Evaluation of the Public Value of E-Government Services in Ethiopia

Abstract

Electronic government (e-government) refers to the use of information and communication technologies to help public organizations more accessible, productive, responsive and responsible. Extant studies confirmed that organizations granted trust and goodwill from the public or the customer through the e-government services delivery seeing that the public value is settled. However, research conducted in this area focused on the initiatives, sustainability, and success of the e-government project. Although the public value of e-government services is the emerging concept and it requires adequate research, in the knowledge of the researcher, there is no research conducted in Ethiopia. The objective of this study is to evaluate the public value of e-government services and to identify challenges associated with it. Specifically, it aims to identify the evaluation framework from extant literature, perceive the status of e-Government services public value, find the challenges associated with meeting the public value of the e-government services in Federal Supreme Court and forward possible recommendations to address challenges associated with e-government services in attaining public value. To achieve these objectives, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were employed on survey data. Both quantitative and qualitative findings were triangulated for better investigating the public value of e-government services. The revised framework consists of three main dimensions: (i) delivery of quality public services, (ii) the effectiveness of public organizations, and (iii) achievement of socially desirable outcomes were applied for evaluation. The response from 35.77% respondents confirms that quality public service delivery achievement but 64.23% disregarded. The answer from 33% participants revealed that the public organization is effective despite 77% respondents not accepted. The reaction from 25% participant assured that socially desirable outcome is achieved through e-government services while 75% said not. In general, 31.25% respondents agreed on public value of e-government services achievement whereas the rest 68.75% said it is not achieved. This leads to the development of some specific recommendation for improving the public value of e-government in FSC. The study has a contribution to the e-government services public value research domain from both the theoretical and practical perspectives. From the theoretical perspective, it demonstrates the applicability of the concept of public value for evaluating the performance of e-government. From the practical perspective, it presents an investigation of the public value of e-government. Such an investigation provides the stakeholders with a realistic assessment of the overall performance of e-government in FSC. It helps to the development of some specific recommendations for enhancing and improving the public value of e-government. Such findings are not only significant for the continuous development of e-government services in FSC but also for meeting the expectation and demand of the customers.