ICTer 2015 Paper by Kasun Rajapakse

2015 International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICTer)

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August 2015 International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICTer2015)

Identification of Characteristics of Government Web Sites for Effective

Service

R.K.A.D.G. Kasun Rajapakse #1, Kennedy D. Gunawardane*2 Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya

Sri Lanka

[email protected]

[email protected]

Sri Lanka Telecom Services Ltd No:04, SLT Premises, Nalandarama Road

Nugegoda, Sri Lanka

[email protected], Tel.: + 94 714288470

Abstract- E-government is a subject which requires a great

amount of local knowledge in order to implement successfully.

An E-government model which has been successfully

implemented in another country may not be directly

applicable in to a Sri Lankan environment without applying

the required adjustments. Since e-government efforts are

leading to socio economic transformation, great resistance

towards such initiatives can be seen from participants. In the

Sri Lankan context locally generated knowledge on e-

government field is lacking, which has resulted in slower

progress in local e-government developments. In order to

address the above void, this research has built a model with

the help of previous researches which consists of six variables.

During the research the importance of each of those variables

towards the sustainable development of Sri Lankan e-

government capabilities will be checked.

Keywords – e-government, quality of service, accountability,

user interface, executability, transparency, democracy

I. INTRODUCTION

Over the years information and communication technology

(ICT) has been identified as a tool to combat against

inefficiencies. Government services which were often said to be

inefficient have been applying ICT to gain a better level of

efficiency in its operations. Government sector ICT initiatives are

often referred to by the term “e-government” or “e-governance”.

In general e-government services are embedded with internet

based web sites. Accordingly various government organizations

use to host web sites as a method of providing their services to the society.

The business perspective of such a web site implementation

is to allow the general public to access various government

services through the internet, without physically visiting the

particular organization. Further to that, it has been stated as a

method of offering a better level of democracy to the general

public which is called “direct democracy” as it allows the general

public to access the government directly. At the same time, web

sites are also able to increase the level of transparency in

government processes as electronic systems run through a lot of

purifications prior to implementation.

Today E-governance has become a global trend. Most

countries are implementing e-government platforms as a method

of achieving a higher level of efficiency in government

operations. Benefits of e-government are mainly two fold. In one hand it has the ability to provide a better government service to

the general public while on the other hand it has the ability to

maintain a systematic platform for day to day government

operations. Level of success in e-government sector highly

depends on the level of dedication to it. As a result, from country

to country drastic variations can be seen in e-government sector

even after following the same technological and theoretical

platforms.

The Level of success achieved by developed countries in the

field of e-governance is far greater compared to developing

countries. Such success stories are the results of a lot of hard

work invested on the subject. In the business point of view, emerging regions of the globe must reflect a greater urgency and

dedication to e-government implementations as it would

positively impact their development efforts. If emerging

economies could build strong e-government platforms that will

help them become better competitors at the global level.

Sri Lanka has been investing in e-government platforms for

over a decay. Most government organizations are equipped with

web sites. In addition to that, they are well equipped with ICT

resources as well. However, even after all those costly initiatives

in e-government sector; Sri Lankans are yet to see the real

transformation that has been seen by developed countries. The sole purpose of e-government concepts is to establish easy

accessibility to government services and cut down the

requirement of physical visit to access to the service. In the local

context government offices are still filled with public who visit to

get access to the manual government services. Lengthy queues to

meet officers, human errors, mistakes, delays, bribing cases and

undue influences are still common in the Sri Lankan government

sector. This indicates that the real benefits of e-government

investments have not being received by Sri Lankans.

