Abstract
This chapter examines how new leaders “fit in” to an organization. It introduces research that lays the foundation for what will be discussed in the remainder of the book as it pertains specifically to CIOs. Two specific streams of research are reviewed. The first is role theory, which describes how a person’s role is shaped. The second, organizational socialization, which describes the process of actions taken by the organization to shape how individuals fit into it. However, senior executives do have influence over how their roles are defined and leader socialization is a much more complex process of mutual adjustment. They also have influence in shaping expectations rather than merely “fitting in”. Messages of relevance for an IT leader are deciphered and their implications outlined.
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Notes
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Ibid.
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For a comprehensive review of CIO role effectiveness, see A. Hütter and R. Riedl, Chief Information Officer Role Effectiveness: Literature Review and Implications for Research and Practice, Springer, Cham Switzerland, 2017. See also M. Chun and J. Mooney, ‘CIO roles and responsibilities: Twenty-five years of evolution and change’, Information and Management, Vol. 46, 2009, pp. 323–334; D.E. Leidner and J.M. Mackay, ‘How incoming CIOs transition into their new jobs’, MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol. 6, 2007, pp. 17–28; J. Peppard, C. Edwards and R. Lambert, ‘Clarifying the ambiguous role of the CIO’, MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol. 10, 2011, pp. 31–44 and D. Smaltz, V. Sambamurthy and R. Agarwal, ‘The antecedents of CIO role effectiveness in organizations: An empirical study in the healthcare sector’, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Vol. 53, 2006, pp. 207–222.
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- 25.
Some examples of this type of publication include K. Kark, M. Puranik, C. Dean and C. Brown, The Essential Guide to CIO Transitions, Deloitte Insights, 2017 and M. Bloch and P. Willmott, The First 100 Days of a New CIO: Nine Steps for Wiring in Success, McKinsey Digital, 2012.
- 26.
See, for example, D. Goldman, ‘What makes a leader’, Harvard Business Review, June 1996, pp. 229–241 and G. Toegel and J.-L. Barsoux, ‘How to become a better leader’, MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring, 2012, pp. 51–60. Other traits include authenticity, expertise, presence, projection and networking. See, for example, A. Dale Henderson, Leading with Gravitas: Unlock the Six Keys to Impact and Influence, Rethink Press Limited, 2015.
- 27.
MBTI is based on the theory of Carl Jung and his ideas. It gives us insights into how we may enhance our ability to do many tasks, in particular, interacting and communicating with other people. MBTI is not without its distractors; we use it in the classroom as a basis for introducing self-awareness. See R. Stein and A. Swan, ‘Evaluating the validity of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator theory: A teaching tool and window into intuitive psychology’, Social Personal Psychology Compass, 2019; e12434 and D. Pittenger, ‘Cautionary comments regarding the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator’, Consulting Psychology Journal Practice and Research, Vol. 57, No. 3, 2005, pp. 210–221. See also R.R. McCrae and P.T. Costa, ‘Reinterpreting the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator from the perspective of the five-factor model of personality’, Journal of Personality, Vol. 57, No. 1, 1989, pp. 17–40.
- 28.
For more on working with people who are not self-aware, see T. Eurich, ‘Working with people who aren’t self-aware’, Harvard Business Review, 19 December, 2018.
- 29.
The data was collected from 264 participants, 22% of whom were female.
- 30.
Ibarra and Hunter have noted that “Many organizations still promote people on the basis of their performance in roles whose requirements differ dramatically from those of leadership roles.” See H. Ibarra and M. Hunter, ‘How leaders create and use networks’, Harvard Business Review, January, 2007, pp. 40–47.
- 31.
See A. Gerth and J. Peppard, ‘The dynamics of CIO derailment: How CIOs come undone and how to avoid it’, Business Horizons, Vol. 59, 2016, pp. 69–70.
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A. Gerth and J. Peppard, ‘How newly appointed Chief Information Officers (CIOs) take charge’, MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol. 13, No. 3, 2014, pp. 159–173.
- 33.
See ‘CIO stats: Length of CIO tenure varies by industry’, Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2017, available at https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2017/02/15/cio-stats-length-of-cio-tenure-varies-by-industry
- 34.
For some practical advice, see Morra Aarons-Mele, Hiding in the Bathroom: An Introvert’s Roadmap to Getting Out There (When You’d Rather Stay Home), Dey Street Books, 2017.
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Gerth, T., Peppard, J. (2020). How New Leaders “Fit In”. In: Taking the Reins as CIO. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31953-3_3
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