The Congruence between a Firm's Competitive Strategy and Information Technology Leader's Rank and Role.

Author List: Karimi, Jahangir; Gupta, Yash P.; Somers, Toni M.;

Journal of Management Information Systems, 1996, Volume 13, Issue 1, Page 63-88.

Today's firms are faced with new competitive and technological challenges. As a consequence, many senior executives are looking for information technology (IT) leaders who not only can understand technology but also can comprehend technology's potential to affect business strategy. For the IT leaders, rising to such numerous, and often conflicting, challenges is not easy. Indeed, there is a higher than average corporate dismissal rate and shorter tenure for IT leaders compared with other top executives. Based on the responses from 213 IT leaders in the financial services industry, this study found that the rank and role of a firm's IT leader must be aligned with the firm's competitive strategy. The implications of the findings for the firms' executives, as well as researchers, are discussed in detail.

Keywords: competitive strategy; information technology leaders; strategy-technology alignment.

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List of Topics

#123	0.375	information strategy strategic technology management systems competitive executives role cio chief senior executive cios sis support organization officer position ceos
#2	0.204	leadership leaders effective leader roles authority assume slow responsibility structure recognize responsibilities look size inevitable attain trend held articulate dominate
#168	0.139	firms firm financial services firm's size examine new based result level including results industry important account does suggests characterize limited
#150	0.129	issues management systems information key managers executives senior corporate important importance survey critical corporations multinational managing interviews study results concerns