Alignment in Organisations: Does an Interpretative Perspective Lead to a Better Understanding of the Subject?

Abstract

This article discusses the concept of alignment and the different domains in which it is used. The standard functionalist perspective on alignment hampers our understanding of this concept. We therefore put forward a social constructionist approach to conducting research into alignment. Using this as a basis, we substantiate a proposition that by examining the restrictive influence of themes on collective sense-making, the degree of alignment can also be investigated. On this basis, we have drafted a framework which could facilitate the study of alignment in organisations. We recommend that further research be conducted to investigate how themes influence the degree of alignment in different organisations so that comparative studies can be carried out on this topic.