IT Alignment as a Roadmap for Digital Transformation Success

2023. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Lazar Rusu, Erik Perjons. Advances in Information Systems Development, 93-113

Conference

Digital transformation undertaken in many public organisations often fail to result in the anticipated results. Given the recognition of the important role of IT alignment as one of the prerequisites for digital transformation, this study explores how public organisations can improve the degree of IT alignment. Thus, a case study is conducted in four sub-cities within a city administration, applying interviews and internal documents as multiple sources of data. The findings indicate that public organisations are likely to succeed in their digital transformation attempts if they can appropriately manage IT alignment-related factors. These factors identified—organisational structure, organisational culture, organisational agility, leadership skills, human resource management, digital metrics, external domain alignment, and stakeholder relationships—are categorised and presented as managerial or organisational. The contributions of the study for research and practice are presented.

Managing Misinformation within the Public Sector: Cases from the Global South

2023. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Josue Kuika Watat. Proceedings of the Twenty-ninth Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS)

Conference

The advances in digital technologies and improved digital literacy have provided myriads of opportunities for societies. Particularly in the public sphere, improved digitalisation has meant better access to information for citizens, among others. Digital technologies, such as social media, have been proven invaluable in events such as a public health crisis such as COVID-19. However, the adoption of these technologies has also brought challenges related to misinformation, where publicly available information is manipulated and disseminated for purposes that are against the public interest. This paper presents an ongoing empirical study that attempts to explore the measures taken by the public sector to manage misinformation. The study, conducted in two developing countries, explores the immediate and long-term approaches to tackling misinformation. The implication of the expected results for research and practice are also presented.

Information Technology Alignment in Public Organisations: Towards Successful Digital Transformation

2023. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan.

Thesis (Doc)

The widespread acceptance of digital transformation has brought the topic to the top of researchers’ and practitioners’ agendas. However, despite the anticipated beneﬁts and opportunities, evidence suggests that many organisations still struggle to realise the results of successful digital transformation. The recent data from academic literature, consultancy ﬁrms and media reports indicate that, on average, between 70 and 80 per cent of digital transformation projects fail. According to the Boston Consulting Group, the ﬁgure for organisations in the public sector stands at 78 per cent. Among others, one of the reasons cited for this challenge is a phenomenon referred to as ‘IT alignment’—the appropriate and timely application of information technology (IT) in congruence with the overall organisational goals, internal organisational settings, and external environments.

The recognition of the critical role IT alignment plays in digital transformation has triggered calls for studies investigating the relationship between the two constructs, in various organisational contexts. However, a closer look at the extant literature reveals that public organisations were not the focus of studies exploring IT alignment’s role in successful digital transformation. This paucity of knowledge needs to be addressed since the differences between private and public organisations inﬂuence the adoption of emerging technologies. Thus, scholars argue that our comprehension of the relationship between the two constructs, based on studies conducted in private organisations, might not apply to public organisations. To address this gap and respond to the calls for further research, this study investigated the role of IT alignment in the digital transformation of public organisations. In addition to two systematic literature reviews, the thesis presents the results of two case studies with two follow-up conﬁrmatory surveys.

The research question answered in this thesis is: “How can public organisations pursue IT alignment to enable successful digital transformation?” The main results of the study presented are the following. First, three roles of IT alignment for digital transformation in a public organisation are identified, i.e., enabling organisational agility, improving the value derived from IT investments, and enabling integration of digital technologies. Second, the organisational and managerial factors that inﬂuence IT alignment are revealed: i.e., organisational agility, organisational structure, organisational culture, leadership skills, digital metrics, HR management, stakeholder relationships, and external domain alignment. The study also ranked the relative degree of inﬂuence of the identified factors on IT alignment. Third, based on two systematic literature reviews and the analysis of interviews and survey data, the thesis proposed a framework with 19 actions that decision-makers could take to improve IT alignment, thereby enabling successful digital transformation. These 19 actions are linked to six IT alignment dimensions, which, in turn, are used for improving the degree of IT alignment.

The ﬁndings of the study presented in this thesis have various research and practical implications. First, the study contributes to research on the relationships between various organisational and managerial factors, the six dimensions of IT alignment, and the success of digital transformation in public organisations. Second, the study contributes to practice, as leaders in the public sector can use the ﬁndings, especially the 19 actions, as they make the necessary organisation-wide adjustments to improve IT alignment. As the finds of the studies presented in the thesis indicate, public organisations can succeed in their digital transformation endeavours when they improve the degree of IT alignment. To this end, understanding the relative degree of inﬂuence of the identiﬁed factors and the order of priority of the proposed actions will be invaluable.

IT Alignment: A Path Towards Digital Transformation Success

2023. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan (et al.). Procedia Computer Science 219 (2023), 471-478

Article

One of the complex tasks for leaders in organisations going through digital transformation is managing the interplay between emerging technologies and organisations’ settings—organisational design, business processes and overall organisational goals (i.e., a phenomenon referred to as IT alignment). Despite the recognition of the link between IT alignment and digital transformation, we still know little about how IT alignment can be improved to realise successful digital transformation. Based on the analysis of 31 interviews and internal organisational documents in two public organisations, we identified five categories of determinant factors influencing IT alignment. The findings were used to formulate a model theorising a relationship between these factors and IT alignment in organisations during digital transformation. Quantitative data, collected through an online survey from 426 respondents within the public sector, was used to validate the theoretical model. The final result confirms that public organisations’ attempts to improve IT alignment results in the success of their digital transformation. The result of our study has implications for research and practice as it identifies and ranks the degree of influence of various factors on IT alignment.

