The Changing Role of IS Managers in the Business Environment: Ethiopian context
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Date
2016-06-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The advancement of IT functionalities together with the competition in this digital economy requires organizations to work strategically. The organizations strategy should go in line with the IT strategy and the business strategy so that the organization can meet the intended objective at the end of the day. The chief information officer (CIO) plays key role for the alignment of the business/IT strategy to have a highly competent business organization in this information age. As the technology gets improved and organizations are becoming dependent on the IT services and functions, the complex IT management requires an executive level leader that is the CIO. The CIOs are multidimensional technology leaders that can influence the business of the organizations positively. Various literatures also indicate the changing role of the CIO‟s with the advancement in technology. Knowing the benefit and variation of the role and giving appropriate recognition makes organizations highly beneficiary. Although this issue has been investigated in developed nations from their context, there is no any empirical attempt especially in Ethiopian context. Hence, this study intends to investigate the changing role of CIOs in the business in this highly competitive technology era. A survey study was employed to investigate the changing role of CIO‟s in some selected organizations in Ethiopia. Questionnaire and interview were the main data collection methods used. Even though information technology (IT) is expected to lead the business as seen in the developed nations, it looks impractical in Ethiopian context. The result shows that the variations among organizations IT service maturity level determines the level of the CIO‟s role. CIO‟s of organizations which are at a lower level of service maturity focus on the routine tasks while other few are actively involving in the organizations strategic work. CIOs involvement in the strategic development will benefit both the CIO themselves and organizations in aligning the IT/Business strategy to be competent in this dynamic environment. It is also noted that even though the trend shows CIOs role is changing, the contribution of CIOs in aligning IT/business strategy and maximizing the performance of business is not substantial. The research sample was limited to certain organizations that the researcher selected purposefully. This is due to shortage of getting documentation about organizations IT service maturity and CIOs related information. The result of this study might be affected by sample size, the experience and understanding of team leaders. Future work can be done on larger sample size consisting of only CIOs from organizations having similar IT service maturity and IT competence.
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Business Environment: Ethiopian context By: Gezahegn Feyssa Advissor: Tibebe