Abstract:
Information technology growth and development has caused to significant revolution in the daily life of themodern societies. Changing organizational approaches in their activities methods has been presented with IT development simultaneously by scholars and endeavors have been continued to discover its various dimensions. E-Readiness, a concept that has been stated 3 decades ago, means the degree which a country, society, an organization utilizes and accepts ICT (Information and Communication Technology). The present research aims at assessment of municipality E-readiness as a public and nongovernmental organization which is commuting with citizens increasingly. Thus, all organizational E-readiness models have been reviewed and an E-readiness assessment model has been created for municipality after taking experts’ opinions into consideration. The model, then, has been weighted and has assessed municipality. The results, then, have been analyzed and some suggestions have been presented according to the analysis for the municipality.The model has four dimensions: "Security and Technical Infrastructure", "Human Resources Readiness", "Legal and Judicial Framework", "Policies, Strategies and Management Readiness". This model has been created for apublic organization such as municipality for first time and presents a great tool to recognize municipality’sweakness and strengths
Machine summary:
R. Jahany 1 Department of Public Management, School of Management and Economics, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAU), Tehran, Iran 2 Department of Management and Accounting, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAU), Qazvin, Iran Received 1 November 2013, Accepted 3 January 2014 ABSTRACT: Information technology growth and development has caused to significant revolution in the daily life of themodern societies.
The model has four dimensions: "Security and Technical Infrastructure", "Human Resources Readiness", "Legal and Judicial Framework", "Policies, Strategies and Management Readiness".
According to Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University, a community is electronically ready if it is equipped with the required physical infrastructures of information and communication technology such as telecommunication network with wide band, confidential access and low price.
Some leading organizations active in the domain of developing electronic readiness assessment tools include: Table 1: EMM model dimension and indicators Dimensions Indicators Business strategies Defining strategies, analysis of competitors, using information technology Organization and competencies Does organization need new trainings, new competencies, new work method?
Table 2: Alpha coefficient for questionnaire 1 Model Model dimensions Chronbach’s Technical infrastructures and security Human resources Legal frameworks Policies, Strategies and Management Alpha coefficient for the whole questionnaire alpha coefficient 0.
The designed model includes 4 dimensions of "Technical Infrastructure and Security", "Human Resources Readiness", "Legal Frameworks", "Policies, Strategies and Management Readiness" and can clarify the weaknesses and strengths of municipality regarding IT.
This model can be used to assess e-readiness of municipalities across the country in having access to communication and IT technology and using it and to analyze the digital gap between them.