The Roles of the Chief Information Officer - Term Paper Example

Running head: CIO: Integrated Leadership Plan Chief Information Officer: Integrated Leadership Plan Chief Information Officer: Integrated Leadership Plan The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is the top executive in the Information Technology (IT) department of an organization. The CIO has become the most challenging and dynamic leadership role in the business world. The role of the CIO has moved from technical planning and implementation to strategic planning. Todays CIO plays different roles within the business-technology organization; as he/she must builds, leads the development of IT policies, plans, standards, capabilities, and architectures; assesses and improves existing IT initiatives; reviews, evaluates, develops IT performance metrics; and works to accomplish missions and programs efficiently, effectively, and securely. In addition to earning the trust of executive management, business-unit leaders, and of all members of the IT team by motivating them to achieve better result. (Bass, 1999). The objective of this essay is to highlight the roles that CIO plays in the organization as IT member and executive team member, and how the transformational CIO leadership skills can translate into organizational impact by having a good plans and procedures. Transformational CIO Traditional views of management combined it with four main functions: planning, leading, controlling and organizing. However, many researchers and educators disagree with this traditional view. And this is the result of developing a different models and theories that study these leaders’ behaviors and distinguish between leadership and management which describe two different concepts. Managers think incrementally, whilst leaders think radically. This means that managers follow the company processes and procedures as it is, while leaders are more creative which may in turn be of more benefit to the company. A leader is more emotional than a manager. Warren Bennis defined leadership as “a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential." .This quotation definitely illustrates why teams choose to follow leaders and why a successful manager must posses a leadership aspect. “Transformational leadership is a process that changes and transforms individuals” (Spencer ,P1). Transformational leadership is recognized as a high level of social leadership that occurs when leaders promote the interests of their staff; identify a clear mission and get their employee accept it, work to achieve the purpose of this mission and increase their awareness level about the need to look beyond their own self-interest for the good of the group. One of the leading theorist’s on transformational leadership is B.M. Bass, who emphasized that the leader tries always to motivate followers by: making them more aware of the importance of task outcomes, and activating his/her higher order needs. The transformational leadership must be aware of the importance in motivating people and have a focus on the team or an organization to produce higher quality results. He described the ideal transformational leader to be effective leader who affects followers, trustworthy, admirable, and respectable. His recent work identified that the strong moral foundations are the key transformational leadership qualities. Bass (1998) described idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and three aspects or moral characteristics: 1) leader as moral character; 2) embedded ethical values in the leaders beliefs; 3) moral processes of ethical choices leaders and followers pursuit. Effective transformational leaders influences followers in the three following ways: 1) raising followers awareness of the importance and value of tasks; 2) helping them to focus on the teams or organizations goals, rather than individual ones; 3) allowing them to see the higher-order of needs to widen the view. (Beugre, Acar and Braun (2006)) Transformational chief technology officers usually lead changes and as part of the CIOs plan for change, which must include continuity to the fight to win over employees and managers who are still battling the new plan. Usually rewarding milestones and individual accomplishments will ease the transition and reward workers for assimilating to the new changes in order to enable re-engineering of business processes across the enterprise. They typically have a strategic technology vision as well as a deep understanding of the various businesses within the business, and of the competitive landscape outside the business. Successful transformers enjoy the support of their peers and the confidence of their CEO as they become now a days the third point in the leadership triangle, working alongside the CEO and the CFO to drive key business strategies and spark new waves of growth. This executive guide provides insights and solutions to help CIOs tackle their most important challenges—from controlling costs to speeding ROI to realigning the IT function itself to fit smoothly with the strategic needs of the business. (Davis, (2006)) Role of the CIO Previous research has studied the relative importance of managerial roles in sales/marketing, production/engineering, and accounting/finance, virtually no research has focused on the perceived importance of managerial roles of the CIO. But now more concentration is there on the CIOs job as IT department an essential part of the organization by making sure that implemented systems meet needs, and support roles that enhance the achievement of the company vision. (Miora ,2006) Weiss and Anderson (2004) linked the success or failure of organization to the leadership aspect in general and IT leadership in particular. And they saw that placing modern IT chief officers as both IT member and business executives identify leadership that must be able align and integrate the IT with the business goals. An ideal CIO should possess a combination of business, technology and leadership skills.