One of the primary objectives of a professional doctorate is to advance managerial practices. Therefore, this section outlines how the thesis findings can be applied to managerial practice.
5.3.1 E-government factors
The research aimed to find the factors influencing citizens to adopt e-government. The thesis used a case study of UC and surprisingly, a staggering 61.3% of benefits claimants were unaware of UC introduction in Nottingham. This represents a lack of readiness for the service and calls for improving the awareness methods used for new digital public services. Understanding the barriers to e-government adoption from the citizens’ perspective helps formulate effective strategies with avoidable pitfalls, which the UK government has realised with UC.
Between registering for UC payments, providing documentary evidence and getting the first payment, there is a six-week waiting period (soon to be reduced to five-weeks). Although there is a credit ‘advance payment’ that the government can give while awaiting the UC payment, this can trigger spiralling into debt and subsequently lead to social exclusion. A UK Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) commented that the gap in payments was unacceptable, arguing that a "cavalier attitude that the poorest can muddle through is callous at best and downright cruel at worst" (BBC 2017, p.1). Commenting on the UC system, the Archbishop of York, Dr Sentamu, praised the rationale behind the UC system. However, pointed that it assumed poor citizens had an ‘egg nest’ to rely on while they waited for six- weeks, which he described as “grotesquely ignorant” (BBC 2017a, p.1). These comments came in the wake of an outcry by citizens to MPs about the six-weeks waiting period and the 55p per minute telephone call charge to the UC helpline. Subsequently, the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, agreed the complaints were sensible and decided to scrap the telephone call charge (BBC, 2017b) and to reduce the UC waiting period to five-weeks (The Guardian, 2017). Early citizens’ engagement could have avoided this. The six-weeks waiting period is antagonistic with facilitating conditions (FC) and that the 55p per minute call charge negatively influences the price value (PV) perceptions. Therefore, the thesis determined the significant factors influencing citizens’ adoption of e-government.
The thesis determined the significant factors influencing the adoption of e-government when a public service is delivered exclusively online (UC) and when there is an option to use traditional channels (NCH Web services). It is also important to remember that for UC, the government offers ‘Assisted Digital’ under the DbyD strategy. However, the transaction still
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must be completed online with assistance from someone (proxy use). Of the external variables tested in this study, the most significant factors influencing the behavioural intention to adopt UC are trust in e-government, followed by the effort citizens perceive is needed to learn and use it then the benefits derived from using it. However, if the public service is not exclusively delivered online and there are other options for accessing it (e.g., some NCH services), then hedonic motivation becomes the most significant predictor. In both instances, this was followed by the effort expended to learn and use the service, then the improved performance benefits and the social influence that comes from significant others to use the digital public service. Contrary to studies by Venkatesh, Thong and Xu (2012) and considering the participants were drawn from a deprived community, price value was not a major factor for citizens’ intention to adopt e-government. However, these were just intentions that may or may not result in the actual usage.
Whether the governmental service is exclusively delivered online or has a fall-back to traditional service channels, actual usage is influenced by experience of using the Internet, then the facilitating conditions in place, the behavioural intention and finally the habit that may have formed as citizens use digital public services by default (DbyD). These factors can be mapped to different stages of the e-government adoption process to suitably focus the activities of addressing them to improve social inclusion.
5.3.2 Using the e-government adoption process for tailored addressing of e- government barriers
Policy makers and practitioners can use the e-government adoption process in Figure 4.8-2 to formulate effective e-government adoption strategies, depending on what stage the digital public service is at, in terms of its diffusion in the society. The initial stages of introducing a new digital public service must be characterised by massive publicity campaigns while assisting citizens to acquire the necessary skills to use the innovation. Such campaigns allow users to evaluate the effort needed to use the innovation and the expected usage benefits. Additionally, efforts must be made to assure citizens that the digital public service is secure and educate them on security in the information society. These lead to increased trust, which is the strongest determinant of e-government behavioural intention to use.
When citizens start using e-government, there must be safeguards to ensure citizens continue using the digital public service. This is achieved by ensuring that citizens have the support and resources needed to continue using the digital public service. Without this support, the digital public service will die a natural death, which contradicts the goal of improving social inclusion
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through digital inclusion. Another managerial implication pertains to training and development.
5.3.3 Deskilled: the consequence of the changing global digital technology market
The thesis has highlighted that the global digital technology market is an underestimated e- government actor that drives and influences digital public services provision. Other actors identified are the government and the citizens. This new actor implies that practitioners can easily be deskilled over time if they do not keep up with the pace with which digital technology is developing. This makes the practitioners inefficient in formulating current digital public services strategies. Moreover, with the DbyD strategy, computer and digital literacy should be at the forefront of civil servants’ competencies. Arguing the issue of technical skills, Mendoza (2009, p.113) argued that,
Together, business and IS should continually adapt to the competitive environment that require integration of various types and levels of expertise.
Therefore, to remain efficient in delivering public services and be able to meet citizens’ complex requirements influenced by the dynamic global digital landscape, civil servants must appreciate and use digital technology. This ability empowers them to provide excellent digital public services. Thus, investing time to attend digital technology seminars, workshops and some relevant forms of digital technology training becomes paramount to gain knowledge of the direction of digital technology developments and anticipate citizens’ services demands. To bring the thesis to a close, a conclusion of the whole research now follows.
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