through such means as internalization, externalization, combination, and socialization. Such knowledge integration should enhance shared knowledge between business and IS executives. This would help avoid paradoxical decisions caused by business executives' lack of lS/IT knowledge and IS managers' inadequate business knowledge. Process integration, such as through the integration of business and IS planning processes, should reduce the adverse effects of split
responsibilities. Such process integration has also been recommended in the literature on business process re-engineering and business process redesign. Sequential attention to goals, which might sometimes he pursued intentionally and logically (as discussed above), could also be reduced through knowledge integration and process integration. Planning approaches that explicitly rely on multiple perspectives and challenges to common beliefs, such as those involving dialectical planning or devil's advocacy. provide early warning signals and should
assist in avoiding complacency and underestimation of problems. Transitional figures or external forces recognized as powerful or knowledgeable, should also help enable large-scale changes in alignment. In all three cases, strategic IS realignments were triggered by actions by external entities—the establishment and use of direct controls by the lending banks at Alpha, the consulting firm's report and the entry of international firms into the Australian market at Beta, and the consulting firm's report at Gamma.