All Bark and No Bite?

Sciuk, Christian und Hess, Thomas (January 2024): All Bark and No Bite? Toward an Understanding of Chief Digital Officers’ Power in Organizations. 57th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2024), Honolulu, Hawaii, 03-06 Januar 2024. Bui, Tung X. (ed.) : In: Proceedings of the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Honolulu, Hawaii: Department of IT Management, Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii. pp. 6201-6210

Abstract

Organizations are increasingly installing Chief Digital Officers (CDOs) to cope with the challenges of digital transformation (DT). Due to DT’s cross-functional nature and the far-reaching tasks involved, CDOs must wield sufficient influence to manage DT effectively. Thus far, we lack a profound understanding of how CDOs’ power is composed. To address this research gap, we conducted a multiple-case study drawing on 25 interviews across six case companies. We identify several drivers of CDOs’ power, both in terms of formal and informal power types. Particularly, we demonstrate that CDOs’ power depends not only on organizational contingencies but also on the managers’ personal characteristics. We contribute to literature by adding a power notion to discussions on DT in general and CDOs specifically. Further, we sensitize practitioners to establish the CDO role in a way that is endowed with sufficient power and shed light on how CDOs can increase their power base.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
• Keywords: Digital Innovation; Transformation and Entrepreneurship; case study; chief digital officer; digital transformation; governance; power
• Faculties: Munich School of Management > Institute for Digital Management and New Media > Digital change of companies
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• Place of Publication: Honolulu, Hawaii
• Annotation: ISBN 978-0-9981331-7-1
• Language: English