Abstract—This paper investigates the impact of a company’s divestment strategy on the IT governance model and IT-Business alignment and determine the steps that IT and business should take to ensure alignment in order to support a divestment strategy. Divestments and closures are described as strategy’s missing link. Many companies will oppose this strategic option because it is cursed with the disgrace of failure. Divestment is an instrument of strategy that companies can apply to consolidate and refocus their business.
The paper will further discuss the importance of the alignment of internal departments, but more specifically the IT department, with the company’s business strategy, even if it is a divestment strategy, to support and ensure the achievement of the company’s goals and objectives. The augmentation of IT to company achievement is a sphere where the idea of fit between IT and business strategy is particularly relevant. The extensive application of technology has spawned a pivotal dependence on IT which has necessitate an urgency to focus on IT Governance. The purpose of IT Governance is to provide direction and oversight for IT within a company and is described as an important building block in business-IT alignment.

Index Terms—Business strategy, divestment, IT alignment, IT governance.

The authors are with University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa (email: Annamare.wolmarans@exxaro.com).

Cite: Annamaré Wolmarans, Neels Kruger, Neil Croft, "Alignment of the IT Strategy and Governance Model with a Company’s Divestment Strategy," International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 103-110, 2016.