Information Security Challenges During Digital Transformation

2023. Bemenet Kasahun Gebremeskel, Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Sileshi Demesie Yalew. Procedia Computer Science 219, 44-51

Article

Since the proliferation of information technology (IT) into business processes, organisations have grown to rely on a large amount of data to improve their products and services and create added value. This development has made information the most valuable asset for any organisation, which, in turn, has made information security a primary concern for leaders. Despite the tremendous potential of digital transformation, prior empirical studies indicate that information security challenges must be overcome to realise the anticipated benefits. Analysing the data collected from 14 leaders through semi-structured interviews, this study identified six information security challenges facing organisations undertaking digital transformation—financial constraints, risk of security breaches, reduced productivity, reduced access and control over information, lack of expertise, and dynamic security management needs. Propositions, as well as the implication of the findings for research and practice, are discussed.

IT Alignment and its Influence on Digital Transformation Success

2022. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Lazar Rusu, Erik Perjons.

Conference

Managing digital transformation is a complex enterprise dependent on various organisational, managerial, and technological factors. Among others, the influence of factors related to IT alignment on digital transformation is recognised. This study attempts to establish the significance of eight organisational and managerial factors (organisational agility, organisational structure, organisational culture, leadership skills, digital metrics, HR management, stakeholder relationships, and external domain alignment). Our aim is to investigate whether these factors’ influence on IT alignment affects the success of digital transformation in public organisations. The proposed theoretical model was tested with data collected through an online survey from 402 leaders. The results suggest that IT alignment is positively associated with digital transformation success in public organisations. However, the PLS-SEM analysis reveals a varying degree of influence of the various organisational and managerial factors on IT alignment as organisations undertake digital transformation.

Digital Transformation in Public Organisations: IT Alignment-Related Success Factors

2022. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Lazar Rusu, Erik Perjons. Information Systems Development: Artificial Intelligence for Information Systems Development and Operations (ISD2022 Proceedings)

Conference

IT alignment is recognised as one of the prerequisites for digital transformation in the extant literature. To further our understanding of this relationship, a case study was conducted in a public organisation (city administration). Data was collected through interviews and internal organisational documents in four sub-cities within the city administration. The findings suggest that an organisation’s attempt to reach IT- aligned position improves the likelihood of successful digital transformation. The analysis also revealed various factors influencing IT alignment in a public organisation undertaking digital transformation. These factors are presented in eight categories—organisational structure, organisational culture, organisational agility, leadership skills, human resource management, digital metrics, external domain alignment, and stakeholder relationships. The contributions of the study for research and practice are also discussed.

IT Alignment: A Management Paradigm for Digital Transformation in Public Organisations

2022. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. Joint Proceedings of the BIR 2022 Workshops and Doctoral Consortium co-located with 21st International Conference on Perspectives in Business Informatics Research (BIR 2022), 189-208

Conference

Researchers and practitioners agree that a broad spectrum of changes must be managed to realise the benefits of digital transformation. To this end, the role of IT alignment—the fit between IT, overall organisational goal, and organisational configuration—is acknowledged. At the same time, few empirical studies investigated the relationship between IT alignment and digital transformation, particularly in the public sector. Given the inherent differences between organisations in the private and public sectors concerning the application of emerging technologies, an exploratory study was conducted to further our understanding. The primary data collected through interviews and internal-organisational documents suggest that IT alignment improves the likelihood of successful digital transformation in a public organisation. The analysis also revealed organisational and managerial factors that determine the degree of IT alignment, which were used to develop a theoretical model. The model was tested with quantitative data collected through an online survey collected from 421 respondents. The preliminary results and contributions of the study are presented.

Health is Wealth: A Conceptual Overview of Virtual Healthcare & Future Research Directions [1995–2021]

2022. Josue Kuika Watat (et al.). Information Systems, 463-473

Conference

The appearance of pandemics of various kinds that have shaken the world and transformed health paradigms has led many organizations and states to review their health strategies to ensure sustainable assistance to the population. Organizations are turning more towards a sustainable digital transformation, which considers multiple dimensions, including health. This study presents a topic-oriented mapping of a range of conceptual and practice-based efforts and strategies implemented in the virtual health paradigm. The systematic literature review conducted since the first insights in 1995 reveals the eagerness related to the digital transformation of health care and the popularization of digital health strategies. The resolutions of our study will enrich the emerging literature on virtual health in a wide range of settings.

Business-IT Alignment and Digital Transformation: Setting A Research Agenda

2021. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Lazar Rusu, Wim Van Grembergen. Information Systems Development

Conference

Business-IT alignment (BITA) has been recognised as an essential but challenging endeavour for researchers and practitioners. In fact, BITA has become even more challenging when organisations articulate and implement the necessary changes—strategic, tactical and operational planning, and structural and cultural adaptations—for a successful digital transformation. To reveal BITA’s and the related factors that are important for digital transformation, a systematic literature review of studies published between the years 2016 and 2020 were conducted. The results confirm that BITA improves the value derived from IT and digital technologies, enables organisational agility, and the integration of new digital technologies. Moreover, the study has identified the organisational and managerial factors that are BITA related and are essential for digital transformation—organisational structure, organisational culture, external domain alignment, and leadership skills. Finally, the study provides a future research agenda as well as the implications for research and practice.

