Information Technology Workers Research Articles

“I am kind of a nomad where I have to go places and places”… Understanding mobility, place and identity in global software work from India

Mobilities, encompassing the movements and ‘flows’ of people, objects, capital, images technologies and information across the world have been strongly implicated in the context of contemporary globalization processes. Globally distributed software development work across boundaries of time, space and place undertaken by global software organizations (GSOs), can be seen as a microcosm of such processes, reflecting a multiplicity of mobilities, while situated in a particular context. An in-depth interpretative case study of a GSO located in Mumbai, India, was used in order to understand the nature and kinds of mobilities and their interactions with place, space, selves, and identities of Information Technology (IT) workers within the firm. Three kinds of interrelated mobilities – geographical, social and existential – were identified through an interpretive analysis of the empirical material. The construct of mobility–identity is proposed for analyzing the dynamic interplay between mobilities, place, selves, and identities of the workers. An understanding of mobility–identity is seen to have both theoretical and practical implications, and contributes more broadly to the development of our understanding of a “sociology of mobilities”.

Let the sisters speak

In this paper, I examine how and why the situated knowledge and lived experiences of working-class African American women shape their standpoint on information technology (IT). Using the biblical metaphor of the exodus and narratives of ascent, these women view IT access and training as part of a strategy for escaping poverty and despair. Whereas most of the extant gender and IT research provides rich insights into the marginalization of women, the women in this study felt empowered by IT. This contradictory outcome has three implications for the study of gender and IT. First, researchers must consider the multiple identities such as gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and sexuality that shape and are shaped by women's engagement with IT. Second, the notion of IT workforce should take into account not only the highly skilled IT workers who design and build IT artifacts, but should also consider the lower skilled workers who indirectly use IT. Third, IT training programs that serve working-class women must go beyond the transfer of IT skills to individuals. They must also redress the persistent structural barriers of poverty, spatial isolation, illiteracy, sporadic work, and racial and ethnic discrimination that systematically limit women's ability to compete for jobs that provide higher incomes, greater safety, more security, full-time hours, increased benefits, higher status, and less stressful work environments.

Barriers facing women in the IT work force

The percentage of women working in Information Technology (IT) is falling as revealed by the 2003 Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) Blue Ribbon Panel on Information Technology (IT) Diversity report; the percentage of women in the IT workforce fell to 34.9% in 2002 down from 41% in 1996. Several studies have indicated this issue is reaching a crisis level and needs to be explored. Women working in IT at a Fortune 500 company were asked what workplace barriers they faced that had influenced their voluntary turnover decisions or the decisions of their female counterparts. Revealed causal mapping was used to evoke representations of the cognitions surrounding the barriers women face in the IT field. A causal map was developed that indicated women's actual turnover was linked to their views of their family responsibilities, the stresses they face within the workplace, various qualities of their jobs, and the flexibility they were given to determine their work schedule. Their statements regarding the barriers they faced in terms of promotion opportunities (both perceived and actual) were linked to the same four concepts. Interestingly, there was no link between promotion opportunities and voluntary turnover. Reciprocal relationships were identified between managing family responsibility and stress, work schedule flexibility and stress, managing family responsibility and job qualities, and job qualities and stress. Discrimination and lack of consistency in how management treated employees, while important, were not central to how the women in this sample thought about issues related to promotion and voluntary turnover.

