The
Chief Information Officer is the leader of the information technology function.
IS leadership is concerned with the roles, responsibilities, reporting structure,
job titles, and personal characteristics of IS leaders within
organizations. During the 1960s and
1970s, the IS leadership position was commonly titled “EDP[1] Manager”. Today, we routinely call the IS leader,
“Chief Information Officer,” to signify the role’s place
among other top business executives (although contemporary IS leaders may have
other titles such as VP of IT). While IS leaders have traditionally struggled
to earn their place alongside other senior business leaders, IS leaders have
made significant progress during the past forty years.
As students
will be familiar with the role of the CIO, the aim of the group presentation is
to further explore the attributes of effective CIOs.
Source:
SIM 2008 Survey (n = ).
Finding CIOs to
interview. Most CIOs are very willing to
schedule a ½ interview with students. If you work or have worked at a large
organization, you may try contacting the CIO or CIO’s secretary
directly. If you have never worked
for a large organization, start asking friends or relatives if they can help.
Interview Tip: Very intelligent people tend to provide generalizations,
such as "My relationship with my CEO is good." What you want is to
prompt the CIOs for rich details & stories, such as the frequency of their
communications, who initiates the communications,
if/when do they socialize, etc. If the interviewee gives a generalization or
platitude, prompt him or her for specific examples.
Provide the CIO's Company
Background such as:
Be sure to compare your CIOs with each
other and with the findings from current literature. For example, a cross-comparison of CIOs
might be organized as a table:
Attribute |
From secondary Sources like surveys |
Interview 1 |
Interview 2 |
Interview 3 |
Educational
Background |
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Professional
Experience (IT and/or business operations) |
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Years
as CIO |
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CIO
reports to |
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Gender |
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Etc… |
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Another great source is a weekly CIO
Talk Radio show. Go to http://www.ciotalkradio.com/.
This is free if you register and you’ll hear from top CIOs from around
the world. Also check out out local Society of Information Management for
events—students can usually attend for free if you let me know in
advance: http://www.simnet.org/members/group.aspx?id=63333