Critical Analysis of Business and IT (BIT) Alignment

Critical Analysis of Business and IT ( flake) AlignmentAbstractThis account is a critical analysis of twain academic physical compositions from peer-reviewed journals, each investigating the Business and IT ( human action) concurrence depicted object that has been a top tinge for IT practiti nonpareilrs for cardinal decades (Cahn, 2000). The papers stupefy been selected as they drag contrasting look strategies qualitative and duodecimal. The objective of this analysis is to highlight the corroborative/negative points in both papers in terms of the inquirys perplex, objectives, design, and method and to draw a bead on an alternative search strategy for each paper.The investigation concludes that both papers had positive and negative points, regardless of their philosophical positions and design strategies. Choosing between qualitative and denary methods or mixing them depends on the ponders questions both methodologies have their strengths and weaknesses. The main fill out for some(prenominal) research is the credibility of its findings, regardless of the researchers philosophical position.Introduction and Analysis social cheekThis paper is a critical analysis of dickens academic papers from peer-reviewed journals, each investigating the Business and IT ( twist) coalescence topic that has been a top concern for IT practitioners for two decades. (Cahn, 2000) For m both years, a number of researchers have emphasised the importance of BIT fit in organisations to achieve competitive advantage (Luftman et al., 2005). Reich Benbasat (1996) define alignment as the degree of IT strategy necessary to support a businesss mission, objectives and plans.M both studies have been conducted to understand and assess the human birth between business and IT in organisations, near of which have adopted a three-figure methodology to validate empirically the relationship between IT investment and organisational performance and to provide credible eviden ce of the positive impact of aligning IT strategy to business strategy. Therefore, it was herculean to find a good qualitative research paper in this bea (Cahn, 2000). The first paper (paper 1), entitled Understanding the business-IT relationship (Coughlan et al., 2005), follows a qualitative methodology and the second paper (paper 2), entitled Factors affecting IT and Business alignment a comparative study in SMEs and large organisations (Gutierrez et al., 2009), follows a quantitative methodology.It is important to note that this work is not a comparison of the two papers therefore, the papers atomic number 18 analysed one after another to achieve a clearer picture. This paper is organised in the following way. Section 3 c everywheres paper 1, highlighting its positive/negative points in terms of the researchs aim, objectives, design, and method. In addition, an alternative research strategy is proposed. Section 4 covers paper 2 in a similar way. The conclusions and implicati ons of adopting different research strategies are discussed in share 5.Paper 1IntroductionThis paper provides an insight into the Business and IT (BIT) relationship (alignment) in organisations taking a communication-based view on the concept of BIT alignment (Coughlan et al., 2005303). In other words, it provides mise en sceneual insight into the BIT relationship, with particular reference to the organisational communication process. The authors noted that organisations need to develop and sustain a strong BIT relationship to benefit from the value-added development in todays demanding economy. BIT alignment is a complex process that involves creating many crossover links between different separate of the organisation and requires a strong BIT relationship. However, this relationship has suffered a divide that stems from the failure to justify high IT expenditure compared to business benefit. According to Coughlan et al. (2005), communication problems are the main contributor to the BIT relationship divide therefore, a social-oriented approach was proposed to understand the flow of information in organisations. This is an interpretive research paper adopting a compositors case study strategy with which to collar and analyse qualitative data via semi-structured interviews, in order to achieve an in-depth understanding of the communication process in the BIT relationship context. The lack of the literatures attention to communication issues in the BIT relationship context was the driver for this inductive approach (Saunders et al., 2007). research PurposeThe research aim is to provide insight into the Business and IT (BIT) relationship in organisations via the following objectivesIdentifying the areas and issues that affect communications in organisations (Coughlan et al., 2005307).Categorising communication issues in organisations (Coughlan et al., 2005306).Mapping the connections between organisational issues to the way in which they relate to IT (Coughla n et al., 2005306).Investigating how different facets of the communication process interact in real life (Coughlan et al., 2005307).Rationale for conducting this studyThe importance of the research topic was nearly justified by addressing the following pointsCommunication problems within the BIT relationship context are a study concern for both researchers and practitioners (Coughlan et al., 2005).Communication problems are a main contributor to the BIT relationship divide (Coughlan et al., 2005).Poor BIT communications are normal in the financial sector therefore, the banking effort has created a new organisational role the Relationship Manager (RM) to deal with relationship communication problems (Coughlan et al., 2005).Despite the importance of communication within the BIT relationship and implications for the RMs role, there has been little attention given in the literature (Coughlan et al., 2005).Previous social studies (structuration theory and actor network theory) have provided theoretical analyses of the complexity between an organisation and its IT infrastructure, therefore a more practical approach required to empower practitioners with solutions.Research designA four-dimensional communication framework ( vista), based on Shannon Weavers (1994) classic model of communications, was apply to guide the study. PICTURE was originally devised to improve IT system design The acronym PICTURE represents real life communication components and their application (1) companionship and selection (2) Interaction (3) Communications activities (4) Techniques Used for