Communicating as an 1

Running Head: Communicating as an IT Professional: Influential or Inconsequential?

Module 3 – Session Long Project

Course #: ITM524

Fundamentals of Information Technology Management

Introduction
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A 360 degree influential communication is the key to an information technology (IT)

unit’s success in any organization. For a senior information officer, this means extending the

communication beyond the IT department and into the other units both within and outside of the

organization. This paper will discuss the importance of a 360 degree influential communication

for the perspective of a university’s CIO.

The 360 Degree Communication: With IT initiatives, communication is truly the

'breakfast of champions’ (Myers and Lamb, 2007). No IT manager knows it all especially if

he/she is new to the organization, therefore it is important to talk to as many people as possible

to learn their needs as well as what they will feel more comfortable working with. While not

everyone needs to know everything about a particular IT initiative, a 360 degree communication

can sometimes turn up just that critical information and cooperation needed to ensure success

(Myers and Lamb, 2007).

Charvat (2002), divide the 360 degree communication in to three clear communication

channels that managers need to establish once a project has started, which are, the upward, the

downward and the lateral channels (Charvat, 2002). The upward channel refers to the

communication with senior executives, which aims to highlight issues, risks and expectations as

well as to socialist project funds and garner senior executive support. The downward

communication channel requires delegation skills since the IT manager is required to provide

directions to his/ her project team. In this channel of communication the IT manager highlight

tasks pending, schedule tasks dates and communicate any other relevant information to his/ her

team. And the lateral channel refers to the communication with clients, vendors and functional

mangers, which involves negotiations for resources and time allocation.

A University CIO Perspective of the 360 Degree Communication: Mr. Robert Reid is

the CIO at the Northern Caribbean University. Reid believes that one of his greatest assets as a

CIO is his interpersonal skills. Mr. Reid believes that there has been as significant evolution

regarding the key skills required to be an effective CIO. He said that previously the emphasis

was predominately on technical skills, sector experiences and if the CIO will be a good culture

fit for the organization. Today however The CIO is been recognized more as leaders and general

managers and what he needs therefore are good leadership skills and good general manager skills

which makes the interpersonal skills much more important. Since communication is the key to a

CIO success his interpersonal skills must be in tact.

Reid admits that even though he strongly believes that a 360 degree communication is

important for IT success due to the size of his organization it is often impossible to achieve it

directly. He however solves this problem by delegating the responsibility of communication

among his staff. He makes it the duty of his team to encourage a constant communication

channel between his department and the rest of the organization as well as other stakeholders.

This solution gives Reid more time to focus on the upward and the downward communication

channels while his direct staff focuses on the lateral communication channel. Reid upward

channel means that he must communicate with the institution’s senior executives and the finance

department. The downward communication channel requires him to communicate daily with his

immediate staff members, highlight tasks pending, schedule tasks dates and communicate any

other relevant information to his team as well as entertaining feedback from his staff members.

While Reid juggles these two channels his staff will directly handle most of the lateral channel

communication. This means the IT staff will communicate with the system users (faculty,

students and administration), venders and other stakeholders that may not be covered in the
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upward or the downward channels. Reid believes that this therefore means that his staff members

should also possess good interpersonal and communication skills. This strategy helps Reid to

effectively cover his 360 degree communication.

Areas of Disagreement: This author admires the strategy Reid apply to accomplish his

360 degree communication. This author believes however that the group that Reid is not directly

communicating should me the group that he gives most of the 360 degree attention. CIOs should

not neglect direct communication with system users. People are ‘driving’ a head of organizations

with technology which means that organization has to change to meet the people where they are

at. Mobile technology for example has evolved tremendously over the pass decade and such

technology are very popular among students, faculty and administrative members of the

institution and only via direct communication will the CIO be able to identify innovatively

integrate the mobile technology into the institution IS. Businesses have to innovate to survive;

therefore, CIOs have to keep abreast of what is possible and what his/her users/clients are

making use of every day in their work lives as well as their individual lives. By talking to the

user group directly the CIO will learn its needs and will be inspired *****

discuss your individual views of the importance of 360 degree influential communication to an
IT unit's success. This hopefully means a give and take discussion with someone markedly
senior to you.

Take good notes if conditions allow (tell the person why you are doing so). Then, in a two to
three page paper, write up the essence of your conversation. You will wish to compare and
contrast areas of agreement and potential disagreement as well as how the overall conversation
went. In particular, note something of the experience of communicating directly with this senior
as well as how the conversation came to be set up and the interpersonal dynamics of the event.
The title of your paper might be:
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Reference

Myers, K., Lamb, R., (2007). For an IT manager, getting technical often means going social!

Retrieved October 25, 2009, from

http://cdad.tuiu.edu/CourseHomeModule.aspx?

course=781&term=82&module=2&page=custom1

Charvat, J. P., (2002). Project communications: A plan for getting your message across. Tech

Republic. Retrieved October 24, 2009 from

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1061894.html