Strategic Role of Information Systems Leadership in Organizations: An Investigation in Indian Context

 

Introduction

During the last decade or so, companies have learned that information has the power to drive their businesses. This has caused tremendous changes to such business fundamentals as strategy, organizational structure and market reach.

As a result, the role of an organization's technology head itself has changed dramatically over the years: from being peripheral - mere data processing - role to one which is tightly integrated with the management of company. In fact, the position called CIO itself is not all that old. But today, organizations that did not have CIOs earlier are looking for CIOs, and organizations that already have CIOs are trying to significantly upgrade the post from a legacy set of responsibilities to a true CIO role by changing the IS function from an operational necessity to a strategic element. As a result, nowadays, the opinion of the top information technology manager weighs heavily in key business decisions. In the western organizations, a number of CIOs sit on their company's board of directors, and a majority of them interact daily with the CEO.

Today's CIO is required to have the expertise in aligning and leveraging technology for the advantage of the enterprise. She is required to have the ability to create change in the corporation's operating and business processes, for both efficiency and competitiveness. Modern Technology Head is expected to have an in-depth knowledge of the industry and the company's business strategy, operating model, value proposition, market position and competition so that she can add value to the organization's progress and well-being.

Studies have been done in the western context to analyze the job of a CIO and to understand the shift that has taken place over the time. No such study has been undertaken in Indian context yet. In this light, it would be a worthwhile exercise to look at the role of Top IS Executive in Indian organizations and to ascertain whether there are reflections of the worldwide trends in shift in job profiles and to what extent are they affecting strategic decision-making.

ps: CIO is being used as a proxy title for IS executives.

 

Click here for some references on Strategic Information Systems

Click here for some references on IT/Business Strategic Alignment

Click here for some references on IT Payoff

A brief bibliography for my work

 

  1. Applegate, P. G. and Elam, J. J., “New Information Systems Leaders: A Changing Role in a Changing World”, MIS Quarterly, December 1992.

  2. Armstrong, Curtis P., Sambamurthy, V., “Information Technology Assimilation in firms: the influence of senior leadership and IT infrastructures”, Information Systems Research, Vol. 10 Issues 4, Dec 99.

  3. Burn, Janice M., Azeto, Colonel, “A comparison of the views of business and IT management on success factors for strategic alignment”, Information & Management 37, pp 197-216, 2000.

  4. Butler, T. and Fitzgerald, B. (1998), “Enterprise Transformation and the Alignment of Business and Information Technology Strategies: Lessons from Practice”, Proceedings of IFIP WG8.2 and WG8.6 Joint Conference, Helsinki, Finland, December, Chapman & Hall, pp. 393-416.

  5. Gottschalk, Petter, “Strategic Management of IS/IT functions: The role of the CIO”, Proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii Internationsla Conference on Information System Sciences –2000.

  6. Grover, Varun, Jeong, Seung-Ryul, Kettinger, William J, and Lee, Choong C, “The Chief Information Officer: A Study of managerial roles”, Journal of Management Information Systems, Fall 1993.

  7. Hambrick, Donald C., “Operationalizing the concept of business-level strategy in research”, Academy of Management Review 1980, Vol. 5, No. 4, 567-575.

  8. Henderson, John C., Venkataraman, N., “Strategic alignment: Leveraging information technology for transforming organizations”, IBM Systems Journal, Vol 32, Issue 1 (1993).

  9. Jones, Mary C., Taylor, Stephe G., and Spencer, Barbara A., “The CEO/CIO relationship revisited: An empirical assessment of satisfaction with IS”, Information & management 29 (1995), 123-130.

  10. Keen, P. G. W., “Information Technology and the management difference: A Fusion Map”, IBM Systems Journal 32, No. 1, 17-39 1993.

  11. King, W., “Strategic Planning for MIS,” MIS Quarterly, 2(1), pp. 27-37, 1978.

  12. McCall, M.W., and Segrist, C.A. “In pursuit of the manager’s job: building on Mintzberg”, Technical report no. 14, Center for Creative Leadership, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 1980.

  13. Miller, Jonathan, “Measuring and aligning information systems with the organization: A case study”, Information & Management 25 (1993), 217-228.

  14. Mintzberg, Henry, “Rounding out the Manager’s job”,  Sloan Management Review, Fall, 1994, pp11-26.

  15. Parasuraman, Saroj, Igbaria, Magid, and Greenhaus, Jeffery H., “Career orientations of MIS employees: An empirical analysis”, MIS Quarterly, June 1991, pp 151-169.

  16. Pun, K. F. and Lee, M. K. O. (2000) ‘A proposed management model for the development of strategic information systems”, International Journal of Technology Management, Vol 20, Nos. 3/4., pp304-325.

  17. Reid, David M., “Operationalizing Strategic Planning”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol.10, pp553-557, 1989.

  18. Sabherwal, Rajiv, and Chan, Yolande E., “Alignment between business and IS strategies: A study of Prospectors, Analyzers, and Defenders”, Information Systems Research, Vol 12, No.1, March 2001, pp11-33.

  19. Scott Morton, M. S, “The Corporation of the 1990s”, Oxford University Press, Oxford (1991).

  20. Smaltz, Detlev H., “The Elevation of CIO Roles: Organizational Barriers and Organizational Enablers”, Journal Of Healthcare Information Management, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 2000.

  21. Stephens, Charlotte S., Ledbetter,William N., Mitra, Amitava, and Ford, Nelson F., “Executive or Functional Manager? The Nature of the CIO's Job”, MIS Quarterly 16(4); pp. 449-467, 1992.

General References

  1. Bagsarian, Tom, “IT’s Strategic role in business planning and production”, Iron Age and Steel, Mar 2000.

  2. Bartholomew, Doug, “A new breed of CIO”, Industry Week, pp22, June 7, 1999.

  3. Donnell, Anthony O’, “CIO role shifts from Systems to Strategy”, pp21, Insurance & technology, May 2001.

  4. Evans, Bob, “A CIO by any other name”, informationweek.com, pp82, Jul 2, 2001.

  5. Evans, Bob, “The shifting role of the CIO”, informationweek.com, pp152, Jun 25, 2001.

  6. Grensing-Pophal, Lin, “Strategic Partnership”, Credit union Management, Aug 1999.

  7. Grensing-Pophal, Lin, “Taking your ‘seat at the table’”, HR Magazine, March 1999.

  8. Hankinson, Eugene F., “Rethinking the CIO’s Position”, Information Executive, pp10, Feb 2001.

  9. Olson, Larry A., “The Strategic CIO: A force for change”, informationweek.com, pp138, Jan 8, 2001.

  10. Ralphs, Steven, “CIO must live up to role of visionary in business”, Computing Canada, pp9, Nov 19, 1999.

  11. Ulrich, William M., “The CIO has a new role for a new era”, ComputerWorld, pp36, Oct 16, 2001.

  12. “New Keys on the Corporate Board”, Computers Today, September 1-15, 1999.

  13. “IT takes strategic turn”, Editorial, Computing Canada, Oct 8, 199

  14.  “The rise of Asian CIO”, Far Eastern economic Review, pp66, Jul 5, 2001.

  15.  “CIO’s role evolving”, Business Communications Review, pp8, Aug, 2000.

  16.  “CIO roles shifting”, Credit Union Management, Aug 2000.

  17. http://www.cio.com

 

 

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 Last updated: July 20, 2002