Comparing the approaches of small, medium, and large organisations in achieving IT and business alignment

Abstract

This research aims to identify whether small, medium and large organisations employ different approaches in achieving IT and business alignment. The strategic alignment maturity SAM model was utilised as the basis for evaluation. The respondents of this research were 107 different organisations representing small, medium and large businesses with diverse industry backgrounds ranging from those in creative industries to those in manufacturing, computing, and even telecommunication providers. Through six different ANOVA tests, this research has confirmed that organisations of different scales significantly differ in the way they approach alignment. Furthermore, this research looked deeper using multiple comparisons and analysed whether the three organisational scales employ the SAM model dimensions and their attributes differently. The results were akin, in almost all cases, small and medium sized organisations shared the same approaches towards attaining alignment with each other, and differed when compared to the approaches of large organisations.