The impact of strategic alignment on the performance of public organisations

Abstract

Today, technology is a key component in resolving a range of strategic issues; organisations are becoming increasingly dependent on Information Technology (IT) to improve their performance. In order to make the most out of the available technology, the continuing need to integrate IT strategies with business strategies remains evident. As illustrated from the extant literature, strategic planning and IT appear to present positive correlations with improved performance of organisations. Whilst there has been a range of research that has attempted to apply concepts such as strategic alignment, it remains that there are very few empirical findings centred on the overall effectiveness and usefulness of this approach. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of strategic alignment between business and IT on organisational performance of public organisations and depicts factors affecting this alignment. The development of the conceptual model, which guided this study, was based on prior research conducted in the field of strategic alignment, organisational performance, Information Systems (IS) success and IT acceptance. The rationale here is that previous research on strategic alignment has mainly focused on the development of models and frameworks and examines them in a suitable context or explores the relationships between the variables of the models. Research has shown the need for further investigation on the impact of strategic alignment on organisational performance. Hence, This study expands the knowledge in this field by examining the impact of the strategic alignment of business and IT on the performance of public organisations using quantitative method approach. Following to the development of the conceptual model, a web survey examines this relationship was sent to 413 executives of Bahrain public organisations. Data was collected using a web-based questionnaire from a sample of 163 participants, i.e. some of whom were IT executives, business executives or both. The results of this study imply a positive impact of strategic alignment on organisational performance of public organisations. It also suggest that IT acceptance and prior IS success significantly influence the strategic alignment in public organisations of Bahrain.