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.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 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 Officer (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.

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

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

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

o   Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) – responsible for collecting, maintaining and distributing the organization’s knowledge  


                                                         

THE GAP BETWEEN BUSINESS PERSONNEL AND IT PRSONNEL

 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 event as the 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 issues;

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

Issues affected by technology advances

PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL ASSETS

    

           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 crates tremendous information security risks for organization