The information systems profession: myth or reality?

An Ideology of IT Occupational Culture

Many have conjectured that people in the IT occupation are different from non-IT business users and that such differences can lead to negative organizational outcomes. This study investigates how to measure these differences by developing a new, expanded theoretical framework of IT occupational culture (ITOC). This framework includes: Artifacts, Values, and Tacit Assumptions. Values form the core of any culture, and a cohesive set of cultural values is termed an "ideology." Using a mixed methodology, research was conducted in two parts to develop and measure an ideology of ITOC. A qualitative investigation based on interview data provided evidence of six core values in the ideology: Autonomy in Decision-Making, Structure in Environment, Precision in Communication, Innovation in Technology, Reverence for Technical Knowledge, and Enjoyment at the Workplace (ASPIRE). The quantitative investigation sought to validate the values and ultimately reduced the number of values to five based on factor analysis of survey data: Autonomy in Decision-Making, Structure/Precision, Innovation in Technology, Reverence for Technical Knowledge, and Enjoyment at the Workplace. IT respondents rated these values significantly higher than non-IT business personnel. Our findings have implications for practitioners and researchers and can provide a path to bridge the gap between IT and business users.

Turning the Spotlight on the Consequences of Individual IT Turnover

Among the many aspects of IT personnel studied by the information systems (IS) research community, individual voluntary IT turnover is one of the most-examined phenomena. However, research into this phenomenon concentrates mainly on antecedents and cognitive precursors such as turnover intention. Antecedents are essential to understanding the turnover behavior of IT personnel, but they do not represent the complete IT turnover research. The consequences of individual voluntary IT turnover behavior, an important topic, have faded from the spotlight of the IS community. We investigate this by conducting a multidisciplinary scoping literature review of individual voluntary IT turnover behavior, with the focus on the consequences. The purpose of this review is to determine what is known about voluntary IT turnover behavior consequences and what research gaps exist in this research context. To make our review as rigorous as possible, we followed a systematic review approach, accompanied with transparent reporting of all steps of the review process. Our search strategy yielded 153 IT turnover studies, 14 of which consider IT turnover behavior consequences, concentrated primarily on IT project management. Drawing on the scoping review, our study also specifies a research agenda for future IT turnover behavior consequences research by highlighting knowledge gaps for potentially fruitful research directions.

Professional identity construction among software engineering students

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the process in which the software engineering students construct their professional identities.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study followed the qualitative method using grounded theory methodology to examine the process of identity construction. Data were collected from final year software engineering students in an iterative manner.

Findings

– Based on the present study, the study argues that entry-level identities of students are modified and adjusted in response to their experience of identity violations over the course of their academic program. These violations were caused by their unmet expectations from the academic program. The magnitude of these violations is influenced by their perceived value derived from the training they were receiving.

Research limitations/implications

– This paper explains the process of “identity morphing” as a mechanism by which students resolve the conflict/violation of their identities. The emergence and adaptation of different types of identities were examined. This study can be extended to the employees of IT organizations to draw a holistic picture.

Practical implications

– The understanding of identity morphing process might enable organizations to enrich their interaction with their employees and thus provide avenues to improve their work-related outcomes.

Originality/value

– Previous studies have explored professional identity construction among individuals. However, how software professionals construct their professional identity, during their education years, is relatively unexplored. The present study asserts that professional identities are formed among the students even before they join the organization.

A framework of the use of certifications by hiring personnel in it hiring decisions

IT certification represents a common and growing practice with significant implications for managing in-house IT workers and outsourcing contracts. Prior research is of limited value in understanding its use in common personnel decisions, such as hiring, and its role in the IS profession because of possible sponsor bias, conflicting findings, and inattention to the hiring process or the value of certification from the perspective of hiring personnel. Using an inductive approach, we developed a framework for understanding the use of IT certification in hiring. Contextual and proximate factors are identified, as are the various ways that IT certification is used. Our study provides a bridge between the beliefs of hiring personnel and existing theories to better understand a phenomenon of growing importance. Research questions for further empirical investigation are explored, showing that our conceptual framework provides a base for future research.

The occupational culture of IS/IT personnel within organizations

As organizations' reliance on information technology (IT) continues to grow, the information technology personnel who support end users play an increasingly important role in the proper functioning of those organizations. In the present study, we interviewed information technology personnel (N=32) as well as other employees (N=89) to examine their intra-group and inter-group communications and assess the existence and importance of the occupational culture of IT personnel within organizations. We applied Trice's Occupational Subculture theoretical framework (1993) to examine the characteristics of the occupational culture of IT personnel and its relationships with other type of personnel within organizations. The results of our study suggest that IT personnel have established a distinct occupational culture within organizations, characterized, for example, by the use of technical jargon, primary value of technical knowledge, extreme and unusual demands on people in the profession related to the constant change of IT, feelings of superiority and a general lack of formal rules. Conflicts between IT occupational subcultures and other extant subcultures arise from cultural differences