A framework for understanding the role of business-IT alignment in organisational agility

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.The modern organisation finds itself in a complex dynamic environment. New forces in the marketplace such as globalisation and the digital economy have increased the need for rapid adaptation just to stay in business. These forces are juxtaposed with regulatory environments of increasing complexity that act to constrain the notion of the free market economy. How organisations respond to these conditions has occupied researchers across multiple disciplines. Then there is the role of technology. Information systems scholars have for a long time sought to understand the concept of business and technology “alignment”, and even if such an idea still has relevance in the fast-moving digital world. What is clear is that virtually all large organisations, that use technology as a core business enabler, face a compelling set of circumstances as they seek to constantly adapt their business models and associated technology underpinnings to new commercial imperatives. How this organisational agility is created and maintained, is the subject of this thesis. Whereas a wealth of multi-disciplinary research perspectives has created a significant body of extant work, there is a lack of a coherent, granular model of the organisational mechanisms that give rise to (or constrain) agility and particularly one that explicates the role of technology. This presents an opportunity for the development of a novel theoretical artefact that would make a contribution not only in theoretical terms, but also be of practical benefit to business and IT managers. A theoretical model is developed that provides a conceptual bridge between the exogenous organisational environment that generates a need for change, and the internal organisational “machinery” – the people, the processes and the technology - that need to be reconfigured and redirected to achieve the new organisational imperatives. The timeliness of being able to achieve this change, and the constraints that operate on it, being the essence of the organisation’s agility. A cross-disciplinary approach is taken that draws on from management and organisational science as well as information systems research. These perspectives are used to conceptualise the organisation in terms of socio-technical building blocks that admit a richer human behavioural dimension into understanding how technology is used operationally. The theoretical framework is then evaluated and refined with data drawn from three interpretive empirical case studies, representing three industry sectors. The implications of the developed framework on understanding the microfoundations of organisational agility are discussed. In particular, by characterising the organisation in terms of an ecosystem of adaptive components, agility can be understood as an emergent phenomenon. This research project contributes a new theory of organizational agility in two respects. Firstly, it provides a novel multi-level microfoundational model in terms of granular, socio-technical building blocks which specifically recognises the human behavioural role in the macro-level phenomenon of agility. Secondly, by elucidating microfoundational mechanisms, the theory defines a stronger causality model for the explanation of organizational agility phenomena. In addition, the research contributes to managerial practice by framing the “organisational agility problem” in terms of lower level, but familiar, management concepts such as business processes and the role of IT at the process level. By characterising the dependencies and interactions between the adaptive elements of the organisational ecosystem, this perspective provides the opportunity for understanding the consequences of management inventions, including those that might not be intended

The impact of information technology resources on SMEs' innovation performance

This work aims to develop a research framework to examine the impact of information technology resources on the innovation performance of Saudi small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs innovation capability influences growth and technological progress (Bruque & Moyano, 2007). However, many developing countries exhibit moderate or even low innovation performance. For instance, Saudi Arabia is ranked 54th by the Global Innovation Index (GII 2011). Innovation systems studies focus on the alignment between the interactions of innovation actors with their constantly changing environment toward better innovation performance (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000). The dynamic capabilities of organisations have been highlighted as a crucial characteristic that helps to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (Teece et al., 1997). The indirect impact IT resources on innovation performance represents an attractive research area (Benitez-Amado et al., 2010). Therefore, we argue that a closer look at Saudi SMEs information technology resources and their impact on the firm dynamic capabilities and innovation performance would make a significant contribution to existing knowledge. Areas such as the organisation strategies of developing countries, innovation management, dynamic capabilities, open innovation and strategic information systems are few examples of areas that might benefit from this work

Enterprise Agility: Why Is Transformation so Hard?

Enterprise agility requires capabilities to transform, sense and seize new business opportunities more quickly than competitors. However, acquiring those capabilities, such as continuous delivery and scaling agility to product programmes, portfolios and business models, is challenging in many organisations. This paper introduces definitions of enterprise agility involving business management and cultural lenses for analysing large-scale agile transformation. The case organisation, in the higher education domain, leverages collaborative discovery sprints and an experimental programme to enable a bottom-up approach to transformation. Meanwhile the prevalence of bureaucracy and organisational silos are often contradictory to agile principles and values. The case study results identify transformation challenges based on observations from a five-month research period. Initial findings indicate that increased focus on organisational culture and leveraging of both bottom-up innovation and supportive top-down leadership activities, could enhance the likelihood of a successful transformation

HRM and Performance: What’s Next?

