The Role of the Business Unit CIO: A Study of the Interaction Between Corporate IT Governance and Local Leadership

Leading a business unit’s IT function is more challenging than leading a corporation’s IT function. At the business unit level, a CIO reports to the business unit’s manager and to the corporation’s CIO (Hodgkinson 1996). In comparison, the corporate CIO must establish a relationship with one boss the CEO (DeLisi, Danielson et al. 1998; Kakabadse and Korac-Kakabadse 2000). A further problem is that researchers focus on the top management team relationship (Gupta 1991; Kakabadse and KoracKakabadse 2000) so the business unit CIO receives little advice. This paper explores the complex leadership challenges facing a business unit CIO by drawing on a case study of a large bank (Wood 2005). The bank has multiple business units with the Institutional Bank (IB) as the research focus. IB has different technology requirements that sit awkwardly with corporate IT’s standardization and cost reduction goals. IB’s CIO leads a dynamic IT function struggling to reconcile IB’s vision of technology with corporate IT’s vision of technology. There is a great need for soft skills and the astute application of power. The result is a difficult environment for sustaining a leadership advantage. Responding to Bryman’s (2004) call, the paper consciously builds on the IS leadership and IT governance literatures.