Abstract:
This article focuses on the unintended consequences of increased burdens at the grassroots resulting from digital governance. From the perspective of technology and organization mutual construction, and in combination with the organizational control rights theory, this paper constructs an analytical framework of bidirectional technology adaptation. In the context of technological adaptation to organizations, ambiguous tasks and incremental demands may lead to goal deviation, incentive distortions such as redundant construction due to incentive mismatch, and process-oriented inspection and acceptance that result in overgeneralization of supervision and excessive digital traceability, thereby increasing the burden on grassroots units.In the context of technology reverse adaptation organizations, the rigid technical structure built with code, algorithms, and modules has gained the right to set goals, leading to formalized execution. The "presence of power" exacerbates incentive distortions, and the embedding of technology-based standardized rules gives rise to digital red tape, which increases the burden on the grassroots.The root cause of grassroots digital governance becoming more burdensome rather than empowering lies in the tension between technological logic and organizational logic, which creates a "loose coupling" space. Technology is able to proliferate and adapt inversely to the organization, while actors also have flexible space to maintain operational flexibility in the buffer zone between institutions and technology.