This paper discusses an exploratory study of government employees’ perceptions of the introduction of biometric authentication at the workplace in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The authors suggest that studying the factors affecting employees’ acceptance of new technology will help ease the adoption of biometric technology in other e-government applications. A combination of survey and interviews was used to collect the required data. Interviews were conducted with managers and questionnaires were given to employees from two different government organisations in Saudi Arabia to investigate the employees’ perceptions of using biometrics. The results of this study indicate a significant digital and cultural gap between the technological awareness of employees and the preferred authentication solutions promoted by management. A lack of trust in technology, its potential for misuse and management motives reflect the managers’ need to consider their responsibilities for narrowing these gaps. It was apparent that overcoming employees’ resistance is an essential issue facing biometric implementation. Based on the research the authors recommend that an awareness and orientation process about biometrics should take place before the technology is introduced into the organisation.

Item Type:	Research Book Chapter
Keywords:	biometric technology, e-government
Research Division:	Language, Communication and Culture
Research Group:	Communication and media studies
Research Field:	Communication technology and digital media studies
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in the information and computing sciences
UTAS Author:	Drew, S (Dr Steve Drew)
ID Code:	111939
Year Published:	2012
Deposited By:	Curriculum and Academic Development
Deposited On:	2016-10-17
Last Modified:	2018-04-04
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