PUBLIC VALUE OF E-GOVERNANCE: A STUDY OF SELECT CITIZEN CENTRIC PROJECTS

Abstract

Electronic-governance (E-governance) refers to the use of information and communication technologies for enhancing performance of public organizations by making them more effective and accessible. The benefits of e-governance have been recognized across the world. It provides opportunities to public organizations to strengthen their interface with citizens. For the past many decades, the concept has been playing crucial role for transforming public organizations. In India, over the past few years, government has invested huge amount of money in implementing various new e-governance projects and strengthening the existing ones for improving the performance of its public organizations. However, studies indicate that the actual benefits of egovernance projects are yet to fully realize in terms of benefits to citizens. In India, to avail various public services such as passport, driving license, birth and death certificate, etc. citizens are required to visit public organizations. They have to interact with different government departments for availing benefits under various schemes. The experience of citizens about the performance of public services is perceived as public value. Public value is a popular concept to assess public services. It is known as the measurement tool for public services. However, despite several initiatives taken to promote egovernance by the Government in India, its benefits are yet to fully reach the target beneficiaries as planned. Therefore, it is important to analyze the public value of public organizations from the perspective of citizens‘.During the study, it has been found that measurement of public value in most of the developed countries has been attempted through performance of e-governance portals. However, in the Indian context, due to lack of an end-to-end IT-based service delivery mechanism, all services are not accessible exclusively through websites. In most of the cases, a hybrid approach has been adopted for service delivery in which citizens can fill applications and book appointment in online mode whereas, for availing actual services, they are required to visit the concerned department.

vi A citizen visiting a public organization faces a situation, interacts with employees and follows a process or a set of processes. In this study, it is conceptualized that the citizen develops a perception based on interplay of Situation-Actor-Process (S-A-P) related variables which is expected to be influencing public value of e-governance. Therefore, variables related to the situation, actors and processes are explored in the study context and it has been attempted to analyze their influence on public value. The objectives of research areto identify the factors for analyzing public value of citizen-centric e-governance projects, to identify the situation-actor-process related variables in the context of centric e-governance projects and to explore the relationship between situation-actor-process related variables and public value in the study context and propose an empirically validated framework for improving public value of citizen-centric e-governance projects. To fulfil these objectives, followed by a pilot study, a detailed analysis is executed by conducting a survey and collecting responses from beneficiaries of select five citizen-centric e-governance projects. This study is mainly divided into three phases. In the first phase, a pilot study of passport project and driving license project is conducted to get better insights about service delivery related issues. In the second phase, research variables related to S-A-P and public value are identified and an opinion survey is conducted based on select e-governance projects. In the last phase of the study, analysis of data is conducted to identify the relationship between S-A-P related variables and public value. Another case study to suggest measures for achieving improved public value is also conducted in this phase. Lastly, a few recommendations are proposed for improving public value of e-governance projects based on Learning-Action-Performance (L-A-P) synthesis. The study reveals that macro variables in terms of S-A-P, viz. ‗Improved Situation‘, ‗Capability level of Actors‘ and ‗Flexible Process Workflow‘ are having significant influence on ‗Quality Service Delivery‘, ‗Competence of Public Organizations‘, ‗Achievement of Socially Required Outcomes‘ and on

vii overall ‗Public Value‘ of public organizations in the study context. This study has contributed to the area of analysis of the public value of e-governance projects. It has several implications for e-governance practitioners, researchers and society. The study is expected to benefit both e-governance planners and implementers while planning for new projects or analyzing existing ones to improve the realization of public value. It opens a window for researchers to analyze more such public services of similar nature in order to increase the scope of the study for generalized findings. Thrust on improving situational aspects, capability of actors and flexibility of processes as identified in this study, are expected to enhance delivery of services that satisfies the need for improved public value and creates a positive attitude among society towards public organizations.