The extent of IT governance in achieving business competitiveness: a case of Kenya Airways Limited

Abstract

The pervasive use of technology has created critical dependency on IT that calls for a specific focus on IT governance. There is a devaluation of the importance of IT as a strategic asset by executive management in many organizations resulting in dysfunctional governance models. The study sets to explore the IT Governance practices extent in achieving business competitiveness advantage with a view to exploring IT strategy-business strategy alignment. Despite the growing evidence that IT has become an integral part of business, IT governance is still an issue for many organizations as the executive business management often tends to view IT as a "support" function rather than as a legitimate partner for generating business value. This devaluation of the importance of IT as a strategic asset is a symptom of misalignment leading to organizations’ wastage of precious resources (capital, time and human) in an era where time is of the essence, capital is in short supply, and truly qualified IT people are still hard to find (despite the recent economic recession). The study recommends the Dee-Enn Framework of IT Governance which merges the key components of existing IT Governance frameworks such as COBIT and ISO 38500, making it a simpler model, yet more integrated and comprehensive. The framework would enable the BOD put equal emphasis on IT governance as is normally with corporate governance to facilitate its integration in the Enterprise’s Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) practice to form a collaboration that brings synergy, and provides better financial, operational and IT assurance to the business in the pursuit of its objectives and goals.