The Relationship Between Organisational Agility and IT Alignment in Public Organisations

2021. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan (et al.). ACIS 2021 Proceedings

Conference

Three-decades long IS research suggests that Information Technology (IT) alignment is regarded as one of the pervasive issues among researchers and practitioners. Given the current dynamic business environment, organisations need to foresee external changes and make necessary adjustments (i.e., they need to be agile) while attempting to achieve and maintain IT alignment. However, the research on the two streams—IT alignment and organisational agility—seems not to overlap yet. On the other hand, the prior studies investigating the relationship between the two constructs report contradictory findings. To address the lack of knowledge about the influence of organisational agility on IT alignment in the public sector, this study presents the results of a multiple-case study conducted in four sub-city administrations in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. The findings suggest that organisations success to reach IT alignment while aiming for organisational agility is the function of environmental volatility and stakeholder relationships.

Does Citizen Involvement Feed on Digital Platforms?

2021. Silvana Secinaroa (et al.). International Journal of Public Administration

Article

Citizens’ demand for engagement and participation in public administration is one area of concern for research and practice. Most recently, the essential role of e-participation tools in enabling the provision of information fostering citizen participation is recognised. The CONSUL application, used by 100 institutions, is the most widespread ICT tool in the world used to enable active participation. Through a systematic combining approach, based on an abductive process, the study analyses the case of Madrid (Spain) with the aim of contributing to the theory of the participatory platform on participation, accountability, and transparency. Even though overall citizen participation is still far away, the results of the study revealed focus areas with implication for research and practice. The study demonstrates that socio-demographic variables and support given by accessible financial and non-financial information must underpin future developments in e-participation and participatory governance.

Public Sector Digital Transformation

2021. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan (et al.). 2021 12th IEEE Annual Information Technology, Electronics and Mobile Communication Conference (IEMCON), 1027-1033

Conference

The digital transformation journey in the public sector has become a common agenda for elected leaders, public administrators as well as academics and researchers in the past few years. However, evidence suggests that the efforts to achieve the anticipated benefits from digital transformation proved challenging. Prior studies suggest that several issues related to the introduction of new information systems have unfavourably affected digital public service delivery processes. This paper presents the result of a single case study conducted at one of the most digitalised Ministries of the Ethiopian Federal Government. Using interviews and publicly available documents, we identified a list of factors that could determine the success of digital transformation in public organisations. The findings indicate that the Ministry is struggling from a lack of clearly articulated and shared IT strategic vision and conducive organisational structure fostering digital transformation. Besides, the dysfunctional communications between the IT and remaining departments, lack of information security awareness and measures to mitigate information security risks, the incomplete utilisation of IT solutions due to low skill sets or non-existing culture encouraging digital literacy have all contributed to the bumpy digital transformation journey. The result of our study contributes to research and practice by pointing out various areas of concern that need to be monitored as digital services are continuously rolled out.

Strategic Alignment for Digital Transformation

2021. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. Joint Proceedings of the BIR 2021 Workshops and Doctoral Consortium co-located with 20th International Conference on Perspectives in Business Informatics Research (BIR 2021), 165-171

Conference

Digital transformation, a form of Information Technology (IT) enabled organisational transformation, is recognised as a phenomenon that has resulted in a business model innovation fundamentally changing how organisations operate. In the public sector, the proliferation of emerging digital technologies has brought about myriads of opportunities. The findings of empirical studies indicate that digital transformation has improved not only the efficiency of business processes but also the variety and quality of public services delivered to citizens. However, success in digital transformation is dependent on various factors. Strategic alignment—the alignment between IT and overall organisational strategy—is considered one of the essential prerequisites for digital transformation. This paper presents an ongoing study exploring the role of strategic alignment on digital transformation. Preliminary results identified various organisational and managerial factors related to strategic alignment, which are critical for digital transformation. Expected contributions and future research directions are proposed.

Citizens' Acceptance of E-democracy

2021. Josue Kuika Watat, Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. AMCIS 2021 Proceedings

Conference

The emergence of new digital technologies coupled with the increasing demand from citizens for better public service, transparency, and efficiency has contributed to the growing adoption of Information Technology (IT) in the public sector. E-democracy, which is at the crossroads between e-government and e-participation, is regarded as a phenomenon that could improve the democratic processes. However, the extant literature indicates that the low E-democracy acceptance and lack of e-government services adoption have contributed to the unrealized benefit from public sector digitalization. To address the gap in the literature and contribute to practice, our study explores the citizens' E-democracy acceptance by combining the theory of reasoned action and the civic voluntarism model. Based on our literature review, the proposed theoretical model will be evaluated and tested using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). In addition to the interviews, we plan to collect empirical data from Citizens in Rural municipalities in Cameroon.

Transforming Marginalized Communities through Virtual Healthcare during a Pandemic

2021. Josue Kuika Watat, Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. ACIS 2021 Proceedings

Conference

The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged governments and public health administrators to rapidly adopt digital solutions and advanced public health information systems. Sub-Saharan African countries have also made transitions to the digital platforms in response to the unprecedented challenges related to the delivery of health services. However, acceptance and use of such digital solutions was found to differ between countries. Based on these gaps, we build a conceptual representation that is based on the Technology Maturity Index. This conceptual mapping highlights the technological optimism, associated with innovation, while showing the perceived usefulness and usage of Telehealth. In this research, we elaborate a set of proposals to increase the body of knowledge regarding the implementation of technologies for health and to provide decision makers with key evidence for the implementation of policies for the development of community digital solutions.

