Mutual understanding determinants for effective communication in business and it strategic alignment planning

Abstract

Business and IT strategic alignment is continuously explored from different facets motivated by the demands for an organisation to be well aligned with its business and IT strategies for business continuity. The management aspect rather than technological issues often cause misalignment in business and IT strategies more significantly. One of the issues is the communication ineffectiveness between business and IT people involved in planning the business and IT strategic alignment. Difficulty to achieve mutual understanding between these two teams is a critical problem in communication and hinders the successful alignment. Therefore, a set of determinants for mutual understanding is proposed. Extensive analysis on literature has been carried out to identify and define the determining factors. The review can serve as a reference for business and IT executives to improve their communication effectiveness towards achieving well-aligned business and IT strategic alignment.