Maturity of it risk management practices and reporting structure: An it manager perspective

In December 2009, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) approved enhanced proxy disclosure rules requiring companies to disclose the board's leadership structure and the board's role in risk oversight. Apart from general business risks, boards are increasingly interested in Information Technology (IT) risks as it affects all aspects of the organization (PricewaterhouseCoopers [PwC], 2013). Since the effectiveness of IT risk management depends on senior managers' actions, this dissertation attempts to answer the question of whether the maturity of IT risk management practices (the extent to which management performs particular activities to identify, assess, monitor and respond to IT-related risks) in organizations depends on the Chief Information Office (CIO) reporting structure and the board's leadership structure.;A survey methodology was used for data collection. The data was analyzed using an ANOVA and SEM. This dissertation contributes (1) by attempting to develop and validate a scale to measure risk management practices based on the Risk IT framework (ISACA, 2009), (2) by identifying whether different CIO reporting structures focus more on one particular type of IT risk management than they do on others and (3) by assisting the board of directors in their efforts to delegate IT risk oversight to the appropriate board committee and helping management establish their reporting structure in a manner that helps inform the board about IT risk information on a timely basis.;As predicted, the results indicate that IT risk management practices of a strategic nature are higher for organizations in which the CIO reports to the CEO. Contrary to the prediction, the maturity of IT risk management practices that are focused on operational issues were found to be lower for organizations in which the CIO reports to the CFO. Even though the maturity of IT risk management practices do not differ between organizations in which the CEO chairs the BOD versus organizations in which the CEO is separate from the chairman of the board (for the full sample), the maturity of IT risk management practices were higher for organizations in which the CEO is chairman of the board of directors for publicly traded companies.