Moving up in the new economy: career ladders for U.S. workers

The United States used to be a country where ordinary people could expect to improve their economic condition as they moved through life. For millions of us, this is no longer the case. Many Americans today have a lower standard of living as adults than they had in their parents' homes as children.... This book is about restoring the upward mobility of U.S. workers. Specifically, it addresses the workforce-development strategy of creating not just jobs, but career ladders.-from Moving Up in the New Economy Career-ladder strategies create opportunities for low-wage workers to learn new skills and advance through a progression of higher-skilled and better-paid jobs. For example, nurses' aides can become licensed practical nurses, administrative assistants can become information technology workers, and bank tellers can become loan officers. Career-ladder programs could provide opportunities for upward mobility and also stave off impending national shortages of skilled workers. But there are a variety of obstacles that must be faced candidly if career-ladder programs are to succeed. In Moving Up in the New Economy, Joan Fitzgerald explores specific programs in different sectors of the economy-health care, child care, education, manufacturing, and biotechnology-to offer a comprehensive analysis of this innovative approach to job training. Addressing the successes achieved-and the problems faced-by career-ladder programs, this timely book will be of interest to anyone interested in career development, workforce training, and employment issues, especially those that affect low-wage workers.

IT worker turnover

This study examined intrinsic motivation's influence on information technology (IT) workers' attitudes and intentions. Drawing on Human Resource management research (Eby & Freeman, 1999), we model Intrinsic motivation as mediating the influence of motivators (i.e., intrinsic job characteristics) and hygiene factors (i.e., pay and supervisory satisfaction) on workplace attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment). In turn, workplace attitudes mediate the influence of intrinsic motivation on turnover intention. The model was tested using data collected from public sector IT workers in the Southeastern United States. Although intrinsic motivation did not fully mediate the influence of motivators and hygiene factors, findings suggest that intrinsic motivation positively influences workplace attitudes and has a mediated influence on turnover intent. Implications for research and practice are offered.

Evaluating causes and consequences of turnover intention among IT workers: the development of a questionnaire survey

In this paper we describe the process of developing a questionnaire survey that evaluates the causes and consequences of turnover intention among information technology (IT) workers, with specific attention to issues of importance to women and minorities within the IT workforce. The questionnaire development process consisted of four steps: 1. Creation of the initial questionnaire from a literature review of existing scales 2. Pilot study using interviews to test the questionnaire 3. Modifications to the questionnaire based on feedback from the pilot study 4. Implementation of the revised questionnaire survey. The process used for the development of the questionnaire survey is systematic and addresses issues specific to the IT workforce, in particular the underrepresentation of women and minorities in the IT workforce. The questionnaire survey allows the collection of reliable and valid data on causes and effects of retention and intention to turnover, thus making it possible to better understand the reasons for the underrepresentation of women and minorities in the IT workforce.

Virtual Teams and Multiple Media: Structuring Media Use to Attain Strategic Goals

Work environments have grown substantially more complex over the years. Teams are increasingly distributed, and presented with a variety of different communication technologies, e.g., e-mail, instant messaging, cellular phones, pagers, and intranet applications, for use in distributed collaborative activities. Further, individuals often belong to multiple teams concurrently. This study explores how virtual team members structure their use of multiple media to attain strategic goals in complex work environments. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze data gathered from forty interviews of information technology workers. Our results indicate that there are two primary structures individuals employ when making use of multiple media: sequential and concurrent. Sequential combinations are of three types: redundant, serial, or complementary, while concurrent combinations are of two types: independent or complementary. Further, individuals strategically use multiple media to accomplish specific communication goals beyond simply transmitting the message, such as message acknowledgement, enhancement of mutual understanding, and participation in multiple communication interactions. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

Gendered selves and identities of information technology professionals in global software organizations in India

Global software organization (GSOs) are a recent form of work settings where Information Technology (IT) professionals engage in information and communication technology (ICT) mediated software development work for businesses across the globe. Issues of self, identity, and gender are linked to particularities of GSOs as a work setting. Using an interpretative, ethnographic approach, empirical data from a case study in India was analyzed to understand how gender was expressed in GSOs and linked to the concepts of self and identity of IT workers. Data suggests that GSOs are a global work setting where local issues of gender reflect social arrangements in Indian society. These arrangements have implications for GSOs as a work setting, for software development work, as well as for the selves and identities of IT workers. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Migrant Women and the Australian Information, Communications and Technology Sector—A Special Case?

