Update on Analyzing Differences Between Public and Private Sector Information Resource Management : Strategic Information Challenges and Critical Technologies

Change is a constant within our contemporary IRM environment. The rapid development of information and communication technologies has been the most predominant among the many agents of change that are forcing a reevaluation of the role of the IRM professional. Few studies to date have compared public and private sector CIO perceptions concerning the IRM challenges and critical technologies faced by their organization. An earlier study concluded that the sectors CIOs do perceive to be faced with many of the same challenges and also view many of the same technologies as critical to the organization's operations. A limiting factor identified in that study was the temporal separation of sector sampling. Any conclusions comparing the public and private sectors were based on survey responses separated by almost one year. The goal of this research is to validate if public and private sector senior IRM managers perceive to still be faced with the same challenges and view the same technologies as being critical to an organization's IRM requirements. The results of a 2002 annual survey of public sector CIOs and senior IRM managers are compared with data collected from 2002 private sector CIOs. This research concluded that performing an analysis on datasets obtained from both sectors during the same time period provided a more appropriate comparison between sectors. Findings from this study provide sufficient evidence that both sectors have developed a closer correlation than was previously concluded.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH School of Engineering and Management is the author of 'Update on Analyzing Differences Between Public and Private Sector Information Resource Management : Strategic Information Challenges and Critical Technologies', published 2004 under ISBN 9781423520023 and ISBN 1423520025.