Relationship Establishment. (Coughlan et al., 2005306). The framework was used to guide the identification of important areas in the complex communication process. A understandably articulated conceptual framework is an important tool for guiding semi- structured interview themes, and provides a structured approach to interpreting the findings (Smyth, 2004).The study was conducted on a major hig h street UK bank, referred to as FinCo for reasons of confidentiality. Furthermore, the study was conducted at one point in time, focusing on two key areas of the organisation retail banking and IT. The retail banking division was chosen specifically because it is the biggest customer of the IT division, and research suggests that retail banking has thick organisational divisions (Coughlan et al., 2005).FinCo is an informative case for the following reasonsIt has a rapid and extensive consumption of IT.IT is closely integrated into the organisation to support its information management processes.FinCo starting a relation management programme to facilitate BIT communications.FinCo has separated declare oneself activities, creating a divide.Yin (2003 34-14) defined a case study as an empirical inquiry which investigates a phenomenon within its dynamic real life context to throw in researchers to understand complex issues, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and con text are not all the way evident.A case study strategy with underlying interpretive philosophical assumptions was an appropriate cream for this study, since the aim of this work is to provide insight into the Business and IT (BIT) relationship in organisations (Coughlan et al., 2005303), adopting a behavioural and social-oriented view, with communication difficulties featuring as a major determinant (Coughlan et al., 2005304).The authors addressed the framework limitation by noting that the framework was used in this study to nominate areas that affect the communication process and not as a whole tonement tool. Recognising and noting the research limitations is always good practice, as it gives future researchers a starting point to continue the study in this area.Research system and Data appealAccording to Coughlan et al. (2005), the communication process is dynamic and complex, involving somebodys with different perspectives. A qualitative data collection method was adopted to provide deep understanding of the processs state, with reference to FinCos retail and IT relationship. This method is appropriate because it focuses on uncovering participants perceptions and experiences, which are difficult to uncover with a quantitative method (Ghauri Gronhaug, 2002).Coughlan et al. (2005) used semi-structured interviews to collect data, which were conducted with top-level managers from both retail banking and IT to capture their perceptions of both organisational areas. Each interview session lasted an hour based on a set of prepared questions and extra questions to flourish on the relevant question. The questions were knowing to probe for experiences, thoughts and opinions relating to BIT relationship perceptions. There was no explanation as to why the semi-structured interview methodology was chosen over unstructured interview or focus group methodologies, which are better suited as unstructured interviews are often used in case studies to uncover inform ation without limiting the field of inquiry (Punch, 2005).Although Coughlan et al. (2005) noted that the interviews cover the spectrum of top-level managers, there was no mention of the sampling method used to justify the chosen number of interviews. My assumption is that the judgemental sampling method was used, since it is a very popular choice in qualitative research and involves the choice of participants who are in the outflank position to provide the required information (Saunders et al., 2007).The authors did not discuss reliability, which is a common criticism of qualitative researches. However, qualitative researches argue that reliability is not an issue in qualitative methodology because research replication is not feasible due to the complexity of the research topic and context. Nevertheless, credibility could have been promoted through any of the following audio recording of the interviews to reduce interviewer bias during data analysis (Ghauri Gronhaug, 2002) providi ng the interviewees with a list of interview themes to allow them to gather supporting organisational documents that could be used as secondary data (Triangulation) using a responder validation technique by submitting research findings to the interviewees to confirm that the findings represent the social reality (Bryman Bell, 2007). alternate(a) Research StrategyThe research problem should always drive the research method (Cryer, 2006). As discussed earlier, the aim of the study is to provide insight into the Business and IT (BIT) relationship in organisations identifying relevant areas and the issues (variables) that affect communications in organisations. A pure quantitative strategy is not an option for this study, as this can only be used when the studys variables are identified clearly. In other words, researchers usually have a very clear idea on what is being measured to begin with they start measuring it. Nevertheless, a mixed methodology can be used to improve confidenc e in findings and to overcome qualitative strategy limitations. merge method studies attempt to bring together methods from contrasting research strategies. The authors could have started with a qualitative research method, e.g. in-depth interviews with BIT managers from different organisational levels followed by a thematic content analysis of the transcribed interview material to help understand and identify communication issues in the organisation. Once they identify the communication areas and issues with reference to the BIT relationship in this organisation, they can test the credibility of the findings by conducting a questionnaire field of study of other BIT managers in other organisations. An online questionnaire with close-ended questions is best here for backup man of administration. Qualitative and quantitative methods can be complementary when used in sequence (Bryman Bell, 2007).SummaryThe research objectives and questions were not explicitly or clearly exhibited i n this paper. In a well structured research paper, a research objective should be clearly defined and expressed within the research direct voice, and it is very important to clearly define the research questions to help form