ABSTRACT This paper traces the experiences of migrants working in information technology in Australia, particularly migrant women from non-English speaking countries, examining the impact of both ‘supply-side’ factors like skills, birthplace and sex, and ‘demand-side’ institutional characteristics of information, communications and technology sector employers. Australian Bureau of Statistics data are used to study characteristics of information technology workers in NSW, while government longitudinal data are used to examine the flows of recent migrants. These quantitative data are complemented by information gathered from interviewees and key informants, some of whom worked for a large US-based multinational corporation. Our findings indicate that compared with other industries, the information, communications and technology sector has successfully utilised the skills of migrants, and is characterised by a culture of relative openness and mobility. However, in tighter economic times, discrimination becomes more of an issue for migrant workers. Additionally, information, communications and technology remains a male-dominated sector, and female migrants in the industry, who need to re-establish not only their careers but also viable work-care arrangements, typically experience a more difficult transition to Australian life than their male counterparts.

Work Commitments of Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers in the it Profession: Generational Differences or Myth?

The study presented in this paper examines generational (age-cohort) differences in the work commitments of Baby Boomer (born between 1946 and 1962) and Gen-X (born between 1963 and 1981) information technology (IT) professionals. Data were obtained from 382 IT workers in 23 state agencies and universities. The work commitments examined include work involvement, job involvement, work group attachment, organizational commitment and professional commitment. Contrary to profiles of these two generations common in the popular and business press, results suggest that the work commitments of these generations of IT professionals are more homogeneous than different. Implications for research and for IT management are offered.

Indian Information Technology Workers in the United States: The H-1B Visa, Flexible Production, and the Racialization of Labor

Advances in information technology (IT) have been critical to the USA for maintaining its competitive edge in the global economy, and the role of workers on the H-1B visa has been central in this process since the 1990s. The H-1B visa program, which allows US employers to hire skilled foreign workers on a temporary basis, enabled the recruitment of thousands of IT professionals, the majority of whom has been from India. Based on 40 in-depth interviews with Indian IT workers in the USA, this paper illustrates how the interplay between visa policies and flexible hiring in IT marginalizes this workforce. As a result of their fragile immigration status under H-1B visa terms, these workers are disproportionately employed as contract labor in an exploitative system of subcontracting. As an employment-based visa, the H-1B makes these workers dependent on their visa-sponsoring employers for immigration status and livelihood. The compulsion to remain employed and legal drives H-1B employees to accept severely exploitative work conditions, including wage cuts, deduction of commissions from hourly wages, lack of benefits, and frequent relocations. Theoretical insights from Asian-American studies, which foreground the historical nexus between US immigration policies and the gendered racialization of immigration, anchor the analyses of how current visa policies sustain the exigencies of late-capital.

Working conditions of temporary company-affiliated IT workers

This paper explores the relationship between temporary company affiliation and working conditions for a group of information technology workers. The problem is addressed through three competing discourses: a periphery discourse, a market discourse and a professional discourse. The analysis shows that the different discourses apply to different aspects of working conditions.

The chameleon career

PurposeThis paper seeks to explore claims about the changing nature of careers by focusing on how information technology (IT) workers enact careers in the context of Nigeria. The theoretical framework guiding this research is that societal context (social structure and institutions) has an influence on the career patterns exhibited by individuals.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a qualitative research approach, which involved semi‐structured interviews with 30 IT workers.FindingsAnalysis of the findings indicates that the career trajectory of these workers conforms in part with the traditional view of hierarchical and progressive careers and partly with recent models of the boundaryless career. In order to capture a more contextual understanding, and based on findings from this research which highlight both the dynamic and the reactive nature of the careers of IT workers in Nigeria, the concept of the chameleon career isi ntroduced.Originality/valueThis research contributes the Nigerian context and perspective to the wider discourse on changing nature of careers.

