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Chapter 2. Literature Review Adoption, Diffusion and Use of E-government
Hassan Al-Zaabi Services in Abu Dhabi Police Force
To summarise, from the studies it was found that barriers still exist, for example, in a study by Al-
Rashidi (2010), who examined e-government implementation in the Gulf region, he discovered that
several factors could affect the implementation of e-government, such as, awareness, trust, political
desire, training, resistance to change, security etc.
The literature allowed this research to form a better understanding of e-government in the Gulf region.
UAE, has a similar environment to other countries in the Gulf region, therefore, the research is
assuming that similar problems or barriers will also face organisations in the UAE.
2.3 Research on UAE and E-government
The e-government project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was first introduced by the government
of Dubai in 2001, to provide services and information for the citizens online (Ayish, 2005). “The UAE
government has always been noted as the region's leader in innovations especially in public sector
management” (Westland and Al-Khouri, 2010: 8). The UAE have the most advanced and up-to-date
telecommunication infrastructure in the Gulf region and the Middle East (Tubaishat and Lansari,
2011). This encourages the implementation of e-government that can serve its citizens and
organisations in this country. “The IT sector grew from $6.9 billion in 2003 to more than $11.4 billion
in 2008 and this figure is expected to rise to $14.8 billion in 2011” (Tubaishat and Lansari, 2011: 211).
A study by (Ayish, 2005) has examined the internet usage of 20 public and private sector organisations
in the UAE based on press releases, photo gallery, bilingual messages etc. Abu Dhabi police was also
included in this study. Furthermore, “the findings of the study seem to show that public and private
organisations in the UAE draw heavily on using the internet” (Ayish, 2005: 385). This concludes that
organisations have already adopted basic internet usage; however, more awareness is still needed for
the implementation of online services and communication.
The success of UAE‟s (e-government) or policy maker‟s initiatives reveal many improvements to
different sectors, but mainly in the educational field (AME, 2008). Other developing countries, such as
Malaysia, have already reached a higher stage of knowledge with what they call „knowledge society‟
and this could be an example that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) could learn from and emulate in
their region (Evers, 2001).
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