Institutional Interplay and Improvisations in E-Government Projects

This paper examines the process and outcomes of an e-government project in Dubai. The case study is of a public sector organization that has been engaged in the implementation of egovernment systems for almost a decade. Using the Technology Enactment Framework, the paper explores the ways in which the e-government project exposed and resolved institutional contradictions. The paper then explains the implications of this for the ICT staff working there, the organization and the e-government project itself. The case presented here shows that that the institutionalization of e-government (its achievement of a ‘taken-for granted’ and ‘how we do it here’ status within the public sector) is more than a product of conformity to powerful managerial discourses and regulative forces. Rather it is also a product of the actions of ICT staff (their agency) as they work on the systems, and respond to competing institutions they are embedded within. Thus, the paper argues that there is a need to conceptualize the process of e-government implementation, and the ICT staff’s actions, as central to the institutionalization of e-government.