While the fruitfulness of the Sri Lankan ICT investments is

questionable, referring to e-government success stories such as

mailto:[email protected]



Identification Of Characteristics Of Government Web Sites For Effective Service

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USA would be worthwhile. “www.usa.gov” web portal has been

the base of USA e-government efforts. From the outer look it is

even simpler than any other web site one can imagine. But in

terms of clarity and focus it is one of the best examples to other

countries. USA citizens are hardly visits government

organizations physically. Most of the services and information are accessible through the web portal. With its clear guidance even a

citizens with a lower level educational backgrounds could easily

fulfill their requirements. Similarly, many European countries are

looking forward to cut down the physical visits and streamlining

their government processes to serve government services

electronically.

Above comparison between Sri Lanka and International e-

government achievements set the trigger for this study. This

research looks forward to implement a systematical approach to

solve the above problem with the help of previous researches.

Below factors which have been extracted from previous research

will set the foundation for the conceptual framework of the study.

Independent Variables

Accountability: Accountability of e-government services is an

important aspect for reliable service.

User Friendly Design: Availability of user friendly design is

important for user satisfaction.

Executability: Process executability is widening the capabilities

of e-government services.

Transparency:E-government services offer a higher level of

transparency to the government process.

Democracy:With e-government service, general public gets a better level of democracy.

Dependent Variable

Quality of Service Delivering a quality government service has been the key focus in

any e-government investment.

A. Objective of the study

Four major objectives have been addressed through this

study.(1) To identify the characteristics required for a government

web site to provide a sound service to general public of Sri Lanka

through the literature review. (2) To find the relationship between those identified characteristics and the quality of service of a web

site. (3)To find the most demanded web site characteristics in the

Sri Lankan context. (4)To propose recommendations for the

establishment of a better quality government web service in Sri

Lanka.

II. LITRATURE REVIEW

Service quality is an important aspect demanded by the users

in terms of user demand compared to any other value attributes

embedded with a product or a service. It has been an outcome of

evaluation between expected level of service and perceived level of service [1]. Delivering a high quality online service to citizens

in most effective and secured manner has been the key factor

behind improving efficiency, transparency and accountability of

the local governance in Europe. E-government portals have

helped governments to achieve higher levels of social

engagement in democratic decision making. It helps to increase

community empowerment. The key success factor of successful

e-government service is addressing the user expectations. That

will result in higher level of user satisfaction. Up to date status,

the promptness of web site and richness of information or exhaustiveness are key determinants of the quality of information.

Consistency of information is a highly important aspect in

delivering a quality web service. Application of 24 x 7 services

has been part and parcel of consistent e-government services.

Usually manual services are out of service after routine office

hours, e-government services on the other hand could be kept

alive around the clock allowing users to minimize another

restriction that they experienced in accessing government services

[2]. Quality of service is not stand-alone aspect. It is greatly

related with factors such as transparency, transaction

executability, connectivity, personalization and usability of e-

government web sites. Quality of information is a precondition to motivate people to use the web service [3]. Web site users of city

web site has identified that surveillance, practical service and

direct democracy as major contributors to establish a better level

of practical engagement between citizens and the government

services [4]. Record management in government sector has a

great impact on the level of service offered. Quality of records

and record management strategies should be given due

consideration. Lack of unity in record management could lead to

the lack of consistency in data bases leading to major loses of

valuable data repositories. Applying correct approach in record

management would benefit general public through better level of service offered by web site, while government officers will also

be benefited as they could handle databases with a greater level of

efficiency [5]. Service quality, information availability and user

participation are also key factors for effective e-government

service. Features such as democracy, openness, accountability

and effectiveness enhanced with the help of ICT will lead to

uplifting the overall quality of the government services.

Accountability is in relation to users’ ability to depend on the

electronic system. General public who used manual government

services would be in phobia about the new technology and they

would be doubtful about the reliability of e-government services.

Availability of information is an important aspect to provide a quality service, but overload of information will also diminish the

productivity of E-government services. Removing unnecessary

information and facilitating users to access the expected

information quickly will allow web sites to be rated as user-

friendly web service [6]. The quality of service is in relation with

practical system implementation as well. Since e-government

systems are all about transformation from manual to electronic

process that should be guided by transformational leadership

qualities. Project managers who lead e-government initiatives

should have enough knowledge on how to handle a

transformational process in that particular culture. Managerial tools such as strategic planning plays a vital role in this regard. In

addition to that, technological aspects such as size or capacity of

the web site also need to be taken in to consideration [7].

