Interpreting E-government and Development: Efficiency, Transparency or Governance at a Distance?

Socio-technical analysis of Indonesian government e-procurement system implementation: barriers to enhance information transparency and accountability

“…As IT represents a high risk in developing countries, its implementation to bridge the power distance between civil servants and the public must be monitored with higher norms and integrity (8,9). Therefore, the relationship and network developed between the actors, social, and technical aspects involved in the government IT reform must be analyzed to understand the technology roles and challenges in accommodating the social demand and functions of information transparency and accountability.…”

The Ethics of Information Warfare

“…The use of ICTs changed the way individuals manage their communications and daily practices, from working and reading books, listening to music and driving. At a social level, ICTs reshaped social interactions; at the institutional level they provide new tools for the management of information and bureaucracy (Ciborra 2005;Saxena 2005); and when considered with respect to warfare, ICTs determine the latest revolution in military affairs. In this sense, IW is the warfare of the information age.…”

A Multivocal and Multilevel Institutionalist Perspective to Analyze Information Technology-Enabled Change in the Public Service in Africa

“…Focusing on the practices of human actors can yield uncovered aspects of IT-driven public sector reforms, such as the emergence of informal and unplanned practices that are not envisaged in public sector reforms. The formal-informal perspective provides a deeper insight into the link between IT and actual existing development as opposed to official normative frameworks (Ciborra 2005) and the process by which alternative patterns of actions embedded in IT-led organizational change are created. This can improve the understanding on how new public service delivery models should be regulated and adapted to a specific context.…”

“…First, it is related to the importance of information technology in the restructuring of the public administration for improved accountability and good governance (Ciborra 2005;Fountain 2002;Heeks 2001;World Bank 1997). Actually, under the aegis of the new public management (NPM), most public sector reforms in Africa and in the rest of the developing world leverage IT to reduce hierarchical structures into flatter, more information-efficient organizational forms (Bellamy and Taylor 1992;Cresswell et al 2006;Lucas and Baroudi 1994;Osborne and Gaebler 1992).…”

“…However, divergent opinions on the extent and implications of the IT impact on the institutional arrangements and values of the public administration (e.g., Ciborra 2005;Diamond and Khemani 2006) have highlighted the lack of a linear causality between IT and specific organizational outcomes. This has inspired an analytical approach that is more grounded in the institutional context of IT users (Orlikowski and Robey 1991).…”