( Luftman (2004)). Therefore, to be an effective leader, Luftman (2004) advised that a CIO in an organization should exhibit the following characteristics: broad business and organizational knowledge, broad set of relationships in the firm and the industry, excellent reputation and a strong track record in of broad set of activities, keen mind and strong interpersonal skills, high integrity and personal values and a high level of motivation. To be more specified (Grover, Jeong, Kettinger, and Lee, (1993)) identified some of the managerial roles of CIO as being a: Leader: As the leader, he/she is responsible for supervising, hiring, training, and motivating IT team members. Spokesman: This role emphasizes that CIO can extend organizational contacts outside the department to other areas of the organization by "keeping in touch" with top executives as well as with key users. Monitor: Proactive CIO must scan the external environment to keep up with technical changes and competition. Liaison: The CIO should communicate IS capabilities to meet the requirements of suppliers and customers; in order to maintain the compatibility. Entrepreneur: A major responsibility of the CIO is to identify business needs and develops solutions that change business situations by ensuring that rapidly evolving technical opportunities are understood, planned, implemented, and strategically exploited in the organization. Resource Allocator: This includes decisions concerning departmental data management, standards, and control. So what are the essential ingredients for success in ratcheting up the ability of an CIO to do a better job is by covering these points: the long-range IT plans that implement the business plans, organization and IT division charts, IT budget documents, job descriptions for IT staff and IT career, development plans, IT personnel evaluations, audits and evaluations of the IT functions, system models, and put an overall processes in place.( Grupe, Jooste, and Patel (2003)). The CIO as IT Team Member Current management theories emphasize leadership qualities rather than managerial qualities in team management. In the present scenario, the CIO needs to be a leader-manager, not just a manager. The differences in the roles, approaches and theories of a leader and a manager are: A manager uses his authority while a leader uses his power. A manager does things right while a leader does right things. A manager works well in peaceful conditions while a leader gives his best during a crisis. A manager is an administrator while a leader is an innovator. A manager accepts the status quo while a leader challenges it. Team management is one of the driving factors in an organization and with the expanding size of teams; it has become one of the major tasks of a CIO. Mentoring one’s team in modern management is considered one of the most important processes in team building. A CIO should be a mentor who can empathize, create trust among his team members, be a good listener and influence his team members. He has to be a role model for them: only then will he be able to prove himself as a true team leader. A CIO should play the role of a leader in times of crisis, being able to set an example to his team members. He can use different methods for confidence building. He should also lead by example, which will be a motivating factor in itself, as actions speak louder than words and will boost the entire team spirit. He should be a team player and model team behavior himself, which plays a major step in creating a healthy team atmosphere during crises. Conducting off sites is one of the most recommended techniques for team building as it facilitates bonding between team members in an organization. Off sites enable team members to interact with each other in a much more relaxed environment, and it is during such interactions that tacit knowledge sharing occurs. Usually during such interactions, onsite problems and differences of opinion among team members are automatically resolved. This helps to create a strong bond between team members. There are companies who arrange such off-sites frequently. Now as never before, managers within IT are finding themselves in a need to create effective cross-functional teams on the fly. New projects emerge that require a diversity of expertise not found within a single department, and mergers and strategic partnerships thrust together new groups of people. Whatever the foundation for their existence, each of these one-off teams shares a common trait: it must begin producing results right away. Managing a team that has been created under such circumstances presents a distinct leadership challenge. It is hard enough to guide the disparate mix of talent found in long-standing groups; when the need to immediately focus the efforts of people is a