Abstract
Background: Open government policies, strategic documents and the use of information and communication technology tools are enablers of good governance, which is reflected in citizens’ satisfaction. Despite numerous open government initiatives introduced by various governments worldwide, there is insufficient literature detailing how open government influences governance in a typical municipality.
Objectives: The main objective of this research is to investigate the adoption of open government initiatives in a typical South African municipality.
Method: This study utilised institutional theory as a lens, as it accurately describes the setting of government, specifically at the municipal level. The researchers chose a purposeful sample of employees from the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality and employed an interpretive inductive qualitative case study method to uncover how open government policies and strategic documents facilitate good governance.
Results: Data were collected through interviews, and thematic and content analysis were applied to analyse the collected data, uncovering depth and richness. The identified themes emerged from the website, call centres, social media and letters used to communicate with citizens.
Conclusion: The study concludes that it is necessary to develop applications to assist government administration and enable citizens to interact in real time through live chats, discussions and online document reviews.
Contribution: This study contributes to our understanding of institutional theory, which is inherently complex because of the governmental environment. It particularly focusses on the linkages, networks and couplings between public problems and public jurisdictions, highlighting their high interdependence.
Keywords: citizen participation; electronic; e-participation; tools; open government.
Introduction
The study examines the role of open government initiatives in enabling good governance in South African municipalities for effective governance towards socio-economic development. Socio-economic development would be the reason for implementing an open government initiative to enhance transparency, empower citizens, combat corruption and utilise technology for better governance (Tai, 2021). The study defined open government, sometimes called e-government, as a pervasive phenomenon considered a mechanism to enhance the efficiency of public service delivery in administration. The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) issued the White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery in 1997 to promote reform and enhance service delivery in the public sector. The 2011 White Paper addresses the potential of the Batho Pele principles to improve service delivery. The contribution of Batho Pele principles encompass consultation, service standards, redress, access, courtesy, information, openness and value for money. These guiding principles were established to promote the accountability of service providers and public servants and to highlight the importance of users’ voices in encouraging the government to create methods for providing more effective services (Mboweni, 2022; Mokitimi et al., 2023).
In this study, section 152 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) mandates that local governments engage community stakeholders in decisions that impact them directly. It cannot be disregarded as stated by Ndevu and Muller (2017) and Aldegheishem (2024) that local governement represent the segment of the public sector in proximity to citizens and plays a crucial role in addressing basic needs, delivering services and fostering local development. This study further addresses the implementation process for open government and investigates how Batho Pelo principles were affected at Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM). According to the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Buffalo City Metropolitan (2020), a municipality provides its citizens with different service delivery matters, such as electricity, roads and transportation, waste management, water and sanitation, and human settlements. The study noted that some BCMM regions are also affected by service delivery protesters in some blocks, such as Duncan Village (Ndasana et al., 2022). The findings by Ndasana et al. (2022) highlight the inadequate ways the municipality is meeting the needs of its citizens or understanding the value of implementing and supporting open government initiatives. Ndasana et al. (2022) further contend that absence of housing, poverty and a lack of communication are the main causes of these violent service delivery demonstrations at BCMM.
In a study by Rulashe and Ijeoma (2022) maintains that an opportunity to create platforms for each of the neighbouring communities in compliance with the relevant laws related to the 2016–2021 open government principles. Therefore, this study’s aims at protecting spatial and natural environments, addressing issues around poverty, unemployment, social inequality, providing residents with essential services, etc. Moreover, BCMM could communicate with and engage the community better by using loud hailers, radio and newspapers and putting up posters not only at the municipality’s door but also in grocery stores and other places frequented by the people of the community to democratise development and spread information successfully (Schedler 2018). Open government participation is a relatively new concept in governance; however, a gap exists in the literature discussing open government initiatives, such as the work of Karkin and Yavuz (2017), Gündem (2022) and Gündoğan and Bingöl (2024), whose studies were conducted in Turkiye. A gap is found in the study which this research will assist in closing it by providing an African perspective on the use of government data. Notwithstanding that, limitations of literature continues to be limited, that using government data continues to be limited, with low awareness of what data are (or could be) and how these data might enhance citizens’ interaction with public entities such as municipalities. Furthermore, understanding and describing these processes and initiatives in rural, peri-urban and urban communities in developing countries would be an important addition to the literature. Thus, this study makes a significant theoretical contribution to e-government and public administrative literature. While e-government processes have been studied previously, how open government initiatives are received in municipalities in South Africa or similar contexts is less understood, especially the adoption of open data initiatives. The current body of knowledge on e-government, specifically on open government initiatives and how they are perceived in municipalities, lacks sufficient depth. Using data from BCMM, the study further discusses institutional theory as a lens for understanding e-government initiatives in a municipality.
