IT management concepts and practices

Organizational Politics

ORGANZIATIONAL POLTICS

Organization politics is not just part of every organization but it is also an important aspect of the business from the view point of CIO (Chief Information Officer). In both the long run and short run, CIO with his authority over the transfer of information will decide the decision making psyche of CFO and CEO.

The CIO, CFO and CEO are three legs of tripod and with any of them missing, the tripod is not of much use. But out of these three legs the CIO (Chief Information Officer) has the most importance because the setup that he will put in place or his handling of information will ultimately lead to performance and credibility of CEO and CFO. Without a good flow of information, whose responsibility ultimately lies of the CIO, the organization functions will work on itself, sometimes producing results that are helpful and sometimes will cause a downfall.

Judith Zito, the CIO of Miami-Dade County is of the opinion that giving CIO a little authority to make decision is not a big sell and by giving him a little authority will result lead to increase in credibility. (Low, 2004) In a sense from the Zito's perspective, it is clear that CEO, CFO and CIO are the ultimate decision makers of the within an organization, even though it is mentioned above that CIO does not have a decision making authority but he does have the power to influence the all the decision making minds like the CEO and CFO of the business.

Even though the CIO has no direct control over any of the information that is input in the system but he does have all the power as to where particular information shall be transferred. If the CIO hears of an important decision making gossip from all the grapevine within an organization, and the CIO believes that the organization has to make the decision but is not financial strong enough to keep up its commitment regarding the decision; then the CIO is intelligent enough to know what type information shall be transferred to where keeping in mind the organizational hierarchy.

The CIO is plays the role of propagandist, much like the role that news media play in our daily life. It can remain totally neutral like CNN or act completely biased in the favor or right-wing agenda like Fox news; the phenomenon is known as information manipulation. This type of information has been used throughout the history of human beings and the concept is mostly used by religious scholars by the adequately adding or subtracting words or making the topic write in such a form that it becomes unbiased even though in the mind the writer the concept is to make a particular person appear favorable by taking a neutral perspective by intense rationalization and intellectualization.

The first example is from Islamic history, ever since the death of Islamic prophet Mohammed, there exists two groups regarding who should succeed him a leader of Muslim State; One Shia and the Sunni. One of the candidates was Ali, who was married to the prophet's daughter and was the first cousin of Prophet, was supported by Shias, the second candidate was Abu Bakr who was the father in law of the prophet and a very distant relative of the prophet supported by the Sunnis. After very soft-core chaos Abu Bakr became the caliph. (Madelung, 1998)

After Abu Bakr's selection as a Caliph, Fatima, the prophet's daughter asked for her inheritance but was refused on the ground that the prophet had said that, "his community would not inherit anything from the him after his death." Ali replied by quoting a verse from the Quran in which God has said that Solomon became David heir. If anyone examines Sunni books about the tradition it will be evident that the part where Ali quotes the verse from Quran is left out and in the Shia books the verse from Quran is written. The is what the these two faction do throughout, hiding or at least manipulating the facts in a way to make Ali or Abu Bakr make look good in the eyes of their communities. This is basically a concept of information manipulation by Islamic Historians. (Madelung, 1998)

A very good example of information manipulation is the case of CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and the role it played towards the invasion of Iraq in 2003. CIA intentionally manipulated information to make to the case of a pre-emptive war against Iraq and in the summer of 2004 it was revealed that Iraq never had any ABC (Atomic, Biological and Chemical) weapons in its inventory. Even then there were credible reports before the invasion that Iraq didn't posses any WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), CIA through its information manipulations made the case that ultimately lead to a catastrophic and strategically flawed war with Iraq. (Safty, 2006)

Even though the term 'Chief Information Officer" was first used in 1980's, the concept had its origin long time ago regarding what to reveal and what to conceal.

The best example from successful business is Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has one of the best IT setups in the world and that's one of the reason why it is the giant in supply chain management. Its ability to take risks while incorporating new and innovative softwares has established it as leader in supply chain management. All of its managerial staff, from manager of warehouse to its CEO are fully informed of the tasks assigned to them and are kept up-to-date about the information with regard to their particular tasks. (Brunn, 2006)

One hypothesis of how CIO can utilize his position, by his use of influence is to hold information back regarding certain employees whose certain activities are against the work ethic of an organization; for example accessing confidential files; if the offender is caught by the CIO or by his sub-ordinates then that information shall be used at a later date to keep that particular employee in grip. Like that employee's offence can be shown to him but with a warning of expulsion so that employee's behavior can be managed. From a legal view point, it can be considered as a black mail but for the betterment of the company that employee has to rely on us because the company will be responsible for a letter of recommendation for that particular employee and threat of bad recommendation could bring that particular person down to his knees; and that's how CIO can benefit the company.