Baseline Mechanisms for IT Governance at Universities

The pervasive use of technology has created a critical dependency on Information Technology (IT) that requires IT Governance (ITG). ITG calls for the definition and implementation of formal mechanisms at the highest level in the organization taking into account structures, processes and relational mechanisms for the creation of business value from IT investments. However, determining the right ITG mechanisms remains a complex endeavour. Previous studies have identified ITG mechanisms in use in the financial and health care industries. While universities also increasingly depend on IT for their success, ITG implementation in universities has not received much attention. As universities have many unique characteristics, it is highly unlikely that ITG experiences from the financial and health care industries can be directly applied to universities. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify an ITG mechanisms’ baseline for universities. Six case studies comprising of in-depth interviews three international universities in Brazil, Portugal and the Netherlands, led to the proposal of a minimum ITG baseline for universities that is compared with the financial and health care industries. This article concludes by presenting key contributions, limitations and future work.

[1]  Antonio Carlos Gastaud Maçada,et al.  The Financial Impact of IT Governance Mechanisms' Adoption: An Empirical Analysis with Brazilian Firms , 2009, 2009 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[2]  Prasong Praneetpolgrang,et al.  Information technology governance practices based on sufficiency economy philosophy in the Thai university sector , 2015, Inf. Technol. People.

[3]  Acklesh Prasad,et al.  On IT governance structures and their effectiveness in collaborative organizational structures , 2012, Int. J. Account. Inf. Syst..

[4]  Hans-Henrik Hvolby,et al.  Establishing a Business Process Reference Model for Universities , 2012, CENTERIS 2012.

[5]  Denys A. Flores,et al.  An integrated model for ICT Governance and Management applied to the Council for Evaluation, Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Higher Education Institutions in Ecuador (CEAACES) , 2015, 2015 International Conference on Computing, Communication and Security (ICCCS).

[6]  Rui Gomes,et al.  IT governance using COBIT implemented in a high public educational institution: a case study , 2009 .

[7]  Steven De Haes,et al.  IT Governance Structures, Processes and Relational Mechanisms: Achieving IT/Business Alignment in a Major Belgian Financial Group , 2005, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[8]  Andrew Wilmore,et al.  IT strategy and decision-making: a comparison of four universities , 2014 .

[9]  K. Perreault,et al.  Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches , 2011 .

[10]  Faraón Llorens Largo,et al.  An IT Governance framework for universities in Spain , 2009 .

[11]  Line Dubé,et al.  Rigor in Information Systems Positivist Case Research: Current Practices , 2003, MIS Q..

[12]  Dieter Fink,et al.  Information technology governance: an evaluation of the theory‐practice gap , 2010 .

[13]  Yuk-Hee Chan,et al.  Improving Service Management in Campus IT Operations. , 2008 .

[14]  Robert W. Zmud,et al.  Arrangements for Information Technology Governance: A Theory of Multiple Contingencies , 1999, MIS Q..

[15]  Walter Brenner,et al.  IT Governance Mechanisms in Multisourcing--A Business Group Perspective , 2012, 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[16]  R. Peterson.  Crafting Information Technology Governance , 2004 .

[17]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  How Information Technology Governance Mechanisms and Strategic Alignment Influence Organizational Performance: Insights from a Matched Survey of Business and IT Managers , 2015, MIS Q..

[18]  Miguel Mira da Silva,et al.  IT Governance Patterns in the Portuguese Financial Industry , 2014, 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[19]  Nijaz Bajgoric,et al.  Business continuity management: a systemic framework for implementation , 2014, Kybernetes.

[20]  Rui Dinis Sousa,et al.  IT Governance Mechanisms in Higher Education , 2016 .

[21]  John C. Henderson,et al.  Strategic Alignment: Leveraging Information Technology for Transforming Organizations , 1993, IBM Syst. J..

[22]  Luís Velez Lapão,et al.  Business/IT Alignment through IT Governance Patterns in Portuguese Healthcare , 2014, Int. J. IT Bus. Alignment Gov..

[23]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  The Case Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems , 1987, MIS Q..

[24]  Min-Seok Pang,et al.  IT governance and business value in the public sector organizations - The role of elected representatives in IT governance and its impact on IT value in U.S. state governments , 2014, Decis. Support Syst..

[25]  W. V. Grembergen,et al.  Structures, Processes and Relational Mechanisms for IT Governance , 2004 .

[26]  L. Diamond.  IT Governance : How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results , 2005 .