Open government initiatives
Open governance initiative studies provide additional open government programmes in emerging nations; for instance, De Magalhães Santos (2024) concentrated on open government data in Brazil. The research investigated data as a ‘public good’ to assess data governance and the enablers of sustainable goal transformation. However, there are obstacles to local government disseminating governmental data (Conradie & Choenni, 2014). Máchová and Lněnička (2017) assessed the quality of open data portals in the Czech Republic. The study by Zuiderwijk et al. (2014) provides an overview of the fundamental components of open data ecosystems that facilitate the straightforward release, utilisation of open data and civic engagement (Wirtz et al., 2019). Van Loenen et al. (2021) examined value generation via open data and sustainable open data ecosystems.
Talukder et al. (2019) examined the factors influencing the acceptance and utilisation of accessible government data in Bangladesh. Wang et al. (2018) examined the evolution of local open government data portals in China, as well as the use of open data for democratic governance (Ruijer et al., Meijer 2017). Shao (2024) examined the utilisation of open government data in Tanzania. Investigating the post-adoption impact on data providers provides another viewpoint on open government (Mustapa et al., 2022).
The concept of value in open government
Studies have affirmed that open government is meant to increase government transparency, citizen engagement and collaboration, and foster innovation and efficiency (De Souza et al., 2022; Huttunen et al., 2022; Kopackova et al., 2022). However, Jetzek et al. (2013) have identified barriers to value generation in open government initiatives based on closed or inaccessible datasets. In addition, a lack of comprehensive data policies, validity, completeness, exhaustiveness of datasets, insufficient metadata, and a lack of technical and semantic interoperability are some barriers noticed in this study. To overcome these barriers, we propose governments focus on four enabling factors: openness, resource governance, capabilities and technical connectivity. As a result, knowledge extracted from such open government initiatives can provide tremendous economic and social value. Furthermore, technological problems related to handling data within authority structures consist of the political interests of each government, authorities, legalities, and the interest and use of the data by society (Hassan & Twinomurinzi, 2018).
Jetzek et al. (2013) highlight the two types of value often discussed in the literature, namely economic value and social value. Economic value is defined as the worth of a good or service as determined by the market, and social value is created when resources, inputs, processes or policies are combined to generate improvements in the lives of individuals or society (Emerson & Beceren, 2001). The concept of value is often encountered in e-government literature (Benmohamed et al., 2024; Chan et al., 2025; Jetzek et al., 2013; Leviäkangas & Molarius, 2020;). Based on Moore’s (1997) public value framework, public resources should be used to increase value, not only in an economic sense but also more broadly in terms of what is valued by citizens and communities.
Many scholars argue that open government initiatives could contribute significantly to creating public value (Attard et al. 2015; Benmohamed et al., 2022; Zuiderwijk & Janssen, 2014). However, open government initiatives do not have much value on their own; rather, their implementation creates value (Jansen, 2012). Hence, supporting open government initiative implementation and support is crucial to delivering value. Zeleti et al. (2016) have evaluated the economic value of open government data. Therefore, this article views value from the perspective of the relationship between open government initiatives and the value they are supposed to bring. The researchers viewed the relationship between open government initiatives and value from a societal standpoint, whereby different mechanisms could generate outcomes that positively affect the concept of social and economic value, reflected by social welfare indicators like good governance, including resource governance.
Institutional theory as a lens to understand open government
Hassan and Gil-Garcia (2008) contend that there is a shortage of research investigating the institutional effects on the acceptance, development and utilisation of information technology in public organisations at both micro and macro levels. Consequently, forthcoming research should increasingly employ institutional theory to analyse the micro and macro dimensions of information technology utilisation in government. Institutional approaches can elucidate cultural–cognitive dimensions and the impact of laws and regulations on the interplay between information technology and organisations; however, this explanatory potential has not been utilised adequately (Van Wijk et al., 2019).
