Implementing open source software to conform to national policy

One of the effects of globalisation is that the new form of business operates in a networked economy, largely facilitated through ICT. It follows that ICT development, and deployment and supporting policies take place in this fiercely contested, globalised political economy. This paper reported on some of the fi ndings of the case study research she completed for her PhD thesis, under the supervision of Dr Elaine Byrne. Her research interest is related to information technology (IT) change management and the social context of IT. The case study on which she reported in the article was executed in one of South Africa’s government departments, and helped her to illuminate on how an imperative government policy, such as the new South African policy on open source software, which seems to compel all government departments to migrate from proprietary software (PS) to open source (OS) software, has impacted on the nature and implementation process of a new Open Source Enterprise Management System (EMS). The internal alignment of the divergent voices in government indicated that the organisational environment, change management strategies and technology need to be aligned.