challenge. But managers can address these problems by using techniques to form a unified team, which can get straight to work. Which puts CIO in a more critical position to have an active role in deciding on the allocation process of IT resources. Applegate, Austin, and McFarlan, (2003) identified two sets of tensions that guide the policies for developing, deploying and managing IT systems. The first set is between innovation and control. The emphasis a company should place on aggressive innovation depends on a broad assessment of the potential strategic impact of IT on the enterprise and on management’s willingness to take risk (Applegate, Austin, & McFarlan, 2003). The second set of tensions is between the IT staffs and business users. Whereas users are always inclined to solve short-terms issues, the CIO and his staff are concerned by holistic approaches of the IT solutions. CIO Plans Part of the major CIOs job is preparing a The Strategic Information Technology Plan to provide a framework and a set of strategies for the optimum utilization and management of information technology within the organization. Such plan is part of an overall effort to enhance the use and management of information technology resources and to be part of top-down enterprise level strategic plan. The Strategic Information Technology Plan provides a framework for the effective management of information technology in the organization. The primary role of information technology by the CIO lead is to support the business objectives and to facilitate the IT Division’s efforts to provide efficient and effective services to the internal and external customers. This plan is intended to provide a stable infrastructure and environment in which to solve common business problems faced by the various divisions and to allow the divisions to collaborate on significant efforts. The plan also provides a foundation for the development of the IT architecture and standards. The architecture and standards are critical to ensuring the ability of multiple divisions or departments to share resources including applications and data and to integrate tightly with business planning in order to provide the greatest amount of benefit. CIO vision for this plan includes the development of an organization wide focus to the application of IT, a focus on the customer and an emphasis on using IT as an enabler in business process reengineering efforts and focusing on these principles: data, applications, technology, development and deployment, infrastructure, and making the proper preparations so that if there is a disaster, then the company can continue operating by having a disaster recovery plan. The whole of this strategic plan is directed at making the bank more efficient and more responsive to its customers needs. In this regard, it is the content which is captured in the data, records, information and documents created, maintained and disseminated by the information systems that has value. It is also the ease of access to this content which makes the careful planning and use of these technology systems, in concert with manual based systems, of value. Fundamental to the success of IT planning and implementation is the understanding that organizations workers have to function, administer, manage, share, protect and implement this plan; in order to maximize the potential benefit of the plan. (COBIT, 2006).This is why after getting done with defining the strategies there is a need to: Appoint IT Strategy Team: A team consisting of Head of Resource Group, Head of IT and 4 IT Project/Development Managers should be appointed. This team should look into the following details: Solicit input for plan revisions Publish plan implementation results Publish revised plan Solicit input for plan revisions: Prepare a methodology like focus groups, emails to get inputs on the IT department’s performance. Use this input to make changes in the IT Strategy. This would be a yearly exercise. Publish Plan implementation results: The team will publish the implementation results of the approved plans. Publish revised plan: The team will publish the revised plan on a yearly basis after taking input from various sources as explained above. The plan can also be devised on an event-driven basis. Also one on major CIO plans that he/she should cover is risk by providing directions to prevent business failure. The purpose of Disaster Recovery Plan is to administer guidance and directives for preparing the company to continue business during unforeseen events. The Disaster Recovery Plan furnishes procedures for the three major event types occurring; nature, human-originated errors or threats, and environmental failures. (Ali Pabrai, 2004). Natural events stem can be as a result of tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Human-originate threats may come from human errors, terrorist attaches, or cyber attaches. Power outages and network failures are example of environmental events, which may affect the business. The Disaster Recovery Plan lays out procedures to minimize the effects of the unforeseen events, which disrupts the organization. The Disaster Recovery Resumption Plan shall be created to provide clear details and documented procedures that will be implemented by the company to ensure the quickest restoration of critical business functions after the occurrence of a disaster. All levels of management across the