Strategies for Power and Influence: A CIO Perspective

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of strategies a Chief Information Officer (CIO) can employ to build a high-performing and positive team. The paper focuses on key areas such as fostering innovative thinking and solutions through trust-building and training, emphasizing the importance of time for brainstorming, and encouraging diverse ideas. It also delves into building team commitment and buy-in by promoting teamwork, clearly communicating organizational goals, and allowing team members to contribute to decision-making. Furthermore, the report addresses strategies for overcoming obstacles related to power dynamics, utilizing legitimate power and reward systems to motivate employees. Conflict management strategies, including empathy and neutral decision-making, are discussed, along with techniques to overcome communication barriers in a diverse workplace. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of strategic decision-making and effective team management for achieving organizational and individual growth.

Running head: POWER AND INFLUENCE
POWER AND INFLUENCE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1POWER AND INFLUENCE
Executive summary
This paper will focus on the strategies that will be taken by me after acquiring the position of
CIO in an organization to build a healthy and positive team that will provide positive results
and profits to the organization. The necessary steps to overcome problems like
communication barriers and conflicts and the necessary strategies which will be implemented
to motivate and influence employees will be discussed at length.

2POWER AND INFLUENCE
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Strategies for encouraging and promoting innovative thinking and solutions for team
members.................................................................................................................................3
Building commitment and buy-in for team success...............................................................4
Strategies used for overcoming obstacles with competing sources of power and influence. 4
Strategies to handle conflicts.................................................................................................5
Strategies to overcome communication barrier......................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7

3POWER AND INFLUENCE
Introduction
Chief Information Officer (CIO) is a designation or a job title which is usually given
to the senior most executive in a company or an organization who works for an Information
Technology (IT) and the computer systems which support the goals of an organization
(Nenkov, Sushchenko & Dyachenko, 2017). This paper will focus on the steps that I will take
in order to build a competent team of IT leaders who will inspire and empower their team to
deliver fruitful results through the culture of respect and trust of an organization.
Discussion
As a CIO of an organization there are few things that I would like to do so that I can
build a positive team of team leaders that will be efficient enough to motivate their team
members to carry out their tasks efficiently which will help them improve their performance
and will also pave for the growth and development of the organization.
Strategies for encouraging and promoting innovative thinking and solutions for
team members
Innovative and creative thinking is an important aspect that employees need to have in
order to deal with untoward situation or when needed. Scholars, suggest that innovative
thinking brings new ideas to a business which gives an organization a competitive advantage
in the market (Pisano, 2015). In order to encourage and promote innovative thinking and
solutions there are certain steps that I would like to take certain strategies and steps. The first
strategy is to build a relationship of trust. Trust is said to be important to motivate team
members to meet the expectation of the team member (Cheng et al, 2016). Provide efficient
training to the team members with skills that will ensure innovative and creative thinking.

4POWER AND INFLUENCE
Team leaders should pass on their learning from their own experience and skills that will
facilitate innovative thinking and solutions. The other and most important is time. Kalargiros
& Manning, (2015) opines, one can come with innovative ideas only by brainstorming. It is
important to take sufficient amount of time to think creatively and come up with innovative
solutions which will help in bringing fruitful results which will benefit the organization as
well as the employee. It is important for team members to make sure the team members are
encouraged enough to present their different innovative ideas or views which will motivate
them to make innovative thinking and solutions for the organization.
Building commitment and buy-in for team success
Commitment is one of the key factors that every employee should possess in order to
carry out the work of an organization with perfection and sincerity (Hanaysha, 2016). As the
CIO, one of the vital things I would like to do is build commitment in the team. The first
thing I would like to do is promote a culture of team. Teamwork has gained prominence in
organizations in recent times and every organization has people with different mindset. Thus
it is important make different people come together and work together to produce the desired
outcomes. The other thing I would like to do is communicate the goals that the organization
desires to achieve clearly. Ramdhani, Ramdhani & Ainissyifa, (2017) states that when goals
are communicated clearly to the employees then they know exactly what job is to be done
and thus build commitment amongst the employees. Buy-in is another important factor that I
would like to practice as it is important for the team members to put in their own ideas and
agree to the ideas and initiatives that will be taken. According to scholars, buy-in gives the
team members a sense of belonging as they are given the freedom to make some kind of
decision which motivates them to put in more effort and also make them feel a part of the
company (Yoerger, Crowe & Allen, 2015)

5POWER AND INFLUENCE
.
Strategies used for overcoming obstacles with competing sources of power and
influence
With important positions like CIO in an organization comes great responsibility and
power. Power in an organization is necessary if used in the right and positive way. According
to scholars, power in companies help to maintain discipline and the work by employees
(Willis et al, 2016). There may be many untoward situations that may arise in an organization
like conflict, difference in opinion and many more. In cases like this I would like to use
legitimate power which comes with the position I am holding in the organization which will
make my team members respect and follow the decision I will take. There are times when
team members lose motivation and their performance deteriorates, this becomes an obstacle
for the organization as mediocre or poor performance impacts organizations negatively. In
order to overcome situations like this I would like to use the power of reward. Singh, (2016)
states, reward is a big motivational factors for an employee. Earning rewards boosts the
confidence as well as provides the employees with a sense of achievement which help in
motivating the employees and gives them a sense of achievement that makes them in
improving their skills and work harder for the career growth within the organization. As a
CIO of the organization I would to use power in a positive way that will also help in
maintaining peace and encourage diversity in the workplace.
Strategies to handle conflicts
Every employee is different from each other having different skill set and different
innovative ideas and thinking skills (Jiang et al, 2017). This can often pave way for conflicts
in the workplace because of miscommunication, difference in opinion or disagreement with

