Enterprise information technology organizational flexibility : managing uncertainty and change

Chief Information Officers (CIOs) lead enterprise information technology organizations (EITOs) in today\u27s dynamic competitive business environment. CIOs deal with external and internal environmental changes, changing internal customer needs, and rapidly changing technology. New models for the organization include flexibility and suggest that CIOs should create and manage an enterprise IT organization that is more flexible in order to manage change and prepare for uncertainty, but they do not define what is meant by flexibility. The first objective of this exploratory and ethnographic research study was to understand how uncertainty and unexpected change are currently managed by CIOs. The second was to develop a systematic definition of enterprise IT organizational flexibility, The third was to explore the potential value of a proposed \u27enterprise IT organizational flexibility framework\u27 to be used by CIOs to better manage uncertainty and unexpected change. Rich research data was collected in an exploratory ethnographic study from in-depth interviews with twenty CIOs. These participants included a diverse representation from large to small enterprises, different industries, and with a variety of IT education and functional enterprise experiences. The conclusions from this study included a clearer understanding of the CIO\u27s leadership role when managing uncertainty and unexpected change, a definition of enterprise IT organizational flexibility with three aspects: anticipation, agility, and adaptability, and a framework for enterprise IT organizational flexibility assessment and development

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

Mindful Organizing for the CIO: Towards a Conceptual Model for Transformational Leadership

Considered invaluable to corporate entities, CIOs are relied upon for the strategic oversight of technological infrastructure as well as the articulation of a business case for IT resources. How can CIOs prepare for and respond to dynamic, and often uncertain changes, which challenge organizational resources, processes, and strategies? Research continues to indicate that technological transformation and integration of newer, faster IT capabilities have become a critical focus for the CIO. Extant literature on mindfulness suggests that mindful organizing (MO) can facilitate and enhance the effectiveness of strategic level decision makers. Integrating insights from MO, we present and analyze the literature to build an action orientated framework to support the CIO in leveraging the dynamic capabilities under his/her purview. Our objective is to examine key attributes of mindful organizing which are especially critical to building a level of awareness that cultivates an environment for reliability under transformational leaders

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Information Technology and the Search for Organizational Agility: A Systematic Review with Future Research Possibilities

Organizations are increasingly turning to information technology (IT) to help them respond to unanticipated environmental threats and opportunities. In this paper, we introduce a systematic review of the literature on IT-enabled agility, helping to establish the boundary between what we know and what we don’t know. We base our review on a wide body of literature drawn from the AIS Basket of Eight IT journals, a cross-section of non-Basket journals, IT practitioner outlets, and premier international IS conferences. We review the use of different theoretical lenses used to investigate the relationship between IT and organizational agility and how the literature has conceptualized agility, its antecedents, and consequences. We also map the evolution of the literature through a series of stages that highlight how researchers have built on previous work. Lastly, we discuss opportunities for future research in an effort to close important gaps in our understanding

Anticipating and considering customers ’ flexibility demands in is outsourcing relationships

Information systems (IS) outsourcing relationships are determined by uncertainties and changing business environments for both client and vendor over a long-term outsourcing lifecycle. Although IS outsourcing arrangements have been widely researched, little attention has been paid to how changing business circumstances and resulting customer demands can be systematically assessed, considered, and integrated in adapted service offerings. In this paper we argue that flexibility and agility are the key to handle uncertainty in IS outsourcing and to achieve a continuous fit in the outsourcing relationship. However, the later clients and vendors identify changing requirements the more expensive it generally becomes to provide the necessary flexibility in outsourcing arrangements. This paper proposes an assessment instrument for a systematic identification of changing customer demands on a business level and resulting flexibility requirements on an IT level that clients and vendors can utilize to structure their discussions in an early phase of an outsourcing relationship. Based on a thorough literature review and a requirements analysis with qualitative expert interviews, relevant dimensions and parameters of customers’ flexibility requirements are derived. These dimensions are involved in the design of the assessment instrument. Managerial implications and directions for future research, especially on the applicability and evaluation of the instrument are discussed

IT Leadership in Transition - The Impact of Digitalization on Finnish Organizations

Digitalization is transforming business models across industries. As information technology (IT) is becoming embedded in products and services, IT leadership has an increasingly dualistic role in supporting the organization and also serving its customers' changing needs. The ACIO research program studied how Finnish industry and public sector organizations utilize information technology in developing and managing critical business capabilities. The focus was on understanding and analyzing contemporary approaches to IT leadership. This research report summarizes some of the key research findings, providing scholars and practitioners with insights into and understanding of digitalization and changes in IT leadership in Finnish informationintensive organizations

The impact of IT human capability and IT flexibility on IT-enabled dynamic capabilities

By conducting moderation mediation analyses, we investigate how IT human capability (ITHC) and IT flexibility—independently and jointly—influence the formation of IT-enabled dynamic capabilities (ITDC). In this paper, we also analyze the influence of different environmental conditions on the relationship between ITHC and ITDC. We do so by empirically testing the constructed model on a dataset of 97 international firms, using the PROCESS technique. We draw upon the dynamic capabilities view and modular system theory, which emphasize the need for a firm to develop ITDC to respond to changes. Currently, there is a gap in the literature concerning the role of ITHC on the formation of ITDC. Our results show that there is a positive effect of ITHC and IT flexibility on the formation of ITDC. Hence, organizations should invest in their ITHC and IT flexibility to address the rapidly changing business environment

Information Technology (IT) managers’ contribution to IT agility in organizations – views from the field

siirretty Doriast