Engendering inclusive e-government use through citizen IT training programs

an article by Jae Bok Lee (Korea Institute of Public Administration, South Korea) and Gregory A.Porumbescu (Rutgers University, Newark, USA) published in Government Information Quarterly Volume 36 Issue 1 (January 2019)

Highlights

• Citizen participation in IT training is positively associated with e-government use.
• This relationship is strongest for citizens who are elderly or disabled.
• These findings indicate IT training helps mitigate the digital divide.

Abstract

Around the world, governments turn to information technology (IT) training programs to enhance equitable delivery of online public services to citizens.

However, the effectiveness of these citizen training programs has gone unexplored.

This study is motivated by two objectives:

1. To evaluate whether citizen participation in government training programs is associated with greater e-government use among participants, and
2. To assess whether the strength of this relationship varies according to whether a citizen is elderly, disabled, or not – those who are elderly or disabled tend to use e-government the least.

We use data from South Korean to examine these objectives. Findings indicate citizen participation in government IT training programs is positively associated with e-government use and that this relationship is stronger for citizens who are elderly or disabled.

These findings highlight the potential of government IT training programs to mitigate the digital divide. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

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