Organizational Context and the Impact of a Public Information System on Public Employees’ Task Performance

Abstract

This research explores how organizational context factors such as structure, culture, and managerial leadership help shape the use and perceived impact of an information system(IS) on public employees’ task performance, which is defined as efficiency and productivity gains in conducting tasks. In addressing the research topic, this study especially focuses on a public information system, called On-nara Business Process System (OBPS) in South Korea to support back office innovations. A path model is designed with two endogenous and nine exogenous variables, in conjunction with time lag variable, to test the research hypotheses. The findings of this research particularly highlight leadership commitment and group culture as key enablers of IS impact for individual task performance in public agencies. Centralization and formalization also provides a solid foundation for senior managers to exert leadership to effectively implement IT-driven innovations. Organizational leaders need to take human-relations approach and encourage employees to utilize an IS in a flexible way, depending on their task types. Further research studies are needed to examine the validity of the key findings at diverse perspectives from managerial ranks and differing organizational cultures.