Disadvantages of a CIO's Expanded Role/Explains disadvantages of chief information officer having an expanded role in a corporation

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Disadvantages of the CIO's Expanded Role

The role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) has dramatically changed within the past ten years. Several years ago CIO's were choosing new computer systems, making sure everyone had an internet connection and troubleshooting technical computer problems. In today's world, CIO's are taking on much more responsibility, which can often hinder their overall job performance. I will go over some of the disadvantages to the CIO's changing role in the office.

Today, Chief Information Officers are taking more of a leadership role and are taking on tasks such as managing and cutting costs and achieving more productive, efficient and valuable use of information. They even sometimes become key figures in purchasing decisions and marketing and sales. Of course, with added responsibilities come added problems. There are several disadvantages of giving the CIO such an expanded role (Bean).

The major disadvantage is that since they now have more responsibility in the corporation they most definitely need a staff of very dependable people to get the normal, every day issues taken care of.

Because the CIO's today are at the executive level, they need capable, dependable employees to take care of their smaller, but still important, tasks. A large amount of the CIO's time is taken up by higher responsibilities so it is very critical that they have a highly trained, dependable staff to which they can delegate the smaller responsibilities. Their position is simply not manageable otherwise. Even though their role has expanded to the more strategic side of the corporation they still must ensure that the regular day-to-day mission is being met. For example, they have to continuously be working on the smaller tasks and keep the systems up and running in order for the corporation to run smoothly. Under a third of the...