Modelling Impacts of Maintenance, Staff Management and Collaboration on E-government Website Availability: A Qualitative System Dynamics Approach

Abstract

This paper proposes a qualitative system dynamics model to elucidate complex feedback relationships between egovernment website maintenance, staff management, and organizational collaboration which eventually influence or are influenced by dynamic level of website availability. Keeping or improving website availability level over time is critical for an e-government system in order to maximize website services delivery benefits for  citizens and businesses. To construct the conceptual model, an empirical system dynamics model of  e-government software maintenance from previous research is used as a main reference. The research acknowledges dynamic complexity of e-government software maintenance and critical role of information technology staff management. Normally, diverse government units are responsible for various different services delivered through an egovernment website. Therefore, organizational collaboration factors, which have been shown as significant factors influencing e- government website enactment by previous research, are also adopted and integrated in the conceptual model. The resulting conceptual model provides more insight into website maintenance management and basis for a stock-and- flow model development of system dynamics method.