UNFULFILLED PROMISES OF BACK-OFFICE E-GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS: EMPLOYEE PERCEPTIONS AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN TURKISH MUNICIPALITIES

Aim/Purpose To diagnose the internal state of municipal digital transformation by identifying and characterizing the perception gaps between employees’ current and targeted states of back-office e-government systems (process efficiency, data integration, technological competence, digital stress). Background Despite large investments in municipal ICT and national digital strategies, back-office integration remains understudied; employee experiences may reveal implementation shortfalls that system metrics alone miss. This paper mobilizes a socio-technical and public-value perspective to address that gap. Methodology Online survey of municipal employees (final analysis, N = 386) using 30 paired Likert items (current vs. targeted). Quantitative analyses included paired-samples t-tests, effect sizes (Cohen’s d), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), K-means clustering, MANOVA/MANCOVA, and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Missing data and standard diagnostics were reported and handled as described in the manuscript. Contribution Provides a diagnostic assessment of employee perceptions, offering an informative foundation for understanding the discrepancies between digital policy goals and operational realities. Findings Large perception gaps exist in all four dimensions: process efficiency, data integration (the largest gap), technological competence, and digital stress (current © 2026 Informing Science Institute. All rights reserved.