Abstract

This paper starts from the IS existing literature about Strategic Alignment that is mainly built on Henderson and Venkatraman‟s founding article (1993). Numerous models of alignment have been developed to guide managers‟ daily practices. These models prescribe the alignment of dimensions through measure instruments. Other studies investigate several of the antecedents of strategic alignment such as the intellectual and social dimensions. However we argue that most existing literature on strategic alignment is technically and managerially focused. It neglects an essential dimension in organizations: the „true‟ social dimension that takes all stakeholders into account, including users, and not only management. Using well-established Translation Theory, we develop three principles of method that aim at opening the models existing in the literature to this forgotten social dimension that is essential for practitioners. Our approach tends to suggest that strategic alignment needs to be constructed from a managerial, technical and stakeholders‟ perspective in order to be effective. We illustrate our argument through two case vignettes.

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