company will regularly develop and refine the plan. This plan shall provide a comprehensive assessment of risks, roles and responsibilities of key individuals, a security assessment, disaster recovery policies and procedures, detailing system criticality and restore order, outsourcing assessment, a review of environmental challenges, and the application of information technology to facilitate the execution and recovery operations. The ultimate objective of a IT continuity plan and disaster recovery is to protect the business functions with any disruption. The additional goals of disaster recovery are: Ensure critical business operations continue. Minimize the amount of immediate loss, damage, and duration of disruption. The CIO as Executive Team Member CIO shall be familiar with jobs done in the different units in the organization because of his/her department position as a sensitive unit in the organization that needs be involved in the changes and decisions that may effect the organization as a whole, he/she shall be aware about the organization’s cultural, political elements in order to determine the best approach of the role. In addition that they need to understand vital information about working with the executive team, and have strong communication and a relationship-building skill with the business unites. CIOs and aspiring CIOs who aim to sit alongside the CEO, CFO, and COO at the board table need to prepare and hone specific skills to be part of executive committee. In some cases, a CIO is not officially a member of the executive body. Usually accessing the executive committee depends on the personality of the CEO, because some of them believe that the CIO represents a cost center and plays a tactical, not strategic, role. (Southgate, 2003) The continued support of senior management is required including cross division cooperation and coordination for a successful implementation of IT Strategic Plan through maintaining commitment to business process reengineering by willingness and commitment to share information and standardize data. Senior management always tries to provide attention, direction and leadership, which is essential to the participation of the other organizations employees in these objectives by keeping frequent and open communications to ensure that IT leadership understands the business plans, goals and directions while keeping senior management informed of current and future trends in technology. To have department’s participation: Active departmental participation in implementing the strategies defined in Strategic plan is required in order to achieve the desired goals and objectives. This approach will require active participation by all departments, divisions and third party vendors. Business unit management and IT management must share a common and cohesive vision of technology’s capability to enable business objective attainment. They must also share a high level vision of the future of technology. Changes in Personnel Practices: The recruitment and retention of top-level information technology professionals is critical to the success of this plan. IT should be involved in recruiting IT professional because they are more aware about the IT skills required, so their compensation is essential in interviewing, and defining job descriptions. Managed Expectations for IT Initiatives: One of the main aspect that need to managed by this plan is having a well defined procedure for implementing any project because if the expectations for a project, system or application are not realistic the effort is will be wasted and may cause a failure in delivering the entire benefits, promised with multiple milestones or production releases along the way. Conclusion The CIO now has a very important role within the organization and with a solid set of policies, carefully structured processes, a clear set of methodologies, and the right tools from the right vendor partner, a CIO can have a great effect on the organization success and growth. Being a CIO means having responsibilities toward the day-to-day activities and the future plans accordingly. The essential ingredients for success are the ability of an IT team with the motivation of the CIO and the effective leadership to demonstrate and manage business value, and having a transformational leader who can motivate staff, involve in innovation, and helps the organization to achieve it’s goal by going through the right process, tools, and training in place can improve the organization effectiveness Being a CIO who is part of the organization committee differ from being only an IT member in two significant ways: being involved in the organization critical meetings , changed the CIO’s role as they are becoming more focused on business needs, creating strategy, on budgets , cost-cutting, and at the same time business division will be more aware and involved on IT overall process in place, and can participate in evaluating, reviewing, and approving these process that effect all units in the organization. References Alter, Allan. "CIO Role Survey April 2006: Achievement is the Issue, Not Survival", CIO Insight, Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc, 2006-04-06. Bass, B. M. (1999, March). Two decades of research and development in transformation leadership. European Journal of Work & Organizational Psychology, 8(1), 9. Davis Gerry. Inside The Mind Of The Transformational