A Contextual Model Towards Understanding Information Technology Governance: Principles, Structure & Mechanisms

Abstract

Although the board of directors and top executives depend on information technology (IT) to achieve strategic and operational goals and to meet legal and regulatory compliance requirements, IT governance is often not well understood by the board of directors and top executive management. The intent of this paper is to provide guidelines and understanding of the context of IT governance to organizational leaders. The study employs a qualitative examination of peer-reviewed journals, published documents, and IT practitioner sources containing IT standards and frameworks to (1) identify, classify and discuss the high-level view of the inter-related components of IT governance, and (2) develop a contextual model of IT governance. The contextual model integrates corporate governance theories, IT governance mechanisms, and IT governance domains. The strength of this model is its simplicity, which is devoid of complexities that normally confound the boards of directors and top executives when implementing IT governance. Therefore, the model provides guidance to the top executives and IT leaders the choices to initiate IT governance according to governance principles, IT governance mechanisms, statutory and regulatory compliance, and standard IT governance practices. The study recommends that the Government of Ghana should set up an IT governing board to guide the various arms of government as well as organizations and institutions that aim to strengthen their IT governance.