Institutional theory, as articulated by Hassan and Gil-Garcia (2008), was selected to underpin this study because of its assertion that organisations function as interrelated social and cultural systems governed by social norms and standards of appropriate conduct. Hinings et al. (2018) note that institutional theory examines the processes through which structures, rules, schemas and routines gain acceptance as norms and sustain social behaviour within a specific organisation. The theory posits that organisations pursue legitimacy for survival, achieving it through adherence to coercive, normative and mimetic institutional pressures. Consequently, organisations exhibit similarities as they adopt the same socially significant practices, which subsequently lead to the homogenisation of the entire field of study (Aksom & Tymchenko, 2020).
The legitimacy of an organisation encompasses the enhancement of actor engagement within the organisation, the formation of cross-systems of dominance and partnership styles, the expansion of information management requirements and the cultivation of mutual awareness. Voronov and Weber (2020) define an ‘actor’ as a unit that belongs to a broader system of entities constituting a formal institutional structure. The institution establishes itself and receives municipal grants (recognition as an acknowledged entity) through its position within the institution and its relationship to the governed area. In addition, actors may also refer to individuals assuming specialised roles, such as managers. Actors possess experiences that enhance their identity and connection to the institution (Patriotta, 2020).
Considering a municipality as a system facilitates the analysis of its various components and the processes involved in effective governance. This perspective encompasses the territory, the community of individuals and the governance framework, as stated by Iandolo et al. (2019). Given the research objectives, the researchers considered institutional theory suitable to support the study and align with interpretive research, which posits that a transition from government to governance characterises the governance landscape. Municipalities represent intricate and evolving systems characterised by significant interactions among their various components.
Hassan and Gil-Garcia (2008) categorised research on institutional theory and e-government in the literature as pertaining to IT adoption and change, IT development, IT and organisational change, the institutionalisation of information systems, and the use and enactment of information technology. Furthermore, an emerging trend in e-government involves examining the implementation of global policies within local contexts, such as the application of United Nations (UN) 2030 in the municipality of Lucca, Italy. Annesi et al. (2021), along with Gasco-Hernandez and Gil-Garcia (2018), indicate a similar trend, as this study concentrates on the implementation of open government within a municipality.
The strength of the institutional theory is rooted in its emphasis on stability and isomorphism as primary results of organisational dynamics (Aksom & Tymchenko, 2020). Municipalities function as stable public institutions, with employees whose actions legitimise their existence. In addition, they engage with various internal and external stakeholders and are responsible for delivering services to citizens. Institutional theory has been employed to analyse the context of phenomena; however, it is criticised for inadequately addressing the material properties of information systems in e-government research and for its abstract perspective on technology. The influence of information systems on organisations is not sufficiently emphasised (Garson, 2003). A study conducted by Kostova et al. (2008) argue that the theory fails to consider the role of agency and the ongoing evolution of institutions over time.
Research methods and design
The study employed a qualitative approach, of which a key goal was comprehending human experiences. The terms judgemental, chosen and subjective sampling, frequently used to describe deliberate sampling, refer to data collection techniques that depend on the researcher’s judgement when selecting the sampling units for a study, such as individuals, cases or institutions, incidents or data points. Purposeful sampling involves randomly choosing units from a particular set of people without any possibility of replacement and was the most suitable for this study.
Official municipal documents, the municipality’s website and semi-structured, one-on-one and face-to-face interviews were used to collect data. The interviews were divided into groups based on the numerous municipal departments. Seven BCMM departments participated in the study, and manuals and regulations pertaining to open data initiative adoption and implementation were employed as additional sources of data.
