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

Abstract

In this article we discuss the concept of alignment and the different domains in which this concept is used. The used functionalist perspective to alignment has limitations for our understanding of this concept. As a consequence we put forward a social constructionist approach to conducting research into alignment. On the basis of this 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 to invite researchers to investigate how themes influence the degree of alignment in different organisations so that comparative studies can be carried out on this topic.

Keywords: post modernism, alignment, competences, social constructionism, organisation themes

JEL Classification: D2