Strategic alignment process of information technologies within the Poste de Côte d’Ivoire: An approach through culture and digital governance

Abstract

Digital governance is at the heart of the strategy of the State of Côte d'Ivoire and its public administration (Ernest & Young, 2018). However, according to a report by the Ministry of Digital Economy in 2021 and the firm Ernest & Young (EY) in 2022, the Post Office of Côte d'Ivoire (PCI) is experiencing great difficulties in implementing a strategic transformation plan that takes into account information technology (IT). However, the success of a digital transformation strategy is, in part, attributed to digital culture (Ben Dahhane et al. 2023; Martinez-Caro et al. 2020) and governance (Hilary and Serret, 2024). Thus, the objective of this communication is to describe the process of strategic alignment of IT within this public service with, as a backdrop, the digital culture within Poste CI and the digital governance of the Ivorian State. It is for this purpose that the qualitative approach will be adopted as a mode of investigation. The results show that, in this process, the digital governance of the State is an intermediate variable in the alignment between the State's digital strategy and the strategy of the public enterprise and then, in the relationship between the State's digital strategy and the implementation of IT infrastructures and processes within the public enterprise. Furthermore, the digital culture of the organization is an intermediate variable in the alignment between organizational infrastructures and processes and IT infrastructures and processes and then, in the relationship between the strategy of the public enterprise and the implementation of organizational infrastructures and processes. Our results imply that the process of strategic alignment of IT in public enterprises is specific. The reason is the fact of the direct and indirect intervention of the State, through its digital governance, in the strategy, the implementation of organizational infrastructures and processes and the implementation of information technology infrastructures and processes within its administration.

Keywords: Strategic alignment, Digital governance, Digital culture, Information technology, qualitative approach.

Classification JEL : M15

Paper type: Empirical Research