Chief Information Officers in the Private and Public Sector of Germany — How Similar are They?

Authors

  • Volker Nissen Ilmenau University of Technology, 29, Ehrenbergstraße, Ilmenau, 98693, Germany
  • Frank Termer Ilmenau University of Technology, 29, Ehrenbergstraße, Ilmenau, 98693, Germany
  • Mathias Petsch Ilmenau University of Technology, 29, Ehrenbergstraße, Ilmenau, 98693, Germany
  • Thomas Müllerleile Ilmenau University of Technology, 29, Ehrenbergstraße, Ilmenau, 98693, Germany
  • Matthias Koch Ilmenau University of Technology, 29, Ehrenbergstraße, Ilmenau, 98693, Germany

Abstract

The similarities and differences of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in the private and public sector is currently an under-researched field, even though it is clear that different organizational objectives and regulatory frameworks will leave their imprint on the tasks and focus of top IT managers. By way of an online survey we investigate the situation of CIOs within the public and private sector of Germany. In the questionnaire, the focus was on four specific aspects of content: denomination, characteristics, tasks and organizational integration of the respective CIO. In order to characterize the function of a CIO,
the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) offers a dimension reducing process. To be able to examine what tasks a CIO typically perceives in the private sector (PRIV) versus public administration (PA) a cluster analysis is performed on the basis of factor scores. Three clusters were identified for the PA cohort while four different clusters could be found in the PRIV cohort. In order to identify characteristics of the CIO better with reference to the predominant tasks, characteristic personality profi les were assigned to each task cluster.
Th e function of a CIO is well established in the German private sector, although the role of IT has been changing in organizations lately. What in the private sector represents a largely closed process is available in public administration only as the beginning of a trend. Th e Office of the Federal Government Commissioner for Information Technology, which corresponds to a CIO for Germany, was created only in 2007 and in some of the sixteen German states no similar role has been established to this day. Moreover, also the tasks of the CIO in public administration vary markedly.
Comparing the results of the cluster analysis of the PRIV and PA cohorts, it becomes clear that the task profiles of CIOs in these sectors often differ significantly. Thus, although the group “Hands -on manager” for the PA and “Administrator” in the PRIV cohort, as well as “IT architect with operational tasks” in the PA and “IT architect” in the PRIV cohort show some similarities, the other profiles are not to be found in the respective other sector. Th e profi le of the “IT representative” is available only in the area of public administration and the profi les “IT generalist” and “IT service manager” are to be found
only in the private sector. The characteristics of each group of IT-managers and related findings are identified and explained in this paper. Refs 22. Figs 4. Tables 4.

Keywords:

CIO, Government, Public administration, empirical study, IT tasks

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Author Biographies

Volker Nissen, Ilmenau University of Technology, 29, Ehrenbergstraße, Ilmenau, 98693, Germany

Prof. Dr. Volker Nissen, Head of Department of Business and Information Systems Engineering in Services

Frank Termer, Ilmenau University of Technology, 29, Ehrenbergstraße, Ilmenau, 98693, Germany

Dr. Frank Termer, PostDoc, Department of Business and Information Systems Engineering in Services

Mathias Petsch, Ilmenau University of Technology, 29, Ehrenbergstraße, Ilmenau, 98693, Germany

Dr. Mathias Petsch, PostDoc, Department of Business and Information Systems Engineering in Services

Thomas Müllerleile, Ilmenau University of Technology, 29, Ehrenbergstraße, Ilmenau, 98693, Germany

PhD Candidate, Department of Business and Information Systems Engineering in Services

Matthias Koch, Ilmenau University of Technology, 29, Ehrenbergstraße, Ilmenau, 98693, Germany

Master Student, Department of Business and Information Systems Engineering in Services

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Translation of references in Russian into English

Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Серия 5. Экономика. 2015. Вып. 2

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Published

2015-06-30

How to Cite

Nissen, V., Termer, F., Petsch, M., Müllerleile, T., & Koch, M. (2015). Chief Information Officers in the Private and Public Sector of Germany — How Similar are They?. St Petersburg University Journal of Economic Studies, (2), 128–142. Retrieved from https://economicsjournal.spbu.ru/article/view/1582

Issue

No. 2 (2015)

Section

Information management

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Articles of the St Petersburg University Journal of Economic Studies are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.