Identification and Ranking of IT Leader's Key Tasks in Higher Education

the present study aimed to identify and rank the key tasks of IT leaders in higher education institutions .The research methodology was exploratory mixed method. The study population comprised job descriptions of the CIO from fifty top universities in the US (2014-2015), in the qualitative part and IT managers from public universities in Tehran (Shahid Behshti University, University of Tehran, Sharif University of Technology & Amirkabir University of Technology), in the quantitative part. In both qualitative and quantitative parts sampling was purposeful. The qualitative data was obtained based on Bolman and Deal Four-Frame Model using content analysis method. Data analyze completed with the theoretical saturation. The census sampling method was used in quantitative part. A questionnaire was developed based on qualitative results and the validity of the questionnaire was verified by experts and also the reliability of it, was estimated at 0/88. Then it distributed among 53 IT managers in the selected institutes. The quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive statistics (percentage & mean) and inferential statistics (one sample t test & Friedman test).The results indicated that 13 key tasks and 46 sub-tasks related to IT leaders in higher education institutions were identified; the symbolic dimension with two key roles (inspiration & culture making), political dimension with three key roles(networking, competing & negotiation) , structural dimension with four key roles (strategist planning, monitoring , evaluation and policy making) and human resources dimension with four key roles(HR planning, HR development, performance evaluation & HR motivation) frame respectively were in the first to the fourth of the most important priorities of IT leaders key tasks; it should also be mentioned that the importance of all key tasks were evaluated higher than average.