Coercive Isomorphic Change: A Case Study of Digital Workspace at Ministry of National Development Planning

Abstract

Digital government transformation leads to an integrated governmental process and creates new values and services. The digital maturity framework stresses that integrated processes and new services creation denote a high maturity level of digital government. A step-by-step development is required to establish the maturity level. However, digital transformation studies have shown that it is not quite a linear process, instead a result of external influences forcing a government to adopt an advanced information and technology (IT) system without considering the organizational need and change capacity. This article extends the digital government transformation study by exploring the Integrated Digital Workspace Smart Office (IDW-SO) development case at the Ministry of National Development Planning (the MNDP) through an isomorphism lens. IDW-SO adoption occurs within the low level of Indonesia’s Digital Competitiveness Index (DCI), a standard digital talent of the ministry, poor IT infrastructure, and low organization digital capacity. This research reveals that IDW-SO development results from coercive isomorphism that produces the gap between the IT system and ministerial needs. Further, the adoption process has a potential IT application duplication within the ministry, making an inefficient IT investment.