The CIO Developing E-Business

As companies expand their use of the Internet from electronic commerce to elec-tronic business, the CIO emerges as the most important executive for performance improvements when selecting business models.

The Chief Executive Officer

The chief executive officer (CEO) is the only executive at level 1 in the hierarchy of an organization (Carpenter & Wade, 2002). All other executives in the organization are at lower levels. At level 2, we find the most senior executives. Level 3 includes the next tier of executives. In our perspective of promoting the chief information officer (CIO) to be the next CEO, we first have to understand the role of the CEO. Therefore, the first chapter of this book is dedicated to the topic of CEO successions (Zhang & Rajagopalan, 2004).

CIO Leadership Roles

One approach to understanding the CIO position is to study managerial roles. In this chapter, 10 roles by Mintzberg, six roles by Grover et al. derived from Mintz-berg, and six CSC roles are presented to shed light on the various leadership roles for CIOs.

The CIO Sourcing IT Services

CEO compensation can influence outsourcing of information technology. Hall and Liedtka (2005) found a relationship between CEO self-interest and IT outsourcing decisions. Sourcing decisions such as IT outsourcing influences the position of the CIO and, hence, the CIO’s potential to become the next CEO.

Corporate Strategic Management

Over the last several decades, strategy researchers have devoted attention to the question of how corporate elites (i.e., corporate executives and directors) affect corporate strategy. The CEO as a person in position shapes the scope of the firm, while the CIO as a person in another position shapes the scope of IT in the firm. Jensen and Zajac (2004) proposed and tested the notion that while differences in individual characteristics of corporate elites may imply different preferences for particular corporate strategies such as diversification and acquisitions, these basic preferences, when situated in different agency contexts (e.g., CIO, CEO), generate very different strategic outcomes.

The CIO as Chief Knowledge Officer

The centrality of knowledge in organizations is reflected in the emergence of the knowledge-based view as an important theoretical stance in contemporary orga-nizational research. Theoretical proposals indicate that advantages for a firm arise from cooperative social contexts that are conducive to the creation, coordination, transfer, and integration of knowledge distributed among its employees, depart-ments, and cooperating agencies.

The CIO Enabling IT Governance

The chief executive officer (CEO) is the only executive at level 1 in the hierarchy of an organization (Carpenter & Wade, 2002). All other executives in the organization are at lower levels. At level 2, we find the most senior executives. Level 3 includes the next tier of executives. In our perspective of promoting the chief information officer (CIO) to be the next CEO, we first have to understand the role of the CEO. Therefore, the first chapter of this book is dedicated to the topic of CEO successions (Zhang & Rajagopalan, 2004).

The Chief Information Officer

The chief information officer (CIO) can be defined as the highest ranking IT execu-tive who typically exhibits managerial roles requiring effective communication with top management, a broad corporate perspective in managing information resources, influence on organizational strategy, and responsibility for the planning of IT. This definition is in line with research which applied the following criteria when select-ing CIOs for empirical observation: (1) highest ranking information technology executive; (2) reports no more than two levels from the CEO (i.e., either reports to the CEO or reports to one of the CEOs direct reports); (3) areas of responsibility include information systems, computer operations, telecommunications and net-works, office automation, end-user computing, help desks, computer software and applications; and (4) responsibility for strategic IS/IT planning.

The Changing Role of CIO to CEO

Both the CIO and the CEO are practicing leadership. One of the defining charac-teristics of leadership is the ability to develop and implement appropriate responses to a variety of problem situations. Leaders must solve an array of problems includ-ing resource allocation, interdepartmental coordination, interpersonal conflict, and subordinate morale to name a few. In order to effectively solve such problems, leaders must draw on a body of knowledge gained from formal education, advice from other leaders, and personal experience (Hedlund et al., 2003).

The CIO's Strategic IT Resources

The CIO can be found at different hierarchical levels in the organization. The CEO is assigned as the only member at level 1. Level 2 includes the most senior executives, and a number of them may sit on a firm’s board of directors. Their job titles include chief operating officer, chief financial officer, president, and division president. Level 3 includes the next tier of executives, such as senior and executive vice presidents. Level 4 includes higher-level vice presidents.