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Abstract. The public sector plays a very significant role in the development of any country, so it is very important that the
governance in these sectors should be very effective. E-governance is one of such initiatives, but as discussed by many researchers,
the human factors do affect the success or failure of any technological initiatives. Thereby, the present research is focused to
identify the human factors which play an important role as hindrances in adaptability of e-governance initiatives in Public Sectors
of India so that, by considering those factors in its implementation, the potential benefits may be achieved and good governance
may be established.
For the purpose, the primary data is collected from working people in the public sector organizations of NCR (National Capital
Region) of Delhi, India. Factor analysis method is used to identify the most important factors which affect the adoption of
e-governance initiatives which may further help the government in outlining these factors while implementing e-governance
initiatives.
1. Introduction
E-governance is a new area of study in the Information Systems field that is concerned with the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) by the
government agencies to electronically deliver its services (World Bank Definition). Government and public
sector organizations around the world are taking many
initiatives to reform their public administration organizations and deliver more efficient and cost effective
services, as well as better information and knowledge
to their stakeholders [7].
The Public Sector emerged as the driver of economic growth consequent to the industrial revolution in Europe. With the advent of globalization, the
public sector faced new challenges in the developed
economies [17]. It means the various economic, industrial and commercial activities are taken up by the central government, state government, union territories or
Corresponding author: Unnati Mishra, Gautam Bhudda University, Greater Noida, India. E-mail: unatti.mishra85@gmailcom.
U. Mishra and M. Sharma / Human factors affecting the adaptability of e-governance the indian public sector
tories. However visionary leaders of independent India drew up a roadmap for the development of Public
Sector as an instrument for the self-reliant economic
growth [12].
The public sector has been playing a vital role in the
economic development of the country. It is considered
as a powerful engine of economic development and an
important instrument for self-reliance. Filling the gaps
in capital goods, generating employment, balancing regional development and contributing to public exchequer is the main role of public sector in economy development. Apart from this, some public enterprises have
done much to promote Indias export. The State Trading Corporation (STC), the Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC), Hindustan Steel Ltd., the
Bharat Electronics Ltd., the Hindustan Machine Tools,
etc., have done very well in export promotion. The foreign exchange earnings of the public sector enterprises
have been rising from Rs 35 crores in 196566 to Rs
42,264 crores in 200405. Public sector has laid strong
and wide base for self-reliance in the field of technical
know-how, maintenance and repair of sophisticated industrial plants, machinery and equipment in the country. Through the development of technological skill, it
has reduced dependency on foreign knowhow. With the
help of technological capability, public sector undertakings have successfully competed in the international
market [15].
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U. Mishra and M. Sharma / Human factors affecting the adaptability of e-governance the indian public sector
4. Review of literature
Many studies have been conducted to assess the parameters leading to good governance and hindrances
coming in the way of e-governance. A brief review of
some of these studies along with research gaps is given
below:
According to Bhatt and Agrawal [1] ICTs do mobilize citizens for participation and are often influential in leader identification. The enablers of ICTs
to mobilize the voters include i) electoral system
support, ii) perceived social goodness concern of
the ICT initiatives and iii) design and regional language presence while hindrances of ICTs are lack
of support from the political party and the ruling
partys intervention over the ICTs initiatives.
Sharma et al. [18] discussed the challenges of eGovernance implementation in India and tried to identify strategies to make it effective in their research
paper. On the basis of secondary data from different
Indian government websites, and through reviews of
many related researches, the authors identified some
human factors like computer literacy level, qualitative
human resources, language and political issues as the
challenges of e-governance implementations. The key
strategy to make e-governance effective is the formation of right institution and agencies and identifying
the right human resources for the same. It is recommended that adequate management and governmental
U. Mishra and M. Sharma / Human factors affecting the adaptability of e-governance the indian public sector
experts are required for implementation rather technical. If we will compare language barriers with other
countries it is so easy in the part of those countries
that are having there single language like: America,
United States, Japan, all these countries having single
language to communicate which make it easy to implement. Government has to also consider this barrier to
reduce this challenge.
