Government of United Arab Emirates

The government’s primary goal is to give services and goods in the most effective and efficient way to its citizens (Rabaa’I, Zogheib, AlShatti & Jamal, 2016). Globally, the governments are grappling with the challenge of promoting e-government initiatives. The governments are encouraging the populaces to use and access public services using the internet and to achieve this; then the Internet must be accessible for all classes of individuals and organizations (Khorshid, 2004). Electronic government is referred to as the utilization of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve services and promote governance. On the other hand, a decision support system is “an interactive information system that provides information, models, and data manipulation tools to help make decisions in semi-structured and unstructured situations” (Khorshid, 2004).  The United Arab Emirates does not have a closed system for the government support decision process. There is interaction with higher authorities and their advisory committees through policy directives and linkages. (Khorshid, 2004).

Decision Support System (DSS) is an all-inclusive phrase used to explain computer applications that augment the operator’s capability to make decisions (Riad, El-Adl, Mamoun & El-Bakry, 2012). In specific terms, the term is typically used to define systems that are computer-based and are meant to assist decision makers to utilize knowledge, data, and communication and information technologies in detecting hitches and finding solutions to them in the decision-making process (Riad, El-Bakry & El-Adl, 2010).  Decision support systems can be classified into seven comprehensive groupings including Data-Driven, Communication-Driven, Knowledge-Driven, Spreadsheet-based, Document-Driven, Model-Driven as well as Web-based Decision Support System (Narayanasamy & Velmurugan, 2008).This paper has a keen focus on the Web-based DSS system which is used via a web browser.

What type of government does United Arab Emirates have

The current economy is multifaceted, exceptionally dynamic and continually evolving. At such the decision-making process used for performance and achievement concerns should be optimised. As the society grow and administration is obligated to conform to the new social transformations, it is paramount that governments optimise their activities and cope with the resources available in an economical and efficient way (Peculea & Chitescu, 2015). There is the need for a transparent decision-making approach, proper management, and sound institutional administration structures.  The quality of the decisions made is dependent on management, processing, and exploitation of data, as well as internal and external information.  The data flow is quite significant, and its management is beyond human capability. To this end, it quite crucial to develop an information system that permits for adequate data management necessary for supporting the process of decision making.

A government DSS is reinforced by general ICT infrastructure contingent on the eGovernance technology (Khorshid, 2004). Principally, decision support functions of the government signify a constituent of the e-government scheme, and they profit from its cutting-edge ICT. Various governments of the developing nations have been employing information technology for above four decades (Mishra & Mishra, 2012). However, in e-government, computer support to government activities goes beyond automation of the internal working environment in government by data processing to support and transformation of the external mechanisms of administration by both data processing as well as data communication (Al-Nuaim, 2011). eGovernance provides a novel way forward to advance government courses, create relations with civil society, establish appropriate linkages with citizens and interact with the outside world. Electronic governance improves the government processes, connects citizens with the household sector and creates external connections with community and private business services.

United Arab Emirates government system

A government is a functional model of the society (Rabaai, Zogheib, Al Shatti & AlJamal, 2015). To this end, every regulatory feature of the society concerning to the level of the referential is demonstrated, executed and activated in the referential. Different components of the society interact with the referential authority over organizational and technical channels using specific procedures and rules (Khorshid, 2004). Organizational rules, channels, and procedures change periodically under the new legislation and social evolution while the set of technical channels including postal mails, telephone, teller and postal mail has recently been extended to the internet and ICT bringing forth the concept of e-governance (Conklin, 2007). eGovernance needs interfaces, resources, procedures and other components. eGovernment focuses on facilitating the governments’ operations as well as the distribution of services and information (Sandoz, 2009). eGovernment offers improved services, provides efficiency, offers government accountability and transparency, enhances decision making as well as ensuring better access to public utilities.

The common theme when defining electronic government is the detail that there is the usage of communication technology and particularly the internet to enhance service conveyance to the populaces, government agencies and businesses and ensure that there is efficiency in interaction and access of the services from the state, local and federal governments (Abu-Shanab & Khasawneh, 2014). There is an association between DSS and the electronic government where the state encourages citizen participation in the making of the decision and ensuring that the government is more accountable, effective and transparent (Chan, Song, Sarker & Plumlee, 2017). The challenge has been finding the appropriate decision support system to that can be incorporated into the government layers or components and also the utilization of the suitable DSS into eGovernment. Furthermore, most eGovernments have not incorporated the DSS into their frameworks or systems.

United Arab Emirates government structure

Policy-makers, senior managers and strategic development planners in the government sectors utilize data, information, and knowledge to make decisions (Khorshid, 2004). Data represents measurements of activities, events and transactions recorded, verified, classified and stored without conveying particular information. Information is the data that has been decoded and transmits a precise message to the receiver and can be used to draw conclusions and inferences (Mishra & Mishra, 2012). Knowledge is focused on understanding, accumulated learning, experience and expertise and applies to a particular activity or problem. Knowledge is the most progressive and effective support that is computer-based and its used in making proper decisions.

Most of the eGovernment platforms are applying the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) methodology to integrate between clients’ applications and different services (Riad et al., 2010). The benefits of SOA are high-degree distributed, business-centred, rapid flexibility, service reusability and loose coupling of service (Riad et al., 2010). However, the challenge has remained how the government officials will take their decisions into updatable electronic society. The rapid transformations have a remarkable influence on the making of decisions. Few investigations have worked on providing an explicit and clear DSS framework inside the e-government. This study aims at handling this problem as it is imperative to include the DSS within the electronic government framework.

E-government research paper questions

1. What is the extent of adoption of the Web-based decision support system in the UAE eGovernment?

2. How does the web-based decision support system support decision making within the seven emirates?

3. How efficient is the policy making process in the UAE with the adoption of the web-based DSS?

Hypothesis

1. The web-based DSS supports the United Arab Emirates Vision 2021 and Vision 2030.

2. The Web based DSS supports the federal eGovernment to enable a new level of collaboration between the different government emirates.

3. The web-based DSS generates so much data that presents a challenge during data analysis.

4. The information gathered through the web-based DSS positively contribute to the decision-making satisfaction

5. The Web-based DSS enhances information presentation which positively contributes to decision-making satisfaction.

6. The web-based DSS enhances public participation in the United Arab Emirates eGovernment