Table 1 is a representation of the study’s participants, their positions, department, work experience, number of years in the position and level of education.
| TABLE 1: List of participating departments. |
Analysis of interview data
The interview data were recorded on a manual tape recorder, transferred to an audio device and saved in cloud storage for security and easier access. Following Hsieh and Shannon’s (2005) recommendations, the data underwent content analysis and coding. The coding categories were derived directly from the text data that had been transcribed into a document using conventional content analysis. The researchers performed a five-step process with the data. In the first stage, the data were collected, saved, sorted and transcribed into a Microsoft Word document. The raw data included field notes and observations the researcher had written down during the interview process. The second stage involved identifying emerging categories as related to the research questions. The third stage was identifying the five characteristics of institutions, as proposed by Zhuk (2017). The fourth stage was ascribing these characteristics per category to the five characteristics of institutions, and the last step was explaining these characteristics per category. These characteristics of institutions were conceptualised to include roles, utilitarian features, cultural symbols, written and verbal codes, patterns and samples of behaviour.
The researcher performed the coding and analysis interchangeably by reading through the text while constructing categories that appeared (for the first time) or qualified the research questions (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) until data saturation was reached.
Results
This study has found that enablers for good governance is required to have open initiatives which are provided by South African municipalities. Therefore, a study conducted at Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality has discovered that in providing basic human needs to its citizens and providing policies will be one of the most important initiatives. Since the municipality is a political environment, change of the leadership in this municipality has negative impact in achieving the goals. Finally, the only plans of information communication technology make a provision of the platforms to use of information sharing within the municipality.
Category 1: Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality provides basic human needs to its citizens
In order to establish a transparent, secure, and friendly environment, BCMM is a municipality that must be structured to give its administration, budgetary, and planning procedures precedence to the fundamental requirements of its citizens and encourage their growth economically and socially. (Males and females from the BCMM municipality)
The category of municipalities providing basic human needs is characterised by administration, budgeting and planning to prioritise the provision of basic human needs for citizens in the BCMM municipality. Krugell et al. (2010) assert that local governments residing in municipalities should provide basic needs to citizens, such as sanitation, refuse removal, water and electricity. However, BCMM struggles with underdevelopment, poverty and infrastructure backlogs. These problems are further exacerbated by the lack of intergovernmental cooperation, with no clarity about how these structures function and the degree to which they foster meaningful cooperation in sectors and the ones responsible for service delivery, as stated by Mangwanya (2019).
Category 2: Lack of policies on open government initiatives
‘BCMM does not have a specific policy for open government; however, the municipality has other policies such as budget policies and by-laws’. The Category 2 highlights that BCMM municipality has no policies promoting and governing open government initiatives, although it has other policies related to governance. This means open government initiatives are implemented without proper governance guidance. Zuiderwijk and Reuver (2021) assert that one of the reasons why open government initiatives do not become a success is the lack of policies that need to be developed.
Category 3: A highly political environment
BCMM operates in a political environment; every two years, there’s a change in leadership depending on the election outcomes; there’s (sic) local elections and national elections, and both outcomes affect the leadership of the municipality. (Males and females)
The environment in which municipalities operate impacts them significantly, and because the political landscape changes every 2 years, there is always a change in leadership. This change could mean that these changes impact the plans the different leaderships prioritise, such as the open plan initiative. Lassinantti et al. (2014) highlight the importance of how politics shape and influence open data initiatives in local government.
Category 4: Plans of information communication technology platforms to use for information sharing
BCMM plans to bring in the use of a website, newspapers, emails, SharePoint, letters, and call centres to share information such as tenders and financial annual reports with the public. (Males and females, municipality citizens)
The municipality still plans to implement basic information communication technology (ICT) platforms that could enhance citizen’s involvement. The simple platforms just need the willingness of the municipality management to be implemented. Cacciaguerra and Chiarelli (2023) discuss open data knowledge-sharing platforms and e-participation and mention some ICT platforms governments in Italy used for e-participation related to city planning. The public can access several municipal services through the city’s website, call centres and social media platforms. Moreso, ICT is utilised to increase civic engagement, social inclusion, political accountability, and governmental openness, responsiveness and transparency.
Discussion
The municipality is neither responsive nor efficient in establishing relationships with its constituents and stakeholders, nor does it encourage public involvement in decision-making or provide high-quality services. As a result of a lack of drive to meet citizens’ expectations and the absence of competing government service providers, government bodies and procedures are frequently seen as inefficient (Van den Bekerom et al., 2021). Despite the many available ICT solutions that can assist with including people not physically present at the event, the municipality still uses imbizos to communicate with its citizens. Imbizo, a mechanism used by the South African government, is intended to improve administrative ties with citizens and inspire them to address service delivery issues. The government considers the imbizo an appropriate forum for communicating with the public about complaints regarding service delivery, whereby the government replies to resolve all these complaints (Mziba, 2020).