Working conditions and health among employees at information technology - enabled services: A review of current evidence

Workers in information technology (IT)-enabled services like business process outsourcing and call centers working with visual display units are reported to have various health and psycho-social disorders. Evidence from previously published studies in peer- reviewed journals and internet sources were examined to explore health disorders and psycho-social problems among personnel employed in IT-based services, for a systematic review on the topic. In addition, authors executed a questionnaire- based pilot study. The available literature and the pilot study, both suggest health disorders and psychosocial problems among workers of business process outsourcing. The details are discussed in the review.

Effect of Overtime Work and Insufficient Sleep on Postural Sway in Information‐Technology Workers

In Japan, death from overwork (“karoshi” in Japanese) is the focus of social concern. Extremely long work hours and deprivation of sleep exert vital exhaustion and mood changes, resulting in disease conditions such as depression and ischemic heart disease . As the prevention of diseases caused by heavy overtime schedules is a live issue in Japan, decisive and objective indicators are necessary for the early detection of irrecoverable damage to workers’ health. Young overtime workers, under forty, are often passed over by routine medical check-ups, nevertheless they have been suffering from shortened sleep and lack of effective rest. Especially information-technology workers in Japan are involved in extreme overwork beyond daytime working hours in order to compete in the global market. Detailed health assessments should be carried out with a view to identifying and implementing measures to relieve adverse health effects in overtime workers. The critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF) test is a suitable method for the measurement of short-term visual strain , however, few studies have indicated that CFF is sensitive as an objective measure of chronic fatigue. Therefore other convenient tools are required to detect exhausted workers at risk. Computerized static posturography has been used to examine balance function disorders, measuring displacements of the body’s center of pressure by the use of a force platform during static upright posture. The posturographic measurements are reportedly suitable for monitoring fatigue. Since continued insufficient sleep can lead to inability to concentrate, perceptual changes and dizziness, we performed a quantitative study using postural sway parameters as the disturbance stimulation of foot pressure movement in order to evaluate fatigued conditions of overtime workers at the early stage. The purpose of this study was to find medical evidence for the effects of extended working hours and short sleep time among younger workers under forty, and to recommend certain measures for their health assessment and control.

Towards Changes in Information Security Education

Information Security Education Overview Non-availability of skilled staff has been identified as the third most significant cause of the failure of users of information technology to ensure the security of their physical assets and information (Furnell & Clarke, 2005). Organizations employing ISA professionals generally base their assessment of an individual's skill level on the following indicators: * Academic qualifications leading to a diploma and/or degree. * Professional Certifications (CISSP, SSCP, CISA, GISEC, etc.). * Vendor-Specific Certifications (MCSE, CCSP, Comp TIA, Security +, TISIA, etc.). Professional and vendor certifications in Information Security validate competencies and skills, but they are not replacing experience or education. While academic qualifications support broad knowledge and skills in general, professional certifications may be effective in a limited area of operations. Academic programs exposing the students to theoretical concepts and problem solving experience are critical for preparing graduates for jobs in the information security. The critical importance of information security curriculum at universities was stressed in (Irvine, Chin, & Fruickle, 1998) as follows: An educational system that cultivates an appropriate knowledge of computer security will increase the likelihood that the next generation of Information Technology (IT) workers will have the background needed to design and develop systems that are engineered to be reliable and secure. Many educational institutions defined the educational model and curricula based on standards and guidelines promoted by government or other organizations, resulting in numerous ISA education models and curricula. Despite a variety of ISA curricula and diverse educational models, universities often fail to graduate students with skills demanded by employers. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the issues and suggest changes in the curricula to ensure that undergraduates and graduates have gained required skills after completing their studies. We primarily focus on Information Security curricula issues in US, and outline a few distinctions from other parts of the world. We recognize that the international aspects of the Information Security curricula are too broad for a single paper to cover comprehensively. The remainder of the paper is organized in sections that review the ISA programs in US and evaluate the quality of academic information security programs including the requirements for an effective information security curricula implementation as well as future directions for more responsive curricula. In this paper, we suggest the actions that should make the ISA curricula in the universities responsive to the needs of the general population and the industry in which graduates with ISA skills and specialization will be employed. Information Security Education in US The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Security Telecommunications and Information Systems Security Committee (NSTISSC), along with others, contributed to the guidelines for training and education. In addition, ISO 17799 Information Security Management standard of 2000 with additions in 2002 includes requirements for Information security education and training. NSTISSC directive established the requirement for all federal agencies to develop and implement education, training, and awareness programs for national security systems. The required knowledge areas known as Common Body Knowledge (CBK) were defined by International Systems Security Certification Consortium [(ISC).sup.2]. However, the focus is on practical, low level skills which are identified in various standards. In addition, Electronic Develop-A-Curriculum (EDACUM) program supports the development of a curriculum based on NSTISSI standards. Some colleges and universities have been certified to meet one or more NSTISSI standards. …

