The Influence of Intraorganizational Power on IT Governance Effectiveness: A Case Study in the Executive Branch of a Brazilian State

Abstract

In the public sector, Information Technology (IT) has been playing an increasingly pivotal role in the provision of services and in fostering initiatives such as Electronic government (E-GOV). Similarly, IT Governance (ITG) and its mechanisms are becoming critical to support the promotion and preservation of the public interest. However, the deployment of ITG initiatives may be hindered by the intraorganizational power imbalance — caused by the disproportional number of strategic contingencies controlled among the subunits (Hickson et al., 1971). As a result, subunits’ power could influence the definition and effectiveness of the ITG mechanisms and the IT Governance effectiveness in a broader aspect. In this study, we aimed to investigate the influence of intraorganizational Power on ITG effectiveness. Adopting a deductive research strategy, we executed a single case study in a Brazilian state government's executive power, specifically in the ITG mechanism, IT Strategic Committee. We verified that each member invested with its subunit’s power could change the committee’s dynamics among the findings. This combination may alter the balance of the social dimension of IT alignment, and consequently, compromise the efforts to promote ITG effectiveness.