An Ontological Analysis of the Role of Culture within Green IT

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between organizational culture, ontologies and the success of green IT initiatives. It investigates the impact of organizational culture on the degree of adoption of Green IT initiatives and on their success. The nature of culture within IT is explored and the effect of culture on the sustainable use of IT is analyzed. The paper presents ontological dimensions from a philosophical perspective by outlining the origins of ontologies. The ontological analysis is also investigated from a computing perspective with respect to semantic web concepts. The relationship between Culture and Green ICT ontologies is explored. It is argued that green IT systems should be designed with an ontology that incorporates cultural issues. The final section of the paper presents concluding remarks and identifies areas of future work.