Perception Of IT Research Articles

Perception of work in the IT sector among men and women-A comparison between IT students and IT professionals.

Lack of gender balance within STEM fields is caused by many complex factors, some of which are related to the fact that women do not perceive certain occupations as congruent with their career and personal goals. Although there is a large body of research regarding women in STEM, there is a gap concerning perception of occupations within different STEM industries. IT is a domain where skilled employees are constantly in demand. Even though the overall female representation in STEM fields is rising and that the IT industry is undertaking numerous interventions to attract women to careers in IT, the representation of women in this domain is still disappointingly low. Therefore, the goal of our study was to examine the possible differences among male and female IT and non-IT students and employees in terms of their perception of IT and other key factors influencing the feeling of aptness of IT as a potential sector one's career: goal congruence, sense of belonging and self-efficacy. In this paper we present the results of a study conducted in Poland among working IT professionals (N = 205) and IT students (N = 127) that we compare with individuals from non-IT sectors (N = 222 employees, 107 students). Our results showed significant gender differences between IT students and IT professionals. We found that communal goals are more important for IT employees than for IT students (both male and female) and that a sense of social belonging is stronger among female IT employees than among male IT employees and IT students. Women employed in IT also had the same level of sense of social belonging as women in non-IT group. These findings suggest that after entering IT positions, women's perception of the domain might become potentially more favorable and attuned with their needs. We also found that female IT students value agentic goals more than communal goals which was not the case for female IT employees. The results highlight the importance of investigating women's perception of the IT sector at different levels of career in terms of their goals and other work-related variables. Such lines of research will help develop more effective interventions in attracting women to enter the IT field.

Factors Affecting the Organizational Adoption of Secure Community Cloud in KSA

Cloud computing is an innovative technology and gaining popularity in variety of organization to meet their computing requirements. Saudi Arabia is considered as the Gulf region’s high economy and the future market for cloud computing technologies. Analysis of its economic benefits, adequacy from technical, organizational, and environmental viewpoints, and possible challenges should precede the implementation of new technologies. Latest research and developments on cloud computing are causally linked to the emphasis on applications, advantages, expenditures, and technology. The community cloud (CC) is an impressive replacement for different organizations as it promotes cost reduction and quality enhancement. However, this research was performed to study the perception of IT and telecommunications company employees and computer users who support community cloud. The current state of community cloud adoption in KSA is analyzed. Present challenges impact the adoption of community cloud in Saudi Arabia and define the motivation factors. Questionnaires were used to accomplish these goals. Questionnaires were designed to accomplish these goals and it is implemented using survey. Questions about confidence are also a key issue. Issues such as data privacy, integrity, and availability are the factors influencing the organization’s acceptance of community cloud.

An Exploration of the Drivers of Non- Adoption Behavior

While there has been a substantial amount of attention within the information systems research community towards understanding the phenomenon of adoption, much less is known about non-adoption. This study examines the factors surrounding the decision to not adopt a technology and whether certain factors exert differing effects on individuals in particular ways such that concurrent factors could be identified to develop a classification of the specific types of non-adoption behavior. Utilizing inhibitor theory and the symbolic adoption model as a foundational framework for the different types of non-adoption, we posit that different types of non-adoption exist which is demonstrated by determining the perceptions towards technology that coalesce around different types of non-adoption. We conducted a two-phase investigation into nonadoption with two goals in mind: 1) identify and explore specific factors of the IT that are associated with the rejection decision and are distinct from the adoption decision; and 2) determine the extent to which these factors (along with traditional enablers) differentiate between different types of non-adoption. The results from a discriminant function analysis (DFA) indicate the coalescence of specific perceptual variables according to the types of non-adoption behavior, specifically, the discriminatory power of differing perceptions of IT between trial rejecters, symbolic rejecters, trial accepters, symbolic adopters, and adopters. The implications for research and implications for practice are discussed.