research objectives (Saunders et al., 2007).A comprehensive literature review was conducted to justify the importance of the research topic. A case study strategy with unstructured interviews would have been more suitable for an interpretive approach, but the research method section was very short, which impact transferability qualitative researchers are encouraged to provide a detailed description of their methodology and findings to give others the option of adapting these findings to their environment. For example, a clear mapping between PICTURE components and the semi-structured interview questions would add more credibility to the study (Bryman Bell, 2007).Paper 2IntroductionThe main aim of this study is to identify the organisational size impact on th e way they perceive Business and IT strategic alignment and the relationship between the alignment federal agents and their planning integration strategy (Gutierrez et al., 2009).Gutierrez et al. 2009 noted that IT alignment remains one of the top issues for top-level IT managers, and for the past two decades many studies on Business and IT alignment have been conducted, starting with alignment definition, how to achieve it, factors affecting it, and its value to organisations. Most of these studies provided a theoretical understanding of this process, and a few of them provided practical solutions to measure alignment however, these models could not be generalised as they were case-specific.According to Gutierrez et al. (2009), various alignment factors have been identified, e.g. prior IS success, the communication level between business executives, domain-shared knowledge and planning integration. Most of these studies were based on large organisations.The research approach is po sitivistic, seeking to identify and measure the importance of the business and IT alignment factors (variables) with reference to organisational size. It utilises an appropriate quantitative methodology, i.e. conducting a examine of a sample of top-level management respondents to collect data via an online questionnaire (Saunders et al., 2007).Research PurposeA positive aspect of the study is that the objectives were clearly depicted as belowTo identify whether small, medium and large enterprises have different perceptions as to which of the factors described by Luftman (2000) in the strategic alignment model (surface-to-air missile) are more relevant to attain alignment (Gutierrez et al., 2009198).To identify whether there are any correlations between the factors and the planning integration strategy adopted in the organisations (Gutierrez et al., 2009198).Although the research objectives were clearly defined in this paper, the research questions were not explicitly or clearly exh ibited. Clear research questions leave the reader in no doubt as to exactly what the study seeks to achieve (Saunders et al., 2007).Research designGutierrez et al. (2009) analysed many intellectual alignment assessment models systematically, which were categorised to identify practical models that used data analysis to score factors affecting alignment. The analyses helped to identify four sets of authors Reich Benbasat 2000, Hussin et al. (2002), Chan et al. (2006) and Sledgianowski et al. (2006) whose models are appropriate for the context of the study (see Appendix1). The latters work was based on Luftmans Strategic Alignment Model (surface-to-air missile).The authors demonstrated that a critical literature review was conducted to justify the choice of Luftmans SAM and to include organisational size and planning integration factors, as they were not explored in enough detail. Justifying the above measures is a positive aspect of the paper (Saunders et al., 2007, p.54).Gutier rez et al. (2009) chose SAM as an assessment model for this research for the following reasonsIt can be used to assess any level of alignment in an organisation.It has been validated via Sledgianowski et al. (2006)s extensive study.It covered most(prenominal) of the alignment factors used in the other three models (see Appendix A).The study adopted a comparative cross-sectional design to collect quantitative data from a large number of cases (managers) at a single point of time the data were related to predefined variables (factors and attributes) (Bryman Bell, 2007).Research Method and Data CollectionAn initial questionnaire with twenty-one questions was tested by twenty-two professionals to assess the participants understanding of it. The feedback resulted in changing the questionnaire to include only twelve relevant questions to map to SAM factors communication, competency/value measurement, governance, partnership, scope and skills (Gutierrez et al., 2009203). In addition, the analysis of the pilot test data confirmed the importance of planning integration and its three stages independent, sequential and simultaneous. original testing is crucial to a self-administered questionnaire in order to ensure there are no problems with the questions. Furthermore, it enables the researcher to assess the questions validity and the reliability of the collected data. An extra short questionnaire could have been used to obtain structured feedback (Saunders et al., 2007).Gutierrez et al. (2009) explained that conducting an online survey with a standardised set of questions was appropriate for this study, as there is no room for individual interpretation and it provides easy access to a large number of participants in different geographical locations. This is a positive point in terms of justifying the choice of the research method, but there was no explicit explanation as to the relationship between this method and the implicit positivistic research approach. This i s a general criticism of quantatative papers.While Gutierrez et al. (2009) discussed the reasons for choosing executives, managers and top managers as targeted participants, it was not clear as to whether they were business or IT managers. This distinction should have been made very clear, as the questionnaire was designed to measure both IT and business peoples perceptions of the alignment factors importance, e.g. in the communication factor section of the questionnaire, participants were asked to rate two attributes. The first question rated the understanding of business strategies by the IT department (this should be answered by IT people to accurately represent the reality), while the second question rated the understanding of IT capabilities by the business department (this should be answered by business people) (Gutierrez et al., 