The Effect of Formal and Informal Intra-Organizational Structures on the Perceived Strategic IT-Business Alignment

Shared understanding is not only a prerequisite for the strategic alignment between IT and business but also one dimension of it. A community can shape its actors’ opinions or perceptions, and hence, a shared understanding is composed as a result of interactions within a community. This case study aims at identifying the intra-organizational communities, which have an effect on the perceived strategic IT-business alignment. The case organization operates in energy industry and has a stable, function-based organization. We studied the effect of a membership in an organizational department, geographical proximity, actual interactions, and friendship on the perceived strategic alignment by using the methods of social network analysis. We found out that in addition to friendship ties, a membership in an organizational department had more effect on the individuals’ perceptions than their actual interactions, which crossed the departmental borders.