Performing strategy: Aligning processes in strategic IT

Alignment is perceived to be a desirable aim in IT projects – by improving the fit between the technology and the aims of the organization. Our study departs from previous literature by looking at this issue as a more dynamic and contextually localized phenomenon – emphasizing this dynamic quality by the use of the term “aligning”. We take a performative view by conceptualizing the doing of strategy, in the context of implementing a new IT based self-service check-in kiosk system in a UK airport organization. Adopting a single qualitative interpretive case study research approach, we observed and conceptualize three distinct processes of aligning information systems: decoupling, reframing and repackaging. The study draws on recent work repositioning information systems alignment as a dynamic process of knowledge creation and exploration.

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