Naked CIO: Is IT responsible for workers' output and errors?

IT leaders may not be fully responsible for workers' actions - but they could take more responsibility than they have been, says the Naked CIO.

We often talk about the power of technology to unite colleagues, boost collaboration and improve working processes to increase efficiency and allow companies to produce more with the same amount of staff - all of which I believe in as a technology prognosticator, if done properly.

Yet we also complain about how technology is dumbing down employees and leading to a less-productive workforce in terms of real applied work - not to mention the distraction of technology as a social medium in relation to the internet and email.

So I wonder: which it is? Has technology made us a more productive workforce or just allowed us a justification to do less as workers? Moreover is it the responsibility of CIOs to reign in bad working habits as part of our mandate to improve working processes and become efficiency evangelists?

Finally, has the accountability of accuracy, productivity and effectiveness now been wrestled from employees and become the domain of systems? And thus is the CIO now more accountable for errors than the employees whose job it has traditionally been to oversee checks and balances?

With respect to the first debate: while I believe ideologically technology should improve performance in organisations, in the majority of cases it has provided a crutch and has created a world in which poor performance is less able to be managed or properly identified.

The question then is whether CIOs bear responsibility for this. Arguably in many organisations what used to be skilled positions have become button pushers. Now while it is not up to CIOs to understand what every employee does or to restructure their workload, I believe as part of any technology transformation in which automation and efficiency will significantly impact existing roles, part of the project should be to realign working practices - and CIOs need to encourage this as part of the success of any of these initiatives.

As stakeholders in which our success is measured by the effectiveness of the solutions implemented within our environments, we CIOs need to spend more time ensuring process and workflow realignment are properly addressed - otherwise many project key performance indicators will not be achieved.

If this is the case, then, are CIOs ultimately accountable for errors the systems create - whether financial, procedural, compliance or process-oriented?

This is a difficult debate. I do not believe that CIOs are ultimately accountable for these things - with the exception of compliance-related issues specifically around technology - as there are too many factors to consider. Having said that, we do bear responsibility to promote, encourage and even demand that issues and working practices are addressed to manage potential discrepancies and errors.

In my experience CIOs and IT management tend to be reactive and too often deflect responsibility of problems onto others. The reason we are not seen as leaders in the boardroom is because we are failing to be leaders in the workplace.

My suggestion is for CIOs to assess the impact of projects on existing working practices, accountability and current job roles and to advise and encourage business leaders to properly assess and account for these as part of any project.

Maybe then we can be more respected by other business leaders in our organisation. 'It isn't my problem' can no longer be a viable excuse.