Free Statement Of The Problem 4 Research Proposal Example

Impact of Dubai Smart Government in the Employees

Introduction 3

Research questions 5
Research objectives 5
Literature review 6
Boost efficiency in service delivery and access to information 7
Reduces corruption activities meant to exploit the customers 8
Leads to overlapping of duties among departments 9
Fear of employees losing their jobs 9
Collusion of employees to distort the technology system for selfish gains 10
Inadequate employees’ technical skills to manage smart government 10
Research methodology 11
Research design 11
Sampling 11
Data collection 11
Data analysis 12
Reservation of confidential information 12
Limitation of the study 12

Bibliography 13

Introduction
Over the years, most governments, private and non-government organizations have relied on physical approaches to serving the clients. Citizens seeking services would have to visit the premise, make long queues with the intention of obtaining crucial information or services. With the numbers rising every day and the degree of urgency in citizen’s demand for services, employees capitalize on seeking bribes from selected willing and able individuals to accelerate their service delivery. The incapable clients would have to wait for longer periods to be served. Based on a statistical survey on customer satisfaction, government departments take the lead in the most inefficient institutions compared with their counterparts in the private sector. As a result, substitutable government services such as health and education have suffered a decline in client base as individuals seek similar services in private institutions at a fee. Governments have continued to record bad reputation as the principal agent problem gap continues to expand between the executive and the delegated employees in various departments. While the executive and the legislature assign infrastructural resources to serve the citizens, the employees continue to advance their greed disguised as enlightened self-interest at the expense of the needy society.
Fortunately, with the rise in the technology revolution, governments have seized the opportunity to foster transparency in serving the citizens by introducing an electronic government website that harmonizes all government departments to ease people’s access. The E-government platform updates crucial government departments’ information on the website and facilitates prompt communication and sharing of knowledge among the employees, the government executives, and the general public. The concept has increased efficiency among employees, endorsed accountability and facilitated equal allocation of resources and service delivery. For instance, the Dubai smart government enables people with disability to access the websites at ease under the ratified guidance entrenched in the website standards (Al Mourad & Kamoun, 2013: 5).
Statement of the problem
Dubai government is the pioneer of e-government initiative among the Arab nations. Since its inception in 2000, there is has been an incredible increase in government efficiency and fostering of accountability among all departments. Through the virtual platform, services are linked to the relevant departments and permits citizens to browse and print information at their convenience without visiting the premises. The Dubai government strived along its entrenched mission to provide a one stop universal customer interaction services platform to business, institutions, individuals, and pertinent stakeholders (Services to Public & Business, 2015). The approach complements the value-chain service delivery system that adopts a three-tier triple bottom line strategy that recognizes the universal satisfaction of stakeholders needs. In a value chain based approach, employees are the key pillars in attaining the set objectives of optimal resource utilization and efficient customer satisfaction. Harmonizing government departments into one website builds a cohesive relationship among employees as they share innovative ideas on improving service delivery. Moreover, the e-government website links employees to websites that contain work-related information thus strengthening intra- job training and acquisition of skills.
The core objective of the study will be to understand how the e-government initiative has incurred benefits and shortcomings on the employees in their job delivery framework. To back up the study, it would be tentative to seek information from the citizens who experience fist hand service about the employees’ behavior before and after the introduction of Dubai smart government. Ultimately, the results would build on the hypothesis that the smart government is an open network that develops consolidated relationship between government’s services and their immediate beneficiaries without discrimination. In particular, the e-complain section on the Dubai government website would form the foundation for evaluating the behavioral change of government employees in serving the public and business clients.
Research questions
a) What are the advantages and disadvantages of Dubai smart government initiative?
b) To what extent has the smart government initiative influenced employees’ working culture?
c) Why is a section of employees reluctant to embrace the platform despite easing their service delivery to the public?
d) What modalities are necessary for the government departments to undertake to enhance the effective performance of the E-government without jeopardizing the employees’ social welfare and motivation?
Research objectives
The study will culminate in ascertain the underlying issues of the study by responding adequately to the following objectives:
I. To understand the impact of the Dubai smart government on the employees and the customers.
II. To determine the underlying issues leading to employees reluctance in embracing the technological initiative.
III. To evaluate the measures taken by the government in blending the employees with the new working strategy as well as outline key approaches necessary to sustain the employees and the Dubai Smart government’s performance success.
Literature review
