摘要：E-government refers to the use by government agencies of information and communications technologies (ICTs), such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW) technologies and mobile computing that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. E-government is intended to enhance the access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, business partners and employees while reducing corruption and costs but increasing transparency and revenue growth on the other hand. Despite the foregoing, the use of ICTs in both public and private sector, at individual and institutional levels, has brought about a spectrum of ethical challenges in our societies. The objectives of this research are to establish what ethical issues arise in e-government implementation especially in developing countries, in this case Zambia and the impact these ethical issues have on e-government implementation. In addition, to understand how IT systems can be designed to address the identified ethical issues that arise in e-government. A mixed method approach is used in combination with literature review of documents on IT policy analysis, e-government and systems implementation. To achieve the objectives, the study adopts and expands from the UNESCO E-Government toolkit for developing countries’ four types of interactions, the two interactions; Government to Employees (G2E) and Government to Citizens (G2C). These interactions are analyzed in order to identify the ethical issues that arise in e-government as, internal or external and system or human oriented, but falling within e-government framework. The summary of the research findings indicate 24.8% of the 102 total respondents say that the most prominent ethical issue that arise in e-government implementation and included in e-government policies is cyber security. 20.5% say it is privacy while 16.6% identify confidentiality, system integrity and accountability. The others are good governance and trust, universal access and fairness at 12.6%, 8.6% and 6.8% respectively. Some respondents affirm that the current e-government policy address these ethical issues in e-government implementation while others strongly disagree, in addition others strongly agree, that the inclusion of ethical issues in planning of e-government will contribute to the successful implementation of e-government. Very little research have been done to investigate what impact these ethical issues have on e-government implementation in Zambia. The available information is too general and does not address ethical issues in the G2E and G2C e-government interactions. These existing gaps have made this study unique and significant, it will provide policy makers and e-government practitioners with basic information that can be used to develop relevant IT policies and the design of IT systems that address the ethical issues to increase the confidence in end users and thus e-government success.
