icegov2012 proceedings

whether there is a gap and what Technologies, Tools and Web 2.0
(TTW2.0) are used in workplace and how they can support
workplace communications. The methodology for empirical
survey was as follows:
1) The questionnaire for the survey was designed. It includes
four groups of questions regarding: (a) public administration
workplace communications; (b) technologies, tools and web
2.0 usages within workplace; (c) benefits from better
communications on the workplace; (d) willingness to learn,
to improve knowledge, skills and competencies to work with
new technologies, tools & Web 2.0. The Technologies and
Tools which are used in the survey are based on the O*NET
investigation. Web 2.0 applications are chosen as a result of
the literary research and discussions with experts in the field.
Particular focus is given to respondents` willingness to learn
about Technologies and Tools and Web 2.0, in order to
improve their knowledge, skills and competencies.
2) Some meetings and interviews were done with representative
from the Sofia Municipality Directorate “Information
services and technologies” which is the main administrative
and territorial unit in Sofia. Based on discussions with the
representatives a decision about which directorate will best
correspond to the goal of the research was made. Most of the
occupations within the Directorate of “Information services
and technologies” are strongly linked to the technologies and
tools.
3) PA staff, who work in the Sofia Municipality Directorate
“Information services and technologies”, were asked to
respond to the survey and about more than half of them
agreed to give their responds. This questionnaire asked each
respondent question about his/her subjective impression of
the technologies and tools used at the workplace. The given
responses were for more than 90% of the questions.
4) The results of the study are presented into four parts: Part 1:
PA workplace communications; Part 2: Technologies, tools
and web 2.0 usage within workplace; Part 3: Benefits from
better communications on the workplace; Part 4: Willingness
to learn how to work with new technologies, tools & Web
2.0.
5) Data collection period: March 2012 – April 2012.
Responding to this survey was not mandatory. Data are
collected directly from survey respondents. The gathering of
responses was done by a free web based surveying tool. It
allowed automatically responses collection and analysis. For
some of the questions five point Likert scale was used.
6) The results are discussed, summarizing the most important
relations between the groups of questions. The study was
conducted to find answers about: what is the usage of
technologies, tools and web 2.0; are there link between
communications efficiency and TTW2.0 usage; are there gap
in TTW2.0 at the public administration workplace; how
many public employees and professionals are ready and
willing to learn for TTW2.0 for improving their knowledge,
skills and competencies.
Many initiatives are conducted for the e-government development
on a national level in Bulgaria. In December 2011, a start was
given to the electronic exchange of documents between five state
administrations, Ministry of Transport, Information Technology
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and Communications (MTITC), Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism, Road Infrastructure
Agency and BULATSA, by sending and receiving documents
electronically until today [12]. These administrations use the same
document management system. The electronic exchange of
documents today saves time, increases efficiency and reduces
administration costs of departments. Sofia Municipality takes an
active role in e-Government development projects, and it is
planned to be a pilot Lot 3 beneficiary Municipality. Currently,
Sofia Municipality use Document Management Software
“АКСТЪР ОФИС” and most of workplace communications are
done by electronic tools and technologies [24].
6.1 Part 1 - Better Communications at
Workplace
This part of the survey includes 18 questions. The starting point is
to identify how each one of the staff communicates at work, what
does he/she think about personal barriers and what does the
information depend on. At the begging the questions are focused
on indirect factors which influence workplace communications.
The survey data showed that all of the respondents like their job,
and about 69,3% of respondents like to be connected during
working time. The data showed that the majority of the
respondents (77%) agree that the communication itself depends on
the Internet and the net and that two side of the communication,
sender and receiver, are equally important (92,3%). Most of the
respondents (84,6%) communicate more often when they are at
work than when they are at home. The respondents who prefer to
receive information in communication verbally are 46,2%, but
those who prefers to receive information by mail are 38,5 %, no
one prefers using Skype. Next question is about how do
employees prefer to communicate. The responses are similar to
the previous ones: 7,7% prefer to communicate online, 30,8%
Face to Face (F2F), 46,2% F2F&online and 15,4% said that it
doesn’t matter. This comes to the conclusion that most of the
respondents prefer to receive information and to communicate by
using electronic technologies. But, in regards to communication
with some colleagues, 53,8% of the respondents said that they
prefer to communicate more via mail than F2F, about 30,8% can`t
say, 15,4% don’t prefer to communicate via mail more than via
F2F.
It can be concluded that the team working environment is not so
good and there is a presence of bad workplace relationships
concerning some of the staff. Most of the respondents (84,6%)
agree that “Better communication will improve time to finish
work, quality of work and his/her labor cost”. “How often do you
contact someone daily?”, 72,7% of the respondents need to
contact someone at least 5 to 19 times per day. About 18,2% of
them need to contact someone at work more than 50 times, which
leads to the conclusion that about ¼ of the respondents dependent
on communicating with other colleagues at work. The survey data
showed that 92,3% feel happy to take part in community events
and are always ready to support someone in her/his work. 61,5%
of respondents said that his/her competency of working with tool
and technology is extremely important to communicate effectively
and for 38,5% they are important. The result is that technologies
have the potential to improve communications at the workplace.
6.2 Part 2 - Technologies, Tools and Web 2.0
This part of the survey contains three subparts. The first subpart
includes technologies (7 questions), the second one includes tools