Organizational Information Technology Norms and IT Quality

INTRODUCTION The IT alignment literature and guiding notions of the IT governance movement might be summarized by suggesting that IT quality tends to improve when an organization competently and appropriately tailors technical components to its specific context and goals. IT management and governance tools operationalize this paradigm by prescribing practices - often in the form of controls - which can help organizations develop and assure organizational IT effectiveness. Although IT governance tools such as COBIT (IT Goverance Institute (ITGI), 2007, 2008; Ridley, Young, & Carroll, 2004; Tuttle & Vandervelde, 2007; Van Grembergen, De Haes, & Amelinckx, 2003) and ITIL (Cartlidge et al., 2007; Cater-Steel, Toleman, & Tan, 2006; Duffy & Denison, 2008; Dugmore & Taylor, 2008; ITGI, 2008) are increasingly being adopted with good effect, the mechanisms by which such efforts contribute to success are less well understood. This study explores how the IT beliefs an organization adopts affect IT quality. Given constant and rapid evolution of information technology, Simons's question How do managers control the search for opportunities? (Simons, 1995, p. 33) is relevant for IT management. Simons goes on to identify positive belief systems, driven by core values, and negative boundary systems, driven by risks to be avoided, as levers of control management can use to achieve its goals. (Simons, 1995). A belief system, as defined by Simons, is the explicit set of organization definitions that senior managers communicate formally and reinforce systematically to provide basic values, purpose and direction for the organization. (Simons, 1995, p. 34) IT management toolkits generally include practices and process controls focused on tangible artifacts such as component performance or administrative procedures--these are exemplars of boundary systems. Simons illustrates boundary systems by describing one manager's effort to stamp out rogue IT projects and notes that 1) people have to be induced to pay attention to boundary systems and 2) such incentives are usually punitive. On the other hand, the importance of guiding beliefs is also important. This balance between inspiring innovation and synchronizing efforts was not lost on the developers of COBIT who suggest Culture, ethics and behaviour of individuals and of the enterprise are very often underestimated as a success factor in governance and management activities (ISACA, 2012, p. 27). IT governance efforts seek to manage and assess strategic IT resources so as to reduce risk and ensure investments in IT resources add value (Hall, 2011). Organizations adopt carefully specified control frameworks for both regulatory and operational reasons. Although complying with regulations consumes both time and financial resources, IT governance implementations also generate benefits such as increased productivity, net cost savings, and greater efficiency (Bergeron, Raymond, & Rivard, 2004; Chan, 2002; De Haes & Van Grembergen, 2008b; Henderson & Venkatraman, 1993; Reich & Benbasat, 2000; Venkatraman, 1989b). We observe that, in addition to identifying useful technical and organizational components, prescribing best-practice procedures, and focusing on delivery processes, the patterns of expression (tables, figures, and organizational paradigms) selected by the experts who created COBIT and ITIL intentionally express underlying normative principles or norms believed to be associated with increased IT quality and improved IT outcomes. Adopting specified practices can improve operations and fostering organizational adoption of the belief system underlying those practices also contributes to the success of IT management and governance efforts. If norm ado ption (presumably accomplished by moving Simons's belief systems lever) can be shown to be an effective predictor of IT quality and if a reliable and relatively inexpensive norm assessment methodology can be developed, it might prove useful in: 1) developing improved IT-function assessment tools, 2) bridging the communication gap between the IT function and other parts of an organization, 3) explaining why some IT governance initiatives are more effective than others, and 4) reducing risk and increasing IT effectiveness. …