Governance and Management of Information Technology - Enterprise Information Systems Design, Implementation and Management: Organizational Applications - page 39

introduction The contribution here is in presenting a model

that supports dimensions of organizational gov-
ernance through the alignment of business with
IT. It considers the three paradigms of enterprise
architecture to map out the organization and the
business services concept.

Organizations operate as large systems composed
of other systems and subsystems. Considering
organizations as systems, questions are raised
about the interdependence of these systems and
subsystems. This is especially relevant when
dealing with issues involving human activity in
social systems including production organiza-
tions, in which the factors involved depend upon
different fields of knowledge and different levels
of research (Kasper, 2000).
In this context, Information Technology (IT)
appeared in order to facilitate the systemic flow
of information in organizations, initially serving
as a support tool for routine operations. Nowa-
days, the existence of IT is an essential factor for
maintaining a competitive advantage. So as to
fulfill its current mission, two key concepts can
be considered: enterprise architecture and the
concept of business services.
The application of enterprise architecture in
conjunction with business services is capable of
generating a competitive advantage, since the final
solution allows the attributes of interoperability,
flexibility, cost-effectiveness and innovation to
be better explored.
This article presents a model that applies the
knowledge of enterprise architecture and business
services as a way of making corporate governance
and IT viable.
The objective is to promote the alignment of
business with IT, decomposing the organization
into business components that supply and demand
services based on elements of enterprise architec-
ture, in order to facilitate their governance and
management.
A justification for this article comes from the
recurring use of different paradigms of enterprise
architecture to map out an organization. This vision
is disaggregated due to the application of different
paradigms that generates rework in enterprises,
as any problem diagnosed is examined from dif-
ferent points of view.

theoreticAL reference

The theoretical reference presents the main knowl-
edge base that subsidized the proposed model:
the concept of performance levels; enterprise
architecture and services; paradigms of enterprise
architecture; IT subsystems; and business com-
ponents will be presented.

corporate governance

In order to work, enterprises need shareholders and
managers who manage resource applications to
achieve the Enterprise's purposes (Pelanda, 2006).
Naturally, there are conflicts of interest between
managers and shareholders, when the ownership
and corporations' control do not coincide.
The conflict exists because we cannot expect
that Enterprise managers, being other peoples'
money managers, rein in money with the same
vigilance as members of a private company who
care about their wealth. This conflict is called the
Agency theory (Pelanda, 2006).
Administrative councils were created to de-
crease these conflicts. Their function is to moni-
tor managers in order to reduce costs, mitigate
conflict and align the interests of shareholders
with managers.
Due to this problem, a set of control and
incentive mechanisms were created, known as
Corporate Governance (Pelanda, 2006).
Corporate governance is a system through
which companies are addressed and monitored.
The Governance system allows that mission, vi-
sion and strategy are processed according to the
desired goals and outcomes. The Enterprise's