Change in human beings is a sensitive aspect that demands a strategic approach while accommodating the interests of pertinent parties involved in the organization. Change management theorists argued that human beings applied a lifecycle approach by adopting social, cultural behaviors in their childhood that influence their decision-making process in their adulthood. Hence, organization managers need to eighteen the employees on the necessity for change and the ultimate benefits and consequences. The Kurt Lewis change management model explains the freezing stage where the change advocates ought to inform the affected parties about the imminent organization stage as a strategic approach to emotionally and psychologically connect their perceptions (Levasseur, 2001). Doing so will facilitate a smooth transition to new operation strategy and retention of employees motivation. The Dubai government realized the need for change by establishing the smart government model to reduce cooperation and improve service delivery to the society. Recognition of employee’s organization behavior and culture is critical in implementing organization change and maintaining long-term results.
The Dubai e-government is a core attribute of the government’s increased performance in serving the interests of individual citizens local and foreign investors. The government website provides users with detailed information on every government department, their responsibilities and a guide to the procedure of obtaining particular information. The government applied a five stage e-service model that allowed users to search for government information, download for quick access and enable them to interact virtually with designated government officers. E-service and shared services teams were formed to conduct coordination activities of government services from a central point. The e-service team had the mandate to maintain quality and security standards and fostering community outreach programs to blend the society with the government change in accelerating service delivery. On the other hand, the shared service team integrated the e-government systems into the central server to ensure that information is adequately shared among all relevant departments. Outstandingly, an average of 81% of the government services had been entrenched into the smart government platform, six years after the launch of the program. Dubai was ranked as the leading nation in embracing E-government strategy among the Arab nations and trailed at position forty-nine in the global rankings. The statistics indicate the country’s technological progress and endeavor to bridge the information asymmetry gap between the citizens and the government.
Boost efficiency in service delivery and access to information
Establishment of smart government has recorded a remarkable service delivery among citizens, non-governmental organizations and business entities. The long queue previously witnessed during the manual operations has drastically reduced. In most cases, individuals would be turned down by the government employees and given deferred appointments to receive the intended information. Fortunately, the situation has since changed with the government publishing all the information in a single platform. Through sharing of data among departments, the government has succeeded in reducing time and administrative costs printing information for client’s access. On the other hand, the government executes the job delegation approach to re-deploy workers based on their skills to other departments thus reducing the idling cost incurred due to employee’s laxity.
Rather than physically serve individual clients, the e-government platform allows workers to serve different clients simultaneously through sharing of information (Bhatnagar, 2003: 11). The Dubai government portal has a segment where employees can interact and share job related information as well as access training bouquet to assists them improve their expertise. The Dubai government noted that the technology initiative had boosted employee efficiency since most clients had resorted to the government’s portal to seek information.
Reduces corruption activities meant to exploit the customers
Government entities are notorious with inefficient service delivery and proliferation of corruption activities at the expense of government resources. The principal- agent problem between the executive and the junior employees is the cause of increased loss of government revenue and inadequate service to the society through employees’ collusion (Bhatnagar, 2003: 12). Individuals and business entities have had to offer tokens in order to receive the desired information. The employees are the greatest beneficiary of the amount while the government loses revenue through tax evasion. The Dubai government introduced the Public key infrastructure (PKI) to provide identity cards and accredited certificates related to business, individuals or other organizations (Westland & Al-Khouri, 2010: 5). Consequently, the platform has reduced the level of corruption in the government departments since the citizens are informed of the required procedures and requirements for obtaining services. On the other hand, employees have advanced their work input considering that customers can express their sentiments to senior authorities through the e-suggestions platform
Leads to overlapping of duties among departments
Despite the improved progress in service delivery to the citizens’ inadequate strategic formulation is attributed to overlapping of employees duties among related departments. The Dubai government established a centralized serving department that coordinated and guided the departmental heads on the information to update on the government website. Departments’ hierarchy of job specification has been eroded by the e-service approach leading to internal departmental wrangles. For instance, the Dubai police who utilize the smart government to execute orders have eliminated the boundary of responsibilities among security departments (Kostopoulos, 2003: 4). Most police officers feel demoralized since they have no specific line of duties. The government strategy to redeploy workers to other departments has caused internal dissatisfaction among employees.
Fear of employees losing their jobs
Delegation of government services to the government portal and the core mandate of a centralized department many has rendered a considerable number of employees redundant following harmonization of related services under one department. Employees are reluctant to expose all the services to the government portal with intent to retain the flow of clients seeking their services. According to Greet Hofstede cultural dimension, Dubai citizens have high uncertainty avoidance and, therefore, would require comprehensive information on their future regarding any change. For example, citizens and business entities can download and print work permits and certificates at their convenience instead of visiting the relevant departments. The introduction of e-pay has led to the mass retrenchment of workers whose revenue collection jobs have been overtaken by the online system. In as much as the smart government initiative has curbed revenue loss and boosted efficiency, most employees fear that the program would absorb their duties in the ensuing time. There has been an incoherence of strategic formulation on the shift of duties among workers in the government departments.
