Abstract
Digital transformation signifies the adoption and implementation of digital technologies in solving wicked problems pertaining to public services. Digital transformation is a holistic approach that causes significant changes in organizational or societal, service logics, structures, and values. Some glimpses of digital transformation can be noticed in recent governmental responses to the unprecedented economic, social, and health crises emanated from the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the dynamics of the digital transformation in public organizations in the United Arab Emirates. To begin with, it will highlight the developments of ICT applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), block chain and internet of things (IoT), and its implications for public service delivery. In addition, this chapter will discuss in detail the outcomes such as service delivery effectiveness, open government, transparency, participation, and so forth. Furthermore, it will reflect on the challenges of the digital transformation journey in the socio-economic and political contexts of the UAE.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahmad, S. Z., & Khalid, K. (2017). The adoption of M-government services from the user’s perspectives: Empirical evidence from The United Arab Emirates. International Journal of Information Management, 37(5), 367–379.
Aitamurto, T., & Landemore, H. (2016). Crowdsourced deliberation: The case of the law on off-road traffic in Finland. Policy & Internet, 8(2), 174–196.
AlAli, A. (2020). Implementation of electronic notification process and its impact on employee performance in Dubai Courts: Lessons from international best practices. Unpublished Master of Public Administration Dissertation, Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government, Dubai, the UAE.
AlFalasi, J. A., & Rahman, M. H. (2022). Chapter 3: Examining the digital transformation of intellectual property (IP) infringement services in the Department of Economic Development (DED), Dubai. In M. N. Almunawar, M. Z. Islam, & P. O. de Pablos (Eds.), Digitalisation and organisation design: Knowledge management in the Asian digital economy. Routledge/Taylor & Francis.
Biygautane, M., & Al-Taee, M. (2015). The role of political leadership in driving citizens’ engagement through social media: The case of Dubai’s public sector. In S. Nepal, D. Georgakopoulos, & C. Paris (Eds.), Social media for government services (pp. 75–95). Springer.
Chasin, F., & Scholta, H. (2015). Taking peer-to-peer sharing and collaborative consumption onto the next level: New opportunities and challenges for e-government. In Proceedings of the 23rd European conference on information systems (ECIS 2015). Munster, Germany.
Danielsen, F. (2021, June). Benefits and challenges of digitalization: An expert study on Norwegian public organizations. In DG. O2021: The 22nd annual international conference on digital government research (pp. 317–326). https://doi.org/10.1145/3463677.3463703
Dener, C., Nii-Aponsah, H., Ghunney, L. E., & Johns, K. D. (2021). GovTech maturity index: The state of public sector digital transformation. World Bank Publications
de Kool, D., & Bekkers, V. (2015). The perceived impact of open inspection data on the quality of education in Dutch primary schools: A parent perspective. Social Science Computer Review, 33(5), 645–659.
Duerr, S., Wagner, H. T., Weitzel, T., & Beimborn, D. (2017, February 12–15). Navigating digital innovation – The complementary effect of organizational and knowledge recombination. In Wirtschaftsinformatik proceedings (pp. 1363–1377). https://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=wi2017
Dunleavy, P., Margetts, H., Bastow, S., & Tinkler, J. (2006). New public management is dead—long live digital-era governance. Journal of public administration research and theory, 16(3), 467–494.
Elnaghi, M., Alshawi, S. N., Kamal, M. M., Weerakkody, V., & Irani, Z. (2019). Exploring the role of a government authority in managing transformation in service re-engineering–Experiences from Dubai police. Government Information Quarterly, 36(2), 196–207.
Eom, S. J., & Lee, J. (2022). Digital government transformation in turbulent times: Responses, challenges, and future direction. Government Information Quarterly, 39(2), 101690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2022.101690
Geiger, C. P., & Von Lucke, J. (2012). Open government and (linked)(open)(government)(data). JeDEM-eJournal of eDemocracy and open Government, 4(2), 265–278.
Gilchrist, A. (2016). Industry 4.0: The industrial internet of things. Apress. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-2047-4
Gupta, V. K., Yayla, A. A., Sikdar, A., & Cha, M. S. (2012). Institutional environment for entrepreneurship: Evidence from the developmental states of South Korea and United Arab Emirates. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 17(03), 1250013. https://doi.org/10.1142/S1084946712500136
Henriette, E., Feki, M., & Boughzala, I. (2015). The Shape of Digital Transformation: A Systematic Literature Review. MCIS 2015 Proceedings, 10. Retrieved from http://aisel.aisnet.org/mcis2015/10
Hesse, A., (2018). Digitalization and Leadership - How Experienced Leaders Interpret Daily Realities in a Digital World. Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1dd7/ecf8848e172c87ac569d57ede8cff5898429.pdf
Hvidt, M. (2009). The Dubai model: An outline of key development-process elements in Dubai. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 41(3), 397–418.
Idlebi, N. (2019). Can open government be implemented in the Arab world? Towards a policy roadmap (DPR-EN-008, Vol 1). Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government.
Ingrams, A., Manoharan, A., Schmidthuber, L., & Holzer, M. (2020). Stages and determinants of e-government development: A twelve-year longitudinal study of global cities. International Public Management Journal, 23(6), 731–769.
