IT Stereotyping and the CEO-CIO Headlock

In addition to running key organizational systems, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are increasingly expected to embrace a broader role in their organizations by driving organizational transformation, innovating for competitive advantage and acting as key strategic partners to the CEO and other members of the C-level team. Their ability to fulfill this challenging role, however, is inhibited by the existence (and influence) of IT stereotypes. When CEOs harbor these stereotypes, they tend to treat the CIO as a “last among equals”, impose limits on the CIO’s resources (e.g., access to the Board), and relegate the CIO to a supporting role thus denying a strategic opportunity for IT. This research proposal develops a means of assessing the IT stereotypes and their strength and examines their impact on the role of IT within the organization. This study will introduce a novel theoretical approach to the understanding of the relationship between the IT organization and the rest of the business. Implications for theory and practice are