Achieving business and IT alignment in digital service redesign: a study of UK e-government

Prior research has shown that there are a variety of ways in which business-IT alignment (BIA) can help an organisation. BIA can increase the UK’s e-government maturity level, improve the quality of e-government and service redesign process, and ensure the establishment of an integrated, coherent, user-centred, and agile digital culture. However, business-IT alignment is challenging when there are many organisations (central and local government organisations) involved in the process. This research aims to increase our understanding of the ‘process of aligning’ - vertically (between central and local government), and horizontally (across government agencies). Data analysis was conducted by the use of grounded theory. A number of factors that influence alignment in UK service redesign were identified and discussed as ‘enablers’ or ‘inhibitors’ of alignment. This thesis captures alignment in both ‘theory and practice’. It includes multiple case studies to explore business-IT alignment in the context of the UK government. Additionally, this study not only provides ‘theory for explanation’, making it scientifically useful, but also offers ‘theory for design’, for practical uses. During the analysis of the case studies governance is found to be one of the alignment enablers, and a number of governance frameworks were designed to facilitate alignment in UK service redesign. This thesis presents a theoretical model which demonstrates the interrelationships found between the alignment key factors (i.e. standardisation, shared domain knowledge, business-IT engagement and silo-based systems associated with localism) with the core factor: communication. Network theories are used in this research to propose actions. It therefore proposes the adoption of a goal-directed network aimed at alignment in service redesign. This research links alignment, e-government, service redesign and networks together, a connection which is not fully explored in the literature.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2018

Author dc:creator

• Alnasar, Lamya Hamdan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jackson, Paul
• Limburg, Diana

• Keywords: Business-IT alignment, e-government, UK service redesign, communication, networks, governance, grounded theory

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/e141-nj88

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:c6055b6f-3730-472b-a39f-3711197178bf:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1