i.
Influence architecture
The repertoire of moves CIOs use to align stakeholders who do not report to them.
Doctoral research in development
CIO Impact Lab
An independent research practice
How the best CIOs turn influence into impact.
The research
The problem this research addresses
Elite research universities operate as polycentric systems: distributed authority, autonomous schools, decentralized budgets. Yet CIOs are accountable for enterprise-wide outcomes spanning every unit. This research examines the influence mechanisms that translate accountability into results.
ii.
Polycentric governance
How distributed authority across schools and units shapes what a CIO can accomplish.
iii.
Transformation outcomes
The conditions under which influence translates into durable institutional change.
The author
About the research
This study is conducted by Dennis Langlois, a Senior Director of IT at the University of Pennsylvania and a doctoral student at the Penn Graduate School of Education. The work sits at the intersection of practice and scholarship: it draws on more than two decades inside university technology organizations and on active doctoral research into institutional leadership.
The Lab exists to substantiate that research and to serve as a reference point for the senior technology leaders it studies. It is not a consultancy, and it is not selling anything. Read more about the work and its author.