Bureaucratic factors in the adoption of gis by public organizations: Preliminary evidence from public administrators and planners

Abstract

Among the goals of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis is the development of programs to transfer knowledge about GIS to public organizations. Achievement of this goal depends on a number of factors, among them technical, financial, and political conditions, as well as bureaucratic structures that influence the adoption of new innovations generally, and GIS specifically. In this paper, I argue that because of organizational reliance on “standard operating procedures” on the one hand, and professional training and socialization on the other, public organizations tend to favor the status quo, while public administrators screen out the geographical components of professional tasks and rely on nongeographic information systems. This argument is based on a theoretical understanding of bureaucracy, organizational decision-making, and the search for information used by organizations in the decision-making process. I provide support for this argument based on a study of the use of geographic information by public administrators and planners, as evidenced by the presence of maps, within the professional publications of the American Society for Public Administration and the American Institute of Certified Planners/American Planning Association.