CIO Perspectives on Organizational Learning within the Context of IT Governance

CIO Perspectives on Organizational Learning within the Context of IT Governance

Koen De Maere (University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium), Steven De Haes (University of Antwerp - Antwerp Management School, Antwerp, Belgium) and Michael von Kutzschenbach (FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Basel, Switzerland)
Copyright: © 2017 |Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/IJITBAG.2017010103

Abstract

Why is it that, despite the large amount of studies on IT governance, many professionals still fail to put these theories into practice? Building on the previous question, we reviewed the literature to examine how organizational learning theories can help in understanding the gap between the ‘theory' and ‘practice' of IT governance. Thereafter, a focus group discussed this gap within the context of Industry 4.0. The findings indicate important concerns that might hinder learning in organizations, including: lack of shared domain knowledge between business and IT stakeholders, lack of shared understanding and poor diffusion of IT governance practices in the organization. Unless these concerns are successfully resolved, executives will experience difficulties to govern IT successfully within the context of Industry 4.0. We provide recommendations to practitioners with regards to the capabilities which should be present in the organisation to overcome such concerns. These capabilities represent a T-shaped portfolio of skills.
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Key Concepts

IT Governance

There is no agreed-upon definition in literature for the concept of IT governance. De Haes and Van Grembergen (2015) use the term “enterprise governance of IT” to explicitly indicate that it should operate at the same level as corporate governance. They define the concept as follows:

Enterprise governance of IT is an integral part of corporate governance and addresses the definition and implementation of processes, structures and relational mechanisms in the organization that enable both business and IT people to execute their responsibilities in support of business/IT alignment and the creation of business value from IT-enabled business investments.

This definition implies that IT governance should address both the current and emerging requirements of the stakeholders and thus be able to continuously adapt (Van Grembergen, 2004). For example, the organization needs to ensure that employees are capable to understand and to take direct responsibility for making sure the organization meets its strategic goals, and that al efforts to do so, including IT, are directed towards that end (R. Peterson, 2004).

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