ClO: Natureof Job Executive or Functional Manager? The Nature of the CIO’s Job’ By: Charlotte S. Stephens Abbott Turner School of Business Columbus College Columbus, Georgia 31993-2399 U.S.A. William N. Ledbetter College of Business MiddleTennessee State University Murfreesboro,Tennessee 37132 U.S.A. Amitava Mitra College of Business Auburn University Auburn, Alabama 36849 U.S.A. F. Nelson Ford College of Business Auburn University Auburn, Alabama 36849 U.S.A. According to much of the prescriptive fiterature, bridging this gapis the ClO’sdefinitive function. This article addresses these questions by study- ing five successful ClOsin five divergent in- dustries. The ClOs were studied using the structured observation methodology employed by Mintzberg in his study of CEOs and by Ives and Olson in their study of MIS managers. The find- ings suggest that the CIO operates as an ex- ecutive rather than a functional manager. He or she is an active participant in strategy planning and acts as a bridge betweenthe information technology group, the functional areas, and ex- ternal entities. This study providesa view of how these difficult tasks are accomplished on a day- to-day basis: through scheduled meetings, in- teraction outside the information technology unit, a skilled reading of situations, and a strategic focus. Factors affecting the ClO’s participation in strategy planning meetings include whether he or she has formal resource allocation authority and their level of peer acceptance. Lessons learned from this researchpertain to the delega- tion of day-to-day tasks, expenditureauthority, avoiding adversarial relationships, liaison ac- tivities, careful use of language, being perceived as a user of information technology, andthe need for quiet time. Keywords: Chief information officers, management,corporate roles and relationships, structured observation ACM Categories: J.1, K.4.3, K.7.1 Abstract The role of the chief information officer (ClO) con- tinues to be the subject of much discussion and speculation. Is this just a new name for the MIS manager, or is there truly a new andsignificant- ly different function? How has the role of the in- formation systems manager evolved with the changing needs of business? How does the ClO bridge the gap between the organization’s strategy and its use of information technology? 1 Portions of this paper were presented at the 1992 meeting of Georgia Researchers in Information Technology Systems, October 10, 1992, at Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia. Introduction Does a new executive function, called the "chief information officer," actually exist, or is this simp- ly a new name for the "manager of MIS" or, as previously known, the "manager of data process- ing"? A decade ago, Ives and Olson (1981) asked the question, "Howhas the role of the informa- tion systems manager evolved with the chang- ing needs of business organizations for data processing?" (p. 49). In an MIS Quarterly article entitled, "Manageror Technician? The Nature of the MISManager’sJob," they present a 1958 fictional manager, Ralph, who begins his career as a draftsman and is then transferred to data processing, "where he designed card-based systems, wired boards and occasionally ran the MIS Quarterly~December 1992 449