Conflicting Institutional Logics in Healthcare Organisations: Implications for IT Governance

Abstract

IT governance is a challenging area in healthcare organisations. Healthcare organisations are under pressure to transform and make use of new information technologies in order to be more effective and serve a growing number of patients. Healthcare IT implementation projects typically involve multiple stakeholders whose ideas and images of processes and results can differ severely. In this case study, at a large Swedish hospital, we investigate how different institutional logics conflict and interplay in a Health IT project and what this implies for IT governance. Our research questions are (i) How do institutional logics influence IT project activities and interactions? (ii) What implications have an institutional logics perspective for IT governance in healthcare organisations? Institutionalised views of different stakeholders may enable or slow down IT development and implementation. We have identified four logics affecting actions and interactions in the studied project which are; medical logic, management logic, IT function logic and vendor logic. The institutional logics perspective contributes to important understanding on complexities in Health IT projects and guidance on how to overcome complications providing important implications for IT governance.