MGT300 - Chapter 5: Organizational Structures that Support Strategic Initiatives

Organizational Structures

Organizational employees must work closely together to develop strategic initiatives that create competitive advantages. Ethics and security are two fundamental building blocks that organizations must base their businesses upon. Well designed organizational structures will produce efficient communication channels and encourage fast, clean decisions. To develop strategic initiatives that create competitive advantages organizational employees must work closely together.

IT Roles and Responsibilities

a. Chief Information Officer (CIO) – oversees all uses of IT and ensures the strategic alignment of IT with business goals and objectives

· Broad CIO functions ;

· Manager – ensuring the delivery of all IT projects, on time and within budget.

· Leader – ensuring the strategic vision of IT is in line with the strategic vision of     the organization.

· Communicator – building and maintaining strong executive relationships.

b. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – responsible for ensuring the throughput, speed, accuracy,          availability, and reliability of IT.

c. Chief Security Officer (CSO) – responsible for ensuring the security of IT systems.

d. Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) – responsible for ensuring the ethical and legal use of information. 

e. Chief Knowledge Office (CKO) - responsible for collecting, maintaining, and distributing the          organization’s knowledge.

The Gap Between Business Personnel and IT Personnel 

· Business personnel possess expertise in functional areas such as marketing, accounting, and sales.

· IT personnel have the technological expertise.  

· This typically causes a communications gap between the business personnel and IT personnel.

Improving Communications

· Business personnel must seek to increase their understanding of IT.

· IT personnel must seek to increase their understanding of the business.

· It is the responsibility of the CIO to ensure effective communication between business personnel and IT personnel.

Organizational Fundamentals – Ethics and Security

Ethics

· Ethics means the principles and standards that guide our behavior toward other people.

· Privacy is a major ethical issue

· Privacy – the right to be left alone when you want to be, to have control over your own personal possessions, and not to be observed without your consent.

· Issues affected by technology advances

· Intellectual property - Intangible creative work that is embodied in physical       form.

· Copyright - The legal protection afforded an expression of an idea, such as a song,video game, and some types of proprietary documents

· Fair use doctrine - In certain situations, it is legal to use copyrighted material.

· Pirated software - The unauthorized use, duplication, distribution, or sale of         copyrighted software. 

· Counterfeit software - Software that is manufactured to look like the real thing   and sold a such.

Security

 Organizational information is intellectual capital must be protected . Information security is the protection of information from accidental or intentional misuse by persons inside or outside an organization. E-business automatically creates tremendous information security risks for organizations.