The Impact of Emotional Labor and Conflict-Management Style on Work Exhaustion of Information Technology Professionals

Work exhaustion of information technology (IT) professionals is a serious concern. This study offers a unique perspective on IT professional work exhaustion by drawing on two theoretical domains: emotional labor and conflict management. Emotional labor theory is concerned with employee’s display of emotion in the workplace while conflict management theory addresses one’s preferred style when conflict arises. This study identifies links between the ways in which one responds to conflict situations and the way in which one monitors and controls emotional displays. The experience of conflict tends to generate negative emotions while display rules govern appropriate emotional demeanors in the workplace. The findings suggest that the perception of display rules influences conflict management styles. Furthermore, conflict management styles influence the use of strategies of deep acting and surface acting which have differential relationships with work exhaustion

Implementing the Swarm Technique in a Collaborative Learning Environment: Lessons Learned

This paper reports on lessons learned in implementing a pedagogical technique identified as Total Team Collaborative Learning with Swarm (TTCL – Swarm). In this technique, students are divided into small groups and are asked to complete a structured review of assigned material. The swarm aspect of this technique is inspired by swarm intelligence, a natural phenomenon in which individuals collaborate to achieve tasks as a group that could not be completed by an individual working alone. TTCL – Swarm is implemented in an Introduction to Operations Management class which is divided into large lecture sections with small accompanying lab sections. The instructor’s experience with TTCL – Swarm and recommended modifications are discussed

Unintended consequences: Lessons learned when starting a logistics & transportation doctoral program

Many universities evaluate the costs and benefits of academic programs. An important decision is whether to offer a doctoral degree. Most articles and academics focus on the numerous benefits of a doctoral program. While many of the benefits that can stem from a doctoral program are summarized in this manuscript, the primary purpose is to highlight some of the hidden costs to creating and operating a doctoral program. The authors use their experience in developing a doctoral program in Logistics and Transportation to illustrate many of these potentially hidden costs. This should provide academics and administrators with better information to make future choices about specific Business School programs

Stereotyping and Stigmatizing IT professionals Toward a model of devaluation

An understanding between information technology (IT) and business units is important to information systems research in that their alignment is critical for organizational performance in the digital environment. Negative perceptions and associated behavioral outcomes can affect group cohesion and effectiveness. The present research uses the lens of stigma and stereotypes to explore a notion of non-productive relationships between the IT and nonIT groups. The primary focus of this study was to analyze interviews with IT professionals to explore and identify potential antecedents to stigma. The differences between IT professionals and users are defined and explicated, illustrating the occurrence of stereotyping among and between the various groups. We found that relationships between the IT and nonIT groups appear to support a notion of differentness. The support of stigmatization between these two groups likely exists in interpersonal relationships during situations of stress, cultural differences, and expectations. Relationships in the pervasive digital environment between business units are critical for organizational performance. Each unit maintains its own culture and, therefore, the associated views and behavioral outcomes. The existence of different groups implies a difference in perception, expectation, and ultimately performance. doi:10.17705/3JSIS.0001

Development and Testing of a Survey Instrument to Assess Ethical Perceptions of IT and IS Students

The purpose of this research study is to design a survey instrument to determine the effectiveness of the information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) programs in teaching ethics and ethical behavior as it relates to the IT profession. As researchers and as teachers, we want to know if students learn what constitutes ethical behavior in the information technology and information system programs and understand the obligations of an information technology professional with regards to ethical behavior in the workplace. A survey was designed as a tool to assess the effectiveness of teaching ethics in IT and IS curricula. The survey addresses ethical issues such as plagiarism, intellectual property rights, computer related issues, privacy concerns, and law and public policy issues. The survey was administered to classes in an IT degree program in Spring 2013. The development and results of the survey are presented

In Their Own Words: The Career Stories of Women Leaders in STEM Professions

While STEM professions exhibit rapid growth in both employment opportunity (Carnevale, Smith, & Strohl, 2013) and earnings potential (Talakjowski, 2018), many of these careers - especially those in IT and engineering fields - have traditionally been and still remain male-dominated. For example, the workforces of large technical firms such as Google and Amazon consist of about 30% women with only a few of those women attaining leadership roles (Cheng, 2015). There has been extensive research exploring reasons explaining why women are underrepresented in STEM professions. However, there has been relatively little research investigating reasons why some women not only choose to enter STEM professions but also thrive in their STEM-oriented careers. This study seeks to fill that gap by reporting results from a grounded theory exploration of the career stories of successful women leaders in STEM professions. Our interest in this study is obtaining an understanding of women\u27s career stories from the perspective of the women themselves. We conducted and analyzed semi-structured interviews with 22 women leaders in STEM fields. The interview protocol included questions beginning with family and childhood influences and progressing through adolescence and college choices before examining career progression and aspirations. We also asked about significant individuals who influenced their careers, both positively and negatively, and about their perceptions of both career advantages and disadvantages attributable to gender. While the women included in this study represent a varied group, there are some common themes that are beginning to emerge as we progress with the analysis. Many of the women report strong childhood emphasis on work ethic in their families with some coming from very humble beginnings including both agricultural workers and first-generation immigrants. Most of the respondents reported that they participated in competitive activities in their school years. The women respondents chose to study STEM-related fields both because of an affinity for math, science, and logic and because of the influence of respected family members and mentors. As these women entered their careers, many of them found themselves decidedly in the minority in their male-dominated environments. Two interesting themes are found in the stories of how the women navigated those circumstances. In some cases, the women made deliberate efforts to adapt and fit into those environments; for example, one related an account of how she cultivated an interest in watching sports and playing golf. In other cases, the women credited their ability to build networks and relationships in the workplace as a critical factor in their success. Further discussion of these and other themes as well as the supporting evidence from the interviews will be presented at the conference. Findings from this research will help to develop recommendations both for women interested in STEM professions as well as for organizations that would like to recruit and retain women in their workforce

A LinkedIn Analysis of Career Paths of Information Systems Alumni

Information harvested from the LinkedIn profiles for 175 graduates of an Information Systems program at a mid-sized comprehensive university in Southeastern USA are summarized in this investigation. The current investigation was undertaken to examine the extent to which LinkedIn profiles are able to provide a more realistic picture of entry-level jobs held by program alumni and subsequent career progress. In addition, our results suggest that LinkedIn profiles can help answer questions such as: “What jobs do IS graduates get?”, “What does the career of an IS professional typically look like?”, and “Whether IS graduates can successfully transition from technical to managerial positions?”. Our findings also suggest that information in LinkedIn profiles can be used to assess the long-term outcomes of IS programs