Change management as a critical sustainability factor to prevent failure of e-government initiatives

Abstract

E-government improves and more importantly transforms the public sector especially in developing countries. In order to take advantage of such benefits, developing countries have been investing a lot on e-government initiatives in spite of their limited budget. Extant literatures show that there are only few success stories whereas majorities of those efforts end up in a failure. In this paper we argue that one way to avoid e-government failure is to learn from successful change management efforts put forth during e-government implementation. Based on a multiple case study, this study explored the difference in the way two districts managed the required changes during the implementation of WoredaNet e-government project. The study revealed that there exists difference between the two districts on three core issues: change efforts conducted on the human elements, organizational culture and the commitment of top management. Accordingly, recommendations are also provided as to how to approach different change related factors and issues in order to successfully manage the required changes during e-government implementation.