Green IT Perceptions and Activities of Internal Auditors in Australia, Canada, and the United States

ABSTRACT Green IT and sustainability reporting receive considerable attention. Internal auditors are considered control experts and provide assurance that controls have been designed and are functioning properly. However, literature indicates discrepant findings in terms of internal auditors' role in sustainability activities. Based on a theoretical link between environmental regulations and internal auditors' role in sustainability activities, we examine whether internal auditors' roles in green IT differ across Australia, Canada, and the U.S. We find that internal auditors' current green IT perceptions and involvements in the three countries are essentially interchangeable, even though their regulations are significantly different. We find that their perceived roles differ across most green IT activities across industries, but their current involvement does not. Future research needs to identify whether there are cultural reasons or deeper, profound systemic reasons why internal auditors are not more proactively involved in the highly visible, rapidly growing, value-added areas of sustainability.

Understanding the Chinese information culture and its impact on IT perceptions

PurposeDrawing upon the theory of information culture from information science and prior research on Chinese information practices. The purpose of this paper is to posit that instead of over-relying on Hofstede’s national cultural values, the IS field should develop theories on national information culture to bridge the theoretical gaps found in explaining the differences in individuals’ IT perceptions and behaviors across cultures.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the objectives of this study, two quantitative studies were conducted. The first study is exploratory in nature and focuses on the development and calibration of an instrument to measure the Chinese information culture (CIC). The second study takes a confirmatory approach to investigate the impact of the CIC on IT perceptions of manager.FindingsThe study develops and validates an instrument for measuring the CIC that comprises information source and format preference, information ownership and analysis style, and centralized decision-making and information control. The CIC is found to influence IT perceptions of managers including perceived performance improvement resulted from IT use, attitude toward using work technologies and attitude on the value of IT in general.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first studies to theorize national information culture to understand IT perceptions at the individual level. The development of the CIC measure provides the much needed methodological support for contextualizing cross-cultural research.

50 shades of hacking: How IT and cybersecurity industry actors perceive good, bad, and former hackers

ABSTRACTThe hacker is the epitome of a cybersecurity threat and the embodied misuse of the Internet. However, in recent years, notions of hacking have begun to change. Blurred boundaries mark the term, best expressed in its overlap with “security researcher.” This article draws on a 3.5-year research project on the hacker community and applies an international political sociology framework to uncover routines of rationalization. Interviews with IT and cybersecurity industry experts expose accepted identities, practices, and behaviors of hackers, which allows for the construction of in-group and out-group members in the IT and cybersecurity field. Additionally, the empirical findings are used to propose a conceptual framework (the Möbius strip) to situate the moral valence of hackers on a flexible model. Thus, the article provides insight into the ontological and normative complexities that define the study of hackers, as well as the perception of IT and cybersecurity professionals.

An Exploration of the Drivers of Non-Adoption Behavior

While there has been a substantial amount of attention within the information systems research community towards understanding the phenomenon of adoption, much less is known about non-adoption. This study examines the factors surrounding the decision to not adopt a technology and whether certain factors exert differing effects on individuals in particular ways such that concurrent factors could be identified to develop a classification of the specific types of non-adoption behavior. Utilizing inhibitor theory and the symbolic adoption model as a foundational framework for the different types of non-adoption, we posit that different types of non-adoption exist which is demonstrated by determining the perceptions towards technology that coalesce around different types of non-adoption. We conducted a two-phase investigation into non-adoption with two goals in mind: 1) identify and explore specific factors of the IT that are associated with the rejection decision and are distinct from the adoption decision, and 2) determine the extent to which these factors (along with traditional enablers) differentiate between different types of non-adoption. The results from a discriminant function analysis (DFA) indicate the coalescence of specific perceptual variables according to the types of non-adoption behavior, specifically, the discriminatory power of differing perceptions of IT between trial rejecters, symbolic rejecters, trial accepters, symbolic adopters, and adopters. The implications for research and implications for practice are discussed.

