INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY GOVERNANCE: HALFWAY BETWEEN ISOMORPHISM AND COMMODITIZATION

Abstract

The management of information technology (IT) in the Federal Public Administration in Bra-zil undergoes a profound transformation, driven primarily by requirements of regulatory and external control bodies, under the governance emblem. Despite the contemporaneity of the solutions and the potential social gains obtained by this implementation, means and ends have not been discussed in the light of posed challenges. This study focuses on Federal In-stitutions of Higher Education (FIHE), based on the one hand in theories of agency and neo-institutionalism and, on the other hand, participant observation resulting from the author’s experience as an IT manager in a FIHE. Implications of the implementation of an IT govern-ance model in Brazilian FIHE are discussed, trying to propose strategic positions for the IT managers of these institutions through questioning the model being implemented. From a theoretical point of view, this study validates the application of neo-institutional theory to the analysis of IT behavior in the federal public administration and proposes a causal rela-tionship between IT governance, isomorphism and "commoditization" in public administra-tion, which seems to be a theoretical combination that has been little explored so far.