A two-phase study of influence behaviors used by chief information officers (CIOs) is covered in this paper, which also addresses the question, “Do CIOs with greater technical backgrounds differ from CIOs with lesser technical backgrounds with respect to the influence behaviors they use when attempting to influence peer executives?”

Phase one of this study involved a series of interviews with CIOs and their peers to formulate the hypothesis to be tested. Socialization theory and common wisdom support the view that managers with technical backgrounds will have a preference for certain influence behaviors, as a result of the socialization processes they experienced when they developed their technical expertise. In phase two, seven hypotheses that were in agreement with the predictions of socialization theory were tested. The findings, however, revealed that “the stereotype of technically oriented CIOs as being interpersonally less adept than their peers has little empirical support.” The authors did an excellent job documenting the design of the study.