TJTS4100 Organizational IT, Strategy and Governance (5 cr)

Study level:
Advanced studies
Grading scale:
0-5
Language:
English, Finnish
Responsible organisation:
Faculty of Information Technology
Curriculum periods:
2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024

Description

Content

This course focuses on the organizational IT and information systems at the level of strategic management and corporate governance, leading and guiding the IT Management function (such as an "IT Department", "IT Services" or equivalent) as a mediator between business and IT.

The role of information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) is to create benefits and value for the business in organizations. However, their deployment presents both challenges and opportunities. To tackle these, frameworks and models for the IT Governance and its sub-areas have been developed. The aim of this course is to develop an understanding of the complex organizational setting in diverse types of organizations, and the state of the art in the research and practice of this area. Some mainstream approaches as well as key enablers are studied.


We aim at an understanding of the area of organizational IT/IS as also a core area of IS research, and become aware of current scientific discourses and themes in it. The reading material and lectures provide a basic grounding for the concepts underlying this research area.

The aim is to provide the essential support to understand the problem area both as a practice, and as a research focus area: IT Governance ; IT/IS Strategy, the Strategic Alignment and Strategy Development and Deployment; The IT function and the Bi-Modality of IT; IT/IS Benefits and the Business Value of IT, Policy Management for Information and Data Governance.

The course aims at giving insights into the applicability of the theoretical concepts in practical cases, and the value, but also the limitations, of the best practice models in the organizational reality, and the research avenues raising from these areas.

Completion methods

Exam, an individual assignment and a group assignment. The student’s workload is divided as follows: lectures 24h; literature 35h; individual assignment 26h, group assignment 35h; exam and preparation 15h.

Assessment details

Exam and the course assignments: A group assignment and an individual assignment.

Learning outcomes

After completing the course the student will have good knowledge and conceptual footing as well as know of novel developments in the research area of organizational (enterprise) IT/IS.

With this basis, the student can independently acquire more knowledge and critically evaluate relevant research publications on the topical area. After completing the course, the student can also evaluate and apply mainstream conceptual models, best practice frameworks and methods developed for IT Governance and Strategic IS/IT management in the practice of enterprise IT, information systems; The governance and management as well as consulting in these areas.

Description of prerequisites

This course assumes that participating students have already completed their Bachelor’s studies and are currently taking their Master’s degree or doctoral studies. Specifically, this course curriculum assumes that students already have at least a sound basic knowledge in Information Management, IS Development, Project Management and the basic business studies.

Study materials

Lecture materials and a topical collection of research articles.

Literature

  • Brown, A. E., & Grant, G. G. (2005). Framing the frameworks: A review of IT governance research. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 15(1), 38.
  • Schryen, G. (2013). Revisiting IS business value research: what we already know, what we still need to know, and how we can get there. European Journal of Information Systems, 22(2), 139-169.
  • Peterson, R. (2004). Crafting information technology governance. Information Systems Management, 21(4), 7-22.
  • Ross, J. W., Weill, P., & Robertson, D. (2006). Enterprise architecture as strategy: Creating a foundation for business execution. Harvard Business Press.
  • Peppard, Joe (2007). The conundrum of IT management. European Journal of Information Systems (2007) 16, pp. 336-345.
  • Tallon, P. P., & Pinsonneault, A. (2011). Competing perspectives on the link between strategic information technology alignment and organizational agility: insights from a mediation model. MIS Quarterly, 463-486.
  • Weill, P., & Ross, J. (2005). A matrixed approach to designing IT governance. MIT Sloan Management Review, 46(2), 26.
  • Chen, D. Q., Mocker, M., Preston, D. S., & Teubner, A. (2010). Information systems strategy: reconceptualization, measurement, and implications. MISQuarterly, 34(2), 233-259.
  • Koh, S. C. L., Gunasekaran, A., & Rajkumar, D. (2008). ERP II: The involvement, benefits and impediments of collaborative information sharing. International Journal of Production Economics, 113(1), 245-268.
  • Nevo, S., & Wade, M. (2011). Firm-level benefits of IT-enabled resources: A conceptual extension and an empirical assessment. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 20(4), 403-418.
  • Arvidsson, V., Holmström, J., & Lyytinen, K. (2014). Information systems use as strategy practice: A multi-dimensional view of strategic information system implementation and use. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 23(1), 45-61.
  • Haffke, I., Kalgovas, B., & Benlian, A. (2017). Options for Transforming the IT Function Using Bimodal IT. MIS Quarterly Executive, 16(2).
  • Henderson, J. C., & Venkatraman, N. (1992). Strategic alignment: a model for organizational transformation through information technology. Transforming organizations, 97-117.
  • Gerow, J. E., Grover, V., Thatcher, J. B., & Roth, P. L. (2014). Looking toward the future of IT-business strategic alignment through the past: A meta-analysis. Mis Quarterly, 38(4), 1059-1085.
  • Ward, J. & Peppard, J., (2003). Strategic planning for information systems. John Wiley & Sons Incorporated.
  • Smallwood, R. F. (2014). Information governance: Concepts, strategies, and best practices (Vol. 574). John Wiley & Sons.
  • De Haes, S., & Van Grembergen, W. (2009). An exploratory study into IT governance implementations and its impact on business/IT alignment. Information Systems Management, 26(2), 123-137.
  • Martinsons, M., Davison, R., & Tse, D. (1999). The balanced scorecard: a foundation for the strategic management of information systems. Decision support systems, 25(1), 71-88.
  • Panetto, H., Zdravkovic, M., Jardim-Goncalves, R., Romero, D., Cecil, J., & Mezgár, I. (2016). New perspectives for the future interoperable enterprise systems. Computers in Industry, 79, 47-63.
  • De Haes, S., Van Grembergen,W, (2015) Enterprise Governance of IT: Achieving Alignment and Value, Springer, 2015.
  • Nicho, M., & Muamaar, S. (2016). Towards a taxonomy of challenges in an integrated IT governance framework implementation. Journal of International Technology and Information Management, 25(2), 2.

Completion methods

Method 1

Select all marked parts
Parts of the completion methods
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Participation in teaching (5 cr)

Type:
Participation in teaching
Grading scale:
0-5
Language:
English, Finnish

Teaching