Leadership That Clicks: The Impact of CIO Presence on Employees' Digital Performance in Organizations

This study explores how the presence of a Chief Information Officer (CIO) in an organization impacts employee digital performance. While prior research has focused on firm-level outcomes, this paper focuses on the employee level and investigates how CIOs influence both routine and innovative digital tasks of employees. The study proposes that CIO presence enhances IT knowledge sharing and improves employee digital performance within the organization. It further examines how a CEO’s IT background and the board’s R&D experience moderate CIOs’ influence on employees’ performance. The research employs surveys and firm-level data to measure CIO presence, IT knowledge sharing, and employee digital task and innovative performance using data from a broad range of U.S. firms across various sizes and industries. This study contributes to understanding the strategic value of CIOs in enabling digital transformation at the individual employee level.