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Although the concept of alignment appears to be a central theme is different fields of management and organization literature, the design of models and constructs for measuring alignment among different organizational elements has been a great dilemma. This article reviews alignment as an integrating concept in contingency studies. Three different classification frameworks of the concept and measurement methods are introduced. Each of these three frameworks are discussed according to different perspectives toward alignment, the functional form and testing schemes for these perspectives, and then specific research requirements for each approach is criticized. Finally, using these three different frameworks, a new integrating framework for addressing theoretical and analytical issues for the concept of alignment is proposed.