Governance of information technology: a study of decision making in public and private organizations

Abstract

The research aimed to evaluate the participation of managers of public and private organizations in information technology (IT) aligning and in the process of strategic decision making based on Matrix Arrangement IT Governance (Weill and Ross, 2006). A survey research was performed with 44 IT managers of Natal (Brazil), 18 managers of public organization and 26 managers of private organizations. The results suggest that IT managers are the main actors in the process of decision making in both organizations (public and private), especially for key decisions involving the principles, architecture and IT infrastructure strategies. Finally, it also appears that the patterns of decision-making are very close between the public and private organizations, but the results obtained in public organizations are closer to the pattern obtained in the research of Weill and Ross (2006).