Examining the antecedents of social media adoption in the Maltese public administration

Abstract

This dissertation is prompted by the National Digital Strategy 2014-2020 and the European Commission’s e-Government Action Plan 2016- 2020, both of which set out to incorporate social media technologies in existing digital public services to make the Maltese Public Administration and its processes more accessible to and inclusive of its citizens with the ultimate aim of enhancing the public value of its services. Currently, this endeavour depends upon the disposition of its public officers. To reach its objectives, the Maltese Public Administration is encouraged to identify those individual attributes, social factors or organisational characteristics that may influence public officers’ intentions to adopt social media. This study identified 11 antecedents of social media adoption and examined their influence on public officers. A quantitative study was carried out and an online survey was circulated to top public officers with 65 valid responses received. The results revealed that social media usage in the Maltese Public Administration is at its early development stage. The findings demonstrated that the performance expectancy of public officers is a major positive influencing antecedent. Social influences and the educational background of public officers are also positive influencing antecedents. The findings also demonstrated that any anxiety of public officers related to the use of social media negatively influences their intention to use social media behaviour. In fact issues of privacy and security and concerns of improper disclosure and misuse of government information were also highlighted in the findings and militate against developing a positive attitude towards to the usage of social media in public service provision. It is recommended that the Maltese Public Administration must devolve a Social Media Adoption Strategy incorporating appropriate implementation goals and control metrics and the appoint a team an assume the responsibility of its implementation. When positing such goals, the identified antecedents within this study should be carefully considered. This, the dissertation concludes, could be implemented effectively through professional support, context-specific training as well as further research which is required to identify other possible antecedents and to help understand the mediating and moderating effects of these antecedents.