Environmental modelling of the Chief Information Officer

Since the introduction of the term in the 1980’s, the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) has been widely researched. Various perceptions and dimensions of the role have been explored and debated. However, the explosion in data proliferation (and the inevitable resulting information fuelled change) further complicates organisational expectations of the CIOs role. If organisations are to competitively exploit the digital trend, then those charged with recruiting and developing CIOs now need to be more effective in determining (and shaping) CIO traits and attributes, within the context of their own organisational circumstances and in line with stakeholder expectations. CIOs also need to determine their own suitability and progression within their chosen organisation if they are to remain motivated and effective. Before modelling the role of the future CIO, it is necessary to synthesise our current knowledge (and the lessons learnt) about the CIO. This paper, therefore, aims to identify and summate the spectrum of key researched ‘themes’ pertaining to the role of the CIO. Summating previous research, themes are modelled around four key CIO ‘dimensions’, namely (1) Impacting factors, (2) Controlling factors (3) Responses and (4) CIO ‘attributes’. Having modelled the CIOs current environment, and recognising the evolving IT enabled information landscape, the authors call for further research to inform the recruitment and development of the future CIO in terms of personal attributes and the measurable impact such attributes will have on their respective organisation

Leadership in the Face of Technological Discontinuities: The Transformation of EarthColor

Technological discontinuities can fundamentally alter the competitive dynamics of sectors of the economy: IT can create opportunities for those who are able to transform themselves, while simultaneously putting others out of business. Leadership is a key determinant of the outcome of an IT-enabled transformation, but there is limited research on the role of leaders in responding to such disruptions. This article explores the role of the leader in a period of technological change through an extension of the theory of transformational leadership. We illustrate the extended theory through a commercial printer, EarthColor. The commercial printing industry is in a strategic transition, characterized by consolidation and increasing cost pressures that drive profit margins down. We discuss how IT is responsible for the changing rules of competition in this industry, as well as the transformation of printing from a craft-based profession to a digitized business, from a traditional manufacturing “production” industry to a digital information management business. The article documents the experiences of EarthColor and the leadership of its CEO who successfully navigated an industry upheaval precipitated by IT. We generalize the results of our research to our extension of transformational leadership theory that explicitly incorporates the demands of IT-enabled transformations

Dynamic Capabilities to Evolve an Ambidextrous IT Organization

Digital disruptions are changing the healthcare ecosystem, requiring organizations to rethink IT strategies and develop new IT competencies. This study focuses on the exploitation and exploration tension that managers face within an IT organization of a global pharmaceutical company, and their response to the related environmental exigencies in healthcare. Dynamic capability theory (DC) provides the overall framing, while ambidexterity provides an understanding of top management’s response to the exploit–explore tensions that arise. This engaged scholarship longitudinal case study takes a shifting stories methodological approach to elicit participants’ reflections and interpretations of significant events, including their own role in evolving the ambidextrous posture of the IT organization. Through rich description stories, process related decisions have been revealed, and have provided an understanding into organizational reconfiguration of IT resources. Subsequently, this resulted in a situated grounded model for understanding DC and OA for this case. Practical insights are offered on how dynamic capability theory could be applied for IT management to be smarter at becoming more ambidextrous

How the West was Lost: Chief Information Officers and the Battle of Jurisdictional Control

Recent research has highlighted the potential downfall of the role and profession of Chief Information Officer (CIO). As the top executive responsible for IT in an organization, this role has gone through several shifts since its advent in the 1980’s. This study addresses how the role has evolved, and, explores how it may evolve in the years to come. The study utilizes a combination of structured literature review and interviews, and is informed by Abbott’s systems of professions perspective. The findings show that after an increase in jurisdictional control prior to the turn of the millennium, the profession has decreased and is continuing to decrease its jurisdictional control. This is in part linked to the imposition of IT Governance frameworks designed to shift risk from the profession of CIOs to neighboring professions. This is discussed in light of calls for future research

Time for Climate Change: Leadership, IT Climate, and their Impact on Organizational Performance

Information systems (IS) have become essential for operating firms successfully. How to align business and information technology (IT) executives to in-crease organizational output has been widely dis-cussed in literature. This research focusses on pre-requisites and consequences of a positive IT climate in organizations where the need for deep IT and business knowledge is constantly increasing. We shed light on how organizational leaders, both from business and IT, influence a positive organizational IT climate by IT leadership and subsequently, how an organizational IT climate affects strategic align-ment and firm performance. By applying a two steps approach, this study evaluates the results of a survey among 322 IT decision makers in the U.S. working in knowledge-intensive and less-knowledge intensive industries. Our findings illustrate that IT leadership and IT climate differ between the two groups, and can confirm organization wide firm IS knowledge as a strategically important resource to achieve organ-izational performance

The Effect of CIO Virtues on CIO Role Effectiveness

This paper aims to contribute to the concept of ethical CIO leadership through a distinctive focus on virtue ethics. Our research investigates the theoretical significance of CIO virtues on two CIO capabilities and their corresponding influence on the CIO’s role effectiveness in organizations. Contributions and implications of this work are discussed

Do CIOs Matter? Assessing the Value of CIO Presence in Top Management Teams

Though the importance of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) is well recognized in academic literature, concerns have often been expressed about the status of CIOs and their waning influence. In fact, not all firms choose to have Chief Information Officers (CIOs)as a part of their top management teams. This research investigates whether CIO presence/absence in top management teams affect firm performance. We assembled a multi-industry dataset of 205 firms that included CIOs in their TMTs and assessed their financial and market performance over a three year period (2002-2004). We found firms that included CIOs in their top management teams to have significantly better financial performance than their peer firms who did not. The results and their implications are discussed. This study provides an initial step towards understanding the empirical linkages between IT leadership and firm performance