Business-IT Alignment and Shared Understanding Between Business and IS Executives: A Cognitive Mapping Investigation

Abstract

Achieving and sustaining business-IT alignment in organisations continues to be a management challenge into the new millennium. As organisations strive toward this end, researchers are attempting to better understand the alignment phenomenon. Empirical research into business-IT alignment is dominated by studies examining the relationship between business strategy, information technology and performance. Investigations into the factors enabling or inhibiting alignment are emerging. This research has traditionally taken a behavioural perspective. There is evidence of little research that examines the issue through a cognitive lens. This thesis builds on and extends the study of business-IT alignment by investigating the cognition of the key stakeholders of the alignment process - business and IS executives. Drawing on Personal Construct Theory (Kelly, 1955), this study uses a cognitive mapping methodology known as the repertory grid technique to investigate two questions: i) is there a positive relationship between business-IT alignment and shared understanding between business and IS executives?; and ii) are there differences in the cognitive maps of business and IS executives in companies that report high business-IT alignment and those that report low business-IT alignment? Shared understanding is defined as cognition that is held in common between and that which is distributed amongst business and IS executives. It is portrayed in the form of a cognitive map for each company. The study proposes that business-IT alignment is directly related to the shared understanding between business and IS executives and that the cognitive maps of these executive groups are less diverse in companies that report a high level of alignment. Eighty business and IS executives from six companies were interviewed. Cognitive maps were elicited from the research participants from which diversity between cognitive maps of business and IS executives are measured. A collective cognitive map was produced to illustrate the quality of the shared understanding in each company. The state of business-IT alignment in each company was also measured. The results of the study suggest that there is a strong positive link between business-IT alignment and shared understanding between business and IS executives. As expected, companies with a high-level of business-IT alignment demonstrate high quality shared understanding between its business and IS executives as measured and portrayed by their collective cognitive maps. The investigation further finds significant diversity in the structure and content of the cognitive maps of these executive groups in companies reporting a low-level of alignment. This study concludes that shared understanding, between business and IS executives, is important to business-IT alignment. Reconciling the diversity in the cognitive maps of business and IS executives is a step toward achieving and sustaining alignment. Practical approaches to developing shared understanding are proposed. A methodology to aid organisations in assessing shared understanding between their business and IS executives is also outlined. Finally research on business-IT alignment continues to be a fruitful and important field of IS research. This study suggests that the most interesting issues are at the interface between cognition and behaviour. The process of business-IT alignment in organisations is characterised by the individuality and commonality in the cognition of key stakeholders, its influence on the behaviour of these members and hence the organisational action taken.