CIO. Retreived on March 24, 2007 from http://www.google.com.qa/search?hl=ar&q=Inside+The+Mind+Of+CIO&meta Francis, D, Bessant, J and Hobday, M, 2003. “Managing radical organizational transformation”, Management Decision, 41 (1/2): 18-32 Grupe, F. H., Jooste, S., & Patel, N. (2003, Spring). Passing the baton: Helping your successor to succeed. Information Systems Management, 20(2), 19. Grover, V., Jeong, S. R., Kettinger, W. J., & Lee, C. C. (1993, Fall). The chief information officer: A study of managerial roles. Journal of Management Information Systems, 10(2), 107. Kohli, R., & Hoadley, E. (2006). Towards Developing a Framework for Measuring Organizational Impact of IT-Enabled BPR: Cased Studies of Three Firms. The Database for Advances in Information Systems, 37(1), 4-58. Retrieved March 10, 2007, from http://portal.acm.org/. Luftman, J., N. (2004). Managing the information technology resource: Leadership in the information age. Pearson Prentice Hall. Mendonca, J. (2004). Organizational Impact of Information Technology: A Leadership Course for IT. Retrieved March 24, 2007 from http://portal.acm.org/. Miora Michael (2004) . CIOs to monitor and manage IT investments in terms of business value.Retrieved on March 26, 2007 from http://www.miora.com/articles/cio_role.htm Nunamaker, J.F. Jr, Briggs, R.O. Mittleman, D.D, Vogel, D.R. and Balthazard, P.A., 1997. “Lessons from a dozen years of group support systems research: A discussion of Lab and Field findings”, Journal of Management Information Systems, 13(3): 163-207., cited in Parent, Michael, 2001. “The role of leadership in group support systems failure”, Group Decision and Negotiation, 10: 405-422, at pp 2 Parent, Michael, 2001. “The role of leadership in group support systems failure”, Group Decision and Negotiation, 10: 405-422 Parzinger, Monica J, 2001. “Examining the effect of the transformational leader on software quality”, Software Quality Journal, 9:253-267 Spencer, Emily. Leadership Models and Theories: A Brief Overview. Retrieved on March 2, 2007 from http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/whitepaper.aspx?docid=162454 Weiss, J., W., & Anderson, D. (2004). CIOs and IT Professionals as Change Agents, Risk and Stakeholder Managers: A Filed Study. Engineering Management Journal, 16(2), 13-18. Retrieved March 5, 2007, from the EBSCOhost database. 3574 words Reinforcing managerial/leadership style: In order to successfully manage a present day organization and provide effective leadership, a CIO must be able to manage radical organizational transformation. Francis et al (2003) point out that technical change is one of the factors that create a transformational imperative. A CIO must be responsive to the opportunities that are afforded for exploiting technologies and adopting a purely strategic perspective may not serve to accomplish the desired ends. For example, adopting a purely strategic leadership style may mean that it is not obvious to the CIO when transformation is necessary. Therefore, it may be necessary for a CIO to be able to adapt effectively to changes in the environment and possess multi level competencies including the ability to analyze factors in the environment and to mobilize and synthesize the appropriate resources within the organization to respond effectively to those changes. Francis et al (2003) have carried out case studies on ten organizations, with particular attention being directed to the narratives of chief executives and managers, as derived from annual reports, press interviews and similar sources. Their findings suggest that while luck and good judgment may play a role in the transformational capability of leaders, nevertheless a transformational CIO needs to have certain competencies in order to deal with a technological environment and the changes associated with it. Firstly, a CIO must be able to recognize the challenges existing in the environment and accept that the old tried and tested ways may not always work successfully in a technological environment. Leaders who are not transformational seek to avoid the reality that the world around them has changed while they have not. Secondly, even when the need for change is recognized, an organization without a transformational CIO will find itself divided into warring camps proposing different courses of action and vying for leadership. Insularity is also a characteristic of top executives, so that those highest in the organization may be least equipped to deal with transformation, unless the CIO is a transformational leader. Lastly, the management of major programmes is a challenging task and only transformational CIOs may have the prowess required to deal with such challenges. Thus, the most important aspect of the transformational leadership style, which is relevant in a global environment, is the ability to respond effectively to change and to motivate employees also to respond effectively to changes in the environment. As already detailed earlier, a transformational leader possess the ability to inspire his/her followers and motivate them to bring about the necessary changes. This is the essential difference between transformational and transactional leaders, who are content to allow employees to continue working in the same old ways; as long as the old ways work, the transactional leader is satisfied with the performance of employees (Parzinger, 2001:259). But when an organization must