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The authors investigate the determinants of CIOs' organizational role and tasks. They first review previous studies, which they classify as either evolutionary or CIO role studies. They consider them to be characteristic to the usage of certain technologies or certain periods of times. The authors modify Leavitt's well-known organization diagnostic model to describe factors that shape the role and the tasks of CIOs over time, industries and technologies. They validate the model from interviews with 36 CIOs within six industries covering the time period from 1960s to present times. The authors also show that the model can be used to categorize prior research findings. They then use the model to describe how technology influences business strategy and how business strategy and technology impacts CIOs' role and tasks and vice versa. The authors discovered that the modified Leavitt model is a useful description of factors that both define CIOs' role and tasks at any particular time in any specific organization, and show how those tasks change.

We investigate the equilibria of CIO work. We apply the punctuated equilibrium paradigm based socio-technical model as our theoretical basis. We use this model to visually describe the impacts of business interruptions (=punctuations) on IT executives' perceived equilibria of work. We enhance the punctuated model with constructs taken from Granovetter's social network theory to better understand social mechanisms influencing IT executives' perceptions. We examined empirically perceptions about the equilibria of work and the role of IT in business in a media company during the years 2010-16. We collected data with the interview data collection method by conducting several interview rounds. Interview findings revealed that the equilibria of work were seen differently at three organizational levels. Also, the role of IT in business and the responsibilities of IT functions were seen in varied ways. The punctuated socio-technical equilibrium model together with the constructs of Granovetter's social network theory offered insightful theoretical explanations for our findings.

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