Information Security and Organisational Agility in the Digital Era

2020. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Bemenet Kasahun Gebremeskel. 2020 11th IEEE Annual Information Technology, Electronics and Mobile Communication Conference (IEMCON), 0831-0836

Conference

Even though the private and commercial organisations have been at the forefront of the digital transformation journey, many public organisations have also joined the club anticipating the myriads of opportunities. For the most part, studies indicate that digital transformation provides the means to adopt new forms of communications enabling better collaborations and innovations where customers, suppliers, collaborators and partners come together utilising emerging technologies. In public organisational settings, digital transformation was found to be invaluable as it improves transparency and accountability, enabling the participation of various stakeholders in public decision making. However, the challenges of realising the anticipated success from digital transformation have also been recognised in the literature. The issue of IT alignment has been brought to the fore owing to the relationship it has with various organisational as well as managerial factors with implication on digital transformation success. This paper presents a research-in-progress investigating the influence of IT alignment and its antecedents on organisational agility, information security and digital transformation.

Privacy and Security in the Digitalisation Era

2020. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Bemenet Kasahun Gebremeskel, Sileshi Demesie Yalew. 2020 11th IEEE Annual Information Technology, Electronics and Mobile Communication Conference (IEMCON), 0837-0844

Conference

The IT-enabled organisational transformation has been one of the widely studied topics since the introduction of IT in the business process of organisations, regardless of size and industry. Digital transformation, a relatively new but related phenomenon, has recently dominated the debates in the information systems (IS) research domain. Even though there is little disagreement in the role of new digital technologies in enabling innovation and providing a competitive advantage for organisations, researchers and practitioners have also voiced their concerns on the challenges associated with this technology-induced change. Among others, the volume of data collected and stored to make the digital transformation possible has brought the issue of security and privacy to the fore. A systematic literature review of recent studies was conducted to provide an overview of the developments on how organisations attempt to maintain privacy and security while undertaking digital transformation. The results suggest that the adoption of new technologies is contingent on the perception of different stakeholders on how privacy and security are maintained. Besides technical measures in place, organisational culture, organisational structure, HR practices, privacy and security policy, as well as senior leaders’ commitment and IT leadership skills are essential to maintain acceptable privacy and security measures that support digital transformation. Implications for research and practice, as well as opportunities for future research, are also presented.

Digital Transformation in the Public Sector: IT Alignment as a Moderator

2020. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. ACIS 2020 Proceedings

Conference

The widespread adoption of new digital technologies to revamp how organisations run their operations and processes—referred to as digital transformation—has resulted in improved organisational performance, primarily due to improved efficiency and effectiveness. In the public sector, digital transformation facilitates the participation of various stakeholders in public decision making. However, despite the anticipated benefits, the introduction of new technologies requires making adjustments to their business processes, organisational structures as well as to human resources. These changes, in turn, have implications on how leaders manage the alignment between new digital technologies as well as the overall organisational factors that are critical to successful digital transformation. This study, adopting a mixed-research approach with interviews and surveys as a data collection method, explores the relationship IT alignment has with organisational agility and information security. Besides examining the relationships, the study reveals the degree of significance of the various factors critical to digital transformation.

Organisational Agility and IT Alignment in Public Organisations

2020. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Josue Kuika Watat. AMCIS 2020 Proceedings

Conference

Prior studies confirming the favourable outcome of IT alignment in enabling organisations to achieve organisational agility which, in turn, is reflected in improved organisational performance, has been debated among IS researchers. The phenomenon ‘alignment-agility paradox’, referring to the unintended outcome of IT alignment resulting in organisational rigidity, has surfaced in the literature following the contradictory findings of empirical studies. However, researchers argue that the relationship between IT alignment and organisational agility is the function of contextual organisational factors—both internal organisational factors as well as external environment. Since most IT alignment studies are conducted in developed countries focusing on commercial and private organisations, this study is poised to investigate the relationship between the two constructs within the context of public organisations in two developing countries.

Business-IT Alignment in the Era of Digital Transformation

2020. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Lazar Rusu, Erik Perjons. Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 5563-5572

Conference

For the last four decades, the alignment of business and IT strategies also referred to as business-IT alignment (BITA), has been recognised as one of the top concerns for leaders. The current digital transformation journey undertaken by most organisations, however, triggered a new approach to planning and executing business and IT strategies as well as pursuing BITA. A systematic literature review is conducted to capture the paradigmatic shift in research and practice. A total of 94 articles published between 2014 and 2018 were identified searching through databases known to index reputable IS journals and conference proceedings. The analysis of the review revealed the continued conceptual debate on BITA construct as well as new research topics. The significance of digital strategy, enterprise architecture models, as well as intelligent IT systems to enable elicitation, implementation and assessment of activities enabling BITA are garnering the attention of researchers. Potential research directions are presented.

Strategic Alignment During Digital Transformation

2020. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Josue Kuika Watat. Information Systems, 657-670

Conference

The extant literature on digital transformation, as an emerging phenomenon, has grown in volume during the last decades. As organisations continue to embrace digital transformation, in pursuit of improved efficiency of their business processes as well as the provision of better services and products to their customers, managing the necessary changes have become challenging for leaders. One of these challenges is the alignment between the IT strategy—including the introduction of new digital technologies—with the overall organisational strategy, also referred to as strategic alignment. Even though both digital transformation and strategic alignment have attracted the attention of IS researchers, there is a paucity of research exploring how strategic alignment issues play a role in the digital transformation processes undertaken by today’s organisations. To address this gap, in this study we present the findings of an empirical qualitative study conducted in two countries. Our results indicate that the action organisations take to improve their strategic alignment is dependent on how far they have come to introduce new technologies, reconfigure their business processes, and redefined their overall organisational strategy. The study provides insights on how leaders plan and implement changes in response to the changes in the external environment as well as the internal organisational dynamics.