6POWER AND INFLUENCE
some decision. The addition of new employees in the workforce also paves way for
workplace conflicts. Conflicts are normal in a team however, it is important for the team
members to realize the importance of unity amongst the team members for positive outcomes
(Van Bunderen, Greer & Van Knippenberg, 2018). As a CIO of the organization, I would
always be neutral and be empathetic. According to scholars, empathy shows deep respect for
the employees or the subordinates in an organization and makes them feel that their feelings
are considered in the organization (Rogers & Ashforth, 2017). Later I would try to humanize
the message or the decision I would take in order to show the employees that the matter has
been taken seriously and is important and decisions will be taken to satisfy the interest of all.
After showing empathy I would like to make a decision that will help in overcoming the
conflicts that have arised after understanding and assessing the matter. I would like to make
concrete rules later which will ensure conflicts do not arise and diversity and harmony is
maintained in the workplace.
Strategies to overcome communication barrier
Globalization has paved way for diversity in the workplace with people from different
cultures work together to achieve the desired goals of an organization (Ollier-Malaterre &
Foucreault, 2017). The first thing I would do is make my team members respect people
belonging from different culture and their languages. Understanding the cultural difference is
positive in a workplace which helps in building positive relationships in an organization and
overcome communication barriers (Hajro, Gibson & Pudelko, 2017). The next thing I would
like to do is make sure there are interpreters in the workforce that would help employees to
understand what someone is trying to convey which will help overcome communication
barrier and avoid any kind of miscommunication in the workplace. Many multinational
organizations hire interpreters in the workplace in order to ensure smooth operations of the

7POWER AND INFLUENCE
organization (Miner, 2015). Training employees and help them learn the basics of the
language will be my other aim. Training employees in learning new language helps and
facilitates communication in the workplace and also helps in operating efficiently and
effectively (Yanaprasart, 2016)
.
Conclusion
Building a positive team in an organization is developed and as a CIO, one should
understand and make the correct strategic decisions and also manage the team in a way so
that the team is motivated and loves the job that they are doing in order to perform efficiently
and provide positive and fruitful outcomes for the growth of the team members as well as the
organization.

8POWER AND INFLUENCE
Reference
Cheng, X., Yin, G., Azadegan, A., & Kolfschoten, G. (2016). Trust evolvement in hybrid
team collaboration: A longitudinal case study. Group Decision and Negotiation,
25(2), 267-288.
Hajro, A., Gibson, C. B., & Pudelko, M. (2017). Knowledge exchange processes in
multicultural teams: Linking organizational diversity climates to teams’ effectiveness.
Academy of Management Journal, 60(1), 345-372.
Hanaysha, J. (2016). Examining the effects of employee empowerment, teamwork, and
employee training on organizational commitment. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 229, 298-306.
Jiang, K., Hu, J. I. A., Liu, S., & Lepak, D. P. (2017). Understanding employees’ perceptions
of human resource practices: Effects of demographic dissimilarity to managers and
coworkers. Human Resource Management, 56(1), 69-91.
Kalargiros, E. M., & Manning, M. R. (2015). Divergent thinking and brainstorming in
perspective: Implications for organization change and innovation. In Research in
organizational change and development (pp. 293-327). Emerald Group Publishing
Limited.
Miner, A. (2015). Designated interpreters: An examination of roles, relationships, and
responsibilities. Signed Language Interpretation and Translation Research. Selected
Papers from the First International Symposium. Washington, DC: Gallaudet
University Press.

9POWER AND INFLUENCE
Nenkov, N., Sushchenko, O., & Dyachenko, Y. (2017). Role of chief information officer
within the system of human resource development in service organizations (tourism).
Economic Annals-XXI, 165.
Ollier-Malaterre, A., & Foucreault, A. (2017). Cross-national work-life research: Cultural and
structural impacts for individuals and organizations. Journal of Management, 43(1),
111-136.
Pisano, G. P. (2015). You need an innovation strategy. Harvard Business Review, 93(6), 44-
54.
Ramdhani, A., Ramdhani, M. A., & Ainissyifa, H. (2017). Conceptual Framework of
Corporate Culture Influenced on Employees Commitment to Organization.
International Business Management, 11(3), 826-830.
Rogers, K. M., & Ashforth, B. E. (2017). Respect in organizations: Feeling valued as “We”
and “Me”. Journal of Management, 43(5), 1578-1608.
Singh, R. (2016). The impact of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators on employee engagement
in information organizations. Journal of Education for Library and Information
Science, 57(2), 197-206.
Van Bunderen, L., Greer, L. L., & Van Knippenberg, D. (2018). When interteam conflict
spirals into intrateam power struggles: The pivotal role of team power structures.
Academy of Management Journal, 61(3), 1100-1130.
Willis, C. D., Saul, J., Bevan, H., Scheirer, M. A., Best, A., Greenhalgh, T., ... & Bitz, J.
(2016). Sustaining organizational culture change in health systems. Journal of health
organization and management, 30(1), 2-30.

10POWER AND INFLUENCE
Yanaprasart, P. (2016). Managing Language Diversity in the Workplace: Between ‘One
Language Fits All'and ‘Multilingual Model in Action'. Universal Journal of
Management, 4(3), 91-107.
Yoerger, M., Crowe, J., & Allen, J. A. (2015). Participate or else!: The effect of participation
in decision-making in meetings on employee engagement. Consulting Psychology
Journal: Practice and Research, 67(1), 6