Information Systems Leadership Roles: An Empirical Study of Information Technology Managers in Norway

Abstract

Information systems (IS) leadership roles have undergone fundamental changes over the past decade. Despite increased interest in recent years, little empirical research on IS managers has been done. This article presents results from a survey in Norway. The survey collected data on general leadership roles such as informational role, decisional role and interpersonal role, as well as on specific IS leadership roles such as chief architect, change leader, product developer, technology provocateur, coach and chief operating strategist. The empirical analysis indicates that strategic responsibility as well as network stage of growth influence the extent of informational role, while the extent to which the chief executive uses IT influences the extent of decisional role, and the extent to which subordinates use IT influence the extent of interpersonal role. IS managers with greater operating responsibility will be chief architects. The role of a change leader is positively influenced by the number of years in IT, the extent of IT use, the extent of strategic responsibility and the organisation’s revenue, while it is negatively influenced by the number of years in the current position. Product developer can be predicted by strategic responsibility and chief executive’s IT use, while technology provocateur can be predicted by the extent of IT use. Coach can be predicted by the extent of subordinates’ IT use, and chief operating strategist can be predicted by the extent of strategic responsibility. Although several significant predictors of IS leadership roles were identified in this research, the search for more significant explanations should continue in future research.