The impact of Organizational Culture in managing the change to the use of FOSS at a South African University

A recent change in the software landscape involves the introduction of the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). FOSS offers freedom to access and enhance software source code at low or free cost, thereby demonstrating high potential to enhance the impact of ICT in the society. However, the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and some other higher education institutions in South Africa are yet to embrace and derive the benefits of the FOSS change phenomena. It thus seems like being unable to make sense of the FOSS phenomenon and generally in need some framework or perspective to deal with the change to FOSS. Dealing with change, according to literature and practice, requires a conducive organizational culture. But to what extent is organizational culture being taken into account in the management of technological changes like FOSS at TUT? An interpretive research approach which is qualitative in nature is adopted to investigate this problem. A case study of TUT is conducted using questionnaire and interview triangulated with document review. The study concludes that effective use of Information Technologies such as FOSS for the benefit of the organization could be enabled with properly managed change initiative enhanced by a conducive organizational culture at the University in which the management, staff members and students have various roles to play.