Table of Contents

AbstractNew Demands and New Opportunities for Professional Continuing Education: A Mission in FluxA Definition of Professional Continuing EducationProfessional Continuing Education and a Free Market Economy: Demand Motivates GrowthA Challenge to Traditional AcademeEmerging Trends: An Overview of the WorkProfessional Continuing Education, Knowledge Management, and the Workplace: A Growing IndustryHow Does Business Spend for Training?What Kinds of Training Do Businesses Seek for Their Employees?Where Do Businesses Turn for Training Support?Credentialing: The New StandardSummaryProfessional Continuing Education as a Means of Regulating Professional PracticeThe Purpose of Continuing Education for Professional RegulationWho Benefits from Continuing Education for Professional Regulation?Advocacy Organizations: A Venue for Industry‐Based Practice StandardsPlaying in the Sandbox TogetherSkills Certifications as Bridge BuildersEmerging Providers of Professional Continuing EducationProfessional AssociationsCommercial VendorsProprietary Schools and CollegesNot‐for‐Profit OrganizationsThe Increase in Partnerships Delivering Professional Continuing EducationPartnerships for Professional Continuing Education in the Health Care ProfessionsProfessional Continuing Education for Information Technology WorkersContinuing Professional Education for Public School EducatorsPartnerships and Delivery Modes for Public Safety WorkersPartnerships and Delivery Modes for Business and Finance ProfessionsSummaryEpilogue: Professional Continuing Education into the Twenty‐First CenturyReferencesName IndexSubject IndexAbout the Author

The technical skills of information technology workers in Argentina

This article makes an assessment of Argentina’s human resource skills in the field of information technology (IT). In various of the country’s government, business and academic domains the quality and potential of domestic human resources in this area is taken for granted- a belief based on the country’s rich, yet contradictory IT history, but not founded on an analysis of the corresponding skills. This study aims to develop and apply a methodology to evaluate the skills of IT workers and highlight their problems and potentials, using the results of an electronic survey. The current features and heterogeneity of those human resources are interpreted in the light of the progress and setbacks experienced by the activity during the course of its evolution.

Chinese engineers and information technology in Japan

A large number of Chinese engineers work in the information technology (IT) sector in Japan, mostly in software programming. Having been recruited in China or Japan, these IT workers do not form a homogeneous group and are subject to very different working conditions. Parallel to this recruitment of Chinese IT workers, Japanese industry “imports” Chinese labour through on-line working. An increasing number of IT workers are employed by Japanese firms without leaving their own country, thanks to systems for on-line transmission of highly compressed data.

The factors perceived to influence the retention of information technology workers

The purpose of this study was to identify the most important variables for retaining information technology workers as their turnover has a range of negative consequences for their employing companies. Data was collected from 239 IT workers across three continents by means of an electronic questionnaire-based survey. The data was then subjected to a number of statistical analyses including factor analysis. The research established that the three factors perceived to most affect the retention of IT workers are, in order of importance; equity and enablement for high performance, a liberated and empowered culture, an effective and interactive communication channel between management and the employees.