Innovation strategies for the adoption of new information technology in government: an Australian experience
| Published date | 01 October 1996 |
| Date | 01 October 1996 |
| Author | ALEXANDER KOUZMIN,NADA KORAC KAKABADSE |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-162X(199610)16:4<317::AID-PAD884>3.0.CO;2-E |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL. 16, 317-330 (1996)
Innovation strategies for the adoption of new information
technology in government: an Australian experience
NADA KORAC KAKABADSE
Cranfield University
ALEXAIWER
KOUZMIN
University
of
Western Sydney,
Nepean
SUMMARY
Adopting and diffusing new technology, creating user awareness and managing organizational
innovation effectively are major tasks for contemporary organizations. In large-scale
organizations, with centralized information technology (IT) environments, the tasks
of
technology evaluation, IT change and diffusion require considerable coordinating efforts. The
article recounts the experience of a large-scale public organization in managing work-process
innovation and the adoption of IT options that could be adequately cost-justified. Such
options need, at least, to encourage users to simultaneously learn
to
utilize
IT
to improve
current practices and to embrace entirely new functions.
INNOVATION
Innovation, continuous improvement, progress, technology, alignment, growth,
mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, re-organization, de-layering, re-engineering and
work-force profile adjustments-all imply organizational change. These changes are
necessary processes in response to the prevailing economic climate, technological
advance, fluctuating marketplace and fluidity of the work-force. These innovations
take place within a social environment and, as such, are influenced by cultures within
organizations and the activities that shape the daily routines
of
people. The
improvement process requires that the focus of effort remains on business needs and
not on technology itself. Thus the innovation process needs to achieve an
appropriate matching
of
existing and new information and communication
technologies with appropriate managerial and labour skills and organizational and
decision-making structures.
However, the different cultures and more established daily routines that occur in
organization are responsible for the inertia that frequently defies planned changes in
Nada Korac Kakabadse is at the Cranfield School of Management, Bedfordshire,
UK
&
Prof. Kouzmin
is
Prof. of Management, University of Western Sydney, Nepean,
PO
Box
10,
Kingswood, NSW 2747
Australia.
Paper presented to 1996 CAPAM Biennial Conference “The New Public Administration: Global
Challenges-Local Solutions” Malta, 21-24 April 1996.
CCC
0271-2075/96/040317-14
0
1996 by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
To continue reading
Request your trial