Unpacking Board-Level IT Competency

Boards of directors have an essential role in IT governance in organizations; however, many boards are falling short in this role. Many studies have attributed the lack of board IT governance to a competency gap. However, despite the importance of understanding this gap, there has been limited examination of what constitutes such competency. This paper unpacks the board IT competency construct by examining proxy and direct measures from the literature. Through a survey of 75 board directors in Sri Lanka, we found that while some proxy measures appear to be better measures of IT competency than other proxy measures, direct measures more accurately reflect board IT competency than proxy measures. To further assess the fitness of the proxy versus the direct measures we examined their relationship with board IT governance. We found that the direct measures are more strongly associated with board IT governance than the proxy measures. These findings expand the current understanding of how to measure board IT competency and provide support for its influence on board IT governance. Recommendations are given to researchers on how to measure board IT competency and to boards on how they can enhance their IT competency.