Aligning Strategy and Information and Communication Technology in Public Organizations: A Critical Management Challenge - Information and Communication Technologies in Public Administration - page 147

2013). Such studies examined strategic alignment as it related to e-government
(Fedorowicz et al., 2009; Hsu et al., 2006; Tarafdar & Qrunfleh, 2009), health-
care (Bush, Lederer, Li, Palmisano, & Rao, 2009; Sauer, Southon, & Dampney, 1997;
Wijnhoven, Spil, Stegwee, & Fa, 2006), public administration (Burn, 1996), academia
(Sabherwal & Chan, 2001; Sabherwal & Kirs, 1994; Silva, Figueroa, & Gonzalez-
Reinhart, 2007), and defense (Hartung, Reich, & Benbasat, 2000). Furthermore,
following a series of high-level government reviews of poorly performing large-
scale ICT initiatives, a range of pathologies that contributed to both underper-
formance and/or failure of ICT-enabled change initiatives in public organizations
such as the Government of Ireland, Government of United Kingdom and Northern
Ireland, and the United Nations System are highlighted by McDonagh (in press).
A high-level summary of the reasons that fermented the seeds of failure in relation
to ICT-enabled change initiatives as noted by McDonagh included the following:
inadequate strategic capabilities to guide resource allocation, inadequate strategic
capabilities to craft coordination and integration of technological and organiza-
tional change, inadequate strategic capabilities to guide the formation and execu-
tion of programmed change, poor understanding of the enabling potential of ICT
to modernize and reform, ICT investment considered from a highly technocentric
perspective, and inadequate transformational leadership capabilities to deliver radi-
cal organizational change.
The transformation pathologies embody multilevel impacts. The level of impact
can be traced to each of the following areas: institution, organization, and individu-
als and groups. Aligning strategy and ICT is a multilevel activity, and each of the
above levels has distinct roles to play. Consequently, given the comprehensive lack of
understanding for ICT-enabled transformation from a multilevel perspective in pub-
lic organizations, the outcome from significant ICT initiatives traditionally results
in greater fragmentation rather than any kind of tighter integration or cohesiveness.
Therefore, ICT environments typically become only more burdensome via an abun-
dance of over complexity (McDonagh, in press). Some of these issues are discussed
next in terms of impeding alignment efficacy based on empirical observation.
7.6 impediments to Strategic Alignment
Major impediments to aligning strategy and ICT in public organizations were
found to comprise of tactical versus strategic orientation, lack of top management
support and understanding, organizational structure, investment governance, and
resistance to change.
7.6.1 Tactical versus Strategic Orientation
The perception of strategic alignment in public organizations is one where the orga-
nization and ICT structure “walk hand-in-hand,” but it has also been found that