Business-IT Alignment in the Arab World - Is There a Fast Track to Maturity?

This research investigates how companies operating in emerging markets and investing in latest IT solutions can be supported in developing maturity in business-IT alignment faster than their predecessors in developed countries. It follows up the consultant perspective through documenting ex-post the participant’s observations, reflected through participant objectivation, to analyze the activities conducted, the obstacles faced and the success reached while trying to mature business-IT alignment in selected companies operating in the Arab World. From the five cases included in the sample, evidence was found that specific consultant’s interceptions can indeed “fast-track” the needed improvement in business-IT alignment, especially when the sense of crisis in the company creates a readiness to embrace the change and the subsequent benefits are obvious enough to those involved to sustain the newly reached maturity level. However, the personality and behavior of the CEO, the attitude of middle management, and the corporate culture as a whole may obstruct all efforts of “fast-tracking” any time, especially when the actors involved adhere to traits deeply rooted in the region’s autocratic traditions.