Why are Women Underrepresented in IT? The Role of Implicit and Explicit Gender Identity

This study demonstrates that gender identity is an important factor affecting female university students’ decisions to major in IT and join the IT profession. It introduces the concept of implicit gender identity, defined as the degree to which people unconsciously, automatically, and uncontrollably associate themselves with their biological sex. Data were obtained from 185 students by means of a survey and the Implicit Association Test. The findings reveal that gender identity plays different roles between men and women in its influence on IT major and career choices. Implicit gender identity is a strong predictor of IT major and career choices for women but not for men. Explicit gender identity influences IT career choice only for women. Males’ and females’ IT major and career choices are influenced by normative pressures to the same degree. This study shows that gender identity can be a reason driving women away from the IT field

Sentiment d'autonomie et équilibre personnel -Le rôle modérateur du soutien hiérarchique

L'équilibre personnel d'une personne dans son emploi et plus globalement dans sa vie est l'un des éléments essentiels de son bien-être. Les problèmes de mécontentement, de frustration ou de stress sont souvent liés à une rupture d'équilibre, à des conflits de rôle que la personne a du mal à résoudre dans sa vie professionnelle, dans sa vie privée ou entre sa vie professionnelle et sa vie privée. Cet équilibre doit lui permettre de réaliser un travail qui a du sens à ses yeux, dans lequel il se sent reconnu, qui lui procure du plaisir et lui permet d'utiliser et de développer ses compétences. Les résultats d'une étude portant sur 208 personnes montrent l'effet du locus de contrôle et du sentiment d'efficacité personnelle sur l'équilibre personnel ou professionnel et le rôle modérateur du soutien du supérieur hiérarchique

Entrepreneurship by circumstances and abilities: the mediating role of job satisfaction and moderating role of self-efficacy

Prior studies have found that job dissatisfaction and self-efficacy are significant factors influencing individuals’ entrepreneurial propensity. Existing literature on entrepreneurship often regards job dissatisfaction as an entrepreneurial push factor and self-efficacy as an entrepreneurial pull factor. The argument is that individuals who are dissatisfied with their jobs are more likely to seek alternative mode of employment such as self-employment. In other words, poor job circumstances may push individuals to leave their paid employment to start their own businesses. On the other hand, personal abilities such as self-efficacy may pull individuals toward starting their own businesses in areas where they are confident and competent in. Despite the importance of job dissatisfaction and self-efficacy for new venture creation, few if any studies have examined the entrepreneurial phenomena from a holistic perspective. Utilizing concepts from the P-E fit and self-efficacy literatures, this paper argues that the path to entrepreneurship is a multi-faceted interactive process between individuals’ personal attributes and their work environment. We specifically examined how IT professional’s personal attributes such as innovation orientation and self-efficacy condition individuals for an entrepreneurial career in unsatisfactory work environments.

EXPLORING FACTORS INFLUENCING TRAINING EFFECTIVENESS TOWARD JOB PERFORMANCE OF FIVE STARS HOTEL IN BANGKOK: A CASE OF ABC HOTEL

The researcher explores factors influencing training effectiveness   toward job performance of Five Stars Hotel in Bangkok: A case of ABC Hotel. The methodology of the research integrated both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The research finding from quantitative analysis illustrated the most critical factors influence training effectiveness which are transfer knowledge and organization support. From qualitative analysis, not only these two variables critical influencing training effectiveness, but also develop needs awareness and motivation to learn among these employees. The statistical used of quantitative analysis are Pearson’s Correlation, Simple Linear Regression, Multiple Linear Regression ,One-way Anova  and interview as a qualitative analysis

La multiplicité des ancres de carrière chez les ingénieurs québécois : impacts sur les cheminements et le succès de carrière