The last decade of empirical research on the added value of human resource management (HRM), also known as the HRM and Performance debate, demonstrates evidence that ‘HRM does matter’ (Huselid, 1995; Guest, Michie, Conway and Sheehan, 2003; Wright, Gardner and Moynihan, 2003). Unfortunately, the relationships are often (statistically) weak and the results ambiguous. This paper reviews and attempts to extend the theoretical and methodological issues in the HRM and performance debate. Our aim is to build an agenda for future research in this area. After a brief overview of achievements to date, we proceed with the theoretical and methodological issues related to what constitutes HRM, what is meant by the concept of performance and what is the nature of the link between these two. In the final section, we make a plea for research designs starting from a multidimensional concept of performance, including the perceptions of employees, and building on the premise of HRM systems as an enabling device for a whole range of strategic options. This implies a reversal of the Strategy-HRM linkage

Understanding and managing the manage processes

This paper discusses understanding and managing the manage processes. It was presented at the conference of the Performance Measurement Association in 2004

HRM and Performance: What’s Next?

The last decade of empirical research on the added value of human resource management (HRM), also known as the HRM and Performance debate, demonstrates evidence that ‘HRM does matter’ (Huselid, 1995; Guest, Michie, Conway and Sheehan, 2003; Wright, Gardner and Moynihan, 2003). Unfortunately, the relationships are often (statistically) weak and the results ambiguous. This paper reviews and attempts to extend the theoretical and methodological issues in the HRM and performance debate. Our aim is to build an agenda for future research in this area. After a brief overview of achievements to date, we proceed with the theoretical and methodological issues related to what constitutes HRM, what is meant by the concept of performance and what is the nature of the link between these two. In the final section, we make a plea for research designs starting from a multidimensional concept of performance, including the perceptions of employees, and building on the premise of HRM systems as an enabling device for a whole range of strategic options. This implies a reversal of the Strategy-HRM linkage

Predicting business/ICT alignment with AntMiner+.

In this paper we report on the results of a European survey on business/ICT alignment practices. The goal of this study is to come up with some practical guidelines for managers on how to strive for better alignment of ICT investments with business requirements. Based on Luftman's alignment framework we examine 18 ICT management practices belonging to 6 different competency clusters. We use AntMiner+, a rule induction technique, to create an alignment rule set. The results indicate that B/ICT alignment is a multidimensional goal which can only be obtained through focused investments covering different alignment aspects. The obtained rule set is an interesting mix of both formal engineering and social interaction processes and structures. We discuss the implication of the alignment rules for practitioners.Alignment; Artificial ant systems; Business; Business/ICT alignment; Data; Data mining; Framework; Investment; Investments; Management; Management practices; Managers; Practical guidelines; Processes; Requirements; Rules; Structure; Studies; Systems;

Exploring continuous organisational transformation as a form of network interdependence

In this paper we examine the problematic area of continuous transformation. We conduct our analysis from three theoretical perspectives: the resource based view, social network theory, and stakeholder theory. We found that the continuous transformation can be explained through the concept of Network Interdependence. This paper describes Network Interdependence and develops theoretical propositions from a synthesis of the three theories. Our contribution of Network Interdependence offers fresh insights into managing complex change and offers new ways of looking at organisational transformation

Business processes in the agile organisation: a socio-technical perspective

© 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. This paper takes a cross-disciplinary view of the ontology of “business process”: how the concept is treated in the IS research literature and how related concepts (with stronger human behavioural orientation) from organisation and management sciences can potentially inform this IS perspective. In particular, is there room for socio-technical concepts such as technology affordance, derived from the constructivist tradition, in improving our understanding of operational business processes, particularly human-centric business processes? The paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding the role of business processes in organisational agility that distinguishes between the process-as-designed and the process-as-practiced. How this practice aspect of business processes also leads to the improvisation of various information technology enablers, is explored using a socio-technical lens. The posited theoretical framework is illustrated and validated with data drawn from an interpretive empirical case study of a large IT services company. The research suggests that processes within the organisation evolve both by top-down design and by the bottom-up routinisation of practice and that the tension between these is driven by the need for flexibility