W HY H AVEN ’ T W E M ASTERED A LIGNMENT ? T HE I MPORTANCE O F T HE I NFORMAL O RGANIZATION S TRUCTURE 1

Abstract

A long-running challenge in both large and small enterprises has been aligning the information systems (IS) function/department with the enter- prise as a whole. This study examines the techniques that eight organiza- tions have used to both monitor and improve the alignment and perform- ance of their IS functions. We found that aligning IS and business strategies did, indeed, improve IS performance. However, the eight cases call into question the value of the business and IS aligning their formal organization structures; this type of alignment did not always improve IS performance. On the other hand, we found that informal organization structures played a far more important role than expected in improving IS performance.