IT governance and the public sector: A survey of perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge of federal public sector IT employees

IT governance has become an important topic as both public and private organizations struggle to meet the challenge of aligning complex IT systems with operational needs. Without effective IT governance, organizations fail to gain strategic benefits that come by the proper strategic alignment of IT resources with the larger organizational mission. While a great deal of research exists on IT governance in the private sector, IT governance in the public sector has been almost exclusively at the macro level. The research was designed to find out how employees working within public sector organizations viewed IT governance from four perspectives: the perceived importance that IT governance had in the organization; the amount of knowledge about IT governance; the amount of opportunities for learning about IT governance experience; and finally, if there were any perceived obstacles to implementation of IT governance in the organization. An internet survey was conducted using 33 questions in four specific constructs that asked about IT governance importance, knowledge, learning, and obstacles to IT governance implementation. Fifty-one people responded to the survey, representing roughly 10% of the targeted population. The survey revealed that while IT governance was considered an important topic in the organization, the exact role and function of IT governance was not well understood and often confused with the more tactical role of IT management. This confusion about the functions and roles of IT governance had its origins in the limited number of opportunities that personnel in these organizations had to learn about IT governance during their careers. Finally, while IT governance was also seen as important to the organization's leadership, several environmental obstacles were found to hinder proper IT governance implementation.