Information Leadership: The CIO as Orchestrator and Equilibrist

The dominant interpretation of the function and role of the CIO is technology-related with business-ICT alignment as a core concept. We criticize this vision as a product of the dominant interpretive scheme and show how the logic of this scheme restricts the worldview of CIO’s and researchers. To overcome these restrictions, we adopt an alternative interpretive scheme based on our twenty years of experience with collaboration with information managers. This scheme is essentially generative and synthetic. We define the function and role of the CIO as the orchestrator of the information-related activities of the organization. To be successful, the CIO should further maintain equilibrium between inspiring and innovating the organization and informing and architecturing it. Finally, we argue for the use of a new language that can involve all stakeholders in these activities to make them enthusiastic participants. Based on this new view, the CIO can emanate information leadership.