Potentials of e-government services depend on the quality of web

R.K.A.D.G. Kasun Rajapakse#1, Kennedy D. Gunawardane*2

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pages applied to delivering the service. Therefore, maintaining

high levels of quality standards for web services is crucial. Speed

of service delivery also a concern in this regard. Quicker

connection, service delivery and easy access will maintain

harmony between the e-government services and the general

public. Accountability of a web site can be enhanced by applying features such as reliability, responsiveness and quality of

information. Being current or up to date is an important aspect for

a web site to maintain higher accountability ratings [8]. ICT has

the potential to improve the relationship between the government

and the communities. Geographical and cost constraints

associated with accessing government services can be minimized

with e-government services [9]. Availability of two way

communication is a highly important aspect for a sustainable e-

government development. Users’ need to be offered with features

such as receipt note or reference at the end of lodging an inquiry,

they should be provided with feedback opportunities to keep in

touch with web site publishers [10]. System quality, information quality and service quality are major determinants of user

satisfaction. System quality is often represented by technological

attributes while information quality can be measured by various

other attributes such as validity and reliability of published

information. Users trust on a web service builds with the time.

Once community gains confidence on e-government services,

they slowly move from manual process to the electronic process

[11].

The user interfaces also has a great impact over the success

of e-government services. Poor interface design has been

identified as a major reason for user dissatisfaction [12]. Data presentation mechanisms are also essential for success in user

interface management. User interfaces management in an e-

government service is not solely about arranging web page

templates. Real meaning of user interface management is all

about understanding what society requires from the web site and

arranging that required services and information in such a way so

that they could fulfill their informational needs. Current socio

economic development across the globe has identified access to

information as one of the fundamental human rights of the

general public [13]. Presenting data in a web site need to be done

with a great deal of analysis. There are a series of parameters to

measure the quality of data presentation such as the organization of the web page, provision of guidance for each page and

availability of concise information [14]. Providing adequate

navigational support for a web site will provide great ease for

users. In this regard the front page of a web site has a great

importance. Usually the front page gives the first impression of

the web site for its users. Therefore,it should be properly planned

and must be equipped with adequate guidance to handle the rest

of the pages list under it [15].

Providing proper data downloading and printing facilities are

also critical for maintaining a quality service. Availability to

download various documents provide a great ease for general public as they can cut down the cost and time they had to spend

in the past to access such documents [16].

Level of transparency that has offered with e-government services

are widening the horizons of citizenship. As a positive result of e-

government applications, general public tend to get more control

over politicians. That will create a feeling that the general public

is much empowered due to new system. E-services allow

societies to closely monitor the government process and the level

of secrecy surrounding the government has greatly diminished.

That enables them to gain knowledge about government processes and raise question where ever they identify a violation

of their rights [17]. E-government services have emerged as a

method of providing direct democracy to the society. Democratic

rights are often reported to be violated in emerging regions of the

globe, compared to developed regions. This has happed mainly

due to human intervention in the government process. E-

government services usually reduce human influence in the

government process and as a result, general public gets the

opportunity to consume a better level of democracy. Indian e-

government projects such as “Akashganga” sets great examples

as to how e-government concepts are implemented for practical

application, where they saved Indian milk farmers from opportunist middlemen buy updating farmers with up to date milk

prices. Similarly India is following series of projects such as “e-

choupal” , “TNCDW “ and “Dirshtree” which are setting

examples of how e-governance could be applied to eradicate

violations of democracy [18]. Inability to access to required

information is being called as information poverty in ICT

literature. The Impact of information poverty will hinder the

economic development of a country as poor information flow

from government to various layers of the society blocks the equal

distribution of development opportunities across the country.