Digital Transformation in the Public Sector

2020. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. Information Systems, 223-235

Conference

Regardless of size and sector, organisations in today’s market are rushing to join the journey of digital transformation. Empirical studies, opinion pieces and publications from practitioner outlets present recorded benefits of digitalisation from well-known traditional businesses that chose to adopt the use of IT to radically change the way they do their businesses. A closer look into the findings of these studies reveals that success from digital transformation endeavour is realised when firms manage to make necessary adjustments to their business and IT strategies, organisational structure as well as their processes. Recently, public organisations found themselves under pressure from political leaders and citizens to digitally transform the provision of their services. However, the majority of digitalisation initiatives fail to produce the anticipated results. Building upon findings of previous studies and data collected from 12 interviews with leaders in public organisations, this study presents a list of factors that could determine the success of digitalisation in the public sector. The findings could be invaluable for public organisations as they attempt to realise the value from their digital transformation initiatives.

The influence of Privacy Concerns on Intention to Use Social Media

2020. Josue Kuika Watat, Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. AMCIS 2020 Proceedings

Conference

The advent of social media has completely reconfigured human life by raising it to the highest level of communication exchanges. As time goes by, social media increasingly adapts to the needs of users by offering a catalogue of functionality making use of the most recent emergence in technology. In Africa, the use of social media has grown so much that it has already encroached on the habits of people living in communities who have so far retained their socio-cultural identities. Despite the opportunities it provides for interpersonal interaction across borders, the public has expressed concerns related to the widespread use of social media. One of the issues debated, privacy and confidentiality, has been one area that has attracted one of the Governments of Africa, Cameroon. This paper presents the research-in-progress exploring the influence of privacy concerns on the intention of social media use in the country.

Intra-organisational Barriers to Business-IT Alignment

2020. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, King Solomon Hailemariam. International Journal of Innovation in the Digital Economy 11 (3)

Article

Business-IT Alignment (BITA) remains a challenging endeavour for many organisations despite the continuous attention it garnered among researchers and practitioners. The literature provides a list of factors determining whether organisations succeed to achieve BITA or not. However, BITA studies were conducted in a few industries in developed countries. This case study is aimed at addressing the lack of BITA studies in developing countries. The data was collected at a bank in Ethiopia through interviews and internal documents. The study employed thematic analysis, which revealed 21 intra-organisational barriers to BITA. Business and IT leaders may find the result of the study invaluable to plan activities that might overcome these barriers and improve BITA maturity, which in turn improves overall organisational performance.

Social Media Impact on Academic Performance

2020. Josue Kuika Watat (et al.). Information Systems, 370-379

Conference

The continuously improving Internet penetration in the continent, coupled with the increasing number of smartphone users in Africa has been considered as the reasons for the adoption of social media among students and other adolescents. Even though this development has been recognizing in the literature, only a few studies have investigated the acceptance, use, and retention of social media for academic purposes. However, findings of prior studies suggest that the use of social media has an influence on academic performance. To address the lack of knowledge on the adoption of social media among students, this study aims to explore the factors that are related to students’ acceptance and use of social media. We attempt to extend the Technology Acceptance Model by integrating relational engagement, Perceived Satisfaction, as well as the Perspective of the Use of Social Media in Education. The proposed theoretical model was evaluated using quantitative data collected from 460 students in Cameroon. We applied PLS-SEM technique to test the hypotheses and the theoretical model. Implications of the findings, as well as future research directions, are presented.

Breaking the Digital Divide in Rural Africa

2020. Josue Kuika Watat, Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. AMCIS 2020 Proceedings

Conference

Telecentres are considered to be invaluable in reducing the digital divide between cities and villages. In most developing countries, once telecentres are well organized and functional, and when awareness-raising on the merits of telecentres is well established, it is expected that people will embrace and integrate them into everyday practices and habits. This qualitative study, adopting a mixed research method, explores the adoption of Multipurpose Community Telecentres in rural areas of Cameroon. The focus of the study is to highlight the digitalization needs of marginalized communities. The results suggest that several target groups never had access to the Internet, and some have never used an ICT tool. This study thus attempts to propose an extension of the UTAUT model with Cameroonian factors of influence such as Culture and Language. We adopted a mixed research method to contribute to the extant literature on telecentres in Africa, highlighting their impact on rural communities.

Results-Based Project Follow-Up

2020. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. International Journal of Innovation in the Digital Economy 11 (2)

Article

Results-based management (RBM) has become the choice of many governmental and non-governmental organisations, and not-for-profit agencies engaged in development projects. Despite its widespread adoption, tools and methods are still being developed to complement the framework. One of such methods sought by practitioners, according to the extant literature, is a method for project follow-up. Employing design science methodology, the study aimed to develop a new method that can be used to evaluate the gap between design and actual outcome of development projects. The research has resulted in a new method which proposed ten steps to perform project follow-up. The high-level requirements were evaluated using informed arguments. To warranty validity and impartiality of the evaluation of the method, the internal and external properties were evaluated by 37 qualified experts. The research has identified and suggested other methods that can be used to complement the designed method. The contribution of the study and potential future research directions are presented.

