The Effect of Top Management Support in Strategic Management of Information Systems

Today, information technology (IT) has a strategic role in realization of organization`s business goals, in addition to facilitating operational issues. Organizations should develop Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) in order to realize strategic roles of IT. SISP is a fundamental tool of strategic information system (IS) management. Despite instinctivebenefits of SISP, organizations still have many difficulties in implementing and practicingthem. Lack of top manager`s commitment has been addressed as one of the most important factors of losing the project. Top management support of SISP, however, is often weak orabsent. The association between this support and strategic IS management is important tounderstand the role of top management in the use of what has been acknowledged as a strategic tool. This survey is trying to study the connection between top manager`ssupporting role of SISP and strategic management of information systems using structural equation model. The results indicate that top management support of SISP is significantly associated with strategic management of information systems.