An Investigation of Management Systems for Sustainable e-Government

Sustainable e-government has become an important issue for countries wishing to sustain their e-services and promote integration with smart cities. Such new challenges require policy makers to move toward sustainable e-government and encourage organisations to engage with management systems that promote sustainability; these include systems for environmental sustainability (ISO14001) and social sustainability (ISO 26000). The literature related to sustainable e-government shows a lack of research into the acceptance and adoption of such management systems and their influence on e-government sustainability. A quantitative case study was conducted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which investigated the Saudi Ministry of Justice (MoJ), together with private software companies employed by the MoJ. The purpose of the study was to understand the current situation regarding standards that support sustainability in e-government and its affiliates in the private sector. Survey data was gathered from 83 e-government project employees from the public and private sectors; participants reported on their adoption of management systems designed to support sustainable egovernment. Social management systems were more highly ranked than other management systems, namely those related to environmental and economic administration. This raises concerns about the low level of awareness of green-ability (environmental considerations). While social management systems were more likely to be adopted, these four management systems, environmental, social, quality and economic, showed a strong positive interrelationship: when organisations agreed on the adoption of one form of system, they tended to respond positively to others. These results will be utilised to support future work in designing a framework for sustainable e-government.