1,573 research outputs found

    Environmental modelling of the Chief Information Officer

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    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

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

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    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

    The Interplay of IT Governance Mechanisms, Value and Performance: The Case of Cloud Computing Investment

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    Background: Digital acceleration coupled with unprecedented work disruption (e.g., a Pandemic) have amplified the need for mature IT governance practices to generate planned value from organizations\u27 digital investments. Although the pairwise relationship between mature governance practices, value derived from IT investments, and organizational performance have been examined previously, all three have rarely been simultaneously investigated. Therefore, this paper examines the role of value in the relationship between IT governance mechanisms and organizational performance. Method: A research model that comprehensively conceptualizes the governance mechanism construct is developed and validated. The model is examined using data collected from 250 United States organizations that have invested in cloud computing for over a year. Results: The results reveal that the value generated from an IT investment is germane to understanding the relationship between governance mechanisms and organizational performance. Specifically, the result explains that governance mechanisms help improve organizational performance through cost reduction in IT services, create agility through flexibility in technology service, strengthen IT security and privacy, and effectively redirect IT resources. The results show the more critical role of the relational mechanism and practices related to IT security and privacy in the cloud computing context. Conclusion: The study contributes to IS literature by providing a more unified conceptualization of governance mechanisms and theoretically establishing the importance of governance in effectively governing cloud computing. By providing a guideline to help organizations achieve more value from cloud computing, the study provides implications for practice. The findings empirically show the relational mechanism has the most critical role in creating value from cloud computing. The governance practices help bridge the gap between business and IT, gradual transformative change in the roles and responsibilities, control cloud expenses, security and privacy risks. The findings show that competency is more likely to be achieved from cloud computing investment

    Mayors and Chief Administrative Officers Relationships: Aspects of Functional Relationships

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    This study attempts to understand how the functionality of the mayor-chief administrator officer (CAO) relationship impacts the ongoing operation of these two local government positions. Looking at the structural and interpersonal aspects of the lived experience of this relationship enlightens us as to the manner in which the relationship functions. A review is made of literature on local government, generally, and on the separate roles of mayors and CAOs as well as the limited research on how their relationships operate. General relationship and leadership scholarship is used to better understand this specific relationship and its nuanced social processes. Qualitative research and, specifically, grounded theory, it is argued, is the best way to probe and better understand social processes. Thus, I used a grounded theory approach to discover a constructivist theory of how the mayor-CAO dyad operates and how certain aspects of the relationship lead to functionality. The research uncovered the primary relationship dimensions of: negotiating, strategizing, boundary setting, power sharing and harmonizing. The core relationship dimension that also contributes to the relationship’s functionality was “shapeshifting”. A heuristic model of the relationship was developed that also includes the temporal context of the relationship. Three theoretical propositions are made regarding the mayor-CAO relationship, these are: the interpersonal relationship is nested within its structural and temporal context, intersectionality and reconciliation of structural and interpersonal aspects of the relationship lead to functionality and the relationship’s collective shapeshifting capacity also contributes to functionality. The interpersonal dimensional nuances (not investigated in any earlier academic research with regards to this specific relationship) contributed to a much better understanding of how the mayor-CAO relationship functions. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu

    Effective Work Cultures: The Alignment Between Marketing/Communications and HR Efforts

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    The complex nature of organizational culture and structures often rely on departmental cooperation and teamwork. The current paper focuses on two dominant organizational functions: HR and marketing/communication.  It is common for HR to oversee the internal functions of an organization related to onboarding, training and exiting practices. In comparison, marketing/communication functions present the outward or external facing communication related to organizational mission, purpose and strategy. Both functions need to work seamlessly to support employees and customers alike, while expanding strategic and marketplace reach. Implications for enhancing a collaborative work culture are discussed. &nbsp

    Perspectives of Health System and Physician Practice Integration Representatives Regarding Successful Integration Factors

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    This qualitative study explored the perspectives of three health system integration representatives and three physician practice integration representatives regarding successful integration factors. The study indicated that a teamwork approach should be utilized throughout the integration process and be ongoing in nature

    Admissions Directors’ Understanding Of The Enrollment Crisis At New England Catholic Colleges

