The Importance of Information Resource Management and the Role of the Chief Information Officer - Research Paper Example

First Number 14 September Information Resource Management OVERVIEW Information resource management (IRM) is one of the most essential tasks for the governmental along with private organizations in the present day context. In the contemporary era, the importance of information has been enriched amid the modern organizations due to high competitiveness throughout the globe. Thus, modern organizations are providing their utmost attention towards information resource management with the intention of ensuring the objectives and goals of an organization. Every organization has attempted to take varied measures to preserve information as the valuable resource. With the help of information resource management, government as well as corporate organizations have focused on controlling the lifecycle of varied important data from past to present. Information resource management is divided into two groups such as operational and business planning. Modern organizations have arranged their confidentiality of the information resource more accurately by dividing the information into two groups. In the past, information had been recorded in papers and currently varied organizations use technological gadgets to preserve important data. Government has enacted different rules and regulations to preserve information in a more effective way. As per Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996, government has supplemented information technology management for improved handling of information. To upload information resource management for Chief information officer (CIO) has come to the forefront as a key player in the organizational context. Nowadays, CIO is responsible for managing information of almost every government as well as corporate organization. In the present arena, organizational functions had been divided under varied departments. Consequently, CIO has become one of the most important persons, who usually look after every departmental process within the organization. On the other hand, in order to highlight the role and responsibility of the CIO, it can be claimed that through strategic governance a CIO can enhance the effectiveness of the organization. Apart from this, the responsibility of a CIO is to maintain the organizational structure, through which overall capability of the organization can be improved for current period as well as future period1. In order to highlight the identity along with the roles and responsibilities of the selected CIO Alan Levine, it can be determined that he is the CIO of the Kennedy Center Washington DC. Moreover, it is also acknowledged that throughout his life Alan Levine has focused on learning how to develop innovative as well as strategic effectiveness for attaining the objective of organization, which has assisted Alan to absorb leadership and mentoring qualities. THESIS STATEMENT The objective of this study is to identify and understand the importance of information resource management (IRM) and the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), which helps an organization to ensure its effectiveness in terms of business aspects. In this regard, this particular study has concentrated on the dimension of primary research for understanding the importance and essentiality of the information resource management. Thus, with reference to conducting primary research, an interview with Alan Levine, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the Kennedy Center Washington DC has been performed. DISCUSSION AND REVIEW OF THE INTERVIEW In this particular section, a discussion has been framed according to the feedback of Alan Levine, the CIO of the Kennedy Center, Washington DC. The prime intention of this research study is to focus on the information resource management principles of the organizations with the aim of identifying the effective of the organizations in terms of complex bureaucratic issues as well as administrative issues. Based on the feedback of the Kennedy Center Washington DC’s CIO, it is revealed that information resource management plays an increasingly critical role within organizations for managing information technology decision processes. At the same time, according to the viewpoint of Alan Levine, it is ascertained that information resource management has also assisted business organizations to accomplish the mission and vision of the organization more accurately in case of public, private, or non-profit organizations. In this particular research study, an interview has been taken for identifying the importance of information resource management in case of business operation or business decision making, it can be claimed that several academic literatures have come up with varied opinions regarding the information resource management philosophy. In order to identify the importance of information resource management it is revealed that the concept of information resource management has been introduced to fulfill the requirement of the business organizations based on specific three aspects such as ‘database management’, ‘records management’ and ‘data processing management’ system. During conducting the interview (Refer to Appendix), based on the response of Alan Levine the CIO of the Kennedy Center Washington DC, it is revealed that information resource management disciplines are independent disciplines, through ensuring this aspect it can be possible for an organization to maintain the internal and external operations of the organization more accurately. At the same time, through concentrating on these disciplines an organization can be able to ensure its effectiveness in terms of its operations. Apart from this, it is also notified that the concept of information resource management has been introduced with the aim of fulfilling the requirement of private sector as well as Federal agencies. According to the viewpoint of Trauth (258), through ensuring the effectiveness of information resource management, it can be possible to enhance the scope of the management to achieve predetermined objectives or goals. Correspondingly, through managing the principles of information resource management, organizations can enhance the outcome viability. At