Jordan’s e-Government at the crossroads

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the maturity level of the Jordanian electronic Government (e-Government) program from the citizen’s perspective. This assessment aims to help in determining whether the Jordanian e-Government strategy, set back in 2002, has achieved its main objectives which are delivering services to people across society, irrespective of location, economic status, education or ICT ability; improving the ICT readiness and infrastructure; and developing new service delivery channels and increase the involvement of citizens through the use of ICTs. Jordan started a national e-Government initiative aiming to streamline government procedures and provide government information and services to the public online. This paper reveals the levels of citizens’ awareness, acceptance, usage and willingness to use the e-Government services in Jordan. It investigates issues such as Jordan’s e-Government maturity level, citizen’s preferences when dealing with e-Government, citizen’s attitude toward using various e-services, citizen’s concerns and the required services. Design/methodology/approach – To achieve the research purposes, which needed a high rate of respondents to generalize the findings, we opted for quantitative research through questionnaires as an appropriate instrument base to address the citizens’ awareness and usage of e-Government services. In total, 7,238 distributed surveys were conducted across Jordan. The average of the responses rate in the three regions was 58.6 per cent. Findings – The citizen’s interest in e-Government services is declining, as the citizens’ level of awareness of e-Government and its services is still modest after more than ten years of the start of the e-Government program in Jordan. Citizens’ attitude toward using e-Government services is changing and determined by various factors and issues reported in the paper. Research limitations/implications – The selected governorates might not be the best governorates to represent the three regions of Jordan, the data took almost 15 months to be collected and analyzed which may have resulted in some changes to the reality. Finally, developing countries are not a homogenous group and, therefore, the results of this paper may not be generalizable. Originality/value – The findings present a number of key factors that hinder Jordan’s e-Government development. These findings can be useful for researchers and practitioners, as they provide rich insights on e-Government development. The findings can be also useful to other developing countries, as they can help them in understanding citizen related challenges when designing, planning and implementing their e-Government initiatives.

The Barriers of E-Government Success : An Empirical Study from Jordan

“…The EGDI is a composite measure of three important dimensions of E-Gov, namely: provision of online services, telecommunication connectivity and human capacity (explained in [5]). Notably, Jordanians do not lack the technical competencies to use the internet and information technology applications whereAl-Soud et al [9], indicated that 75.7 percent are able to use internet services andAbu-Shanab et al [10], reported that spread of internet 85 percent in north of Jordan. The results of UN surveys in Table 2 affirmed that, the average of human capital index always good where (0.72) was the lowest average in 2014 and this above the world and region averages.…”

“…The online service index shows that Jordan average above the world average but still lower than regional average (see [1]). The E-Gov program in Jordan still lagging behind in utilizing information and communication technologies for delivering government e-services [11].The comprehensive study that cover whole Jordan byAl-Soud et al [9], revealed that more than 60 per cent out of (4294) respondents (citizens) do not actually know about E-Gov services and the worst result 70 percent of who used the E-Gov services found it not useful. Another study in northern Jordan found that usage of E-Gov 36 percent of the sample.Therefore, this study aims to quest the reasons led participants to gauge E-Gov in Jordan as such.…”

“…Lack of legal bases and comprehensive policy [14], [17], [19][13]- [15] Lack of security rules, policies and privacy law [13]- [15] Data ownership conflicts [15] Lack of political commitment and coordination [12], [14], [20] Digital divide [9], [14], [20] Organizational & cultural…”

E-Government Diffusion in Jordan: Employees' Perceptions Toward Electronic Government in Jordan

“…A number of countries, in both developed and developing nations, have started e-government programs that aim to provide public services online, improve government procedures and, most importantly, provide improved services for citizens (Laudon and Traver, 2009;Molla and Licker, 2009;Leonard, 2012;Anas et al 2014). In regards to the e-government in Jordan, in particular, some researches related to e-government have been published.…”

“…In regards to the e-government in Jordan, in particular, some researches related to e-government have been published. For example, Anas et al (2014) have discussed the maturity level of the Jordanian electronic government program from the citizen's perspective and found that citizen's interest in e-government services is declining due to awareness problem. Al Hujran et al (2013) have studied the factors influencing citizen adoption of e-government in Jordan and found that ease of use, perceived usefulness, satisfaction, trust, responsiveness, reliability and information technology as important factors.…”