Global Survey on Culture Differences and Context in Using E-Government Systems: A Pilot Study

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss some preliminary results, which were collected from a global survey on cultural differences and context in using e-government website services.The primary objective of this research is to make suggestions that could contribute to a more effective and usable e-Government website in the specific countries taking into account the cultural context of the society it is serving. This s important and can be used to assist governments to ensure their website address the needs of specific contexts of their users. The focus of this research will be on the selected populations with the emphasis on culture context as a cultural dimension. In order to measure the cultural profile of the selected populations, a questionnaire was applied. Ten participants were identified through purposive sampling and divided into two groups (5) in low-context culture and (5) in high-context culture. Six tables represent three different sections for both groups. The three sections are preferences general websites, preferences in government web sites and culture characteristics in society. The results contradicted the literature in three tables and the most significant results are that high-context participants changed their preferences when using government websites although they preferred high-context styles for general Internet usage which was not the case for government websites. Here they preferred more low-context styles. Another result was that high-context participants had characteristics of which were more representative of low-context cultures and vice versa.