Positioning e-skills within an organisation: An information systems management viewpoint

Zoran Mitrovic

doi:10.4102/sajim.v12i1.427

Abstract

The intersection of business and IT in an organisation requires people with diverse business- and technology-related competences and skills, commonly referred to as ‘e-competences’ and ‘e-skills’. The positioning of these competences within an IT function in an organisation is (arguably) well defined, but their place in other areas of business managerial concern in an organisation, such as business processes or organisational strategy, is still not sufficiently clear. As e-skills and e-competences are inevitably associated with the use of organisational information systems (IS), this paper reports an initial study aimed at positioning these competences and skills within an organisation from an IS perspective. The positioning was done by examining models of IS, e-competences and e-skills and identifying their possible areas of intersection, which resulted in mapping these competences and skills to the areas of managerial concern in an organisation – as seen from an IS perspective. This mapping has revealed an initial understanding of how business value, here seen as business benefits, is created by using the e-skills and e-competences (supposedly) possessed by employees throughout an organisation.

Highlights

Digital technology is at the heart of the modern economy as it adds value to practically all organisations – it directly affects companies in all sectors and individuals in all walks of life
The article reports on research that was undertaken to obtain an initial understanding regarding, (1) the positions of various e-skills and e-competences required by managerial areas of concern in an organisation, (2) the way in which business benefits are achieved by using these skills and competences and (3) establishing a foundation for an initial e-skills and e-competences positioning model
The aim of this research was to obtain an initial understanding of, (1) the positions of various e-skills and e-competences required by managerial areas of concern in an organisation, (2) the way in which business benefits are achieved by using these skills and competences and (3) to establish a foundation for an initial e-skills and e-competences http://www.sajim.co.za

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Digital technology is at the heart of the modern economy as it adds value to practically all organisations – it directly affects companies in all sectors and individuals in all walks of life. The reviewed literature included some works loosely related to this study, for example, Fonstad and Lanvin (2010), INSEAD (2008), Lanvin and Passman (2008) and Valenduc and Vendramin (2005), and implicitly link e-skills or e-competences to ICT systems These works, did not offer sufficient understanding about either the position of these skills within an organisation or the possible way in which benefits could be derived by using them. The European e-Competence Framework (e-CF), following the ‘e-skills’ definitions adopted by the European e-Skills Forum, focuses on the competences needed to, (1) develop, operate and manage ICT projects and processes, (2) exploit and use ICT, (3) make decisions and develop strategies and (4) foresee new scenarios This framework considers end users, business managers and ICT (IT/IS) practitioners, but does not include competences related to basic/scientific research in the ICT field. Dimension 2: A set of reference e-competences for each of the above areas, with a generic description of 32 e-competences

Problem Management

Limitations

CONCLUSION