IT alignment in temporary organizations: examining the 2016 Olympics

Temporary organizations (TOs) are organizational forms characterized by finite-life duration, largely emergent and non-routine tasks, and heterogeneity of team members. These unique characteristics lead to distinctive information processing requirements. Alignment between such information processing requirements and the supporting IT poses unique challenges. This paper explores these challenges in a specific temporary organization: the 2016 Olympic Games Organizing Committee. Through an immersive longitudinal case study, based on participant observation, interviews, and internal documents, our analysis indicates that TOs have distinct types of operational processes in different phases of work and multiple types of IT are needed to achieve IT alignment in support of these processes.

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