the same time, better information resource management can lead an organization to attain extensive success in terms of maintaining organizational success, to enhance management skills and governing capability. Simultaneously, information resource management usually helps an organization to knob the process and change management more accurately2. Subsequently, Alan Levine the CIO of Kennedy Center Washington DC, claimed that through protecting the information resource management operational and administrative system can be improved during the business function. At the same time, during conducting the interview (Refer to Appendix) with Alan Levine, the CIO of Kennedy Center Washington DC, he argued that information resource management helps an organization to accomplish the strategic goal of the organisation more accurately. He also asserted that information resource management provides an utmost security to the information technology infrastructure with the intention of involving or adapting emerging changes in the technological aspects of an organization, which can assist the organization to improve its service model. On the other hand, it is also perceived that information resource management has helped organizations to optimize their investments. At the same time, it is also revealed that the information resource management has helped organizations to enhance the infrastructure of tools and services by enhancing the quality of information technology (IT) services. In this regard (Refer to Appendix), Alan Levine the CIO of Kennedy Center Washington DC claimed that information resource management strategy helps the organization to support its strategic direction. Moreover, it is also revealed that through establishing the strategic management framework; organizations can enhance their responsibility along with governance and decision making capability, which usually assist the organization to protect its information technology based resources. Additionally, it can be also claimed that through concentrating on information resource management, an organization can ensure its balance of power along with its capability of maintaining success and competition. Simultaneously, it can be claimed that through the information resource management, it can be possible to secure the information of the organisation during the business operations. Moreover, Trauth (258) argued that information resource management can enhance the opportunity for the organization to accomplish the objective of the more accurately. At the same time, it is also depicted that through ensuring the security of information resource management organizations can focus on the customers’ needs and expectations more significantly3. In this regard, it can be claimed that based on the interview (Refer to Appendix) it is revealed that Alan Levine the CIO of Kennedy Center Washington DC argued that through the strategic approach organizations can enhance the effectiveness of information resource management during its business operations. Apart from this, based on the review of academic literatures, it can be claimed that establishing information technology infrastructure and by developing a strong information technology workplace, organizations can ensure the effectiveness of information resource management. In this regard, it also perceived that introducing effective human capital management organizations can attain the business needs. Regarding this context, Trauth (258) argued that strategic management and information technology can successfully help an organization to execute appropriate information resource management during the business practices4. According to the viewpoint of McManus (4), through concentrating on the database management organizations can ensure the safety of information resource management during its business operations. Though establishing and enforcing the standards of database management, it can be possible to ensure the security of information resource management during the integrated use of data, which usually helps an organization to protect the privacy related aspects more accurately5. In this regard, during conducting the interview (Refer to Appendix) with Alan Levine the CIO of Kennedy Center Washington DC, it is revealed that database administration usually facilitates an organization to manage storage as well as retrieval information more efficiently. Moreover, based on the feedback of Alan Levine, it is recognized that the data administration function is directly and indirectly related with the data processing operation of an organization, which can ensure the accuracy, auditability, integrity, privacy and cost-effectiveness of the information resource management. On the other hand, according to the viewpoint of Neal and McClure (36), through the assistance of records management approach, organisations can ensure the security of information resource management, which will help the organisation to enhance the effectiveness of the storage system and it will also provide benefits to the administrative operations. Subsequently, it can be claimed that though concentrating on the records management approach organizations can enhance the utilization of its essential documents during the business operations6. According to the feedback of (Refer to Appendix) Alan Levine the CIO of Kennedy Center Washington DC, it is perceived that record management approach of the organization has reduced the growing problem of information resource management, which has reduced the privacy related threats of paper documents and enhanced the efficiency of coordination and sharing of documents around the global business operations. According to Schilit (1-40), the data processing management is one of the core principles of information resource management through which business administration as well as ‘management information systems’ (MIS) related operations can be executed more accurately7. In this context, according to the feedback of Alan Levine the CIO of Kennedy Center Washington DC, it is depicted that information resource management has helped organizations to provide better support during corporate decision making. At the same time, from the feedback it is revealed that information resource management has also helped organizations to maintain the