Gilbert et al. [9], investigated the factors related to
decision making when people consider and evaluate
the usage of an online e-government delivery mechanism. Trust, financial security, information quality
(all adoption barriers), time and money (both adoption
benefits) were identified to predict potential usage. The
willingness to use the online delivery option can be enhanced if the organizations develop trust relationships
with individuals, assure them that their financial details are secure, provide information that is relevant,
accurate and up-to-date, and save individuals time and
money.
Demopoulos [5] described that the lack of knowledge, the digital illiteracy, the development of ICT
skills, the culture, the attitudes, the beliefs are the factors which influence the adoption behavior of the person, he also mentioned that the nationality, whether
some citizens belong to a minority, the experience, the
age, the physical and mental state play an important
role.
Hamner [10] described various human factors as the
most occurring hindrances. According to them a veritable plethora of human factors affect the success, or
failure, of technology initiatives like E-Government.
These human factors include everything from simple
resistance to change and peer pressure to more complex factors brought about by the value pluralism that
exists in todays increasingly global society and its impact on technology acceptance.
Hwang et al. [11] have demonstrated the challenges
and obstacles in e-Government considered from four
aspects in their study: technical, political, cultural and
legal aspects. Lack of users confidence, threat of
users secret data and the right of privacy were some
identified factors as challenges and obstacles in eGovernment. Furthermore they suggested that the important principle easy-to-use has a great influence on
the success of e-Government. This principle could advertise and promote e-Government.
Signore et al. [20] explained that a critical obstacle
in implementing e-government is the citizens concern
on privacy of their life and confidentiality of the personal data they are providing as part of obtaining gov-
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U. Mishra and M. Sharma / Human factors affecting the adaptability of e-governance the indian public sector
Table 1
Factors Drawn from Review of Literature
S. No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Human factors
Lower Computer literacy
Qualitative Human Resources
Language Barrier
Political Issues
Distrust on Technology
Lack of Personal Interaction
Lack of Control on staff members
Lack of Personalisation
Lack of coordination and cooperation between departments
Lack of confidentiality and Safety
Lack of Knowledge about e-Governance initiatives
Cultural Issues
Unwillingness of citizens to use e-governance services
5. Research methodology
The data for the study is obtained from the working people of various Public Sectors of the NCR (National Capital Region), India. A sample of 35 respondents was selected by the random sampling method.
An effort was made to include the respondent with different age group, educational status and the duration of
the experience in the field. These elements were taken
as the demographic characteristics of the respondent.
The factors impacting on the individuals intention
to use the technology self-service option have been
drawn from available research literature. On the basis the following identified factors by the various researchers, the questionnaire was developed. In which
two sections were designed; first was containing the
information related to demographic characteristics as
age, education and years of experience and in the second section, respondents were asked to rate the identified factors five point Likert Scale was used. These
identified factors are listed in Table 1.
Reference
Sharma et al. 2011, Ebrahim and Erani 2005, Delopoulos 2011
Sharma et al. 2011
Sharma et al. 2011
Sharma et al. 2011, Ebrahim and Erani 2005
Delopoulos 2011
Gilbert and Balestrinin 2005
Gilbert and Balestrinin 2005
Gilbert and Balestrinin 2005
Ebrahim and Erani 2005
Gilbert and Balestrinin 2005, Ebrahim and Erani 2005, Delopoulos 2011
Delopoulos 2011
Ebrahim and Erani 2005
Delopoulos 2011
Table 2
The Variance Contribution and Contribution Rate of Dominant Component Factor
Components
1
2
3
4
Variance
Contribution
Accumulated
contribution
rate (%)
contribution rate (%)
5.026
33.276
33.276
3.527
25.436
58.712
2.092
16.090
74.801
1.314
10.108
84.910
6. Factor analysis
To find out the underline factors of the analysis, factor analysis had been conducted. Before applying the
analysis, KMO and Barletts test of subcity has been
run to see the suitability of Factor Analysis. KMO
measures of sampling adequacy is 0.745 which shows
that Factor Analysis is significant for this data.
Table 2 that 13 leading questions of the questionnaire can be divided into four components called as
factors because the Eigen values of these four factors
are greater than 1. Rest of the factors have been ignored because their Eigen values are less than 1. The
total variance explained by these four factors is 85%
which meets the requirements for the number of factors and their contribution rate as the criterion for variance analysis is that the total contribution rate should
reach at least 80% [2].