Organisational Structure’s Influence on ITAlignment

2020. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Lazar Rusu, Erik Perjons. Information Systems, 426-437

Conference

IT alignment, even though extensively researched in the last decades, remains to be challenging. Previous studies are criticised for two reasons. First, the majority of the studies focus on the conceptual debate, while practical issues that have implications on IT alignment are overlooked. One of these issues is the influence of organisational structure on IT alignment. Second, studies in few organisational settings, namely private and commercial organisations, have resulted in findings that are not applicable for organisations in other sectors–public organisations. To address the gap in the literature, this study aims to explore the influence of formal and informal organisational structures on IT alignment in a public organisation. As public organisations are joining the trend of digital transformation, identifying appropriate organisational structure that foster IT alignment is an important and timely issue. The result of the case study, conducted in one Swedish municipality, revealed the influence of centralised organisational structure as well as three types of informal organisational structure—interpersonal relationships, professional networks, and crossdepartmental relationships—on IT alignment. The findings could be used by leaders in public organisations to design an effective organisational structure that can improve IT alignment and its maturity.

Organisational Structure's Influence on IT Alignmnet in a Public Organisation

2020. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Lazar Rusu, Erik Perjons. UK Academy for Information Systems Conference

Conference

IT alignment in public organisations is considered to be one of the missing pieces in the otherwise rich research area in the IS domain. Researchers also criticise the lack of studies addressing practical issues related to IT alignment, particularly in public organisations. One such area of concern is the contradictory findings of prior studies on the role of formal and informal organisations on IT alignment. A case study was conducted in one public organisation to establish the influence of different forms of organisational structure on IT alignment. A theoretical model was proposed based on a previous study and literature, which is then tested with data collected from a survey among 163 IT and administrative personnel in a Swedish public organisation. The results suggest that centralised organisational structure as well as the two forms of informal organisational structures—interpersonal relationships and cross-departmental relationships influence IT alignment. However, the influence of professional networks on IT alignment is not significant. The findings are important for researchers and practitioners in public organisations.

Information Technology Alignment

2020. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan (et al.).

Thesis (Lic)

Information technology (IT) alignment studies which focus on conceptual debates have left little room for studies investigating practical issues such as organisational structure. On the other hand, the attention paid to private and commercial organisations has resulted in findings that might not apply to public organisations. To address this gap in the literature, and respond to calls for further research, this study explored the influence of formal and informal organisational structures on IT alignment in a public organisation.

This thesis is a compilation of three studies—a systematic literature review and two case studies. The literature review revealed the lack of IT alignment studies in public organisations focusing on organisational structure. The findings of the case studies, conducted in one Swedish municipality, indicate the simultaneous existence of a formal and informal organisational structure which influenced IT alignment. The result of the qualitative case study revealed a centralised formal organisational structure, and three forms of informal organisational structure—interpersonal relationships, cross-departmental relationships, and professional networks—were identified. The findings also seem to indicate that the identified organisational structure forms have influence on IT alignment. The second (i.e. quantitative) case study established the strength of these effects.

Among the identified organisational structure forms, cross-departmental relationships were found to have the most substantial influence on IT alignment, particularly on communications, partnership and the dynamic IT scope. The influence of a centralised organisation structure on IT governance was also confirmed. While the influence of interpersonal relationships on the three dimensions of IT alignment—communications, IT governance and skills development—was established, the influence of professional networks on IT alignment could not be substantiated.

This study makes several contributions to research and practice in IT alignment. Although prior studies have investigated the role of different organisational structures in IT alignment, the contribution of this research is that it looked into the influence of both formal and informal organisational structures on IT alignment, simultaneously. The research has also assessed the relative significance of various forms of organisational structure on IT alignment. Leaders and managers in the public sector can make use of the findings of this research to help them identify different organisational structure forms and make the necessary adjustments to improve IT alignment.

Exploring Social Media Use During a Public Health Emergency in Africa

2020. Josue Kuika Watat, Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. ICIS 2020 Proceedings

Conference

The increased application of information technology (IT) during public health epidemics and other crises has been noted recently. Particularly, the adoption of social media in the fight against public health catastrophes in Sub-Saharan Africa has attracted researchers' interest. Prior studies indicate that social media platforms provide a real-time medium to facilitate two-way communication between governments as well as various agencies and citizens. In the event of such epidemics as COVID-19, social media's acceptance in the health sector is invaluable in predicting epidemic development and transmission disseminating information, and facilitating discussions. Despite its crucial role, the use of social media in the healthcare is lagging behind other sectors. In response to the call for further studies and to address the gap in the literature, this study examines the factors affecting the adoption of social media and their impact on managing health epidemics in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Digitalisation in the Public Sector

2019. Leonardo Maxwell, Ezgi Taner, Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. International Journal of IT - Business Alignment and Governance 10 (2)

Article

Digitalisation in the public sector has attracted the attention of political and administrative leaders as well as researchers. Empirical studies suggest that most of the digitalisation efforts fail to achieve the intended efficiency, transparency, and responsiveness of the public sector. While digitalisation is a hot research agenda, only a few studies explored the issue in public organisations. This study, therefore, attempts to address the gap in the literature and identify the factors influencing digitalisation in the public sector. A case study is conducted at one of the largest state-owned enterprises in Liberia, the National Social Security and Welfare Corporation (NASSCORP). The data collected through interviews and examination of internal documents were analysed thematically. The study resulted in the identification of 13 factors influencing digitalisation in the public sector, which are related to technology, organisation as well as the environment. The contribution of the study to research and practice is presented along with the potential future research opportunities.