operate in the global arena in a technological environment which is subject to a fast pace of change, adhering to old ways and demonstrating an unwillingness to change may not serve the interests or competitiveness of the organization. Instead a CIO needs to be open to new ways of doing things, and be able to effectively analyze and process the changes occurring in the environment, and devise systems within the organization to deal with such changes. Thus a transformational leadership style appears more appropriate for a CIO to have, and transactional leaders may also need to modify their leadership styles in order to be effective in a competitive environment. Parzinger (2001) has explained that in an information intensive society, it is vital that quality software is developed and maintained. There are many tools and concepts available to improve and maintain the quality of software, including the Capability Maturity Model, Total Quality Management and ISO-9000-3. But while these approaches offer excellent scope for ensuring the development and maintenance of quality software, they are not guaranteed to succeed without appropriate oversight by management. Since most of these approaches are associated with the effective management of change, it is only a transformational CIO who will be fully equipped to implement and cope with changes. While most leaders may posses some characteristics of both the different leadership styles, they often have dominant characteristics of one particular type of leadership and Parzinger’s study on the effectiveness of leaders in a software environment has found that transformational leaders are more effective as compared to transactional leaders. Parzinger (2001) also highlights several studies which show that the lack of effective management that has the ability to take into account the human aspects associated with successful implementation of quality maintenance, is often the reason why TQM programs implemented at organizations fail. In a technological environment, the attributes required of managers are changing. A CIO in a technological environment is not required to control people, rather s/he is required to posses interpersonal skills, consensus management skills and networking, so that the CIO allows and trusts members of his team to make decisions rather than seeking to control those who are working with him. In Parzinger’s study, which compared the success rates of software quality and implementation in organizations with transformational and transactional leaders, transformational leaders achieved a significantly higher level of success, because their attitudes towards their employees was different. (Parzinger, 2001). Transformational leaders have higher levels of charisma and offer greater levels of support and motivation for their employees. As opposed to this, transactional leaders set out organizational objectives that must be achieved and the expectations from employees in terms of their performance. Those employees who are able to achieve the organizational objectives and satisfy expectations are the ones who are rewarded. But the transformational leadership pattern is related to better levels of business performance. The reason for better business performance in a technological environment is related to the higher levels of customer satisfaction that are achieved through the improvements in quality brought about by transformational leaders. (Parzinger, 2001: 263). Rather than being content with the established way of doing things, transformational leaders are ready to institute changes as required in order to improve quality levels in products and services offered by the organization. This is one of the reasons why a transactional CIO may not be able to function as effectively in a global competitive environment, unless s/he is able to adopt a more flexible attitude towards change and become responsive to it, rather than being resistant to it. In an IT environment in particular, where innovation and continuous improvement is vital to ensure success, a transactional CIO who tends to adhere to established, outmoded ways of doing things may find it difficult to cope, unless there is a radical overhaul in this attitude. Thus the Leadership Plan as presented above has identified the most important quality that a transformational CIO must have, i.e, the ability to recognize and adapt to changes in the environment. Applicability of the Leadership Plan: Since a transformational leadership style is already responsive to change, CIOs who are already a transformational style of leadership may only need to reinforce those qualities by bringing a greater focus to the quality of goods and services produced by the organization. This may be achieved by ensuring continuous improvement and by actively encouraging employees to come up with innovative ideas (Parzinger, 2001:263), with the CIO working with them as an active team member. Where software development and implementation is concerned, a transformational CIO may need to increase the frequency with which s/he encourages employees to be innovative and provides intellectual stimulation in order to improve the quality of the final product. One of the goals for a CIO that has been identified in the leadership plan detailed earlier is the ability to be an IT leader as well as an effective business manager. The CIO of an IT organization must ensure a high quality in the