When Nonprofit Organizations Meet Information and Communication Technologies: How Organizational Culture Influences the Use of Traditional, Digital, and Sharing Media

In contrast to previous studies that emphasized how resources and institutional forces influence nonprofit organizations (NPOs)’ use of information and communications technologies (ICTs), specifically on using social media for external stakeholder engagement, we examine the relationship between the organizational culture and NPOs’ use of old and new ICTs for external and internal communication. Drawing from surveys of 500 Korean NPOs, we found that cultural values and communication practices influence NPOs’ use of traditional, digital, and sharing media differently for different communication goals. NPOs with authoritarian cultures used every possible medium, including traditional media, for internal communication to improve their performance, while family-like NPOs lagged in using new ICTs. Information-transparent practices predicted more use of ICTs, whereas collaborative and democratic communication practices did not. Implications for understanding NPOs’ use of varied ICTs by considering the organizational cultures and different communication goals are discussed.