| This thesis examines E-government in the Canadian federal government context. An exploratory study asked respondents for their views on the potential impact of E-Government in three areas—organization structure, business processes, and costs. On the potential impact of E-Government on organization structure, specifically, leading to a flatter organization, approximately 40% of respondents agreed with the hypothesis. On the potential impact of E-Government on business processes, specifically, HR processes (such as Recruitment), respondent support was between 28% and 53% for each of the processes. There was stronger support for processes such as Finance, Program Delivery, Procurement and Ministerial Mail. On the potential impact of E-government on costs, specifically, on HR, Finance, IT, and Program Delivery processes, respondents overwhelmingly concurred (between 74% and 96% per process) that there would be little to no cost savings in the short term (less than 5 years). A surprising finding was that a majority of respondents (53%) did not think that E-Government would lead to long term cost savings. The findings are in line with Gartner's (2001) study outlining the challenges of turning e-government into reality, namely, difficulty in effecting change in the public sector, lack of funding, complex, expensive initiatives, and rigid governance structures. E-government is new territory. Organizations will need time to learn, adopt, and harvest its benefits. |
