The study examined the evolving role of information technology executives in higher education with the objective of detailing the skills and experiences necessary to be a CIO in higher education, the expectations of the leaders in higher education of these individuals, and how leaders in higher education view the role of the CIO. The position responsibilities have been steadily increasing over the past two decades due to redefinition of the business of higher education. The CIO position is no longer highly focused on technical issues but has influence on the institution’s business strategies, which clearly shows that the position has experienced organizational ascension.
The position’s requirements as advertised on various publications, the CIO needs to be technologically savvy, business savvy, technology advocate, be strategically focused as well as understand governance (Chronicle Careers, 2009; Brown, 2009; Chronicle Careers, 2010). Due to its complexity, the position does not succumb to the notion of one-size-fits-all organizations. In the researcher’s effort to understand the CIO’s place in higher education the Burke-Litwin organizational model was adopted. The model provided the theoretical framework to guide the study in the following parameters: understanding higher education dynamics, higher education strategic leadership, carefully planned technology investment driven by data, policies and procedures, and aligning the decision-making process with the vision and mission of the institution (Burke, 2002).
This triangulated qualitative study used CIOs and higher education executives from the Association of American Universities (AAU) institutions, specifically in the USA. The following qualitative techniques were used to determine the skills, experience, and roles: document analysis, online survey, and interviews. The results indicated the need for CIOs to have multidimensional personalities with the ability to strategically adapt according to the institution’s needs. The CIOs are to be: technically savvy, business savvy, well rounded individuals, good listeners, understand higher education, as well as good organization builders. In short the results indicated that CIOs have diverse work experience and educational background. The CIOs follow the traditional or nontraditional path to the position (Birnbaum & Umbach, 2001). The traditional category includes all executives who came through the ranks in higher education, while the nontraditional category includes those executives whose “careers have alternated between higher education and external positions and those who had no previous higher education experience” (Birnbaum & Umbach, 2001, p. 206). There was a correlation between the CIOs and the higher education executives on the skills, experience, roles, views, and expectations of the position.