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Aligning in practice: from current cases to a new agenda

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Journal of Information Technology

Abstract

Although there is extensive literature on IT/IS-business alignment, we argue that the topic’s current research trajectory is limited given the concept’s predominantly static focus to date. While the process perspective on alignment is a promising avenue to study the phenomenon’s dynamic nature, we still know little about what it is that organizational actors actually do, on a day-to-day basis, to align IS and related concerns with business imperatives. In order to address this lack of understanding regarding the practices of aligning, we argue for research that goes beyond abstract macro analysis of alignment processes to that which considers the actual micro practices of aligning. An analysis of the extant literature on the topic leads to the identification and classification of aligning activities that are being undertaken in practice. We argue that this review and critical appraisal of the IT/business alignment field has the potential for substantive and insightful contributions to our understanding of alignment as it is enacted – in practice. Arising from the review, we discuss important new research themes that are to be addressed if research on alignment is to be demonstrably relevant.

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Notes

  1. Herein after, we shall use the simple term ‘alignment’.

  2. Examples of prior process-oriented studies include: MacDonald (1991); Baets (1996); Broadbent and Weill (1993); Henderson and Venkatraman (1993); Galliers and Baets (1998); Papp (1999); Rondinelli et al. (2001); Hirschheim and Sabherwal (2001); Sabherwal et al. (2001); Kearns and Lederer (2003); Peppard and Ward (2004); Benbya and McKelvey (2006).

  3. The SAMM echoes earlier research that presents various forms of maturity model. See, for example, Galliers and Sutherland (1991) for an early review, and more recently, Paulk (2002) for an overview of the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (CMM). Latterly, the Innovation Value Institute has developed a more broadly based IT Capability Maturity Framework (http://ivi.nuim.ie/it-cmf).

  4. See also, for example, Arvidsson et al. (2014) and Huang et al. (2014) for illustrations of practice-based studies in IS.

  5. We do not limit our use of the term to activities linked to established professions, clearly defined roles, or social contexts, as seems to be the standard definition employed in the communities-of-practice tradition. For instance, Cook and Brown (1999: 386–387) define practice as, ‘the coordinated activities of individuals and groups in doing their “real work” as it is informed by a particular organizational or group context’. Similarly, Brown and Duguid (2001: 203) define practice as ‘undertaking or engaging fully in a task, job, or profession’.

  6. Strategic Information Systems Planning and MIS planning are common terms in use, especially in the earlier years.

  7. Eighteen articles out of the total of 37 identified.

  8. For a review of the sourcing literature as it relates to practice, see Lacity et al. (2009).

  9. Unconscious actions are defined as, ‘something that is constitutive of acting within the world’ according to Jarzabkowski and Spee (2009: 82).

  10. cf. Galliers and Land (1987) for a taxonomy of IS research approaches and Mingers (2003) for mixed method research.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of the special issue editors and the developmental critique of the anonymous reviewers. Their comments helped to improve the clarity of the paper as well as the precision of the contribution. In addition, we would like to acknowledge Mikko Hallanoro for his contribution in the earlier stages of this research and Sue Newell, Joe Peppard and Mike Quinn on their comments on the earlier version of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bentley University, Waltham, USA

    Anna Karpovsky & Robert D Galliers

  2. Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Robert D Galliers

Authors
  1. Anna Karpovsky
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  2. Robert D Galliers
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Correspondence to Anna Karpovsky.

Appendices

Appendix A

Table A1

Table A1 Journals included in the review of the ISS literature
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Appendix B

Table B1

Table B1 ISS literature review: number of articles in each category
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Appendix C

Table C1

Table C1 Case sources
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Appendix D

Table D1

Table D1 List of aligning activitiesa
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Table D2

Table D2 Topic coverage in the cases
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Karpovsky, A., Galliers, R. Aligning in practice: from current cases to a new agenda. J Inf Technol 30, 136–160 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2014.34

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