Layne, K., & Lee, J. (2001). Developing fully functional E-government: A four stage model. Government Information Quarterly, 18(2), 122–136.
Lee, S. Y., DÃaz-Puente, J. M., & Martin, S. (2019). The contribution of open government to prosperity of society. International Journal of Public Administration, 42(2), 144–157.
Lu, J., Qi, L., & Yu, X. (2019). Political trust in the internet context: A comparative study in 36 countries. Government Information Quarterly, 36(4), 101386. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2019.06.003
Maerz, S. F. (2016). The electronic face of authoritarianism: E-government as a tool for gaining legitimacy in competitive and non-competitive regimes. Government Information Quarterly, 33(4), 727–735.
Mansour, A. M. (2018). The national policymaking style of the United Arab Emirates: Fusing patron–client networks into modernity. In: Howlett, M., & Tosun, J. (Eds.), Policy styles and policy-making (pp. 263–286). Routledge.
Meijer, A. J., Curtin, D., & Hillebrandt, M. (2012). Open government: Connecting vision and voice. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 78(1), 10–29.
Mergel, I., Kleibrink, A., & Sorvik, J. (2018). A framework for interpreting social media interactions in the public sector. Government Information Quarterly, 30(4), 327–334.
Moon, M. J. (2020). Shifting from old open government to new open government: Four critical dimensions and case illustrations. Public Performance & Management Review, 43(3), 535–559.
OGP (Open Government Partnership). (2019). Open government partnership global report. Vol. I. Available online at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Global-Report_Volume-1.pdf. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
Pasquier, M., & Villeneuve, J.-P. (2017). Marketing management and communications in the public sector (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Porumbescu, G. A., Cucciniello, M., & Gil-Garcia, J. R. (2020). Accounting for citizens when explaining open government effectiveness. Government Information Quarterly, 37(2), 101451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2019.101451
Rahman, M. H., & Sarker, A. E. (2021, November 12–14). Is agile government the new panacea? Lessons learnt from the UAE. NASPAA South Asia virtual conference 2021 preparing public leaders in South Asia for a post pandemic world.
Rahman, M. H., Albaloshi, S. A., & Sarker, A. E. (2016). From e-governance to smart governance: Policy lessons for the UAE. Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2482-1
Relly, J. E., Rabbi, M. F., Sabharwal, M., Pakanati, R., & Schwalbe, E. H. (2020). More than a decade in the making: A study of the implementation of India’s right to information act. World Development, 136, 105088. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105088
Sarker, A. E., & Al Athmay, A. A. A. R. A. (2018). The changing facets of public administration in The United Arab Emirates. International Journal of Public Administration, 41(10), 832–844.
Scholta, H., Mertens, W., Kowalkiewicz, M., & Becker, J. (2019). From one-stop shop to no-stop shop: An e-government stage model. Government Information Quarterly, 36(1), 11–26.
Serikbayeva, B., Abdulla, K., & Oskenbayev, Y. (2021). State capacity in responding to COVID-19. International Journal of Public Administration, 44(11–12), 920–930.
Stier, S. (2015). Political determinants of e-government performance revisited: Comparing democracies and autocracies. Government Information Quarterly, 32(3), 270–278.
Tai, K. T. (2021). Open government research over a decade: A systematic review. Government Information Quarterly, 38(2), 101566. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2021.101566
Transparency International. (2022). Corruption perception index. Available online at: https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021?gclid=Cj0KCQjwqc6aBhC4ARIsAN06NmOkkOWivK4T5QXK1RYeoANemNd3hPCVDx9AFwYHqz7a2EHf0YtNlCcaAgAPEALw_wcB. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
United Nations (2021). National Institutional Arrangement fir implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals: A five-year stocking, Public Sector Report. Retrieved from https://publicadministration.un.org/en/Research/World-Public-Sector-Reports
United Nations (UN) (2022). E-governance survey 2022 The Future of Digital Government, New York: United Nations.
Vial, G. (2019). Understanding digital transformation: A review and a research agenda. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 28(2), 118–144.
World Justice Project. (2022). WJP rule of law index. Available online at: https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
Wright, S. (2021). Conceptualising Qatar’s political economy as a developmental state. In M. Zweiri & F. Al Qawasmi (Eds.), Contemporary Qatar: Examining state and society (Vol. 4, pp. 153–170). Springer.
Yaghi, A., & Al-Jenaibi, B. (2017). Organizational readiness for E-governance: A study of public agencies in The United Arab Emirates. South Asian Journal of Management, 24(1), 7–31.
Yu, H., & Robinson, D. G. (2012). The new ambiguity of open government. UCLA Law Review Discourse, 59, 178–208.
World Bank . Worldwide Governance Indicators, 21 October 2022 (2022).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sarker, A.E., Rahman, M.H., Islam, M.R. (2023). An Analysis of Digital Transformation in Public Organizations: The Case of the United Arab Emirates. In: Zafarullah, H., Siddiquee, N.A. (eds) Open Government and Freedom of Information. Information Technology and Global Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35863-0_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35863-0_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-35862-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-35863-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)