Chapter 5 Organizational Structures that Support Strategic Initiatives

Organizational Structures

• Organizational employees must work closely together to develop strategic initiatives that create competitive advantages
• Ethics and security are two fundamental building blocks that organizations must base their businesses upon

IT Roles and Responsibilities 

Information technology is a relatively new functional area, having only been around formally for around 40 years

Recent IT-related strategic positions:

• Chief Information Officer (CIO)
• Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
• Chief Security Officer (CSO)
• Chief Privacy Officer (CPO)
• Chief Knowledge Office (CKO)

Chief Information Officer (CIO) – oversees all uses of IT and ensures the strategic alignment of IT with business goals and objectives

Broad CIO functions include:

• Manager – ensuring the delivery of all IT projects, on time and within budget
• Leader – ensuring the strategic vision of IT is in line with the strategic vision of the organization
• Communicator – building and maintaining strong executive relationships

Average CIO compensation by industry

What concerns CIOs the most

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – responsible for ensuring the throughput, speed, accuracy, availability, and reliability of IT

Chief Security Officer (CSO) – responsible for ensuring the security of IT systems

Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) – responsible for ensuring the ethical and legal use of information 

Chief Knowledge Office (CKO) - responsible for collecting, maintaining, and distributing the organization’s knowledge

Skills pivotal for success in executive IT roles

The Gap Between Business Personnel and IT Personnel 

• Business personnel possess expertise in functional areas such as marketing, accounting, and sales  
• IT personnel have the technological expertise  
• This typically causes a communications gap between the business personnel and IT personnel

Improving Communications

• Business personnel must seek to increase their understanding of IT
• IT personnel must seek to increase their understanding of the business
• It is the responsibility of the CIO to ensure effective communication between business personnel and IT personnel

Organizational Fundamentals – Ethics and Security

• Ethics and security are two fundamental building blocks that organizations must base their businesses on to be successful 
• In recent years, such events as the Enron and Martha Stewart, along with 9/11 have shed new light on the meaning of ethics and security

Ethics

Ethics – the principles and standards that guide our behavior toward other people

Privacy is a major ethical issue

Privacy – the right to be left alone when you want to be, to have control over your own personal possessions, and not to be observed without your consent

Issues affected by technology advances

• Intellectual property
• Copyright
• Fair use doctrine
• Pirated software
• Counterfeit software

1. Intellectual property - Intangible creative work that is embodied in physical form
2. Copyright - The legal protection afforded an expression of an idea, such as a song, video game, and some types of proprietary documents
3. Fair use doctrine - In certain situations, it is legal to use copyrighted material
4. Pirated software - The unauthorized use, duplication, distribution, or sale of copyrighted software
5. Counterfeit software - Software that is manufactured to look like the real thing and sold as such

One of the main ingredients in trust is privacy

Primary reasons privacy issues lost trust for e-business

Security

• Organizational information is intellectual capital - it must be protected 
• Information security – the protection of information from accidental or intentional misuse by persons inside or outside an organization
• E-business automatically creates tremendous information security risks for organizations

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