Examining IT Governance through Diffusion of Innovations: A Case of a South African Telecom

Abstract

There are many best practices frameworks and international standards such as CobiT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology), ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) TOGAF, and ISO/IEC 38500:2015 which are available in the industry. Conversely, the growing use of frameworks and standards has its own challenges and difficulties. Organisations find it very challenging to tailor standards and frameworks to suit their specific requirements. Another challenge for organisations is how to choose a framework/s that best suits their organisational needs. Some of the organisations either select inappropriate frameworks or adopt more than one framework. Such decisions have not helped matters, but have instead increased the complexities, which have an impact on IT’s time to respond to organisational needs, time to market, as well competitiveness, which it is expected to support and enable. This study therefore examines the factors which influence and drives organisation to the confused state, in the selection and implementation of IT governance frameworks. To contextualise the study, a telecommunication company in South Africa was used as a case. The diffusion of innovation theory was employed as lens, in the analysis of the qualitative data. Based on the findings, which include knowledge sharing, environmental assessment, organisational culture, communicative approach and training, a framework was developed. The framework is intended to guide an organisation in the selection and deployment of IT governance framework, in terms of understanding the influencing factors.