How Do Digital Capabilities Affect Organizational Performance in the Public Sector? The Mediating Role of the Organizational Agility

Thabit Atobishi (), Sahar Moh’d Abu Bakir and Saeed Nosratabadi
Additional contact information
Thabit Atobishi: Department of Health Informatics and Technology, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Faisal University, Hofuf 31982, Saudi Arabia
Sahar Moh’d Abu Bakir: Department of Business Administration, Amman Arab University, Amman 11953, Jordan
Saeed Nosratabadi: Doctoral School of Economic and Regional Sciences, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 2100 Gödöllő, Hungary

Administrative Sciences, 2024, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: As public sector agencies face rising imperatives to digitally transform citizen services, data systems, and internal operations, questions persist as to whether investments in big data analytics and automation capabilities, evidenced to drive organizational performance in private industry, translate to bureaucratic government contexts. This research quantitatively investigates the link between digital capabilities and organizational performance in the Jordanian ministry of Justice. Survey data collected from 292 public officials assessed capabilities in data-driven decision making, flexible automation, and interactive constituent communications alongside organizational agility and performance indexes spanning efficiency, quality, and satisfaction metrics. Structural equation modeling analysis reveals that digital capabilities relate significantly to heightened agility and all targeted performance areas. Improved agility mediates over half the performance impact attributable to upgraded technical systems, highlighting the vital role of evolving digitally enabled flexibility in realizing returns on analytics and process modernization initiatives. Findings validate the applicability of conclusions on digitization returns formed in corporate environments to public sector contexts, contingent on bundled change management programming enabling both technical and adaptive capacity building across the workforce. As global regions expand e-governance programs premised on harnessing emerging technologies to enhance civic institutions, this research offers generalizable models guiding multifaceted preparations to amplify impact.

Keywords: digital capabilities; digitization; dynamic capabilities; organizational agility; public sector performance; structural equation modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/14/2/37/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/14/2/37/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:14:y:2024:i:2:p:37-:d:1341361

Access Statistics for this article

Administrative Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Nancy Ma

More articles in Administrative Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().