CIO/CTO Job Roles: An Emerging Organizational Model

The position of Chief Information Systems Officer (CIO) has become a daunting job due to the myriad of business and technical responsibilities assigned to the organization\u27s top information systems (IS) executive. CIOs are being asked to successfully ensure the firm\u27s IS investments are continually aligned with its strategic business objectives, while also planning and maintaining an IT infrastructure that will meet the firm\u27s current and future information processing needs. Many CIOs are finding it extremely difficult to balance the two key roles of technician and businessperson successfully. Many business experts that have analyzed this problem have concluded that the tasks and responsibilities assigned to a typical CIO may be too overwhelming for a single person. This paper advances a formal organizational structure in which the typical responsibilities of the CIO position are re-allocated to two IS executives - the CIO and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). This paper also describes which responsibilities should be retained by the CIO and which responsibilities should be delegated to the CTO. Finally, a discussion of the challenges and benefits associated with the implementation of CIO/CTO organizational leadership structure is presented