Conflicting dominant logics in the digital transformation of a public, project-oriented organisation

Advanced digital technologies offer enormous potential for improving the construction, maintenance and management of infrastructure assets. To leverage this potential, public infrastructure agencies must undergo digital transformation. Although considerable research has been devoted to possible strategies for driving the digital transformation of public infrastructure agencies, less attention has been paid to the challenges of managing one. In this paper, we aimed to better understand why public, project-oriented organisations struggle with digital transformation. The paper built on a three-year longitudinal single-case study on a digital transformation programme as it was implemented in a large public infrastructure agency in The Netherlands. Our findings revealed how the digital transformation programme ushered in a pluralistic, competitive environment, in which two formerly segmented logics – a project organising logic and an asset management logic – competed for dominance. The conflict between these logics, in turn, started a process of destabilisation, re-structuration, and finally stabilisation of the organisation. These three phases of change resulted in new beliefs, values, practices and artefacts being dominant, marking a shift in balance between the two logics.