Human Capital of IT Professionals: A Research Agenda

Information Systems researchers have studied various aspects of the role of human capital in the IT workforce such as the definition of IT professionals, human resource practices for managing IT professionals, returns to human capital, human capital and innovation in IT industries, and turnover among IT professionals. This panel argues that the field is at crosswinds of change due to factors such as rapidly changing technologies, organizational processes, technology delivery mechanisms such as cloud computing, new forms of organization such as virtual teams and social networks, outsourcing, offshoring, globalization, and a new generation of IT professionals entering the workforce. These changes in the environment for IT work will affect the roles, jobs, skills and careers of IT professionals and will prompt more inquiry from IS researchers in two main directions: one, some findings from prior research may not hold in this new environment and scholars will need to reexamine these. Two, these changes will raise additional issues, and call for new research on IT human capital. The objective of this panel is to present a framework to identify important trends and changes that will impact IT professionals and to define an agenda for future research on IT human capital

The Further Education Maturity Model: Development and Implementation of a Maturity Model for the Selection of Further Education Offerings in the Field of IT Management and IT Consulting

The permanently changing information and communication technology (IT) makes it inevitable for IT professionals to keep up-to-date. However, the market for further education presents itself as being diversified and opaque at the same time. Especially for young professionals, the selection of the “right” training offering is difficult. This entails the necessity to develop methods and models to create the further education market in a more comprehensible and transparent way. This article describes the development of the Further Education Maturity Model (FEMM). It enables users to assign IT training offerings to certain maturity levels and consequently to make decisions about the quality of the further education offering. A proven procedure is used to develop the FEMM, implement it into an online tool, and evaluate it. Results show the appropriateness of the proposed model

The gap between career management expectations and reality - empirical insights from the IT industry

The Information Technology (IT) industry has become an important economic factor in many Western countries, but it is well known for suffering from skills shortages and high turnover rates. Organizational career management (OCM) may help to attract new talent and reduce IT turnover by satisfying individuals’ career needs. However, to date, little is known about what, exactly, IT professionals expect in terms of career-related support, and whether their expectations match with what IT organizations provide. This paper reports on a quantitative study that investigated what 1686 IT professionals in Switzerland, Germany and the UK expected and what their employers provided in terms of OCM. Findings indicate that there are substantial mismatches between OCM ‘supply’ and ‘demand’. The paper makes an important contribution by providing a more in-depth understanding of IT professionals’ OCM preferences, leading to various practical implications for IT organizations and beyond

HOW CAN DIGITAL START-UPS SUCCESSFULLY RECRUIT IT PROFESSIONALS?

We investigate how digital start-ups can successfully recruit senior IT professionals. This is a challenge, which many young companies face due to their liabilities of newness and smallness but also due to market characteristics such as talent scarcity. We highlight success factors throughout the whole process of senior IT recruiting in a start-up context using an in-depth single case study. Our results suggest that the use of state-of-the-art technology and free choice of hardware are very important recruiting factors. Using multiple platforms to recruit first highly qualified candidates attracts further good talents. Not only typical recruiting platforms are important, but our results show that the use of expert online forums by already employed IT staff can send important signals, strengthen ties with potential candidates, and enable referrals. The recruiting process itself must be fast and interviews should communicate the appraisal of seniority, learning opportunities and management accessibility

Managing Information Systems Development Projects: What’s on Your Mind?

Drawing on a mental model perspective, we investigate information systems (IS) project members’ knowledge and beliefs about how to manage information systems development (ISD) projects. A new construct – ISD mental models – is proposed and defined as the knowledge and belief structures that help IS project members to understand, conduct, and manage ISD projects. Literature reviews and cognitive interviews using the repertory grid technique are used to identify the fundamental concepts that are in project members’ mental models. This study further proposes that the structure of mental models is organized into four ISD project-related areas: product, process, people, and organization. This proposition will be tested by a survey with ISD project members using the pairwise comparison technique. Expected contributions and implications are discussed

Improving retention strategies for IT professionals working in the public sector

Despite much research interest, effective retention of IT professionals has proved difficult for many public sector organizations. By concentrating on intention to leave, researchers may not have provided a clear way to formulate effective retention strategies. Consequently, we used intention to stay as an alternative lens to identify factors that can reduce turnover of IT professionals. Our findings indicated that attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and identification with the organization all had a statistically significant relationship with intention to stay; attitude was the strongest. It was concluded that existing retention strategies needed to be refocused on the issues that make IT staff stay; a number of practical recommendations for IT managers are presente

IT Portfolio Selection and IT Synergy

This paper proposes the framework of IT portfolio selection and investigates the impact of IT synergy on a firm’s IT portfolio selection. IT resources can be distinguished from other forms of resources by their great potential of enhancing synergy between IT units. Based on prior discussion on types of IT synergy, we classify IT synergy into the three types and examine the effects of the different types of IT synergy on the IT portfolio selection. We found that firms of moderate and high risk tolerance are likely to obtain superior IT portfolio options by enhancing IT synergy, whereas firms of low risk tolerance may not benefit from enhancement of IT synergy