Beyond Organizational Motives of e-Government Adoption: The Case of e-Voting Initiative in Indonesian Villages

Manik Hapsara, Ahmed Imran, Timothy Turner

Research output: A Conference proceeding or a Chapter in BookConference contributionpeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Motive is an important underlying reason an organization engages in a particular behavior, which includes initiating a particular information systems adoption. Adoption motives, however, are situational, urging motivational studies to be contingent on the context. The purposes of this paper are therefore twofold: (1) reflecting on the case of Indonesian e-voting initiative, to examine the local government's motives behind e-government adoption; (2) to identify emerging themes that might have influenced the process of e-voting adoption in several Indonesian villages. Qualitative data were collected from five government leaders at both municipal and village levels in a municipality that have previously conducted village e-voting elections. This study found that performance-related rationalities, i.e. cost-savings, reducing service delivery-time, are the main drives for e-voting adoption in this case. Although instances of motives belonging to technological and strategic clusters have also been recorded, none of the leaders responded to operation-related motives. This might be due to the simplistic interpretation of e-voting as merely a replacement for paper-ballots, while its broader implication to democratic values and election best practices have been largely ignored. Moreover, it was evident from the study that the decision to adopt voting technology in this case has been significantly influenced by political interests, where strong cases of leadership further accelerated the adoption process. The strong determination exhibited by higher level leaders has put significant pressures on the lower level authorities to implement e-voting, which might have conflicted with their own organizational strategy, socio-cultural norms, and citizen preparedness. This study is important to identify context-based rationales behind e-voting initiatives in Indonesia and the results are relevant to assist Indonesian government in the development of other e-government strategy in the future. This paper further emphasizes for a broader strategy which takes account of the risks of impairing democratic values and generating conflicts during electoral processes.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication4th Information Systems International Conference 2017
EditorsKhin T. Lwin
Place of PublicationBali, Indonesia
PublisherElsevier B.V
Pages362-369
Number of pages8
Volume124
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017
Externally publishedYes
Event4th Information Systems International Conference 2017, ISICO 2017 - Bali, Indonesia
Duration: 6 Nov 20178 Nov 2017

Publication series

NameProcedia Computer Science
PublisherElsevier BV
ISSN (Print)1877-0509

Conference

Conference4th Information Systems International Conference 2017, ISICO 2017
Country/TerritoryIndonesia
CityBali
Period6/11/178/11/17

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