Purpose: The relationship between context and e-governance has been gaining a significant momentum in academic circles due its social and technical complexities. There are many challenges posed by the disparity between the context and the system when it comes to e-governance in developing countries. This research aims to reveal more successful adoption of e-governance initiatives and exposes factors that hinder its implementation. We develop a conceptual framework showing the reciprocity between the context and the system or what is termed “Context-System Gap”. Therefore, this research will study the appropriateness of the context and its influence on the system and the influence of the system on the context. The purpose of this research is to explore the factors that enable successful e-government adoption in Lebanon, where e-governance is still at its initial stage. Most empirical research and theories on the implementation of e-governance in developing countries remain at the macro-level and miss out on the complexities of the context of deployment and the role of the gap between the citizens and the government. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an empirical model differentiating between the electronic context and the electronic system and shed a light over a new gap, government-citizen gap, in the adoption of e-government. Design/methodology/approach: Following previous research on e-government services adoption, this study uses several technology use and acceptance models and literature to examine the elements behind the adoption and use of e-government services in Lebanon from citizen and government perspectives. The research strategy is a quantitative method approach employing questionnaire. Quantitative data will be collected from e-government users (citizens) and statistical tests will be conducted in order to examine the relation between variables. Practical implications: The findings are useful for policy-makers and decision-makers to develop a better understanding of citizens' needs. The proposed model can be used as a guideline for the implementation of e-government services in developing countries. Originality/value: This study is the only one to examine the dimensions influencing citizens’ adoption of e-government technologies in developing countries using a unified model merging context and system elements.

As a result of the increasing development in the field of Information Systems (IS) in the last decades, new concepts have appeared to serve specific requirements and needs (Smith 2010; Almarabeh and AbuAli 2010). E-government is one of these concepts, which appeared in 1993 (Silva 2006) to become one of the main tools for governments around the world to enhance the services provided by governments and their agencies (Atallah 2001). Investigating the literature shows that there are common issues in all e-government implementation projects which can be summarized as follows: 1) e-government implementation projects in their nature are vast, and usually their success is critical for the country. 2) As the factors affecting the success of the implementation vary from different perspectives such technical, human, and political perspectives, many overlaps and contradictions may appear while maintaining the success factors (West 2006). 3). Despite this verity in the perspectives, e-government implementation project in general should be treated as one unit, and success factors from all perspectives should be considered together in order to have a successful project (Cater et al. 2004). 4) The size of e-government projects and the complexity resulted from perspectives verity have created the need not only for identifying the success factors related to the process of e-government implementation, but also for creating frameworks for managing the implementation process (Chen et al. 2009). In this research, a holistic framework for e-government implementation that considers the complexity of having several perspectives affecting the implementation process during its stages is proposed. We claim that this would solve the expected conflicts that may appear while considering different success factors from different perspectives, and it is supposed to be in compliance with the environment’s situation. Approaching this problem would be an added value to the literature of e-government implementation and the literature of the IS field in general because the claimed holistic framework for e-government implementation is not addressed as an academic research. Also, targeting this problem is distinguished from the sort of problem that a government agency or its consultants would themselves be working on by being a generic framework that fits all countries’ situations, and by considering all perspectives rather than focusing only on delivering the project requirements. In order to achieve this, three artifacts are proposed in this research using Design Science discipline as guidelines for designing these artifacts which are: 1) designing a model represents the success factors for e-government implementation as extracted from the literature, 2) creating a framework for the success process of e-government implementation, and 3) designing a physical instantiation for part of the project of e-government implementation in Saudi Arabia in order to evaluate the proposed framework. The findings of evaluating the proposed framework show tangible improvements in the implementation progress. Because e-government implementation projects are influenced by their environment, the results of this evaluation can be generalized only to other environments similar to Saudi Arabia, and determining the applicability of the proposed framework to other regions is left to future researches.

This thesis is devoted to strategic planning of municipalities. To render the life cycle of the strategic document the diploma work uses process models of public policy and is dedicated to the problem of not implemented strategic plans of some cities in the Usti region. Study constructs and analyzes it as a publicly-political problem. This thesis identifies the views on the strategic plans in the cities where it exists, but is not systematically used to managing of the city.

