Group Work 7

Question 1: Assume you are the manager of a retail store and need to hire a CIO to run your new computer system. What characteristics would you want in a new CIO?

The characteristics are:

1.       Have a background with significant management experience in non-IT business functions.

2.       Exploit the opportunities to have informal interactions with other business executives.

3.       Know the company's business strategy and learn what drives value.

4.       Know and clear about their role and have formal objectives -- and yet they also have "a greater appetite for risk" to achieve business goals.

5.       Must allocate more time to talent development than to any other activity.

6.       Must learn about company operations in preparation for broader, non-IT opportunities.

Question 2: What are the advantages of using virtual organizational structure? What are the disadvantages?

Advantages:

•        This structure leads to more autonomy as employees can choose and manage their own personal infrastructure and expenses.

•        It also leads to more meritocracy as personal infrastructure is separated from a hierarchical position in the formal organizational structure.

•        This leads to a better decentralization-centralization balance, as employees can make their own decisions on selection and acquiring of the personal infrastructure and other personal expenses, whilst the company can have a very efficient corporate infrastructure.

•        This speeds up the process and reduces the cost of approving requests for and acquiring of personal infrastructure.

•        Cost savings are achieved by improving the efficiency of the corporate infrastructure and allowing greater flexibility with their personal infrastructure and business expenses.

Disadvantages:

•        The managing infrastructure produces diseconomies in the Knowledge Age.

•        The practice of controlling personal technology has resulted in high costs and high employee frustration in most large organizations

•        Infrastructure related decision are usually based more on status rather than on expertise or the needs of those who have to work with it.

•        This structure leads to over-controlling the use of personal technologies.  This is both frustrating to employees and expensive for employers.

•        Standard expense management. Individuals are largely incented to spend up to their budget (and negotiate for continually higher budgets).

References
Vlatka Hlupic (2012) Using "Traditionally Virtual" organizational structure
Available from: http://www.managementexchange.com/hack/using-traditionally-virtual-organizational-structure, [Accessed on 25th June 2012]