Diagnosing the Gap in IT - Business Strategic Alignment: A Qualitative Analysis among Public Shareholding Firms in Jordan

Many organizations in Jordan are currently frustrated with the benefit and value obtained from their investment in IT. An understanding of why Jordanian organizations do not benefit from IT investment can assist these organizations to explore the factors that organizations use to align IT with their business objectives. In-depth qualitative interviews with IT managers in Jordanian organizations suggest that leadership, structure and process, service quality and values and belief are the most important factors which are representative of the culture gap between IT strategy and business strategy. The lack of these factors hinders organizations from gaining benefits from their investment in IT. From the findings of this study, it is found that the alignment gap is often used to explain or justify an organization’s inability to effectively leverage on IT.