Open government relies heavily on reliable records to uphold service delivery and access to information. Without proper records management of business transactions and activities of an organization, the primary objective of openness becomes obscured and difficult to achieve. Within the digital space and environment, establishing good record- keeping procedures is challenging to both paper and e-records, because of a scarcity of clarity in the processes and measures in place, as well as as a result of lack of suitable ICT infrastructure plus skilled human resources to help facilitate good e-records management. The aim of this research was to provide a structure for the integration of records into open government initiatives in Botswana with the aim of assisting access to information and service delivery, and a subsequent transparent, accountable and open government. This is a mixed research study framed within the interpretivism epistemological inquiry model, and used Open Government Implementation Model and Action research being a theoretical lense in this study. Document analysis was used to gather information, complemented by interviews and questionnaires with participants and respondents alike purposively selected from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD). According to the findings, the legislative as well as regulatory frameworks in order to manage both paper and e-records were available in Botswana although inadequate. Similarly, the research showed that legislation that gives the citizens access to information and subsequently make compulsory for organizations to avail information upon request is absent. Furthermore, it was established through the study findings that information management practitioners are particularly are ill equipped and inexperienced to manage paper and electronic records. Due to the inavailability of ICT infrastructure to help facilitate both paper and e-records management was noted. In addition, open government initiatives were identified as producing e- records, but there were no defined protocols to help aid in their management. Therefore, this weakness can be addressed by integrating records management into open government initiatives, and be able to utilize suitably identified Enterprise Content Management (ECM) or Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS). Currently, open government remains ensured through the reliance of only open government initiatives, without leveraging on good records management. This project study suggests a structure to integrate records management into open government initiatives anchored on legislation and regulatory frameworks with the confidence that its employment would support better information and service accessibility by the citizens. Finally, because of poor records management and a lack of legislation that encourage access to information, there will be continued reliance on the discretion of records professionals by the citizens to have information access. Similarly, without proper records management procedures, Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) will remain underutilized. Thus, it is a recommendation that MLGRD should develop proper records management procedures to guide and improve on the management of records. A further study to establish the level of e-readiness of the Botswana government to fully automate and guarantee the success of open government is recommended. / Information Science / D. Litt et Phil (Information Science)

Les politiques éducatives se multiplient à l’échelle des pays industrialisés mais celles-ci semblent rencontrer de graves problèmes d’atteinte de résultats concrets et satisfaisants. La mise en œuvre d’une politique, notamment les stratégies gouvernementales « hybrides » sélectionnées, c’est-à-dire des stratégies d’implantation de politiques qui misent à la fois sur des stratégies « top-down » et aussi « bottom-up », semble être un élément-clé à considérer pour leur efficience (Gather-Thurler, 2000; Van Zanten, 2004; Fullan, 2005, 2007). Or, les connaissances concernant ces stratégies de mise en œuvre sont partielles, encore peu développées et les raisons qui expliquent ces choix politiques se font rares; ce qui rend la production de politiques effectives et durables difficile (Fullan, 2000; Leithwood et Earl, 2000; Van Zanten, 2004). Le Québec a entrepris, en 1997, une réforme à grande échelle de son système d’éducation; réforme qui mise explicitement sur des stratégies gouvernementales « hybrides » pour sa réalisation. Cette étude s’attarde à cette réforme, plus spécifiquement à sa réforme du curriculum au primaire, afin de : 1) retracer les grands moments-clés de la mise en œuvre de la politique associés aux différentes dimensions du concept d’« hybridité »; 2) identifier et décrire les stratégies gouvernementales « hybrides » qui leur sont associées; 3) formuler des hypothèses explicatives provisoires