Organizational Fields and the Diffusion of Information Technologies Within and Across the Nonprofit and Public Sectors

Abstract

This qualitative-inductive study examines the diffusion of information technologies across service providers that contract to provide public services for a state human service agency. The researchers were struck by extensive data that illustrated salient "ruptures," inconsistencies, and contradictions in the information systems that stand in stark contrast to the touted characteristics of the ostensible systems. The analysis draws attention to the extensive political symbolism attached to the actual information systems and to contradictory institutional logics that different participants impose on the collecting and valuing of various parcels of information. The researchers provide a preliminary theory about the isomorphic diffusion of technologies into and across the nonprofit sector and argue that these institutional dynamics imply a structuration process at a level that is much more macro institutional than the structuration of information technology artifacts that has been emphasized by recent scholars who write in the adaptive structuration perspective.

Social Media in Public Administration’s Future

“…When studying technology diffusion across the nonprofit and public sectors, Thatcher, Brower, and Mason (2006) found issues including outdated software, contradictory information systems, budgetary constraints to improving IT capacities and capabilities, and contractors' IT superiority compared with the government principle. IT use expanded in government after the Clingner-Cohen Act of 1996 to combat IT failures within the federal government (Brown & Brudney, 1998).…”

Revisiting the IT Productivity Paradox

“…With more than a quarter century of experience behind us, and ongoing allegations of an IT productivity paradox (Goldfinch, 2007;Thatcher, Brower, & Mason, 2006), the topic is especially salient. For the most part, empirical research on IT and public sector productivity has been lacking and when present has done little to offer consistent and sage advice.…”

“…The article closes with suggestions for future research. Solow's (1987) assertion of an IT productivity paradox back in 1987 drew immense attention and remains the subject of inquiry (Lee & Perry, 2002;Thatcher et al, 2006). The paradox was first broached when Solow found that rapid growth in computing was accompanied by declining labor productivity.…”

Exploring the Factors Associated with Online Financial and Performance Disclosure in Nonprofits

“…Researchers contend that there are systematic differences in information technology (IT) innovativeness among private, public, and nonprofit organizations (Corder 2001;Thatcher et al 2006). NPOs differ from their counterparts in the private and public sector based on their primary sources of revenue, public value created, and population served (Lee and Bhattacherjee 2011; Moore 2000).…”