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 & Responsibilities

• Information technology is a relatively new functional area.
• Recent IT-related strategic positions : 

1. Chief Information Officer (CIO) 
2. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) 
3. Chief Security Officer (CSO) 
4. Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) 
5. 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 : 

1. Manager - ensuring the delivery of all IT projects on time and within budget.
2. Leader - ensuring the strategic vision of IT is in line with the strategic vision of the organization.
3. Communicator - building and maintaining strong executive relationships.

• 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 & 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

1. Ethics :

• Ethics - the principles and standards that guide our behaviour toward other people.
• 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.
• One of the main ingredients in trust is privacy.
• Primary reasons privacy issues lost trust for e-business :

2. 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.