Understanding the role of subcultures in the enterprise architecture process

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is positioned as an instrument for coordinating enterprise transformation. However, existing EA approaches pay less attention to soft factors that may have an impact on enterprise transformations. The existence of different organisational subcultures is not taken into account although it is considered as significant in the context of change. The social alignment of business and IT groups plays, for instance, a major role in transformations and in EA. This paper presents the first step of a larger study addressing the question how differences between organisational subcultures contribute to struggles/failure of EA-guided transformations. We use a series of qualitative, unstructured expert interviews to explore to what extent and how cultural differences can trigger struggles in EA-guided transformations from an architect’s perspective. Based on these interviews, an initial
conceptual model is developed. This model suggests that communication breakdowns act as an
intermediary factor between differences in organisational subculture and transformation struggles. A second round of expert interviews is used for the assessment and elaboration of the initial model focusing on communication breakdowns. The analysis of these interviews supports the intermediary role of communication breakdowns and refines the concepts of the model.