Adoption, Diffusion and Use of E-Government Services in the Abu Dhabi Police Force

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are becoming increasingly prevalent in peoples’ daily lives due to the presence of e-government. This research aims to identify and understand factors affecting the adoption and use of e-government services in a public sector organisation in a developing country, in this case, Abu Dhabi Police Force (ADPF) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). For this purpose a theoretical framework based on existing e-government and e-services literature was developed. To determine its applicability, a qualitative approach involving 200 participants’ interviews was used in this study. The questions for the interviews were based on the constructs derived from classic theories in the literature. The theories are: Diffusion of Innovations Theory (DOI), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB) and e-Commerce’s Trustworthiness models. The research study results revealed that departments that had roles and responsibilities aligned with government online products and services, adopted e-services better. Where training and awareness was provided, individuals adopted e-services better, and where trust in the provision of e-services was divided in two. The first relates to e-services being better than a manual service as e-services provide clarity and transparency. The second form of trust aligns with confidentiality and privacy. A subset of the research revealed that demographic factors that include, an organisational structure position and the role that one has, inhibit or encourages the use and adoption of e-services. The contributions from this research are anticipated to be a better understanding of the adoption, diffusion and use of e-services in the UAE region. For theory, this research study provided a diverse approach (qualitative research) in an organisational context, the development of a conceptual framework specific to Abu Dhabi’s public sector department and finally, there is research conducted on government to employee e-services in Abu Dhabi, a rare occurrence. For policymakers, the contribution of this research is that the research can understand the impacts of policies and strategies used for developing and implementing e-services. For practice the contribution can be in the form of results that organisations providing external consultancy services in the UAE can identify and understand. Therefore, results such as, lower positions individuals in departments not utilising e-services emerged and suggest that awareness should be inherent within the organisation. By doing so, fewer risks and waste of resources in the form of time and personnel can be avoided.