Especially lower layers of the society will be badly affected by such poor information management in the national level [19].

Modern ICT has been extremely dynamic. Now it has given birth

to virtual societies which have already become a great contributor

to reshape the global socio economic platforms. Such concepts

are refusing social gaps and connect people virtually allowing

them to share through various social media platforms which will

finally create a knowledge society across the globe [20].

III. POPULATION AND SAMPLING

Population consists of web site users from all three categories

of government organizations listed in the government web portal (www.gov.lk) where it has hosted a total of 290 government web

sites. Out of them 45 are government ministries. 19 of them were

identified as essential while 26 of them were identified as non

essential.70 web sites represent government departments. 20 of

them were identified as essential while 50 of them identified as

non essential.175 web sites represent government institutions.55

of them were identified as essential web sites while 120 of them

were identified as non essential.

From the above population of 290 web sites, sample

population of 53 web sites were selected using a sampling model.

Validity of applied model increased as the web sites were classified in to essential and non essential categories leading to

building a sample with adequate diversity. In addition to sampling

model, web sites operational experience was also considered and

web sites with less than 5 years of operational experience were

http://www.gov.lk/


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left aside. That will help to make the sample population to gain a

lot of consistency as the selected web sites are with satisfactory

track records in delivering e-government services.

TABLE 01 POPULATION CLASSIFICATION

Government Ministries 09

Government Departments 13

Government Institutions 31

Total Population 53

IV. DESCRIPTIVE DATA ANALYSIS

This Section will look in to the demographics of the participants

of the sample survey. Gaining an understanding about the spread

of respondents is important in understanding the statistical patters

reflected during data analysis. Accordingly, this section will focus

on findings with reference to various demographic factors such as

age, gender, method of gaining awareness and purpose of accessing with reference to the sample population.

A. Demographic data analysis

1) Respondents’ Age:

Findings on age factor indicate that 29.4% of the

respondents are within the age group of 18-30. 49% of

respondents are which the 31-45 age group while 19.6%

represents the 46-60 age group. Age over 60 category

represents only 2% of the population. These percentage

values indicate e-government web site users are

distributed among all the adult categories of the society reflecting a mix of young, experienced, matured & senior

users.

2) Respondents’ Gender:

Concerning gender factor, 64.7% of the participants are

male while the female participation for the survey is

35.3% level.

3) Method of Gaining Awareness:

Method of gaining awareness is an important aspect.

56.9% of the respondents have gained awareness of the web site through media while only 2% have gained

awareness through their family. 41.2% have gained their

awareness through other mediums.

4) Purpose of Accessing:

Web site publishers have to gain an understanding of the

purpose for which the general public accesses the web

sites. 58.8% of the respondents have accessed the web site

with the purpose of getting a service offered by that

particular institution. 15.7% have accessed seeking for job

opportunities, while another 15.7% have accessed for

educational requirements. Another 9.8% have visited for

other reasons.

V. HYPOTHESIS TESTING

A. Hypothesis One

Ho1: There is no relationship between accountability and the

quality of service of a government web site.

Ha1: There is a relationship between accountability and the


TABLE 02

HYPOTHESIS ONE

Significance value is less than 0.05,

Ho1 = Reject

Ha1 = Accept

Table 02 indicates that there is a relationship between the

accountability and the quality of service of government web

service.

TABLE 03

PEARSON CORRELATION BETWEEN ACCOUNTABILITY

AND THE QUALITY OF SERVICE

Table 03 indicates that accountability is positively correlated to

the quality of service. Pearson correlation coefficient is 0.586.

Also, it is significant at 0.05 levels (2-tailed).


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B. Hypothesis Two

Ho1: There is no relationship between user interface and the


Ha1: There is a relationship between user interface and the


TABLE 04

HYPOTHESIS TWO


Ho1 = Reject

Ha1 = Accept

Table 04 indicates that there is a relationship between the user

interface and the quality of service of government web service.

