The Social Antecedents of Business Process Planning Effectiveness

Abstract

Although there has been a wide coverage in the IS literature of the alignment of IT plans with organizational plans, most studies focused on the mechanics of this alignment rather than its antecedents (Brancheau, Janz, & Wetherbe, 1996; Rodgers, 1997). Therefore, emphasis was put on the strategies, structures, and planning methodologies used to attain alignment (Henderson & Sifonis, 1988; Tallon & Kraemer, 1998). A minor line of research that focused on the people involved in the creation of alignment (Nelson & Cooprider, 1996; Subramani, Henderson, & Cooprider, 1999) dealt with the state in which business and IT executives within an organizational unit understand and are committed to the business and IT mission, objectives, and plans (Reich & Benbasat, 2000). While this chapter would partially fit within studies examining the social antecedents of alignment, it departs sharply from earlier studies in the sense that it does not consider the organization as made up of distinct IT and business functions. Instead it adopts a holistic view whereby information systems form the skeleton of business processes and neither can be disentangled from the other. This peculiar perspective on the role of IT in the organization makes it essential to consider antecedents to alignment that go beyond the dichotomy between IT and business. The key concepts that will be introduced throughout this study derive from this logic. Information-enabled leadership, the planning culture, knowledge worker management, and strategic alignment are key constructs that form the backbone of our model of business process planning. The latter is the outcome of integrating IT and business planning. Planning effectiveness that is posited as the outcome variable of the previous variables is itself re-conceptualized within the proposed perspective.