ICT-driven innovation and the culture of public administration: A contradiction in terms?

Abstract

In this article we will explore the relation between ICT-innovations and the culture of public administration. We will demonstrate that the traditional bureaucratic organizational culture within the public sector often hinders innovation. However, putting this aside, numerous innovations take place within government organizations every day. This paradox leads us to two related questions: How can it be that public innovation takes place even though the culture of public administration makes it unlikely? And, is it possible to develop a more innovative culture within public administration? Based on our exploration we will provide some answers to both of these questions. We then draw the conclusion that the relation between innovation and organizational culture within the public sector is even more complicated than already expected. There seems to be a specific reciprocity between organizational culture and (ICT-) innovation. On the one hand, cultural change is to foster an innovative climate and to bring about successful innovations. On the other hand, successful innovation seems to lead to cultural changes in local organizations. So in practice there is a kind of interplay, an iterative process of mutual influence between innovation and cultural change that points at innovations being successful if they co-evolve with the specific environment in which they come about. With this conclusion we subscribe to Orlikowski's viewpoint of the 'dialectic nature' of the interaction of technology with organizations.