Why Change Programmes Don't Produce Change: The Case of IT-Enabled Change in Public Service Organisations

Patterns Of Underperformance And Failure

Since the 1950s the process of introducing IT systems into work organisations has been fraught with difficulty (Loonam et.al. 2014; McDonagh & Coghlan, 2006, 2010). Both the literature in the academic field of management and organisation studies along with the literature relating to professional management practice provide strong evidence of the persistent nature of this dilemma (Bloch et.al. 2012; Griffith, 2001; Nelson, 2007). Over the decades the difficulty has manifested itself in persistent patterns of failure (Dempsey & McDonagh, 2014; McDonagh, 2014, 2014a).

While the language relating to IT has evolved across the decades, it matters little in terms of the related narrative of failure. Whether it was electronic data processing (EDP) systems in the 1950s, data processing (DP) systems in the 1960s, management information systems (MIS) systems in the 1970s, strategic information systems (SIS) in the 1980s, enterprise systems (ES) in the 1990s, extended enterprise systems (EES) in the 2000s, digital government systems (DGS) in the 2010s, all of these decades offer a consistent and solid stream of evidence pointing to the difficulties associated with the introduction and exploitation of IT systems. A review of academic and professional practice literature across the decades confirms that EDP, DP, MIS, SIS, ES, EES, and DGS are all subject to the same dynamics of change and the same outcomes. The particular manifestation of IT matters little, the pattern of failure is persistent and consistent (McDonagh & Coghlan, 2006, 2010).