Technology Symbolization: Exploring the Political Mechanism of IT Implementation in Local e-Government Projects

Abstract

Based on the construction process of the online administrative service system of M City Hall, this paper attempts to probe into the interaction process and the underlying mechanism of information technology and government organizations from micro perspective. It reveals that the implementation of information technology in government organizations is a micro political process with strong practical situational characteristics. Namely, centering on the organization proposition to cope with technology uncertainty, core actors in different levels form basic cognition about information technology, and carry out strategic interaction in complex power relations. In our case study, Due to the motivation of seeking political achievement of the local government leader and strategic interaction behavior between leaders and other followers, the e-Government project is only used as a kind of symbolic display without any practical value in improving the efficiency of government organization. This paper can provide the experience fact for the study of the relationship between technology and organization and provide implications for further theoretical construction.