Exploring the Relationship Between IS performance and Organizational Culture in the Government and Public Sector Organizations

This paper proposes a relationship between IS performance and organizational culture, based on an examination of research literature. In order to test the research model, survey data were collected from 315 respondents in 13 organizations. Since all these organizations were government agencies or departments, our findings are particularly relevant for e-governance environments. Our results indicate that IS performance and organizational culture are related. In particular, an organization that performs well on certain IS dimensions, tends to exhibit specific cultural traits. In particular, the bureaucratic dimension, which emerges as the dominant cultural dimension, is both positively and negatively related to IS performance dimensions. The supportive and innovative dimensions of organizational culture are positively related to work process improvement and the job satisfaction of the IS user. We provide implications for practice and research by interpreting the results in the context of the process paradox. Our results point out that while government and public sector organizations can use culture to positively impact efficiency dimensions of IS performance, the dominant bureaucratic cultural will tend to hinder systemic and enterprise-wide IS performance.