CHAPTER 5 : ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE 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.

o   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