Table 3 represents the rotated factor matrix which
explains the correlation between the attributes and the
related factor. The attributes have been divided into
four factors based on their correlation values and hence
the factor 1 consists of those attributes having correlation more than 0.65 [22]. Same is the criteria for factor 2. Factor 1 consists of lack of confidentiality and
safety, lack of personal interaction, an unwillingness to
use e-governance services and Language barriers. Factor 2 comprises lack of coordination and cooperation
U. Mishra and M. Sharma / Human factors affecting the adaptability of e-governance the indian public sector
141
Table 3
Rotated Component Matrix
between departments, political issues, some cultural issues and lack of personalization. In Factor 3, lower
computer literacy and Distrust on Technology are included while factor 4 includes only qualitative human
resources.
These four factors also show the hierarchal presentation of the components according to their importance.
Lack of the confidentiality and safety, is found the most
important component and lack of personal interaction,
an unwillingness to use e-governance services and language barriers are respectively while qualitative human
resources is the less important component. These four
factors are renamed as Security and language obstruction, In-cooperation, Skepticism and Qualitative Human Resources.
Security and language obstruction factor was found
to be the most important factor which affects the adoption of technologies which includes lack of confidentiality and safety, lack of personal interaction and language barriers which creates an unwillingness of using these technologies. While in-cooperation between
the departments or organizations was found as the second leading hindrance factor which also includes personal and social conflicts, political issues, some cultural issues and lack of personalization in using the egovernance initiatives. Skepticism was the third most
important factor in which lack of knowledge for security risks and consequences and lower computer literacy creates a kind of distrust on technology. Qualitative human resource was also found to be the important
factor which includes shortage of well trained IT staff.
1
0.045
0.025
0.703
0.296
0.274
0.787
0.688
0.709
0.098
0.780
0.652
0.367
0.759
Component
2
3
0.037
0.910
0.065
0.114
0.300
0.411
0.742 0.034
0.420
0.757
0.017
0.116
0.398
0.288
0.509 0.070
0.814
0.251
0.156 0.009
0.335
0.453
0.649
0.232
0.258
0.289
4
0.141
0.947
0.116
0.104
0.125
0.234
0.162
0.480
0.106
0.087
0.067
0.072
0.131
142
U. Mishra and M. Sharma / Human factors affecting the adaptability of e-governance the indian public sector
grams for the employees of public sector of India. The awareness of these barriers is important for
any e-government project since they will alert the egovernment project team with any problems or challenges might be existed during the implementation process so they will be ready to overcome them. On the basis of the findings it can be concluded that the Government should consider these factors while implementing
e-governance initiatives, so that the potential benefits
may be achieved from these initiatives. On the basis of
these factors, the strategy may be outlined. The principal of easy to use and to provide these services in
local language can be very helpful in raising the adoption level of these initiatives. It is also necessary that
any e-government initiative must ensure that it has sufficient resources, adequate infrastructure, management
support, capable IT staff, and effective IT training and
support to ensure the success of such initiatives.
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
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Delhi, 2011.
P. Chen, (2008): Applied Mathematical Statistics, Beijing:
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http://www.tcs.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/White%20Pap
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November 09, 2012.
S. Choraria, (2011): E-Governance System: Understanding
Complexities of its Implementation through the Framework
of SPOT, E-Governance Policies & Practice, Edited by Bhatt
and Agrawal, Excel India Publishers, New Delhi.
H.N. Delopoulos, (2011): Barriers and Opportunities for the
Adoption of e-Governance Services, World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 60, 2011, pg. No. 1954
1958. Retrieved from https://www.waset.org/journals/waset/
v60/v60-348.pdf Accessed on October 8, 2012.
Dwivedi Prabhudatt and Sahu Ganesh P. (2008), Challenges
of E-government Implementation in India. Computer Society of India (CSI), Special Interest Group on e-Governance
(SIGeGov), SIGeGov Publications, Emerging Technologies
in E-Government, Hyderabad, India. Retrieved from http://
www.csi-sigegov.org/emerging_pdf/23_210-215.pdf Accessed on October 26, 2012.
S. Dwivedi and A.K. Bharti, E-Governance in India- Problems and Acceptability, Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology 17(1) (2010) (2010), 3740.
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