The career anchors model proposed by Schein allows to stress the great variety of talents, motivations and values within homogeneous professional groups. However, how to interpret scores obtained in the various anchors does not make unanimity. This model postulates that an individual possesses only a single dominant anchor, which lead numerous researchers to deduct that it is necessary to retain only the career anchor with the highest score to operationalize the concept of dominance. Nevertheless reality seems to indicate that some individuals possess several strong anchors, posing the question of the multiplicity of anchors and of the interpretation of scores. Using a sample of 900 Canadian engineers, this study shows that the multiplicity of anchors, here called undifferenciation, is more frequent than we think, that it is not a pathological phenomenon and that it allows to better identify an unstudied career path, that is to say the hybrid career path. Le modèle des ancres de carrière proposé par Schein a permis de mettre en relief la grande diversité des talents, motivations et valeurs au sein de groupes professionnels homogènes. En revanche, la façon d'interpréter les scores obtenus aux différentes ancres ne fait pas unanimité. Partant d'un postulat sous-jacent à ce modèle selon lequel un individu ne possède qu'une seule ancre dominante, de nombreux chercheurs en déduisent, à partir d'une lecture en filigrane des travaux de Schein, qu'il faut ne retenir que l'ancre de carrière ayant le score le plus élevé pour opérationnaliser le concept de dominance. Pourtant la réalité semble indiquer que certains individus possèdent plusieurs ancres élevées, ce qui pose la question de la multiplicité des ancres et de l'interprétation des scores. S'appuyant sur un échantillon de 900 ingénieurs québécois, cette étude montre que la multiplicité des ancres, ici appelée indifférenciation, est plus fréquente qu'on ne le pense, qu'elle n'est pas un phénomène pathologique et qu'elle permet de mieux cerner un cheminement de carrière mal connu, soit le cheminement hybride.Career, career path, career anchors, engineers, Carrière, voies de carrières, ancres de carrière, ingénieurs

Thriving in the Political Sport Arena: LMX as a Mediator of the Political Skill– Career Success Relationship

Organizational politics, be it in sport organizations or other business contexts, is an unavoidable aspect of work and life. Further, some individuals are better than others at navigating the political arena and advancing their careers. It is therefore important to understand what characteristics those individuals possess and how exactly those characteristics lead to desirable career outcomes. This study progresses the organizational behavioral sciences forward by examining the mediation effects of leader-member exchange (LMX) in the relationships between intern political skill and four career-related outcomes (career satisfaction, perceived external marketability, life satisfaction, and perceived effectiveness). A total of 201 sport management student subjects were obtained. A boot-strapping method estimated with structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the mediation effects. The results of the study show that all the hypothesized mediation effects were indeed supported. Therefore, we concluded that the mediated paths of political skill through LMX to support career-success outcomes were supported. These results will hopefully stimulate continued interest in the individual “skills” and intervening ways through which aspiring sport professionals can achieve success in their internships (and subsequent employment) and current sport professionals can attain beneficial career-related outcomes

The Mediating Role of Distributive Fairness in the Relationship Between Performance-Based Pay, Career Incentive Organizational Benefits and Employee Performance

This work aims to examine the relationship between performance-based pay, career incentives, organizational benefits and employee performance. It also aims to test the mediating role of distributive fairness in these relationships. Nigerian working class students in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) were sampled. A total number of 140 respondents were given questionnaires to fill but 116 questionnaires were good enough for analysis. Descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to analyze data and to test the hypotheses. The overall findings indicated that there are relationships between performance-based pay, career incentives, organizational benefits and employee performance. Moreover, it was also found that distributive fairness partially mediated the relationships between performance-based pay, career incentives, organizational benefits and employee performance. This study is limited in the aspect of various organizational characteristics such as type, ownership, and size and the aspects of personal characteristics such as gender, position, length of service, and qualification. Therefore, future researches should examine the various aspects of organizational characteristics and personal characteristics in relation to performance-based pay, career incentives and organizational benefits within organizations. Organizations thrive through the instrumentality of people because they possess the required skills, knowledge and competencies needed for the execution of organizational strategy and planning. Hence, organizations should entrench a competitive total remuneration package that consists of properly-handled performance-based pay system, career incentives and various organizational benefits based on the principle of distributive fairness. In addition, management should build up an effective pay design and management systems in organizations. Openness in communication and employee participation in the pay design and management help in achieving this goa

La multiplicité des ancres de carrière chez les ingénieurs québécois : Impacts sur les cheminements et le succès de carrière