Business-IT Alignment in the Banking Sector

2019. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, King Solomon Hailemariam, Workshet Lamenew Debay. MCIS 2019

Conference

Business-IT Alignment (BITA), one of the widely explored topics in the IS research domain, remains to be challenging. The extant literature provides a long list of factors that need to be managed appropriately to achieve and maintain BITA. Among other things, both the intra-organisational as well as external factors, are found to determine whether organisations succeed to achieve BITA or not. However, previous BITA studies have been criticised for focusing on investigating a few industries and contextual factors in developed countries. This case study is aimed at addressing the lack of BITA studies in developing countries. The data was collected at a bank in Ethiopia through interviews with business as well as IT leaders. The study employed thematic analysis, which revealed several barriers to BITA. Business and IT leaders may find the result of the study invaluable to plan activities that might over- come BITA barriers and improve BITA maturity.

eGovernment Adoption Determinants from Citizens’ Perspective

2019. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Lazar Rusu. International Journal of Innovation in the Digital Economy 10 (1)

Article

The lack of adoption of eGovernment by citizens has been cited to be one of the reasons for failures of most eGovernment initiatives. A systematic literature review was conducted to shade light on the current status of the research in this area with a focus on the research goals, research design, research strategies,scientific theories used and research methods. Major databasesindexing reputable journals in information systems and e-government area were searched by using keywords to collect relevant articles for analysis. A total of 19 articles were identified which indicated that empirical studies with survey asresearch strategy and questionnaires as a data collection method dominatesthe publications list while the use of case studies as research strategy was found to be scarce. The review has also highlighted several limitations related to the choice of research methods and its implication on furthering the understanding of the research on this topic.

Business-IT Alignment Barriers in a Public Organisation

2018. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan (et al.). International Journal of Innovation in the Digital Economy 9 (1)

Article

Business-IT alignment (BITA) continues to attract the interest of researchers and practitioners. Literature review reveals that the focus of past studies was investigated BITA mostly at (1) strategic level, in (2) private and commercial organisations, and in (3) developed countries. Thus, making a generalisation from these findings is difficult. The current study is aimed at shading light on the barriers of BITA based on a case study in a public organisation like The Federal Inland Revenue Service of Nigeria. The data was collected through semi-structured email interviews from business and IT managers as well as IT officers and also from internal organisational documents too. The data collected has been analysed using thematic analysis and has revealed six BITA barriers at tactical and operational levels like previous IT failures, lack of feedback mechanism, organisational structure, lack of standard infrastructure, insufficient time to acquire knowledge, and poor communication between the mangers.

Organizational Structure's Influence on Business-IT Alignment

2018. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Lazar Rusu, Erik Perjons. International Journal of IT - Business Alignment and Governance 9 (2)

Article

Despite the long list of cumulative research, business-IT alignment remains to be evasive for practitioners and researchers. As organizations continue to spend a significant amount of their resources on IT to improve the variety and quality of services, achieving and maintaining business-IT alignment is a timely issue. Studies indicate that organizational structure, among other factors, plays an important role on whether organizations succeed in achieving business-IT alignment. A systematic literature review is conducted to provide an overview of previous studies as well as point out possible future research directions. A total of 31 articles were identified and included in the review. The findings indicate that there are few studies poised to address the lack of knowledge on how the formal/informal organizational structure's influence on business-IT alignment. The study presents a summary of previous findings on organizational structure's influence on business-IT alignment and identifies potential future research directions.

IT Governance in Public Organizations

2018. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, Lazar Rusu. International Journal of IT - Business Alignment and Governance 9 (2)

Article

Despite being one of the widely researched topics, information technology governance (IT governance) in the context of public organizations is less explored. A systematic literature review is conducted to provide an overview of the current status of the research area and propose future research directions. Databases indexing the reputable journals and top conference proceedings in the information systems area were searched to collect articles for analysis. A total of 109 relevant articles were identified and included in the analysis of the literature review. The findings of the literature are presented according to the research questions, and potential research directions are proposed.

Influence of Organizational Structure on Business-IT Alignment

2018. Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. BIR Short Papers, Workshops and Doctoral Consortium, 375-386

Conference

Despite the long list of cumulative research on business-IT alignment, researchers and practitioners argue that it remains to be evasive. On the other hand, business-IT alignment is found to be associated with improved overall organizational performance. As today’s organizations continue to spend a significant amount of their resources on IT to improve the variety and quality of services, achieving and maintaining business-IT alignment is a timely issue that needs to be addressed. Studies indicate that organizational structure, among other factors, plays an important role in whether organizations succeed in achieving business-IT alignment. A systematic literature is conducted to provide an overview of previous studies as well as point out possible future research directions. Databases indexing reputable journals and conference proceedings in the information systems research domain were searched. A total of 21 articles were identified and included in the review. The findings indicate that there are few studies poised to address the lack of knowledge on how the formal/informal organizational structures influence business-IT alignment. Empirical studies are needed to settle the debate on which types of organizational structures contribute to achieving business-IT alignment in today’s organizations. The study presents a summary of previous findings and proposes potential future research directions.

Debriefing for Knowledge Management

2018. Workneh Yilma Ayele, Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. BIR Short Papers, Workshops and Doctoral Consortium, 415-420

Conference

Since the term was coined in the 1970s, debriefing has been associated with military campaigns, critical incidents and accidents. Debriefing has also been used in the health sector and educational settings particularly experience-based learning. However, the application of debriefing for knowledge management is a recent phenomenon which did not attract the attention of many researchers. As knowledge management is considered to be one of the important issues for today’s firms, our understanding of the available tools that could be used to improve the identification, creation and sharing of knowledge in an organization is necessary and timely. The use of debriefing as a simple, straightforward tool which requires the deployment of resources that are available within the boundaries of organization—knowledge, skill and expertise of employees—is acknowledged. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on how organizations can successfully design, plan and execute debriefing to manage knowledge. This paper is poised to provide an overview of studies on debriefing through the lens of knowledge management. The study contributes to the information systems discipline by revealing the significance of debriefing for effective knowledge management practice based on literature review of previous studies. The study also provides potential future research directions.

