Culture, power and politics in ICT outsourcing in higher education institutions

UK public sector policy changes have driven Higher Education Institutions (HEI) towards a competitive and often turbulent market-focused environment. To respond to these dramatic institutional changes, many institutions began to strategically re-focus their management efforts on adapting and surviving in this environment. As part of their efforts, HEIs identified their Information and Communication Technology (ICT) function as an essential function to survive in this environment. This implied that HEIs had to address the institutional role of ICT by defining detailed strategies that aligned the ICT function to the HEIs educational goals. On the other hand, HEIs had to make sure their ICT could support their technology and service requirements, for which they considered pursing a more radical approach, that of outsourcing their ICT to a third party supplier. This research paper reports on embryonic attempts by three British Universities to outsource their ICT, highlighting in particular the ‘cultural, power and political’ issues that arose when public sector institutions follow the example of private sector organisations—by outsourcing to a third party service supplier.