Institutionalization of Information Technology Governance and the Behavior of Individuals in the Public Organizations Context

IT Governance (ITG) institutionalization might reduce the negative impact of political issues on IT results especially through the behavioral pillar. This research used the Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) concept to understand this phenomenon. OCB describes a person's voluntary commitment to an organization that is not part of his/her contractual tasks. The goal of this study is confirming that ITG institutionalization effects civil servants’ behavior. The set of hypotheses of the theoretical-empirical model are based on the presumption that ITG institutionalization exerts a positive effect on each variable of OCB. A descriptive-confirmative ex post facto research was operationalized through a survey research with 173 civil servants in the Executive and Judiciary Branch of a Brazilian state. A questionnaire was developed and validated through Factor exploratory Analysis. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. All hypotheses were confirmed, showing the effect of ITG institutionalization on the behavior of individuals. The theoretical contribution is the development of an ITG institutionalization construct and the demonstration of a positive and significant relationship between this and the OCB construct. The practical contribution highlights the possibility of IT managers performing their IT tasks through behavior change of individuals encouraged by the ITG institutionalization.