privacy of information as well as corporate asset during the business operation. Moreover, from the feedback, it is also depicted that information resource management has enhanced organizations to maintain its database systems and also helped during the remote access of database management, which has directly and indirectly benefited organizations during the data processing. Moreover, during conducting the interview, high attention has been also provided towards determining the roles and responsibilities of CIO within an organization. In this regard, Alan Levine asserted that in order to ensure the information resource management, it is essential for the CIO to concentrate on the internal and external roles and responsibilities of the organization. Alan Levine also argued that CIO has the responsibility of decision marking within an organization for the execution of administrative functions as well as operational functions. Subsequently, the CIO has the responsibility of establishing a relational bridge between the local area network and central network for enhancing the business opportunity. Moreover, the responsibility of CIO is to ensure organizational distributed support with the aim of enhancing the organizational efficiency. Additionally, it can be also claimed that a CIO can improve the organizational structure through enhancing the quality of leadership. RESEARCH METHOD In this particular research study, the aim has been to identify the importance of information resource management, which helps an organization to ensure its effectiveness in terms of business aspects. Apart from this, the study has concentrated on the core principles of information resource management along with determining the role of a CIO. Thus, in this case, Alan Levine the CIO of the Kennedy Center Washington DC has been chosen for conducting the interview. Moreover, during conducting the interview open ended questions have been framed for identifying and understanding the viewpoint of Alan Levine regarding information resource management. Apart from this, it can be also claimed that during conducting the interview high concentration has been provided for ensuring the reliability and validity of the research study. OUTCOME OF THE INTERVIEW Based on the above discussion, it is revealed that information resource management has improved the operations of information technology management and also enhanced the quality of strategic information framework, which has assisted organizations to enhance its service of information technological strategic plan. Moreover, through concentrating on the information resource management, organizations have upgraded their effectiveness in terms of operational and administrative aspects. At the same time, it has also reduced challenges for the organizations through concentrating on the vision and mission of the organization. Additionally, it can be also argued that high attention towards the information resource management has ensured security for the organizational information and assets during its business operation. Furthermore, it is also witnessed based on the interview that adequate information resource management has established a balancing situation between employees, customers and stakeholders for the organization, which has enhanced flexibility as well as facilitated to consolidate organizational position within the competitive market place8. CONCLUSION Based in the overall analysis, it has been determined that the future of the information resources management is highly reliant on the capability of the organizational management. Correspondingly, it is witnessed that through concentrating on the information resources management, the organizations can enhance their consistency as well as integrity in terms of database management, record management and in case of data processing management. As an effect, it can be claimed that through marinating the adequacy of information resources management, it is possible to enhance the quality of management information system. Apart from this, it can be also determined that through enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the information resources, organizations can ensure their information and asset protection. Thus, through maintaining ethics during information resource management, it is possible to reduce the challenges in terms of business, education and individual information. Simultaneously, based on the study, it is also witnessed that through concentrating on the information resource management and by appropriate execution of the information resource management, organizations can ensure their future success. At the same time, though maintaining the adequacy of information resource management organizations can enhance their potential efficiency as well as flexibility during the business operations. Works Cited McManus, John W. “Information Resource Management (IRM) Strategic Plan.” NASA IRM Strategic Plan (2006): 1-19. Print. Neal, James G. and Polley Ann McClure. “Organizing Information Resources for Effective Management.” Jossey-Boss Inc (2003): 1-44. Print. Schilit, Jeffrey. “Information Resource Management Technology Policies.” Florida Atlantic University (2007): 1-40. Print. Trauth, Eileen M. “The Evolution of Information Resource Management.” Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland) (1989): 257-267. Print. APPENDIX 1 Interview Questions 1. Why information resource management is highly essential in case of business organizations? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2. Which are core principles of information resource management? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3. How information resource management helps during the business function to ensure framing of appropriate policies within the organization? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4. How organizations can enhance the effectiveness of information resource management? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5. How information resource management can be executed more accurately for enhancing the impact of leadership and management skills? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6. What is your responsibility within the organization being a CIO? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Read More