Organizational Culture and Structure Influence on Information Technology Governance

4 5 This thesis is dedicated to my parents Professor Mostafa Aasi and Hamideh Mahrouyan who taught me lessons of life, love and patience. Abstract Information Technology (IT) is used in many firms today and plays different roles such as technical, operational and strategic. Therefore the degree of firms' success in using IT is very important. Managers also face enormous challenges to plan and make decisions on rights and responsibilities in order to reach the desired IT behaviors that are aligned with the business objectives of organizations. This is known as IT governance and, not surprisingly, it is crucial for organizations to find the influencing factors in IT governance and solve the problems associated with it. One of the factors that has an influence on many issues of the organizations is culture. Culture at different levels can influence the organizations in implementing IT governance and reaching their business objectives. This research aims to ascertain how organizational culture and structure can influence IT governance. As the first step, the gaps in the area were found through a review of previous literature. Then the role of organizational structure in IT governance project implementation was analyzed through a case study in a large construction company in Sweden. Finally, the role of organizational culture type on IT governance performance was analyzed through another case study in the IT department of a global construction company headquartered in Sweden. The literature survey provided evidence that the role of organizational culture and structure in IT governance has gained little attention from researchers in previous years and the research in this specific area is very scarce. Through the performed case studies, it was found that the organizational structure needs to support the IT governance practices while implementing an IT governance project. Furthermore, it was concluded that the culture type orientation influences the IT governance performance in the firms. More particularly, the current clan culture orientation of a firm influences the cost effective use of IT outcome of IT governance performance. Additionally, the preferred adhocracy type of organizational culture is related to the required improvement in the outcome of effective use of IT for growth in IT governance performance. This research provides evidence that there is an influence by the organizational culture on IT governance. It also suggests the need for a more in-depth research in this area in future research to create an IT governance organizational culture framework. …