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SPARSH 11

Question 1 What were some of the likely characteristics of the IT organization under the hands-off Provost? In what ways are these challenged by the new Provost? Under the old provost, the IT organization worked under a laissez-faire kind of leadership. Under that kind of leadership, the IT organization worked independently without any serious interference. Also the provost ensured the IT team had the requisite funds and support to enable it to work at par. However he may or may not have asked for any justifications for the funds as long as the aims were achieved. Under the new provost, the IT team will have to give detailed reasons for their work. Also the level of interaction will rise. The old provost let the IT team take the initiative for new actions as opposed to the new provost who has some ideas of his own regarding new initiatives. Question 2 What Leadership roles can the current Directors play in supporting the CIO's success in meeting the challenges? And why? The directors under the CIO handle the different departments independently. As such they can adopt a servant leadership attitude, whereby they feed the information to the CIO who further consults with the provost on how to proceed. Also some of the new provosts ideas require the systems to be integrated. Therefore the directors will have to collaborate in coming up with new ideas. Question 3 What resources (in particular, people inside and outside the IT organization) can the IT Team draw upon to help ensure the CIO's and the IT organization's success? The IT team can draw on their individual strengths and collaborate with each other to draw up plans in line with the provosts strategy. Externally the directors can survey the expectations of the end-users to develop their plans. Question 4 What leadership skills will the CIO and each of the Directors need to develop and employ? The CIO will need to develop task-oriented leadership alongwith with people oriented one. He has to convey the expectations of the provost down the line to his directors. Also he will have to collaborate with various departments across the university to gather the resources his team will need. He will also need to play the mediator between his directors to streamline the process. The directors on the other hand will have to adopt a servant leadership and a participative leadership. They are all directors of independent departments, but they will need to discuss their work with other directors to ensure uniformity. Also they will have to feed information to the CIO to enable him to make appropriate decisions.

Question 5 What professional development opportunities might be used to help facilitate this transition in management styles? The CIO and directors can attend trainings in negotiation and conflict management skills.

Azim Gunderwala SPCL, Ahmedabad

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