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    The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis study was to learn and describe college admissions directors’ understanding of declining high school graduate numbers through 2030 and the implications for new student recruitment. The eight study participants represented eight New England Catholic colleges or universities with a full-time undergraduate enrollment under 3,600 and an acceptance rate of 60% or higher. Participants took part in semi-structured interviews, providing answers to open-ended questions that addressed the study’s two research questions: What is admission directors’ level of understanding about the impending 2020–2030 enrollment crisis at small, less-selective, private Catholic colleges and universities in New England? and What is the role of admissions directors at small, less-selective, private Catholic colleges and universities in New England in the institutional response to the enrollment crisis? Data analysis revealed three themes: level of understanding of impending enrollment crisis, enrollment crisis effect on institutional sustainability, and role of admissions directors and sphere of influence. Findings showed that all participants expressed similar, if not identical, concerns regarding the impending enrollment crisis with an uneven depth of knowledge. The study also showed that none of the 8 admissions directors felt their institution was at immediate risk of closing, despite the impending enrollment crisis. Also, their sphere of influence on their campuses in the institutional response to the enrollment crisis is limited, but heavily depended upon

    The Implications of Digital Business Transformation for Corporate Leadership, the IT Function, and Business-IT Alignment

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    Mastering digital business transformation is a strategic imperative for senior executives but often constitutes a challenging task for firms across industries. With the growing importance of information technology (IT) over the recent decades, the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), the head of the IT function, has become increasingly important. However, both research and practice acknowledge that establishing alignment between business and IT is difficult due to significant social factors that often arise. Research has shown that Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Information Officers need to develop mutual understanding of their environments, views, and goals in order to promote a successful business-IT partnership. In the context of digital business transformation, which is driven by digital innovation occurring at the interface of business and IT, alignment is imperative. The creation of new executive roles, such as that of the Chief Digital Officer (CDO), indicate that social alignment between CEOs and CIOs remains an issue. This dissertation investigates the implications of digital business transformation for business-IT alignment, the evolution of digital leadership roles (especially the CIO and the CDO role), and the IT function in general. The results presented in this dissertation are grounded in the results from two extensive studies, a quantitative study based on responses from 102 matched pairs of CEOs and CIOs and a qualitative study based on interviews with matched pairs of business and IT executives from 19 companies. The study results were published in three academic articles, which are part of this dissertation. Additional articles that build upon the already published findings are currently under review and due to be published in 2017. The quantitative study examines perceptual congruence between CEOs and CIOs in a social alignment context, utilizing a combination of two hitherto largely separately applied models from social and personal relationship research. One of the major findings of this quantitative study is the recognition of bidirectional effects of active and passive understanding on the CEO-CIO relationship, whereas the concept of mutual understanding has thus far mostly been treated unitarily without differentiation between the two directions. The interview-based qualitative study examines the role of the CDO and the CIO and investigates the bimodal IT phenomenon that has gained increased visibility in practice with digital business transformation putting enormous pressure on the IT function and its leadership. This second study finds four different CDO role types to exist and highlights the implications for the development of the CIO role, which finds itself at an inflection point, returning somewhat to its traditional technical orientation, hence losing its strategic focus to CDOs and others. Furthermore, the second study explains the role of bimodal IT as a transitional stage in a larger transformation of the IT function in order to foster IT agility and IT exploration. Implemented as one of three archetypes that the study describes, bimodal IT introduces organizational structures, methods of working, and a culture that are critical for effective business support of digitization initiatives. Ultimately, however, the study finds that companies, which have successfully operated under a bimodal IT design, revert their IT function structure and processes to a unimodal design in the long term. Overall, this dissertation sheds light on crucial topics for companies’ executive leadership, the IT function, and business-IT alignment today. The studies conducted provide valuable insights for both practitioners and academics by drawing a conceptual distinction between the two directions and CEO-CIO understanding, explaining the CDO role and its influence on the development of the CIO role, and calling attention to the transformative role of bimodal IT. Practitioners are advised to promote CIOs’ understanding of current business topics, carefully delimit the CDO role (should such be needed) from the CIO role, and harness the learnings from bimodal IT on their digital transformation journey. The two studies add to the academic body of knowledge by answering calls for a more fine-grained conceptualization of CEO-CIO mutual understanding, providing initial insights into the emerging Chief Digital Officer role and its creation, and preparing a research framework for bimodal IT and explaining its relevance for IT transformation. The articles contained in this dissertation encourage IS scholars to utilize the findings described and further advance our knowledge in these domains. Moreover, this research can assist business and IT executives with improving alignment and avoiding the pitfalls that digital business transformation brings about for corporate leadership

    The person behind the team: a phenomenological exploration of the role of the sport supervisor in NCAA division I intercollegiate athletics.

