Start Date
12-17-2013
Description
Present commercial software packages have incorporated management insights, and best-practices to facilitate IT-business alignment. However, poor alignment of IT-business still exists in practice. In this study, we investigate the notion of IT-business alignment from a managerial perspective. Our study shows that: 1) IT exhibits a function of sensing to detect problems promptly, whereas institution exhibits a function of responding to solve problems effectively; 2) The alignment process undergoes three major stages: at the first stage, alignment is achieved between institution and IT but not between business process and IT; at the second stage, IT integration succeeds in aligning with the business process but not with the original institution; at the third stage, the organization adapts the existing institution to achieve both IT-institution alignment and IT-business process alignment; 3) It is not always wise to improve IT systems and revise original institution to pursue a higher level in IT-institution alignment.
Recommended Citation
Xie, Kang; Wang, Hongchang; and Xiao, Jinghua, "The Value of IT-Institution Alignment: A Managerial Perspective of IT-Business Alignment" (2013). ICIS 2013 Proceedings. 5.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2013/proceedings/OrganizationIS/5
The Value of IT-Institution Alignment: A Managerial Perspective of IT-Business Alignment
Present commercial software packages have incorporated management insights, and best-practices to facilitate IT-business alignment. However, poor alignment of IT-business still exists in practice. In this study, we investigate the notion of IT-business alignment from a managerial perspective. Our study shows that: 1) IT exhibits a function of sensing to detect problems promptly, whereas institution exhibits a function of responding to solve problems effectively; 2) The alignment process undergoes three major stages: at the first stage, alignment is achieved between institution and IT but not between business process and IT; at the second stage, IT integration succeeds in aligning with the business process but not with the original institution; at the third stage, the organization adapts the existing institution to achieve both IT-institution alignment and IT-business process alignment; 3) It is not always wise to improve IT systems and revise original institution to pursue a higher level in IT-institution alignment.