Institutional Logics and ERP Implementation in Public Sector Agency

This paper aims to explain the ERP implementation in public sector agency in UAE. It explores the relationships between institutional logics and institutional work when a new accounting change is occurring in the field. This paper presents a case study of Community Development Authority (CDA). It draws on the institutional logics lens to inform Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System. It proposes that this system produces a duality of change. On one hand, this system is subject to institutional forces and institutional processes that set the rules of rationality. On the other hand, it is also an important embodiment of institutional commitments and serves to preserve these rules by constraining the actions of human agents. By examining a case of the CDA, the findings compare differentiated institutional work and institutional logics of ERP implementation, as well as analysis of mechanisms that led to different business outcomes. Through institutional analysis of interviews and documents and archival data, the study found that institutional logics (rules) based on correspondent institutional work (actions). The findings also show that CDA was able to align institutional works with its logics built in ERP, resulting in a success in the standard version. It identifies the success factors, software selection steps, and implementation procedures that are critical to a successful implementation of ERP system. The implementation of ERP confirms the practice variance between the institutional logics and situated logics as evident in Dubai Smart Government. This paper can be considered as a one of very few studies about the implementation of ERP system in the Middle East. This study has important implications for academic and practitioners alike by examining the interaction between institutional logics and institutional work when a new accounting change is taking place in the public sector.