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    As organizational connectors, athletic administrators who serve as sport supervisors, are integral to the success of intercollegiate athletic departments. However, little is known about the role of sport supervisor or the relationship between sport supervisors and head coaches. Thus, this study seeks to define and better understand the role of the sport supervisor in intercollegiate athletics and explore the relationship between the sport supervisor and the head coach. Through a descriptive phenomenological approach, 22 participants (11 sport supervisors and 11 head coaches) from NCAA Division I institutions were interviewed. Role theory guided the defining of the role while leader-member exchange theory directed the exploration of the relationship of the sport supervisor and the head coach. The findings show the role of the sport supervisor is to be a partner with the head coach by providing support, advocacy, and evaluation of the programs they supervise. Furthermore, the study highlighted the importance of trust in developing a high-quality relationship between a sport supervisor and a head coach. Additionally, sport supervisors need to show care and investment in the program as well as be intentionally present to help build trust with their head coaches. While head coaches can help build trust with their sport supervisor by being transparent. The findings from this study illuminate critical findings for individual programs within intercollegiate athletic departments as well as the department as a whole

    Managing enterprise resource planning and multi-organisational enterprise governance:a new contingency framework for the enterprisation of operations

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    This research has been undertaken to determine how successful multi-organisational enterprise strategy is reliant on the correct type of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) information systems being used. However there appears to be a dearth of research as regards strategic alignment between ERP systems development and multi-organisational enterprise governance as guidelines and frameworks to assist practitioners in making decision for multi-organisational collaboration supported by different types of ERP systems are still missing from theoretical and empirical perspectives. This calls for this research which investigates ERP systems development and emerging practices in the management of multi-organisational enterprises (i.e. parts of companies working with parts of other companies to deliver complex product-service systems) and identify how different ERP systems fit into different multi-organisational enterprise structures, in order to achieve sustainable competitive success. An empirical inductive study was conducted using the Grounded Theory-based methodological approach based on successful manufacturing and service companies in the UK and China. This involved an initial pre-study literature review, data collection via 48 semi-structured interviews with 8 companies delivering complex products and services across organisational boundaries whilst adopting ERP systems to support their collaborative business strategies – 4 cases cover printing, semiconductor manufacturing, and parcel distribution industries in the UK and 4 cases cover crane manufacturing, concrete production, and banking industries in China in order to form a set of 29 tentative propositions that have been validated via a questionnaire receiving 116 responses from 16 companies. The research has resulted in the consolidation of the validated propositions into a novel concept referred to as the ‘Dynamic Enterprise Reference Grid for ERP’ (DERG-ERP) which draws from multiple theoretical perspectives. The core of the DERG-ERP concept is a contingency management framework which indicates that different multi-organisational enterprise paradigms and the supporting ERP information systems are not the result of different strategies, but are best considered part of a strategic continuum with the same overall business purpose of multi-organisational cooperation. At different times and circumstances in a partnership lifecycle firms may prefer particular multi-organisational enterprise structures and the use of different types of ERP systems to satisfy business requirements. Thus the DERG-ERP concept helps decision makers in selecting, managing and co-developing the most appropriate multi-organistional enterprise strategy and its corresponding ERP systems by drawing on core competence, expected competitiveness, and information systems strategic capabilities as the main contingency factors. Specifically, this research suggests that traditional ERP(I) systems are associated with Vertically Integrated Enterprise (VIE); whilst ERPIIsystems can be correlated to Extended Enterprise (EE) requirements and ERPIII systems can best support the operations of Virtual Enterprise (VE). The contribution of this thesis is threefold. Firstly, this work contributes to a gap in the extant literature about the best fit between ERP system types and multi-organisational enterprise structure types; and proposes a new contingency framework – the DERG-ERP, which can be used to explain how and why enterprise managers need to change and adapt their ERP information systems in response to changing business and operational requirements. Secondly, with respect to a priori theoretical models, the new DERG-ERP has furthered multi-organisational enterprise management thinking by incorporating information system strategy, rather than purely focusing on strategy, structural, and operational aspects of enterprise design and management. Simultaneously, the DERG-ERP makes theoretical contributions to the current IS Strategy Formulation Model which does not explicitly address multi-organisational enterprise governance. Thirdly, this research clarifies and emphasises the new concept and ideas of future ERP systems (referred to as ERPIII) that are inadequately covered in the extant literature. The novel DERG-ERP concept and its elements have also been applied to 8 empirical cases to serve as a practical guide for ERP vendors, information systems management, and operations managers hoping to grow and sustain their competitive advantage with respect to effective enterprise strategy, enterprise structures, and ERP systems use; referred to in this thesis as the “enterprisation of operations”
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