Towards mobile government readiness assessment: proposing a multidimensional framework and a potential tool as an illustrative example

Abstract

Public managers at all levels of government are increasingly facing a great diversity of technological changes, from the arrival and rapid adoption of social media to the emergence and growing popularity of mobile phones and Apps. As with many other technologies embedded in social and organisational contexts, the potential uses and effects of mobile phones and applications in government and society are not well understood. In fact, public managers frequently need to make decisions regarding the implementation of mobile government (mGov) without the necessary knowledge or a systematic evaluation. Since mGov is a complex socio-technical phenomenon, in order to understand it and assess it, it is necessary to use a holistic approach and include multiple dimensions. Based on a review of existing literature and a set of group and individual interviews, this paper proposes a multidimensional framework and a tool to assess an agency's readiness for mGov.