The Alignment between Organizational Critical Success Factors and Information Technology Capability in Academic Institutions

Abstract

Alignment between organizational critical success factors (CSFs) and competencies is widely believed to improve performance. This study examines the performance implications of alignment between CSFs and one source of competence, the organization's information technology capability. The effects of three antecedent factors-environmental uncertainty, integration, and IT management sophistication-are also examined.This paper uses survey data from 244 large academic institutions, along with some secondary data. Following the profile deviation approach to measure alignment, the academic institutions are divided into three clusters based on their CSFs: the academic comprehensives, the reputed giants, and the small educators. The ideal profile of IT capability is next developed for each cluster in terms of four dimensions: information retrieval, electronic communication, computing facilities for students, and computer-aided education. Alignment is then computed for each institution as the proximity of its IT capability profile from the ideal IT capability profile for the cluster to which it belongs.The results suggest that alignment facilitates both perceived IT success and organizational performance. Moreover, sophisticated IT management facilitates both alignment and perceived IT success, environmental uncertainty facilitates perceived IT success but not alignment, and integration facilitates neither alignment nor perceived IT success.

IT Alignment: What Have We Learned?

“…In times of high environmental uncertainty, organizations have a stronger need for information and information systems. It is expected that organizations will invest heavily in IT alignment during times of environmental uncertainty (Johnston and Carrico, 1988) and may be able to derive greater benefits from IT (Sabherwal and Kirs, 1994). So environmental turbulence affects the importance of IT alignment, the ease with which it is achieved, and the mechanisms for achieving it.…”

“…They were able to compute detailed typology-based alignment assessments when they empirically examined real-life business and IT strategies. Using similar mathematical techniques, Sabherwal and Kirs (1994) demonstrate how to compute misalignment, the opposite of alignment, using weighted Euclidean distances of IT capability variables from an ideal profile. Venkatraman (1989) discusses six different conceptualizations of fit in strategy research:…”

Information technology (IT) investment and the role of a firm: an exploratory study

“…Other research has examined the role of IT in the context of business-IS planning integration (King & Teo, 1997) and IT management sophistication or IT maturity (Sabherwal & Kirs, 1994).…”

Goal Based Alignment of Enterprise Architectures

“…Relatively, the academic domain has received less research focus on the study of the business of higher education and alignment with IS/IT. Sabherwal and Kirs investigated the alignment of critical success factors with IT capability and confirmed that alignment facilitates both perceived IT success and organizational performance (perceived IT success refers more specifically to the extent to which the senior managers of the organization believe IT capability contributes to the organization's success) [Sabherwal and Kirs, 1994].…”