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IS innovation and organizational alignment — a professional juggling act

The securing and maintaining of alignment between business strategies and information systems (IS) strategies is frequently cited as a critical concern of IS managers. Consequently it has been ranked as an important issue for IS research agendas over the last decade. Very few empirical studies, however, have been reported with the result that there is no firm evidence to support the need for alignment, far less evidence for the way that strategies might interact. This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study which examines both IS and business strategies using an external-internal alignment model. After four years of data collection and analysis there is strong support for an alignment model which follows a lead-lag strategy. This implies that alignment is not a steady state but will reflect a dynamic model of change. In order to foster innovation in IS this change model requires to be managed through a ‘r’evolutionary cycle. This resembles a professional juggling act rather than a managed stage growth process. The alignment and change models are described and related to the management of innovation and organicity. In addition a continuing and future research agenda is identified.