Abstract:

The importance of IT governance has received increasing acceptance. However, recent findings suggest gap in IT governance adoption globally. This study takes on the perspective of IT practitioners in contrast to most prior studies on the organisational aspects of IT governance. It aims to investigate influence of IT practitioners and management guidance on the extent of their participation in IT governance initiatives. Using Theory of Planned Behaviour as the main guiding theory, a quantitative study is carried out on IT practitioners in Malaysia. Data analysis using Partial Least Squares suggests that subjective norms and perceived behavioural controls on IT practitioners result in greater participation in IT governance initiatives. However, attitudes do not have significant relationship with participation in IT governance initiatives, in contrast with prediction of the theory. Further analysis reveals that awareness and perceived importance of IT governance are the two most important factors from the practitioner perspective. As for management guidance, organisational processes and reward system are the most important, closely followed by organisational structure. The findings reaffirms that IT governance requires control in the form of organisational structures, processes, goal settings and reward system to encourage desirable behaviours in IT governance initiatives.