Adaptive capacities of state IT departments: perceptions of CIOs coping with change

Authors:
Margaret F. Reid;Cynthia K. Riemenschneider;Myria W. Allen;Deborah J. Armstrong
Affiliations:
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR;University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR;University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR;Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
Venue:
dg.o '08 Proceedings of the 2008 international conference on Digital government research
Year:
2008

Citing 10
Cited 0

Putting the enterprise into the enterprise system

Harvard Business Review
Accounting for the Contradictory Organizational Consequences of Information Technology: Theoretical Directions and Methodological Implications

Information Systems Research
Re-Embedding Situatedness: The Importance of Power Relations in Learning Theory

Organization Science
Transferring, Translating, and Transforming: An Integrative Framework for Managing Knowledge Across Boundaries

Organization Science
CRM in the public sector: towards a conceptual research framework

dg.o '05 Proceedings of the 2005 national conference on Digital government research
From IT Leveraging Competence to Competitive Advantage in Turbulent Environments: The Case of New Product Development

Information Systems Research
An Integrated Performance Model Information Systems Projects

Journal of Management Information Systems
Managing emergent information systems: Towards understanding how public information systems come into being

Information Polity
Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance

Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance
Technology adaption: the case of a computer-supported inter-organizational virtual team1

MIS Quarterly

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to ascertain how state IT departments, specifically Chief Technology or Information Officers (CTOs/CIOs) view changes in their external environment and their departments' ability to adopt and implement new information technologies. The research is based on a recently completed national survey of state IT departments in the US. Employees at three levels in the organization were surveyed: CIOs, managers and employees. This article only focuses on the CIO responses. It contributes to the scant systematic empirical research of state IT departments and their capacities to adapt to and manage technological change. Preliminary findings suggest that CIOs generally perceive their external environments as relatively stable and rich in opportunities. They see their offices as central in the formation, implementation, and evaluation of IT policy and practices throughout their state governments. They perceive their IT employees as actively scanning the external environment for relevant information and as being capable of importing, adapting, and utilizing new technology-related information. Interesting correlations emerged in that CIOs who described their environment as relatively stable and rich in opportunities also indicated their employees were actively engaged in knowledge scanning, their department had a high absorptive capacity, and their office is more central in IT policy formation. Future research will include information regarding the states' economic conditions, strategic and management environment as well as the states' policy innovativeness considering the adoption of various technologies.