et les valider; 4) élaborer un modèle explicatif et 5) expliciter l’incidence du modèle proposé sur les théories existantes. Cette étude de cas est effectuée par l’entremise de deux formes de cueillette de données complémentaires : une analyse documentaire et des entrevues semi-dirigées. Une analyse documentaire est réalisée à partir des documents formels de l’autorité publique (N=14) et d’une revue de presse, de 1995 à 2003 (N=648). Les entrevues (N=23) visent, pour leur part, à recueillir les propos des : 1) concepteurs et décideurs; 2) opérationnalisateurs; 3) concepteurs-opérationnalisateurs et 4) experts. La combinaison des données recueillies permet d’établir la comparaison entre le processus et la structure (Meny et Thoenig, 1989), le prescriptif et l’effectif, afin de comprendre la vraie dynamique qui a animé le processus de mise en œuvre de la politique étudiée. Ainsi, l’examen du processus de mise en œuvre de la réforme du curriculum québécois du primaire permet de retracer le modèle d’implantation de la politique curriculaire québécoise. Ce modèle d’implantation novateur fait état du fait que des stratégies hybrides non improvisées et exigeantes furent pensées et proposées par les autorités québécoises. Ce modèle d’implantation élaboré permettait de penser que la politique curriculaire québécoise allait, possiblement, permettre d’obtenir des résultats tangibles et durables dans les milieux scolaires. L’analyse de la structure de mise en œuvre révèle, pour sa part, que les stratégies d’implantation qui se sont déployées sur le terrain rejoignaient presqu’intégralement les stratégies « hybrides » initialement prévues. Le processus d’implantation a cependant connu une évolution différente de celle attendue. La mise en œuvre concrète qui s’est vécue sur le terrain fut difficile et hasardeuse, malgré l’approche « hybride » adoptée. Les éléments qui expliquent les difficultés d’implantation vécues sont présentés et analysés dans cette étude. / Industrialized countries are implementing more and more educational policies, but these policies face serious problems in their attempts at obtaining concrete and satisfying results. The implementation of a policy, especially the “hybrid” government strategies selected, e.g. policy implementation strategies that rely on both “top-down” and “bottom-up” strategies, seems to be a key element to consider ensuring their efficiency (Gather Thurler, 2000; Van Zanten, 2004; Fullan, 2005, 2007). However, knowledge of these implementation strategies is incomplete and underdeveloped, and the reasons behind these political choices are rare. All this makes the development of actual and sustainable policies difficult (Fullan, 2000; Leithwood & Earl, 2000; Van Zanten, 2004). In 1997, Quebec implemented a large-scale reform of its educational system, which focused explicitly on “hybrid” government strategies for its success. The present study focuses on this reform, more specifically on the changes to the elementary school curriculum, in order to: 1) recount the key moments of the implementation of the policy associated with the different dimensions of the concept of “hybridity”; 2) identify and describe the government strategies; 3) formulate provisional explanatory hypotheses and validate them; 4) develop an explanatory model; 5) explain the impact of the proposed model on existing theories. This case study used two complementary data collection methods: a review of the literature and semi-structured interviews. The review of literature was based on formal documents from the government (N=14) and a media review, from 1995 to 2003 (N=648). The interviews (N=23) aimed to collect the comments of 1) idea men and policy-makers; 2) policy implementers; 3) idea men and policy implementers; 4) experts. The combination of the data collected establishes a comparison between the process and the structure (Meny & Thoenig, 1989), the prescriptive and the actual, in order to understand the real dynamic behind the implementation process studied. Thus, through the study of the implementation process of the Quebec elementary school curriculum reform, we can recount the implementation model of Quebec’s curricular policy. This innovative implementation model shows that non-improvised and demanding hybrid strategies were thought out and proposed by the Quebec government. This elaborate implementation model led to the belief that the Quebec curricular policy could possibly obtain tangible and sustainable results in schools. Analysis of the implementation structure reveals that the implementation strategies in the field stuck closely to the “hybrid” strategies originally planned. However, the implementation process did not evolve in the expected way. The actual implementation in the field was difficult and risky, despite the “hybrid” approach adopted. The elements explaining the implementation problems are presented and analyzed in this study.

