The impact of red tape's administrative delay on public organizations' interest in new information technologies

Empirical evidence shows that public organizations have greater red-tape based administrative delay than do private organizations. If public administrators view red tape, at least partially, as a result of organizational communications, then it is likely that burdensome levels of red-tape based delay could motivate interest in new information technologies for facilitating organizational communications. In this article we use a national sample of state program agencies to provide an empirical test to determine whether public organizations see new information technologies as a means to mitigate red-tape based administrative delay. The results suggest that an organizational response depends upon both the level of delay and the level of importance information technologies already play within the agency. For example, new information technologies are not seen as instruments for cutting down the negative effects of burdensome delay, unless the organization is already using new information technologies to perform key organizational communications activities.