Abstract
With alignment of Information Systems (IS) strategy with business strategy, organizations can fully realize full potential of information technology (IT) resources. We view IS leadership as a core enabler to lead IS unit to contribute to organizational performance. Using upper echelons theory, we look at the effects of two characteristics of an IS leader, transformational leadership and gender, on IS unit's teamwork capability and how this capability, in turn, affects the realization of IS unit's strategy. We also investigate how the effect of teamwork capability on IS strategy realization is contingent on IS strategy. The results show that transformational IS leadership is effective in enhancing an IS unit's teamwork capability, which in turn significantly influences the realization of IS strategy to the extent the IS unit seeks to create systems that enable the organization to be flexible.