Les politiques éducatives se multiplient à l’échelle des pays industrialisés mais celles-ci semblent rencontrer de graves problèmes d’atteinte de résultats concrets et satisfaisants. La mise en œuvre d’une politique, notamment les stratégies gouvernementales « hybrides » sélectionnées, c’est-à-dire des stratégies d’implantation de politiques qui misent à la fois sur des stratégies « top-down » et aussi « bottom-up », semble être un élément-clé à considérer pour leur efficience (Gather-Thurler, 2000; Van Zanten, 2004; Fullan, 2005, 2007). Or, les connaissances concernant ces stratégies de mise en œuvre sont partielles, encore peu développées et les raisons qui expliquent ces choix politiques se font rares; ce qui rend la production de politiques effectives et durables difficile (Fullan, 2000; Leithwood et Earl, 2000; Van Zanten, 2004). Le Québec a entrepris, en 1997, une réforme à grande échelle de son système d’éducation; réforme qui mise explicitement sur des stratégies gouvernementales « hybrides » pour sa réalisation. Cette étude s’attarde à cette réforme, plus spécifiquement à sa réforme du curriculum au primaire, afin de : 1) retracer les grands moments-clés de la mise en œuvre de la politique associés aux différentes dimensions du concept d’« hybridité »; 2) identifier et décrire les stratégies gouvernementales « hybrides » qui leur sont associées; 3) formuler des hypothèses explicatives provisoires et les valider; 4) élaborer un modèle explicatif et 5) expliciter l’incidence du modèle proposé sur les théories existantes. Cette étude de cas est effectuée par l’entremise de deux formes de cueillette de données complémentaires : une analyse documentaire et des entrevues semi-dirigées. Une analyse documentaire est réalisée à partir des documents formels de l’autorité publique (N=14) et d’une revue de presse, de 1995 à 2003 (N=648). Les entrevues (N=23) visent, pour leur part, à recueillir les propos des : 1) concepteurs et décideurs; 2) opérationnalisateurs; 3) concepteurs-opérationnalisateurs et 4) experts. La combinaison des données recueillies permet d’établir la comparaison entre le processus et la structure (Meny et Thoenig, 1989), le prescriptif et l’effectif, afin de comprendre la vraie dynamique qui a animé le processus de mise en œuvre de la politique étudiée. Ainsi, l’examen du processus de mise en œuvre de la réforme du curriculum québécois du primaire permet de retracer le modèle d’implantation de la politique curriculaire québécoise. Ce modèle d’implantation novateur fait état du fait que des stratégies hybrides non improvisées et exigeantes furent pensées et proposées par les autorités québécoises. Ce modèle d’implantation élaboré permettait de penser que la politique curriculaire québécoise allait, possiblement, permettre d’obtenir des résultats tangibles et durables dans les milieux scolaires. L’analyse de la structure de mise en œuvre révèle, pour sa part, que les stratégies d’implantation qui se sont déployées sur le terrain rejoignaient presqu’intégralement les stratégies « hybrides » initialement prévues. Le processus d’implantation a cependant connu une évolution différente de celle attendue. La mise en œuvre concrète qui s’est vécue sur le terrain fut difficile et hasardeuse, malgré l’approche « hybride » adoptée. Les éléments qui expliquent les difficultés d’implantation vécues sont présentés et analysés dans cette étude. / Industrialized countries are implementing more and more educational policies, but these policies face serious problems in their attempts at obtaining concrete and satisfying results. The implementation of a policy, especially the “hybrid” government strategies selected, e.g. policy implementation strategies that rely on both “top-down” and “bottom-up” strategies, seems to be a key element to consider ensuring their efficiency (Gather Thurler, 2000; Van Zanten, 2004; Fullan, 2005, 2007). However, knowledge of these implementation strategies is incomplete and underdeveloped, and the reasons behind these political choices are rare. All this makes the development of actual and sustainable policies difficult (Fullan, 2000; Leithwood & Earl, 2000; Van Zanten, 2004). In 1997, Quebec implemented a large-scale reform of its educational system, which focused explicitly on “hybrid” government strategies for its success. The present study focuses on this reform, more specifically on the changes to the elementary school curriculum, in order to: 1) recount the key moments of the implementation of the policy associated with the different dimensions of the concept of “hybridity”; 2) identify and describe the government strategies; 3) formulate provisional explanatory hypotheses and validate them; 4) develop an explanatory model; 5) explain the impact of the proposed model on existing theories. This case study used two complementary data collection methods: a review of the literature and semi-structured interviews. The review of literature was based on formal documents from the government (N=14) and a media review, from 1995 to 2003 (N=648). The interviews (N=23) aimed to collect the comments of 1) idea men and policy-makers; 2) policy implementers; 3) idea men and policy implementers; 4) experts. The combination of the data collected establishes a comparison between the process and the structure (Meny & Thoenig, 1989), the prescriptive and the actual, in order to understand the real dynamic behind the implementation process studied. Thus, through the study of the implementation process of the Quebec elementary school curriculum reform, we can recount the implementation model of Quebec’s curricular policy. This innovative implementation model shows that non-improvised and demanding hybrid strategies were thought out and proposed by the Quebec government. This elaborate implementation model led to the belief that the Quebec curricular policy could possibly obtain tangible and sustainable results in schools. Analysis of the implementation structure reveals that the implementation strategies in the field stuck closely to the “hybrid” strategies originally planned. However, the implementation process did not evolve in the expected way. The actual implementation in the field was difficult and risky, despite the “hybrid” approach adopted. The elements explaining the implementation problems are presented and analyzed in this study.