Business Commons^™

Organizational Alignment And Performance: Past, Present And Future, Ravi Kathuria, Maheshkumar P. Joshi, Stephen J. Porth

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to identify and define the types of organizational alignment – vertical and horizontal; to examine the evidence for the alignment‐performance relationship, and propose research questions and practical implications to advance the theory and practice of managing alignment.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study is a conceptual examination based on a thorough review of both theoretical and empirical research.

Findings

– The paper finds that vertical alignment has received considerably more attention in the literature. Studies of horizontal alignment within organizations are less common. When horizontal alignment is studied, the focus tends to be dyadic …