CIO Perspectives on Organizational Learning within the Context of IT Governance

Abstract

Why is it that, despite the large amount of studies on IT governance, many professionals still fail to put these theories into practice? Building on the previous question, we reviewed the literature to examine how organizational learning theories can help in understanding the gap between the ‘theory' and ‘practice' of IT governance. Thereafter, a focus group discussed this gap within the context of Industry 4.0. The findings indicate important concerns that might hinder learning in organizations, including: lack of shared domain knowledge between business and IT stakeholders, lack of shared understanding and poor diffusion of IT governance practices in the organization. Unless these concerns are successfully resolved, executives will experience difficulties to govern IT successfully within the context of Industry 4.0. We provide recommendations to practitioners with regards to the capabilities which should be present in the organisation to overcome such concerns. These capabilities represent a T-shaped portfolio of skills.