Le modèle des ancres de carrière proposé par Schein en 1978 est considéré comme une contribution majeure pour comprendre les cheminements de carrière des individus. En fait, cette théorie repose sur le postulat implicite selon lequel un individu ne posséderait qu’une seule ancre dominante. Ce phénomène de dominance est encore appelé « différenciation ». Aussi, de nombreux chercheurs en déduisent-ils qu’il faut ne retenir que l’ancre de carrière ayant le score le plus élevé pour opérationnaliser ce concept de dominance ou de différenciation. Pourtant certains individus pourraient posséder plusieurs ancres élevées, ce qui pose la question de la multiplicité des ancres, ici appelée « indifférenciation ». S’appuyant sur un échantillon de 900 ingénieurs québécois, cette étude montre que « l’indifférenciation » est plus fréquente qu’on ne le pense, qu’elle n’est pas un phénomène pathologique et qu’elle permet de mieux cerner un cheminement de carrière mal connu, soit le cheminement hybride.In the new information-centered economies, professions related to engineering, information technologies, management of information systems and R&D are becoming increasingly important. It is therefore not surprising that organizations consider these professionals a strategic resource that enhances their competitiveness. This phenomenon has engendered employers’ preoccupation with topics such as motivation or career management of engineers (Igbaria, Kassicieh and Silver, 1999). The fact that Schein’s career anchor model (1978) allows a better understanding of this new management challenge explains researchers’ growing interest in the concept of career anchors. Schein’s career anchor model (1978) is considered a major contribution to the understanding of individual career paths. A total of eight anchors have been defined: (1) functional/technical competence, (2) managerial competence, (3) autonomy/independence, (4) security/stability, (5) entrepreneurial creativity, (6) sense of service, (7) pure challenge and (8) lifestyle. This theory rests on the implicit postulate that an individual has only one dominant anchor. This phenomenon of dominance is known as “differentiation”. Moreover, numerous researchers extrapolate from Schein that only the career anchor with the highest score should be retained to operationalize the concept of dominance or differentiation. However, some individuals exhibit several high anchors, which raises the question of the multiplicity of anchors, here referred to “undifferentiation”.In addition to verifying the existence of multiple career anchors, four sets of formal hypotheses were tested: (1) career outcomes (career satisfaction, job success, financial success, hierarchical success or relationship success) are poorer for engineers that have undifferentiated profiles than for those that have differentiated profiles, (2a) the managerial anchor is associated with the managerial path, (2b) the technical anchor is associated with the technical path and anchors not related to managerial and (2c) technical talents are associated with non-traditional paths (hybrid and project-based), (3) an engineer pursuing a non-traditional path is more differentiated than an engineer who pursues a traditional path and (4) a stable career choice is associated with traditional paths and vice versa (an unstable choice with non-traditional paths). New measures of differentiation as well as multiplicity of anchors (e.g., a measure of dominance based on standard error of measurement) were used.This study is based on a survey administered by questionnaire to Quebec engineers. The data was collected on two occasions. First, questionnaires were sent to engineers belonging to three organizations (two private companies and one municipality). From this mailing of 720 questionnaires, 374 were used, equal to a response rate of 54.2%. The second set of data was collected from the Quebec Engineer’s Institute. A random sample of 808 men was selected, which provided a return rate of 147 usable questionnaires. In parallel with this mailing, another mailing was sent to all the female members of the Institute in order to adjust the proportion of women in our sample to offset the masculinity of the profession. Of the 1295 questionnaires distributed, 379 usable questionnaires were received. The response rates to these mailings are respectively 18.2% and 29.3%. Note that the response rate obtained in the first phase is higher than that of the second phase owing to the co-operation of the organizations involved in the project. Overall, the response rate for this study is 32% with a usable sample of 900 engineers. According to statistics compiled by the Québec Engineers Institute, our sample is highly representative of the population in several respects. For instance, the average age in the sample is 38, compared with 40.3 for the population. No significant difference was detected for other variables such as seniority or degrees obtained. Lastly, all of the statistical analyses were performed with SPSS (t-test, exploratory factor analysis, discriminant analysis) and AMOS software (confirmatory factor analysis). It should also be noted that the questionnaire was pretested and that the data was verified before the analyses were performed.This study shows that “undifferentiation” is more frequent than previously believed, that it is not a pathological phenomenon and that it allows better identification of a poorly understood career path, namely the hybrid path. First, very few studies have investigated in depth the possible existence of multiple anchors. Our results show that the multiplicity of anchors is a more frequent phenomenon than the literature implies: nearly 70% of our sample are undifferentiated versus 30% reported by some authors. Second, our research findings indicate that the multiplicity of anchors is not necessarily a pathological phenomenon, in contrast with the views of several authors. The fact that no significant difference was found between differentiation and the career outcome seems to indicate that it is equally satisfying to possess several anchors and a single anchor (first hypothesis). Naturally, these results must be confirmed by other studies, because the link between differentiation and the success variables remains poorly understood. The third contribution of this research is that it helps shed light on a yet to be clarified path, namely the hybrid path. Results show that engineers pursuing a technical path have a stronger technical anchor than do those in the hybrid and managerial paths combined (3.97 versus 3.51 for the technical anchor, t test significant at p < 0.000), which verifies hypothesis 2(b). It is interesting to note that engineers that pursue hybrid or managerial paths have a higher managerial anchor than do those in the technical path (3.77 versus 3.25; t test significant at p < 0.000). The hybrid path may therefore attract individuals who aspire to managerial positions. Hypothesis 2(a) is consequently partly verified, because the managerial anchor is not intended to predict the hybrid path. Lastly, Hypothesis 2(c), whereby anchors not related to talents are more strongly associated with non-traditional paths, is only partly verified. In effect, engineers that pursue a project-based path have a lifestyle anchor that is stronger than those in the hybrid path (3.87 versus 3.57; t test significant at p < 0.004), which confirms the hypothesis. However, the security anchor is more strongly associated with the technical path than the non-traditional path (a security anchor of 3.78 for engineers in a technical path versus 3.46 for those in the hybrid path and managerial path combined; t test significant at p < 0.000). Hypothesis 3 is verified for the hybrid path, but not for the project-based path, which is also a non-traditional path. Hypothesis 4 is verified solely for the managerial path. It should also be noted that engineers pursuing a hybrid path are more differentiated than those who pursue a managerial path (5.71 versus 5.11; t test significant at p < 0.015). It is interesting to note that undifferentiation and the stability of career choices allow distinction of the hybrid path from the managerial path. Engineers that pursue the managerial path are less differentiated and demonstrate greater stability of career choice.El modelo de anclas de carrera propuesto por Schein en 1978 es considerado como una contribución mayor para comprender las evoluciones de carrera de los individuos. En efecto, esta teoría se basa en el postulado implícito según el cual un individuo posee solo un ancla dominante. Este fenómeno de dominancia también es llamado «diferenciación». Numerosos investigadores deducen de esto que hay que retener tan solo el ancla de carrera que tiene el resultado mas elevado para operacionalizar este concepto de dominancia o diferenciación. Sin embargo ciertos individuos podrían poseer varias anclas elevadas, lo que plantea el problema de la multiplicidad de anclas, denominado aquí « indiferenciacion ». Tomando una muestra de 900 ingenieros quebequenses, este estudio muestra que la « indiferenciación » es mas frecuente que lo que se piensa, que no es un fenómeno patológico y que ella permite de definir mejor una evolución de carrera mal conocida, esto es la evolución híbrida

Management Implications in Information Systems Research: The Untold Story

In this essay, we take a fresh look at the IS academic community’s enduring concern with the management implications of its research. We examine in particular what we call the “variables-centered” research paradigm, which focuses its attention on co-variance among independent and dependent variables. As the predominant research tradition in the field, the variables-centered paradigm ought to constitute a major platform from which our community can speak to issues of managerial interest. Unfortunately, the variables-centered paradigm appears to distance researchers from the organizational actors, such as managers, to whom they would give advice and counsel. Particularly disturbing is the systematic erasure of those very actors from the domain of inquiry. Erased, too, are their actions and means of acting. Thus, when it comes time to offer useful prescriptions for action, our community attempts to do so on the basis of research in which, ironically, neither actors nor action directly appear. We offer some recommendations that may help to rectify this problem and, thereby, enrich the capacity of variables-centered research to speak in an informative and useful way to issues of practice