Citizen relationship management implementation in Malaysian local governments

Abstract

From the perspective of a system developer, this study presents an in-depth analysis of the CiRM implementation process in Malaysian local government. The study was motivated by the lack of studies examining the CiRM implementation process initiatives in the local government sector. Furthermore, the performance of the Malaysian Government in this initiative has been subjected to various criticisms, i.e., not properly servicing its public. This raises the question as to what has happened during the period of the CiRM implementation process in Malaysia. As there has been a demand for local governments to invest more in CiRM projects, the need for existing and potential system developers in the Malaysian government to have an implementation framework that could guide their effort in implementing the system has become more vital. This study combines the case study research and grounded theory approaches. Twenty in-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with system developers from ten local governments (i.e., five interviews from four pilot-cases and fifteen interviews from six primary-cases). The analyses of these data were divided in three main phases. The first phase involved a within and cross-case analyses of the pilot cases. The second and third phases involved a within and cross-case of the primary cases. These analyses enabled a set of determinants on CiRM implementation in the Malaysia local governments to be developed. The determinants were established by fitting their characteristics to the lifecycle of the CiRM system implementation process. Some of the determinants were found to be common to the existing literature while others were found to be enhancing the existing knowledge in CiRM implementation process. These determinants were then developed to shape a theoretical framework for the CiRM implementation process in the local Malaysian governments. This framework not only describes the main determinants in the implementation process, but also the forces and activities that lie within it.