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Management of Information Technology in Organizations

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Part 1:
Compose a 3-4 page essay on the topic (cover page is NOT included):
What Does It Take to be a Successful IT Manager?
In your essay you may wish to consider issues such as:
• What kinds of characteristics and skills do successful IT managers generally possess?
• Are successful IT managers born with these skills and characteristics or do they have to work hard to acquire them?
• Any controversial issues you may find in your reading.
Case assignment expectations
Use information from the modular background readings as well as any good quality resource you can find. Please cite all sources and provide a reference list at the end of your paper.

The following items will be assessed in particular:
1. Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of what makes an IT manager successful.
2. Some in-text references to modular background readings.
Please note that these are not to be treated as questions to be answered with bullet points, but just as things to think about as you formulate your own ideas about the topic. Be sure to use appropriate academic referencing in your citations and references from the literature.

References:

1) Lee, S. M. and Lee, C. K. (April 2006), "IT managers' requisite skills," Communications of the ACM, volume 49, issue 4
2) Sisco, M. (2003) "What makes a successful IT manager"? TechRepublic
3) Brewer, J. (2005) Project Managers, Can We Make Them or Just Make Them Better? Proceedings of the 6th conference on Information technology education, Conference On Information Technology Education (formerly CITC), Newark, NJ, USA, Pages:167-173

Part 2:
You have been asked to become familiar with the characteristics and skills that are shared among successful IT managers, behaviors they tend to demonstrate, and actions they take.
Consider the question of what it takes to be a great IT manager.
Your task for this assignment is to use the knowledge you have learned in this module, and apply it to an IT manager, either yourself, someone you really admire, or someone has not done a great job. Make sure to use concrete examples to support your opinion. You will need an appropriate title page, 3-4 pages of solid descriptive narrative and appropriate citations and references.
If you are not currently working in an IT capacity, simply use a typical project setting from your current or a former work setting.

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This solution discusses management of information technology in organizations.

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Part 1: What Does It Take To Be A Successful IT Manager?
I. Introduction

Today's business environment is becoming more dependent upon professional, effective managers in all sorts of specialties. It is imperative to the success of the business that the organization employ flexible managers with the ability to lead staff in the direction of the corporate vision, have the ability to stimulate and support change and possess excellent planning capabilities and impeccable ethics. Although IT managers are highly specialized, many of the traits they must possess to be successful are the same as any other manager. For this reason, the discussion will focus on all managers as the details of the position are equally applicable.

It is commonly accepted that unlike natural leaders, managers are not born they are made through a learning process of what works and what doesn't in their given field. This intangible asset makes a good manager an indispensable part of any successful organization. What successful managers do, IT or otherwise, and how it is done is generally categorized by four functions of management: Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling. Through these functions managers can be catalysts for change within their organizations. Whether performing the role of the change agent or not, change is an integral part of a manager's job with the IT industry largely leading the way. Change is considered to be an alteration in people, structure or technology and it occurs within and around organizations at an unprecedented speed and complexity. Change poses threats and opportunities for managers, the fact that change creates opportunities is the very reason why managers need to encourage and support change. What a manager can change falls distinctively into three categories stated in the definition of change: people structure and technology. The manager can make alterations in these areas in an attempt to adapt to or facilitate change. The change of people involves changing attitudes, expectations, perceptions and behaviors. This is especially true in the Information Technology fields. These changes are used to help people within organizations to work together more effectively and efficiently. Changing structure relates to job design, job specialization, hierarchy concerns, formalization and all other organizational structural variables. These changes are ones that need to be flexible and not static to be adaptable. Technological change entails modifications in the work processes and procedures and the introduction of new equipment within the organization. Changes in this area have been enormous, especially in the areas of communications and Information Technology.

II. Characteristics, traits and skills of successful managers

Although there are several characteristics, traits and skills that are indicative to successful managers, we will discuss 8 that are basically universal therefore applicable to IT as well as any other occupational field.
1. Leadership: Successful IT managers have learned to lead others effectively. They do so by empowering staff to share decision making power, effectively delegating important tasks, encouraging staff to participate in setting business goals and by acknowledging the achievements of others. They also possess the ability to positively motivate people to perform at optimal levels through an outward display of optimism and appreciation of the staff's efforts. In summary, they lead by example.
2. Planning: This is a process that involves defining the organization's objectives and ...

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