Insourcing A Government Information System An analysis using institutions and the capability approach

This study explores the effectiveness of insourcing in the Malaysian Government. The research discusses the factors and issues of insourcing in a Malaysian government agency in the context of post contract termination of an outsourcing agreement. A qualitative research method was conducted by using semi-structured interviews based on the OPTIMISM approach in designing the interview questions. The number of respondents was 21 government servants, from top management to programmers. We used a combination of institutional theory and the capability approach to analyse the data. We found that insourcing could enhance the skill and knowledge of the government's IT officer by using potential opportunities and systematic training approach that are presented despite challenges such as lack of ICT infrastructure, the high-level system complexity, lack of recognition from the government and complicated business process. We envisage that as insourcing evolves over time, participation and responses from large organisations that provide direct services to the citizen would represent the practice of insourcing as a whole. These findings will be of interest to the research community interested in insourcing information system support.