IT software or product by continuous improvement and promoting innovation in employees, which requires him to be a good IT leader that can inspire top quality work out of employees. But at the same time, this also requires the CIO to function effectively as a team member and as identified in the leadership plan above, team management is one of the most important skills that a CIP must have in the modern environment. Parent (2001) reports on a research case study, which was carried out on the use of Group Support Systems that have been found to have a positive impact on organizational performance. Group Support Systems have been defined as “…interactive computer based environments that support concerted and coordinated team effort toward completion of joint tasks.” (Nunamaker et al, 1997, p 165). Transformational leaders are different from transactional leaders because they do not merely expect employees to achieve desired outcomes. Rather transformational leaders seek to motivate followers to do more than is expected of them by raising their levels of consciousness. They inspire employees to transcend their own self-interest to work for the organization, such that it is the value of the work itself, which brings satisfaction to the employee rather than the measure of the reward that s/he receives. A transformational leader is thus inspirational, appealing to the morality and idealism of the employees. S/he must be able to function in coordination with other employees as a member of a team and at the same time, must also be able to inspire and motivate employees. The Leadership Plan provided earlier has highlighted the importance of the role of the transformational CIO as a team member. The CIO must be able to function as a team member, yet provide effective leadership by adopting a high moral ground and ensuring that employees are motivated and inspired to produce their best work. During times of crisis, it is the CIO who must provide effective leadership but at other times, s/he must be able to work in coordination with others, especially in an IT environment, where innovation must be accorded the highest priority and recognition. Functioning in this role would be difficult for a transactional leader, who does not view employees as being on an equal footing. A transactional leader also does not approach employees from the perspective of inspiring them on moral grounds, and to achieve satisfaction in the tasks for self-actualization processes. Rather, a transactional CIO would approach employees from a position of command and set out organizational goals for employees to adhere to, rewarding them for achieving the set organizational objectives. While the transformational CIO functions as an inspiring role model for subordinates, the transactional CIO adopts a rational perspective and focuses on achievement of organizational goals. Thus, it is only a transformational CIO who is likely to be able to achieve a high quality of output from employees in a challenging global environment. A transactional CIO would need to develop the ability to view employees and team members and focus upon encouraging employees to move beyond the stated objectives to achieve higher levels of performance. The transformational leader would also need to shift focus from purely monetary rewards for employees in achievement of organizational goals and concentrate on processes to achieve continuous improvement and encourage innovation in employees. These are some of the most important aspects that make a transformational CIO more effective as the leader of an IT organization. The Leadership Plan that has been provided above highlights the fact that a leader of an IT organization needs to posses technical skills in order to be able to provide effective leadership to employees. But it is not adequate for the CIO of an IT firm to merely be technically proficient and achieve project goals; rather s/he must also be a strategic leader with the ability to effectively plan and manage resources and employees in such a manner that the organization is able to respond effectively in a global environment. The transformational CIO plays a multi pronged role; s/he has multiple roles to play within the organization while also functioning as an effective team member. The Leadership Plan set out above has identified the various roles that a transformational CIO must play, including that of a team player. It also identifies the skills that are necessary in a CIO, especially within a global environment, which is characterized by mergers and alliances. The CIO must posses a high level of inter personal skills, not only to coordinate the diversity of employees within his/her own firm but also to manage new employees that may become a part of the merged organization. The Leadership Plan provided above identifies the complexity of skills required by a CIO, which must integrate the qualities of a transformational leader as well as a strategic manager. The CIO must possess not only IT skills but also strategic managerial skills and interpersonal skills. The Plan provided above thus takes into account the changing demands being placed upon CIOs in the present day environment and the need to be flexible in terms of adapting to change. It has also highlighted the need for the CIO to be conversant with the functions of various departments within the organization and to foster and promote better communication