Understanding the Nature of Engagement with Executive Managers to Create and Sustain Strategic Alignment: The Case of Network Utility Organisations in Ireland

Abstract

Strategic alignment between business and information systems (IS) strategies remains a persistent challenge for organisations, particularly in complex, regulated, and resource-constrained settings of Network Utility Organisations in Ireland. This thesis explains how alignment is created and sustained over time by developing an empirically grounded account that integrates both process-oriented and practice-oriented perspectives. Adopting a relativist ontology and interpretivist/constructivist epistemology, the study employs a qualitative, longitudinal multi-case design, combining narrative strategy, processual inquiry, thematic analysis and grounded theory strategy. The thesis offers several key contributions. First, it operationalises the "how" of alignment through the Strategic Alignment Process Framework, mapping the phases, stages and IS artefacts that structure alignment work. Second, it reconceptualises strategic alignment as a dynamic, cyclical construct with the Strategic Alignment Lifecycle Loop, formalising feedbacks between strategy formulation, delivery execution and operations, and ongoing adaptation. Third, the research develops a mechanism-level account of social alignment via the Executive Manager Engagement Cycle, detailing the routines and set of novel attributes that make executive engagement purposeful and effective. Fourth, the study proposes Financial Alignment as a distinct alignment type, demonstrating that financial scrutiny and value justification are central, recurring mechanisms in alignment practice. Fifth, this study introduces a novel theoretical framework that synthesises the co-evolutionary perspective with the enterprise architecture view. The thesis seeks to demystify the strategic alignment by situating Strategic Alignment Process Framework at the epicentre of Strategic Alignment Lifecycle Loop and Executive Manager Engagement Cycle. Within this construct, alignment types act as intervening mechanisms that initiate, shape, and ensure the sustainment of strategic coherence across successive cycles, offering a deeper understanding of how alignment is created and sustained over time. The findings offer theoretical, empirical and practical value, providing actionable frameworks, engagement toolkits, and artefact templates that organisations can adapt to structure, diagnose, and improve alignment. The research lays a foundation for future studies to test and refine these models in other contexts and contributes to bridging the gap between theory and practice in strategic alignment.