| Using the case of Jordan, this dissertation considers why public administrators, planners, and policy makers are overwhelmingly utilizing information technology (IT) for administrative and transactional processing activities, but not decision-making. This dissertation also compares the Jordanian situation with Israel's experience in IT deployment and usage within the public sector. This dissertation finds that IT plays a minor role in decision-making practices in public organizations of Jordan and Israel, and posits that similar IT usage patterns in such dissimilar countries sets the stage for the argument that the underlying causes may be the same. This dissertation considers the possibility that IT and public managers in Jordan and Israel may be designing IT initiatives to improve decision-making activities based on unrealistic assumptions. The problem with development thinking is that it views IT initiatives in Jordan and Israel as allocation constraints. This creates the expectation that IT strategies can optimize new technologies, human resources, processes, and structures within organizations. Consequently, knowledge is treated as an afterthought in IT strategies without consideration for its special characteristics. This dissertation suggests that the challenges facing IT and public managers in Jordan and Israel are not allocation constraints but knowledge problems. Furthermore, this dissertation discusses why knowledge oriented IT initiatives may be more inclined to facilitate IT usage in decision-making practices. Much of the learning that inspires this dissertation is based on fieldwork conducted in Jordan and Israel. |
