If it seems like your IT team works on an island all of its own making, a recent report by Forrester Research may explain why. As many as 85 percent of those surveyed believe a firm's IT's culture differs from its overall culture.

Forrester analyst Marc Cecere estimated that IT department culture fails to jive with overall corporate culture in about half of all businesses. A distinct IT culture may evolve due to different ways of measuring success. However, Forrester says problems can arise when the IT culture strays too far in three directions:

Too IT-Centric or Fearful | When IT doesn't have a healthy relationship with the business, it's in danger of forming an us-versus-them culture where IT hunkers down behind the technologies it manages and the problems it solves.

Too Heroic or Autonomous | The danger here is a tendency to firefighting and working extreme hours to solve problems. This can also lead to developing workarounds, rather than fixing the underlying issues.

Too Bureaucratic | IT can isolate itself if it sets up too many formal processes for customers to follow. Overly complex requirements can create unnecessary barriers between business needs and IT solutions.