Abstract:

The activities and skills of the information systems manager evolved extraordinarily in the last half century, from the technician who managed an operational function with a limited importance to the organization, to the position chief information officer, now responsible for a department on which depends the overall success of the organization. This study provides some empirical insight on the chief information officer profession in Portugal. We conducted a survey directed to the chief information officers of Portuguese large organizations to investigate how they spend their time and to evaluate which are the most important skills for the role they play on the organization. We also compare the results obtained with other studies to try to unveil which differences exist in the activities performed by Portuguese chief information officers and chief information officers from other countries. This study can also be viewed as a guideline for the development and training of existing chief information officers as well as for hiring new managers for this position with the right skills, to assure the right management of information systems.