidelines and principles are rarely adopted in South African e-Government websites. Usability and UX guidelines cannot be implemented; if there is no executive support; an inadequately trained staff; no routine UX practice; insufficient budget; inefficient use of usability methodologies and user-centred design (UCD) processes. The challenge at present in the UX design field is the institutionalisation of UX, specifically at government level. The goal of this research was to propose and evaluate a methodology to institutionalise UX in South African Provincial Governments (PGs), named the “Institutionalise UX in Government (IUXG) methodology”. The research used the Western Cape Government (WCG) in South Africa as a case study to evaluate the proposed methodology to institutionalise UX in a South African PG. The IUXG methodology (1.0) was proposed from five UX methodologies, as well as from best practices found in literature. The IUXG methodology (1.1) was updated, based on results of a survey to South African PGs, a survey to WCG employees, as well as literature from the WCG. The IUXG methodology (2.0) was updated a final time, based on the case study results and on a confirmation survey with WCG employees after the implementation of the case study. The research study made use of three surveys during this research. The first survey, incorporating UX maturity models, confirmed that understanding and buy-in of UX are limited and that UX maturity levels are low at South African PG level. The second and third surveys were administered to WCG e-Government website officials before and after the implementation of the IUXG methodology. The surveys measured the UX maturity level of the WCG in the component, e-Government for Citizens (e-G4C), responsible for the WCG e-Government website. The final survey results demonstrated that, after the implementation of the IUXG methodology, the WCG improved its level of UX maturity on the identified UX maturity models. Implementation of the IUXG methodology institutionalised UX in the WCG. UX activities became standard practice in the e-Government website environment after the systems development lifecycle (SDLC) incorporated UCD. UX policy, strategy and guidelines were documented for the WCG e-Government website. The WCG constructed the first usability testing facility for a South African PG and improvements to the WCG e-Government website were implemented. The proposed IUXG methodology institutionalised UX in the WCG e-Government website environment. This research is a major contribution, to addressing the current lack of UX practices in South African PGs. South African PGs can use the proposed IUXG methodology to institutionalise UX and it will assist PG officials to develop increased UX maturity levels. The advantage of the IUXG methodology is that it provides PG officials with a step-by-step method how to institutionalise UX in a PG by following the six phases of the IUXG methodology: startup, setup, organisation, method, standards and long-term. The IUXG methodology will assist South African PGs to establish UX practice as a norm. The IUXG methodology will assist PGs with the resources, methods and tools to enable them to implement UX guidelines, which will result in an improved, more usable and more user-centric PG e-Government website.

The purpose of this study is to explore the representation of national political freedom on web interface design by using power distance, one of the culture dimensions identified by Geert Hofstede, as a measurement. This study also aims to determine if there are any differences between government-based websites and business-oriented websites in representing national political freedom. A pilot study was conducted to validate ten power distance indicators identified from previous research on cultural dimensions with the intent of establishing a measurement for determining a country's national political freedom on web content and interface design. The result showed that six out of ten proposed indicators are valid power distance indicators. The seventh indicator, symmetric layout, demonstrated that its Web representation correlates with national political freedom level. Consequently, the principal research applied these seven indicators in coding 312 websites selected from 39 countries and analyzed national political freedom represented on these websites with content analysis method. The result of two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that large differences exist in web interface design, which in turn reflects the aforementioned national political freedom. The research showed that the mean effect of freedom level between free-country group, partly-free-country group and not-free-country group was statistically significant (p = .003). So was the mean effect of website type between government-based and business-oriented websites (p = .000). Furthermore, the interaction between the freedom level and website type was also significant (p = .041). Therefore, we conclude that web interface design represents a country's political freedom and government-based websites embody more of a nation's authority and supremacy than business-oriented websites do. It is expected that this study furthers our exploration in culture dimensions on web interface design and advances our knowledge in sociological and cultural studies of the web.

M. Tech. Business Information Systems / The government's intention is to extend the provision of government services to citizens beyond the traditional boundaries of time and space. Additionally to the face-to-face provision of government services, this could also be achieved through utilization of the Internet and the evolving information and communication technologies. This concept is what has brought about what is called the electronic government or e-government as some would refer to it. E-government is meant to facilitate service provision to citizens and businesses that the government has a mission to serve - including those handicapped due to physical, social, economic, geographical or cultural factors - independent of time and space. Equity and fairness, which drive governments social inclusion, dictate that disadvantaged groups should not experience inferior access to public services compared to other groups. Therefore, no matter what channel is decided upon by government to use to provide these services, it remains government's responsibility to cater for all its citizens and residents. How e-government is accepted and utilized by South African residents, especially in rural areas, is not adequately and properly understood. This study utilized and applied Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology to explore the acceptance and use of e-government in rural South Africa.