2009205). This is a two-way measurement and requires participants from both sides this is an extremely negative point that could affect the findings reliability and validity and could have been avoided by either describing the targeted participants in more depth, i.e. justifying this choice in terms of their suitability to provide representative answers, or by redesigning the questionnaire so that some questions could be answered by different respondent categories.Neither the limitations nor the sampling process are discussed. It is important to follow a sampling process that includes the following sequential activities defining the population, choosing a sampling frame, selecting a sampling method, determining sample size, specifying an operational plan, and finally executing the plan. Following this process will help in achieving a representative sample and accordingly help the researcher to be confident about the studys findings. Another positive outcome of this process is the ability to calculate the response rate, which is a decisive factor in evaluating the reliability of survey results, i.e. findings are seen as more ac curate if the response rate is high. The response rate was mentioned very briefly organisations around the land were requested to participate in the survey by telephone to achieve a better response rate (Gutierrez et al., 2009206). In addition, the data collection section mentioned that a total number of 161 responses were collected and only smash questionnaires were used for data analysis.The questionnaire design was appropriate in terms of including the studys identified alignment factors. It had two parts, the first of which contained questions with regards to the respondents organisational profiles and the level of planning integration. The second part covered the factors prioritisation. Another positive aspect of the research design is that organisational size was defined to achieve harmony when referring to a small, medium or large organisation.Data CollectionThe data collection section was very brief hence it would be very difficult to replicate the study. Moreover, the ph rase organisations around the world (Gutierrez et al., 2009205) is a very weak description of the population. According to Gutierrez et al. (2009), a total number of 161 responses were collected and only 104 complete questionnaires were used for the data analysis. The data collection section should be detailed to allow for replication, which provides some assurance of the results validity, reliability and generalisability. In addition, Gutierrez et al. (2009) used the term survey instead of questionnaire on more than one occasion throughout the paper. It should have been noted that there is a clear distinction between a survey and questionnaire the first is a method and the second is a tool used for this method (Saunders et al., 2007).Alternative Research StrategyThe research strategy should always be driven by the research aim. An interpretive qualitative strategy is not applicable in this study, as the main objective of this study is to measure the relationship between well-defin ed variables. Qualitative methods are used mainly to study human behaviour and behaviour changes, and are more applicable if the research topic is new and there is not much in the literature to guide the researcher. As discussed earlier, many studies on Business and IT alignment factors have been conducted for the past two decades, during the process of which the alignment factors have been identified.SummaryThis paper is well structured in general and the research objectives clear. However, the research questions did not explicitly present the research strategy. The research design had a few negative points, e.g. a targeted population and the size were not defined clearly. Ideally, research papers should include a measure and measurement section to address the targeted population, concept indicators and instrument reliability and validity. However, not all researchers follow the recommended practices, e.g. some rarely provide information about perceptual constancy tests and measur ement validity and only 3% of research papers provide measurement validity information (Bryman Bell, 2007). The data collection method is appropriate for achieving the research objectives, as conducting a survey is a popular choice amongst positivist methods. Nevertheless, a clear justification for the choice of this data collection method in the light of the research design would add more credibility to the paper. No attention was given to error control, e.g. sampling-related and data collection errors. The best part of the paper is the abstract section, which is very structured and clear.Additional structured interviews with Business and IT executives in other similar organisations, utilising the same questions used in the questionnaire, would help in overcoming the above gaps and confirm the studys findings.ConclusionTwo research papers that followed contrasting research methodologies were analysed critically. Both papers had positive and negative points, regardless of their phi losophical positions and design strategies. In any credible research paper, well-defined and clear objectives are vital, as they should lead the research design and, consequently, the method. Hence, defining the research problem is the first and most important step of the research process, as it is highly likely that an unsuitable research design and method will be selected if the research problems are not defined clearly. Choosing between qualitative and quantitative methods or mixing them depends on the studys questions both methodologies have their strengths and weaknesses. For example, qualitative research provides complex textual descriptions of peoples behaviour that sanctimoniousness be provided by a contrasting methodology, since quantitative research focuses frequently on the study of meanings in the form of attitude scales.The main issue of any research is the credibility of its findings, regardless of the researchers philosophical position. This can be achieved by utilis ing multi methods (data collection triangulation within the same research strategy) or mixed methods (qualitative followed by quantitative and vice versa) (Saunders et al., 2007). Researchers are trying to find effective ways to incorporate elements of the contrasting strategies to ensure the accuracy of their studies. As a result, mixed, or combined, methodology research is becoming increasingly popular in the business and management field (Bryman Bell, 2007).