Title: Motivation for green ICT initiatives in government organisations: a study in Indian context

Authors: Rajesh Sharma; Shubhamoy Dey

Addresses: Indian Institute of Management, Information Systems (IS) Area, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India ' Indian Institute of Management, Information Systems (IS) Area, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has a unique feature that it is a source of environmental pollution as well as a means for containing the same. ICT provides an opportunity to harness pollution-reducing capabilities to offset the effect of carbon footprints. The extent to which organisations are able to utilise this opportunity is contingent upon their nature and motivation. The paper attempts to study the differences in motivation of green ICT initiatives in two categories of government organisations - Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) and government departments on the dimensions of virtualisation and consolidation, energy efficiency, travel reduction, asset disposal and stakeholders' attitude. The study concludes that green ICT initiatives are driven more with commercial motive in PSUs as compared to technical and statutory compliance in government departments. It is inferred that uniformity in green IT initiatives in government organisation can be achieved by a holistic green ICT policy.

Keywords: green ICT; motivation; PSU; public sector units; government departments; environmental pollution; green IT; information and communications technology; information technology; India; greening; virtualisation; consolidation; energy efficiency; travel reduction; asset disposal; stakeholder attitudes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIIM.2014.067430

International Journal of Intercultural Information Management, 2014 Vol.4 No.2/3, pp.142 - 157

Received: 27 Mar 2014
Accepted: 21 Dec 2014
Published online: 09 May 2015 *

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