The future of IT alignment research

This discussion seeks to define “IT alignment” for purposes of revealing its significance and offering possible future direction in which IT alignment research may be headed, if not needed.

In business, IT alignment refers to how organizations utilize technology and/or information systems to enhance outcomes such as performance, returns and/or competitiveness (Business-IT Alignment Definition, Wikipedia, n.d.). IT alignment research helps businesses determine how well they are using IT to achieve positive relationships between project alignment and performance outcomes (Gerow, Grover, Thatcher, & Philip, 2014).

Prior research has focused upon the gaps between IT alignment and the business itself, the role capital expenditures play in closing existing alignment gaps, how organizational culture can detract from or support such alignment, as well as the nexus between IT alignment and corporate growth (Baker, 2021). Today more than ever, and in part due to the Covid pandemic, attention has been on options for overcoming barriers created by business leaders who are not proficient with or are challenged by technology (Manchala, S., 2021).

Consequently, the future of IT alignment research must help improve communication between business leaders, including their organizational units, and the IT departments tasked with completing various projects they have been assigned. This will require, among other things, increasing business leaders’ digital literacy while increasing capital expenditures into “new ways of working” (Manchala, S., 2021). IT alignment research must continue to provide effective options for business leaders to pair their strategies and infrastructure with the enterprise solutions available. ?

References:

Image on IT alignment (n.d.) CIO.com. Retrieved from: https://images.app.goo.gl/wCS8PHvGAoyHnBcE6

Baker, E. H. (2021, May 12). The future of alignment. CIO Insight, retrieved from: https://www.cioinsight.com/innovation/the-future-of-alignment/

Business-IT Alignment Definition (n.d.). Wikipedia (Online). Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business%E2%80%93IT_alignment

Gerow, J. E., Grover, V., Thatcher, J. B., Philip, R. (2014). Looking toward the future of IT-business strategic alignment through the past: A meta-analysis. MIS Quarterly, 38(4), 1059-1085.

Manchala, S. (2021, December 27). Closing the business-IT alignment gap in digital transformations. Forbes, retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/12/27/closing-the-business-it-alignment-gap-in-digital-transformations/?sh=8b18b4445701