[27]  Acklesh Prasad,et al.  A capabilities-based approach to obtaining a deeper understanding of information technology governance effectiveness: Evidence from IT steering committees , 2010, Int. J. Account. Inf. Syst..

[28]  Shengnan Han,et al.  The Influence of Culture on IT Governance: A Literature Review , 2014, 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[29]  Lazar Rusu,et al.  The effect of critical success factors on IT governance performance , 2011, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[30]  W. V. Grembergen.  IT Governance and Its Mechanisms , 2004 .

[31]  Wang Zhen,et al.  An ITIL-based IT Service Management Model for Chinese Universities , 2007, 5th ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management & Applications (SERA 2007).

[32]  Steven De Haes,et al.  Analysing the Relationship between IT Governance and Business/IT Alignment Maturity , 2008, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2008).

[33]  Peter F. Green,et al.  Effective information technology (IT) governance mechanisms: An IT outsourcing perspective , 2009, Information Systems Frontiers.

[34]  John S. Camp,et al.  Current Issues Survey Report, 2007 , 2007 .

[35]  Robert W. Zmud,et al.  Influencing the effectiveness of IT governance practices through steering committees and communication policies , 2010, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[36]  Mahmoud Khalid Almsafir,et al.  The Drivers of ITIL Adoption in UNITEN , 2013, 2013 International Conference on Advanced Computer Science Applications and Technologies.

[37]  Sue Conger,et al.  Service Management in Operations , 2008, AMCIS.

[38]  Antonio Carlos Gastaud Maçada,et al.  The impact of adopting IT governance on financial performance: An empirical analysis among Brazilian firms , 2014, Int. J. Account. Inf. Syst..

[39]  Daniel Beimborn,et al.  Achieving social alignment between business and IT – an empirical evaluation of the efficacy of IT governance mechanisms , 2015, J. Inf. Technol..

[40]  Vanessa Chang,et al.  Adoption and Implementation of IT Governance: Cases from Australian Higher Education , 2006, ACIS.

[41]  Steven De Haes,et al.  COBIT 5 and Enterprise Governance of Information Technology: Building Blocks and Research Opportunities , 2013, J. Inf. Syst..

[42]  Michael D. Myers,et al.  The qualitative interview in IS research: Examining the craft , 2007, Inf. Organ..

[43]  Gerald G. Grant,et al.  Framing the Frameworks: A Review of IT Governance Research , 2005, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[44]  Peter F. Green,et al.  Effective Information Technology Governance Mechanisms in Public Sectors: An Australian Case , 2006, PACIS.

[45]  Ursula Kelly,et al.  Information management and governance in UK higher education institutions: bringing IT in from the cold , 2007 .

[46]  Judith Borreson Caruso,et al.  Process and Politics: IT Governance in Higher Education , 2008 .

[47]  Steven De Haes,et al.  An Exploratory Study into IT Governance Implementations and its Impact on Business/IT Alignment , 2009, Inf. Syst. Manag..

[48]  Lazar Rusu,et al.  IT Governance in a Public Organization in a Developing Country: A Case Study of a Governmental Organization , 2015, CENTERIS/ProjMAN/HCist.

[49]  Gail Ridley,et al.  Attempting to Define IT Governance: Wisdom or Folly? , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).

[50]  Marie Anne Macadar,et al.  Information Technology Governance in Public Organizations: Understanding the Expectations of its Adoption through the Lens of Organizational Citizenship , 2016, ECIS.

[51]  Steven De Haes,et al.  An Exploratory Study into the Design of an IT Governance Minimum Baseline through Delphi Research , 2008, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[52]  Elena Karahanna,et al.  Causal Explanation in the Coordinating Process: A Critical Realist Case Study of Federated IT Governance Structures , 2013, MIS Q..

[53]  Felix B. Tan,et al.  IT Governance in Collaborative Networks: A Socio-Technical Perspective , 2012, Pac. Asia J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[54]  R. Pereira,et al.  IT Governance Implementation: the determinant factors , 2012 .

[55]  Pieter M. A. Ribbers,et al.  Designing information technology governance processes: diagnosing contemporary practices and competing theories , 2002, Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[56]  Paulo Henrique de Souza Bermejo,et al.  It governance in the public sector: a conceptual model , 2015, Information Systems Frontiers.

[57]  Lutz Kolbe,et al.  Service Management : A Cross-national Study of ITIL Adoption , 2018 .

[58]  Soongoo Hong,et al.  It Governance Framework: One Size Fits All? , 2016, AMCIS.

[59]  Graham Pervan,et al.  A study of the review and improvement of IT governance in Australian universities , 2012, CONF-IRM.