The Myth of Alignment

The greatest gap between the practices of Hall of Fame organizations occurs for organization alignment…and this indicates that alignment, much like the synchronism achieved by a high-performance rowing crew, produces dramatic benefits. Understanding how to create alignment in organizations is a big deal, one capable of significant payoffs for all types of enterprises (Kaplan and Norton 2006). Colloquially, myth denotes a widely held belief that is fictional or erroneous. Its anthro-pological usage, however, does not carry the same pejorative charge: myths are simply conceptual schemata, embodying core metaphysical concepts and moral wisdom. It is in this latter sense that I dub alignment as a myth; not to question its factuality (a nonsensical property in the case of a belief) but to highlight and interrogate the cultural work that it does (Stillman, 1985). Barthes (1973) defines myth as a type of speech, a " second order semiological system " of signs drawn from the medium of language in which their original meanings are modified to suit the myth-building role. Any elementary linguistic object (the definition is broad, encompassing visual imagery as well as language) can be symbolically coopted as raw material by the mythical system. Barthes uses a cover page of Paris Match depicting a French negro soldier saluting the tricolour as an exemplar. Beyond the naive meaning, the second-order mythical signification is easily read: " France is a great Empire, that all her sons, without colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her flag… " (Barthes 1973, p. 116). Other symbols conveying the same underlying idea may readily be imagined. Through a matrix of such varied forms, the myth of French colonialism as a beneficent force is constituted. By appropriating signs, promiscuously and parasitically, mythical speech thus builds chains of signifiers mediating abstract, metaphysical concepts, often complex and pro-tean, and with strong moral content. An illustrative case study from Kaplan and Norton featuring the strategic alignment of IS/IT provides a relevant example. Strategic align