Phase4-The
Prog.PhD STI
Adm. – Grad.2018 –
LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ssidenko/
Dir.; Codir.Stéphane Gagnon

Alignment of Talent, Technology, and Digital Transformation Strategies: Impact of Technology Expertise, Innovation Champions, and Hiring Priorities

Sidenko, Svetlana

Digital transformation strategies must be aligned with talent and technology strategies, which are the essential building blocks of digital project effectiveness. An organization can only aim to accomplish what its best and brightest can deliver, as talented professionals and executives are significantly challenging to find, hire, and keep, especially when all markets undergo rapid technological change simultaneously. This may explain in significant part why certain transformation initiatives suffer even when timing and conditions are favourable, having attempted to “engineer” their organization by assuming that capabilities were easy to acquire and align as per their aims. To explain this phenomenon, we study the impact of three enabling factors for this alignment based on PLS models built from a survey of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in Canada. First, we measure the level of investment in digital transformation and how IT spending priorities are linked based on the mediating effect of IT skill levels. Second, we measure the innovation behaviour of senior IT executives, the extent to which these depend on IT priorities and IT infrastructure, and the mediation effect from business benefits realization from IT investments. Third, we measure the mediation effect of IT strategies on the good alignment of IT hiring and the IT challenges experienced by the organization. This should make it possible to demonstrate that the strategies developed by senior IT managers have the effects required to make the organization’s skills more agile. Our conclusion discusses how these enabling factors fit within existing theories of digital strategy and identify limitations in this IT leadership studies.