A model for it practitioners’ participation in it governance initiatives

Abstract

Information Technology (IT) governance has received increasing attention in the recent years. However, participation of IT practitioners continues to be the weakest link in IT governance. The objectives of the research are to assess the current situation of IT governance from the perspective of IT practitioners, to develop a model that identifies the relationship between attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, participation and perceived IT governance effectiveness, to identify differences in perceived IT governance effectiveness between groups of IT practitioners having differences in job function, education level, education area of specialisation, certification and experience level, and to measure the influence on their participation in IT governance initiatives and perceived IT governance effectiveness. To achieve these objectives, this study employed a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach, in which the quantitative approach guided by the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was followed by a qualitative inquiry. Quantitative data were gathered through on-line survey among IT practitioners in Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status companies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among IT practitioners in one IT end-user organisation to explain findings from the quantitative inquiry. The results showed that there was a difference in the perceived IT governance effectiveness for job function, but not for education level, certification or experience level. Subjective norms and perceived behavioural control resulted in greater participation in IT governance initiatives. Conversely, attitudes did not insignificantly influence participation in IT governance initiatives. Participation in IT governance initiatives resulted in higher perceived IT governance effectiveness. The qualitative inquiry study suggested three emergent themes, which are the IT practitioners’ self, peers and the environment, constraints that discourage bad behaviours, and constraints that encourage good behaviours in IT governance. These themes reconciled with the subjective norms and perceived behavioural controls in TPB. The research contributes to knowledge with the development of a model of IT practitioners’ participation in IT governance initiatives based on TPB. Practically, the research findings help the top management of IT to focus on the most important factors which are awareness, perceived importance, organisational processes, structures, and reward system to increase effectiveness of IT governance. Methodologically, the mixed methods approach complements the objectivity of the quantitative findings with richer understanding of the IT practitioners’ perspective to IT governance.