Maturity Models in the Age of Digital Diversity: Beyond the Layne & Lee Legacy

This chapter proposes a reorientation of the e-government maturity models by focusing on the activities rather than on the formal organizational structures and have the citizens as the key stakeholder for future e-government investments. We draw upon a discussion on the limitations of the popular e-government maturity model by Layne and Lee [1] included in the proposal of the Public Sector Process Rebuilding (PPR) model [2, 3]. The adoption and adaptation of Web 2.0 platforms and location-based services, and the parallel extension of conventional technologies as SMS and web-based self-services, challenge the view that e-government is focused in a formal organizational span of control. We propose a refined operationalization of the PPR maturity model, arguing that the activities and individual workers within the public sector and the citizens using and co-producing the public services will be the vehicle of change.