Collusion of employees to distort the technology system for selfish gains
The Dubai e-government department faces the risk of cyber insecurity aggravated by internal employees with the intention of stealing from the government or inhibiting the programs from yielding success. Collusion among employees occurs due to job insecurity or the urge to advance their traditional corruption habits. E-payment services are the most vulnerable to cybercrime as various governments report an unpredictable malfunction of the system and subsequent loss of revenue. Inadequate integrated system to monitor the flow of money and information is a core attribute to the government’s revenue and information loss. The e-commerce inefficiency has been associated with the governments’ failure to formulate an ethical code of principles that govern employees on their responsibilities and the accruing consequences upon culprits who contravene the laws.
Inadequate employees’ technical skills to manage smart government
Labor skills are an essential ingredient in the accelerated performance of technology innovations in government and private entities. The management ought to upgrade the employee’s skills through periodic training seminars and education sponsorship in preparation for ensuing shift of service delivery through the adoption of technology initiatives. Employee’s skills serve as a performance indicator in assessing the balanced scorecard of an entity (Lam, 2005: 522). In Dubai, most departments have been reluctant to invest resource to train workers on the use of government portal to virtually serve the clients. Instead, some departments have opted to lay off unskilled workers in substitute with technologically oriented employees. Inadequate acquaintance of employees with the smart government requirements has derailed the performance pace of government entities. In particular, serving virtual customers through the government’s portal requires a different approach from the physical customer service approach (Almarabeh & AbuAli 2010). Consequently, the skills deficiency has resulted in consumer dissatisfaction and under-performance of the e- government strategy.
Research methodology
This section outlines the procedure that the researcher will apply in gathering information necessary to make a conclusive deduction on the research problem.
Research design
The study will entail conducting a survey and observation approaches in government entities and interaction with the citizens and business enterprises. The participants will be crucial in determining the extent to which customers rate employees’ services and their reaction to the effectiveness of smart government service innovation. Further, interview data from the employees will facilitate the compilation of a conclusive deduction.
Sampling
Research experts propose that credible research should entail an average sample size of 30 respondents (Kothari, 2011). The study will assign a random sample of 30 people composed of government employees, senior department executives, business entities and the citizens. The sample size will be evenly distributed to enhance clarity in data collection. To enhance quality data, the gender, age and job skills will be considered among the employees.
Data collection
These are the methods sufficient to amass information and data in the selected sample size. The study will use primary and secondary data sources. Primary data will be gathered through open and closed-ended questionnaires to the sample size as well as observation of clients and employees behaviors. Secondary data will emanate from government records regarding performance trend and employee skills. It will be imperative to pilot questionnaires one week prior to collecting data to identify ambiguity or errors of omission. A letter of consent will accompany the questionnaire and oral interviews to acquaint the interviewees with the purpose of the study and the relevance seeking their information.
Data analysis
Collected data will be analyzed using regression analysis and with reference to the secondary data collected from the government departments. The final data will be encoded and preserved in portable disks and drives for future reference.
Reservation of confidential information
The researcher will declare in a consent letter to the interviewees that the information used would not be exposed to external parties but rather would apply to the purpose of the research without disclosure. The parties would be at liberty to provide or withhold the information.
Limitation of the study
The following limitations will influence the accuracy of the data
1. The time allocated for research will hinder in collecting data from a large sample.
2. Some respondents may withhold relevant information for the research
3. The financial constraint will inhibit conducting extensive research to boost a deductible defense.
Bibliography
Al Mourad, B., & Kamoun, F. (2013). Accessibility Evaluation of Dubai e-Government Websites: Findings and Implications. Journal of E-Government Studies and Best Practices, 2013, 1-15.
Almarabeh, T., & AbuAli, A. (2010). A general framework for e-government: definition maturity challenges, opportunities, and success. European Journal of Scientific Research, 39(1), 29-42.
Bhatnagar, S. (2003). The economic and social impact of e-government.Background Paper for UNDESA publication: E-Government—the Citizens and the State: Debating Governance in The Information Age. World Public Sector Report. http://www. iimahd. ernet. in/~ subhash/pdfs/UNDESAeGovReport. pdf.
Kostopoulos, G. K. (2003, May). E-government in the Arabian Gulf: a vision toward reality. In Proceedings of the 2003 annual national conference on Digital government research (pp. 1-7). Digital Government Society of North America.
Kothari, C. R. (2011). Research methodology: methods and techniques. New Age International.
Lam, W. (2005). Barriers to e-government integration. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 18(5), 511-530.
Levasseur, R. E. (2001). People skills: Change management tools—Lewin's change model. Interfaces, 31(4), 71-73.
Services to Public & Business. (2015, April 7). Retrieved from http://www.dsg.gov.ae/en/ServicesPublic/Pages/default.aspx
Westland, D., & Al-Khouri, A. M. (2010). Supporting e-government progress in the United Arab Emirates. Journal of E-Government Studies and Best Practices, 2010, 1-9.
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