The study deemed institutional theory the appropriate lens to highlight the importance of studying rural, peri-urban and urban communities for open government initiatives and thereby understand the complex process of good governance in public administration organisations such as municipalities. This study further identifies the main external pressures on public administration organisations regarding good governance and explains how external pressures affect internal resource configuration to achieve good governance for citizen satisfaction. The influential roles in politics and management enforce willingness in public administration organisations to be attended. Furthermore, for open government policies to be enablers of good governance, management must be willing and the following issues must first be rectified: A data-driven environment focus has not been proven to increase citizen understanding of the complexities of issues and policies or their participation in relevant policy deliberations significantly. If the primary goal of open government is to engage citizens, current initiatives must be re-evaluated, and new approaches explored – moving beyond data delivery. Releasing volumes of data on a website without background on why and how it was collected and organised and its intended use leaves citizens with the arduous task of determining its relevance and reliability (Evans & Campos, 2013).
The results of this study highlight that an open government would help the public understand the nature and complexity of policies. With this understanding, it becomes clear that the policy decisions and initiatives for open government have been inadequate. Additionally, it would encourage a shift in emphasis to explore how policy analysts can promote better public reflection on pressing issues, ultimately helping to fulfil the promise of open government. Moreover, the study identified existing interpretations of local open data initiatives and aimed to understand how these interpretations shaped actions towards realising the open data initiative. By applying a sociotechnical lens, the findings can be framed using the social shaping of technology approach, bringing valuable insights to the field of open government. The information derived from the public sector holds value to the extent that resources and tools are utilised by diverse stakeholders, including government agencies, businesses, academic institutions and civic organisations (Magalhaes & Roseira, 2020). This study on open government initiatives enables the effective utilisation of technology to enhance service delivery from the implemented systems.
Conclusion
The government should collaborate with its citizens by utilising efficient e-participation tools to organise, manage and fulfil basic human needs. These tools promote collaboration between governments and citizens to enhance laws while also addressing citizens’ essential needs. By doing so, citizens can participate in public decision-making through directing, planning and budgeting to meet their requirements (Androniceanu et al., 2022). The study identified several issues, including a lack of policies related to open governance; for instance, there are no open government initiative policies in the BCMM municipality, despite the existence of other governance-related rules. Attard et al. (2015) demonstrated that many open government data initiatives are still protected by legislation concerning freedom of information, public sector data utilisation and inter-agency data sharing, despite the absence of specific open government data regulations.
Under an interpretivist philosophy, this study conducted a qualitative case study of a municipality to evaluate open government alignment for effective e-participation, resulting in a new framework. The researcher utilised institutional theory to analyse data collected through document analysis of laws and websites as well as semi-structured interviews to uncover insights from respondents’ lived experiences. Data were collected in October 2020 using interviews, and thematic and content analyses were employed to reveal the depth and richness of the collected data. Themes identified from websites, call centres, social media and letters were used to communicate with citizens. By combining data from three sources, it became possible to view the complexity of open government as a social system. The use of three data collection techniques was justified to obtain a variety of perspectives on experiences and participant-subjective interpretations of activities, allowing for the detection of discrepancies in the data (Gegana, 2023).
Limitations and future research
The results of this study must be interpreted within the context of its limitations. The research was conducted in South Africa, where the operations and culture of public administration organisations may differ substantially from those in other countries. Caution should be exercised when attempting to generalise the results across various municipalities operating in distinct contexts. Future research could investigate whether this study could be replicated in other countries to identify emerging trends such as digital governance and cybersecurity.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the Siyabulela Gegana who was a Masters student for the data collected for this study.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
Authors’ contributions
M.P. and L.M. contributed equally to the research study.
Ethical considerations
Ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the University of South Africa, College of Science, Engineering and Technology Research and Ethics Committee (reference no.: 076/SG/2019/CSET_SOC).
Funding information
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data availability
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. It does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. The authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content.
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