TABLE 05

PEARSON CORELATION BETWEEN USER INTERFACE


Table 05 indicates that the user interface is positively correlated

to the quality of Service. Pearson correlation coefficient is 0.566.

Also, it is significant at 0.05 levels (2-tailed).

C. Hypothesis Three

Ho1: There is no relationship between executability and the


Ha1: There is a relationship between executability and the


TABLE 06

HYPOTHESIS THREE


Ho1 = Reject

Ha1 = Accept

Table 06 indicates that there is a relationship between the

executability and quality of service of government web service.

TABLE 07

PEARSON CORELATION BETWEEN EXCUTABILITY AND

THE QUALITY OF SERVICE

Table 07 indicates that executability is positively correlated to the

quality of Service. Pearson correlation coefficient is 0.610. Also,

it is significant at 0.05 levels (2-tailed).

D. Hypothesis Four

Ho1: There is no relationship between transparency and the


Ha1: There is a relationship between transparency and the quality of service of a government web site.


Ho1 = Reject

Ha1 = Accept


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TABLE 08

HYPOTHESIS FOUR

Table 08 indicates that there is a relationship between

transparency and the quality of service of Government web

service.

TABLE 09

PEARSON CORELATION BETWEEN TRANSPARENCY


Table 09 indicates that transparency is positively correlated to the

quality of service. Pearson correlation coefficient is 0.586. Also,

it is significant at 0.05 levels (2-tailed).

E. Hypothesis Five

Ho1: There is no relationship between democracy and the


Ha1: There is a relationship between democracy and the quality

of service of a government web site.

TABLE 10

HYPOTHESIS FIVE


Ho1 = Reject

Ha1 = Accept

Table 10 indicates that there is a relationship between democracy

and quality of service of government web service.

TABLE 11

PEARSON CORELATION BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND

THE QUALITY OF SERVICE

Table 11 indicates that democracy is positively correlated to the

quality of service. Pearson correlation coefficient is 0.592. Also,

it is significant at 0.05 levels (2-tailed)

VI. CONCLUSION

The main purpose of this study is to identify a set of web site

characteristics for Sri Lanka government web sites to follow in

delivering a high quality service to the general public.

Internationally a handful of researches have been conducted in

this area, but local level researches in this area are not adequate.

On one hand ICT is changing at a rapid phase and on the other

hand locally generated knowledge is essential for successful e-

government deployment. Due to both above reasons, conducting

local level research work in e-government field is of great

importance. Chapter one of the study sets the background to the study.Further, it covers the scope and significance of the study.

Published literature based on various countries has been referred

for the study. The prepared literature review is in line with

conceptual model developed for the study. Population of the

study consists of 53 web sites which were selected from total of

290 web sites hosted in the government web portal.The selected

sample consists of government ministries, government

departments and government institutions. Data collection was

done by directly visiting the organization premises and through

that exact web site users were captured from the general public

who were visiting the organization on that given time. Collected data is then entered in to the SPSS software and conducted a

reliability test which resulted with 93% of reliability. That


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reliability rating indicates the level of standards maintained

during the research process. Research outcome of such high

quality data will have a greater dependability. Finally the data

will be applied to conduct various statistical analysis. In this case,

as listed in the hypothesis test, it has done one way ANOVA and

correlation analysis to understand the significance and the type of relationship between depended and independent variables. Results

of hypothesis testing have proved that the dependent variable,

quality of service is having a positive relationships with all the

independent variables applied for the testing.

Further analysis of the data has identified the independent

variable, executablity as the most important variable out of all.

Executability has reflected highest mean value which indicates

the highest user demand. Similarly, it has reflected the highest

correlation rating with the quality of service, which indicates

improvements in executabilty is the most effective medium to

uplift the quality of service in e-government web sites.

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Documents

ICTer 2015 Paper by Kasun Rajapakse