An Empirical Assessment of the Relationship Between Information Intensity and IT Leaders' Role and Structural Power

Abstract

Using the theoretical lens of the contingency approach to leadership, this study explores the relationship between the information intensity of the organization’s value chains and IT leaders’ role and structural power. Based on data obtained from a sample of 174 Australian IT senior executives, a multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) is used to empirically test for differences between the IT leader’s role and structural power in high and low information intensive organizations. Findings suggest that value chain information intensity significantly influences the importance of individual CIO roles as well as the combined operational (supply) and strategic (demand) groups of roles. However, the IT leaders’ structural power was found to be unrelated to the level of information intensity of the organization. Implications and future research directions are discussed.