and coordination between the various departments by holding periodical inter departmental meetings. Cohesivenes of the Leadership Plan: The Leadership Plan thus details a cohesive leadership plan for a CIO in an IT firm functioning within a global environment. At the outset, it establishes that a transformational leadership style is likely to be more successful in the present day competitive environment. It details the complex mix of skills that are required in a CIO and the requirement for the CIO to possess IT skills as well as the ability for strategic management. It also emphasizes the need for the CIO to posses interpersonal skills, with the ability to motivate and inspire employees by appealing to their self actualization needs. After assessing the skills required in a CIO, the Leadership Plan set out above then discussed the various roles that a CIO is required to play, from being a leader and monitor to a liaison and resource allocator. By clearly establishing the skills required and setting out the roles that a CIO is expected to play, the Leadership Plan detailed above thus enables effective selection of the right kind of person who would be able to function effectively as a CIO of an IT organization in the present day, global competitive environment. When a framework of necessary abilities, including the emphasis on interpersonal skills is set out in this manner, it enables a potential leader to identify areas of weakness that need to be worked on, or attitudes that need to be changed in order to function effectively as a CIO. The leadership Plan also specifically sets out tasks that a transformational leader must execute as the CIO of an IT firm. For instance, some of these functions that have been identified above include the Strategic Information technology Plan, which is a comprehensive assessment of all the actions that a transformational CIO would be expected to take in order to derive optimum organizational performance and enhance productivity. This Plan includes not only the need for the CIO to develop a clear vision for the firm, but also to coordinate the functions and communication between the various departments within the organization and developing clear objectives for IT projects. Additionally, the CIO also needs to posses human resource skills, in order to be able to motivate and inspire employees so that the best ones are retained, encourage all employees and departments to communicate and work well with each other. The Plan that is provided above thus sets out an integrated approach for a CIO to deal effectively with organizational functioning. The leadership Plan, in discussing the transformational style of leadership, as applicable in the case of a CIO of an IT company, has highlighted the need for changes in existing leadership patterns that may have prevailed over the years. Where the leadership style is already transformational, the managerial style may only need some reinforcement. A CIO in such a case may need to refine existing inter-personal and motivational skills as a leader with IT and strategic managerial skills. S/he may need to develop an overall vision combined with the ability to improve networking among the various departments in the firm. But in an organization where the leadership style is transactional, it may be necessary to bring about significant changes, the first of them being the need to overcome the insularity of the leaders and their resistance to changes. Furthermore, such a leader may also find it difficult to function as a team member and change the employee motivational strategy from one of purely monetary reward to a focus on intrinsic rewards such as self-actualization. Such a leadership style may require a change in prevailing attitudes and beliefs, because without such a change being effected, a CIO cannot function effectively. On the basis of the above, it may be concluded that the Leadership Plan as detailed above offers a comprehensive assessment of aspects of leadership as applicable in the case of a CIO of an IT firm. It examines the integrated skill set a CIO must have, not merely as a leader but also as a manager, in effectively coordinating the work of employees in the firm, especially where mergers and alliances have occurred. It provides the listing of necessary skills that can make a CIO flexible and adaptable to the constant changes in the global organizational environment, thus enabling him/her to lead it to productivity and profitability. The Leadership Plan does not merely focus on skills; it also identifies specific tasks that a transformational CIO must competently be able to develop. It is not merely the qualities and attributes a person possesses that make him or her a great CIO, it is also the ability to get specific tasks executed, the ability to get departments to communicate with and coordinate with each other and the ability for strategic management in accomplishing practical goals. The Plan is thus an integrated and cohesive one, which takes into account all aspects of leadership – both skills and performance. In the process, the Plan also draws attention to the strategy that may be appropriate within a particular organization depending upon existing leadership style – reinforcement of existing practices with refinement in the case of transformational leaders and a complete change in attitude and practices in the case of transactional leaders. Read More