Can Blockchain Technology Solve Trust Issues in Industrial Networks?

2018. Vincent Fremont, Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. BIR Short Papers, Workshops and Doctoral Consortium, 399-404

Conference

Since its inception about a decade ago, practitioners and researchers alike have been drawn to the blockchain technology vibe. Advocates of blockchain argue that the technology is taking us to truly ‘trust-free’ transactions. A long list of applications of blockchain has also been proposed in a relatively short period of time. However, a closer look into the literature reveals two shortcomings. To start with, the substantial proportion of the research on blockchain has focused on addressing the technical aspects of blockchain—design and features— as well as legal issues. However, there is a lack of knowledge on how blockchain technology can be used to solve practical problems faced by organizations in different sectors and industries—measurement and value, trust, management and organization. The state-of-the-art also shows that there is a dominance of conceptual and design-oriented research paradigms. To address this gap and respond to the calls for further research, this paper presents a research plan for a longitudinal case study to investigate whether blockchain technology can affect the way organizations conduct their business relationships.

Combating Misinformation

2018. Vasilis Koulolias (et al.).

Report

Today’s large flows of information create new challenges for government administrations. In the age of social media, it is not surprising, given the real-time nature of social media outlets that government agencies as well as non-governmental organisations use these means to ensure immediate awareness in cases of breaking events, such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks. However, along with valid information misinformation has been found to be transmitted in social media even during crisis and emergency situations. Misinformation is a common problem in all media, but is exacerbated in digital social media due to the speed and ease with which it can be spread. Furthermore, at this speed, providing countervailing corrective information in a timely manner is even more challenging. The social web enables people to spread information rapidly without confirmation of truth.

Digital disruption through misinformation highlights the need for national governments to create an inclusive, transparent and accountable digital sphere to address this phenomenon.

The main challenges and potential solutions for governments and citizens are examined in this report by ICA, eGovlab of Stockholm University, the Open University in UK and the OECD.

IT Alignment in Public Organizations

2017. Lazar Rusu, Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan. Information Technology Governance in Public Organizations, 27-57

Chapter

IT alignment is one of the widely researched topics in the information systems research area and continue to be a top management concern. However, IT alignment in the context of public organizations is still less explored. A systematic literature review is conducted to provide an overview of the current status of the research in this area and the possible future research directions. Major databases and top conference proceedings in information systems and e-government area were searched by using key words to collect articles for analysis. Finally, a total of 58 articles were identified and included in the literature review. The findings of this study indicate case study research as the most preferred research method. But due to the small numbers of public organizations explored in these studies the results are problematic for generalisation. Apart from these findings we have identified and discussed the research concepts addressed in IT alignment in public organizations studies that were categorized using the dimensions of Strategic Alignment Maturity model. The findings of this study have revealed some potential future research directions that have been less explored like organizational culture, organizational politics, social interaction, and informal organizational structure influence on IT alignment in public organizations.

Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan

About me

Teaching

Research projects

Publications

IT Alignment as a Roadmap for Digital Transformation Success

Managing Misinformation within the Public Sector: Cases from the Global South

Information Technology Alignment in Public Organisations: Towards Successful Digital Transformation

IT Alignment: A Path Towards Digital Transformation Success

Information Security Challenges During Digital Transformation

IT Alignment and its Influence on Digital Transformation Success

Digital Transformation in Public Organisations: IT Alignment-Related Success Factors

IT Alignment: A Management Paradigm for Digital Transformation in Public Organisations

Health is Wealth: A Conceptual Overview of Virtual Healthcare & Future Research Directions [1995–2021]

Business-IT Alignment and Digital Transformation: Setting A Research Agenda

The Relationship Between Organisational Agility and IT Alignment in Public Organisations

Does Citizen Involvement Feed on Digital Platforms?

Public Sector Digital Transformation

Strategic Alignment for Digital Transformation

Citizens' Acceptance of E-democracy

Transforming Marginalized Communities through Virtual Healthcare during a Pandemic

Information Security and Organisational Agility in the Digital Era

Privacy and Security in the Digitalisation Era

Digital Transformation in the Public Sector: IT Alignment as a Moderator

Organisational Agility and IT Alignment in Public Organisations

Business-IT Alignment in the Era of Digital Transformation

Strategic Alignment During Digital Transformation

Digital Transformation in the Public Sector

The influence of Privacy Concerns on Intention to Use Social Media

Intra-organisational Barriers to Business-IT Alignment

Social Media Impact on Academic Performance

Breaking the Digital Divide in Rural Africa

Results-Based Project Follow-Up

Organisational Structure’s Influence on ITAlignment

Organisational Structure's Influence on IT Alignmnet in a Public Organisation

Information Technology Alignment

Exploring Social Media Use During a Public Health Emergency in Africa

Digitalisation in the Public Sector

Business-IT Alignment in the Banking Sector

eGovernment Adoption Determinants from Citizens’ Perspective

Business-IT Alignment Barriers in a Public Organisation

Organizational Structure's Influence on Business-IT Alignment

IT Governance in Public Organizations

Influence of Organizational Structure on Business-IT Alignment

Debriefing for Knowledge Management

Can Blockchain Technology Solve Trust Issues in Industrial Networks?

Combating Misinformation

IT Alignment in Public Organizations