The e-Government evaluation challenge: A South African Batho Pele-aligned service quality approach

Over the past decade, governments have embarked on major Information and Communication Technology (ICT) investments in an attempt to take advantage of the benefits of the internet in extending the channels by which services are provided to their respective citizenries. With the increasing reliance on ICTs, one of the challenges facing public sector managers is how to evaluate the success or effectiveness of their ICT investments. Given the citizen-focused objectives of governments, service quality approaches offer a suitable frame for evaluating ICT effectiveness. This paper therefore extends current e-Service quality research into the e-Government domain. The paper reports on the development of a multi-item instrument for evaluating the e-Service quality constructs of an e-Government website in South Africa. The development of this instrument also takes into account the service delivery principles which have been adopted by the South African government viz. the Batho Pele program. The study shows that there are six service quality dimensions applicable in e-Government evaluation, viz. website design, navigation, communication, site aesthetics, information quality, and security. The generic instrument allows practitioners to modify and utilise it according to their needs.

Research Highlights
► A case is made for evaluating the effectiveness of web-enabled e-government applications.
► e-Service quality research in e-business is extended into the e-government domain.
► Six service quality dimensions relevant to e-Government websites are identified.
► A multi-item instrument (e-GovSqual) for evaluating e-Government websites is proposed.