Behavioral Aspects of IT Employees towards Problems and Prospects of Activity Based Costing (ABC)

Activity Based Costing (ABC) is a new variant in cost management practices emerged in 1980’s, which caters to the needs of organizations in effective control and monitoring cost and better management of profitability. The success of ABC duly depends on articulation of implementation of ABC and the outcome of Activity Based Cost and Management (ABCM). Though employees experience a positive outcome, it is beyond doubt that they can support the ABC rather resisting the same. The main objective of this paper is to examine the perception of IT companies’ employees’ towards implementation of Activity-Based Costing(ABC). A normative list of benefits concerning the ability of ABC systems to redirect the behavior of individuals was abstract from the interviews opinion and compared to the perceived benefits gathered from interviews with firm employees. This will permit IT Companies and provides relevant information that will enable them to make better decisions with regard to measure the successful implementation of ABC in IT Companies.

Business analytics maturity of firms: an examination of the relationships between managerial perception of IT, business analytics maturity and success

ABSTRACTThis study develops a measure for business analytics (BA) maturity and empirically examines the relationships between managerial perception of IT, BA maturity and BA success. The findings suggest that (1) BA maturity can be measured via BA integration & management support, process-level benefits of BA and technology & data analytics capabilities, (2) BA maturity positively affects organizations’ overall BA success, and (3) managerial perception of IT positively influence organizations’ achievement of BA maturity.

THU0449 Internet use by patients and rheumatologists: Results of two parallel investigations in france

BackgroundInternet (IT) has become the second largest source of patient information, right after the physician and well before magazines. The information collected has a significant role in the patients relationship...

IT Is Here to Serve

IT professionals tend to create projects designed to address IT needs, not the organization it was designed to service. By having IT address itself instead of the business and its customers, we've seen IT projects emerge that have no business value, creating the public perception of IT as a black hole of funding. This black-hole perception magnifies when the IT department doesn't partner with company stakeholders to address actual needs; rather, IT professionals create solutions based on what they want to provide instead of what the business requires. Some leaders view this method of IT management as IT stimulating the business, but in reality, this is IT creating work in an attempt to show value. For IT to succeed, the IT department must partner with various groups throughout the organization during their development efforts.

Gender Differences in Students’ Perceptions of Information Technology as a Career

This paper reports on an investigation into first year students’ perceptions of IT as a career. There are many stereotypes of the typical IT professional. These stereotypes are often depicted in the media and affect students’ perceptions of the career and whether they should study IT or not. An exploratory study into male and female first year students’ perceptions of the IT professional is presented. The participants included students studying the Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Information Systems degrees at ACU National in Melbourne, Australia. The study investigated the differences and similarities between the perceptions of males and females as well as where they came by those perceptions. The study found that the majority of students had chosen to drop IT as a subject at school by Year 10 of their schooling. Males and females differ in their reasons for giving up IT, with females listing computer illiteracy and dislike of being called a nerd as their main reasons and males listing boredom, teachers not being encouraging and little creativity as their main reasons for stopping. The students were then asked questions relating to the IT industry. A t-test showed that females were significantly more negative about the industry in their answers to three of the questions, namely “Is it ‘uncool’ to be interested in computers?” “Does the IT industry offer good job prospects?” and “Are people working in the IT industry ‘nerds/computer geeks’?” The survey then went on to look at the technical versus non-technical issue in perceptions of an IT career. The majority of the participants believed that an IT job consists mainly of technical work and working at a computer. This was true for all the students across both genders. The majority of students did not know any females in the IT industry and could not name any female role models from real life or from TV or film. Some of the role models that they did mention were cartoon characters. The final part of the survey tried to determine where the students felt that their knowledge of an

Isolated versus integrated case studies: A comparison in the context of teaching complex and domain-specific IT applications

Previous research on IT fluency in connection with non-IT majors points at the increasing need for more “realistic” courses teaching the use of complex and domain-specific IT applications. That research also suggests certain desirable course design characteristics, of which one of the most important is the close integration of realistic case study-based material into one single course (as opposed to the less costly alternative of inserting single case study-based material into other courses). This paper describes a study in which the use of case study-based learning modules in an integrated way (i.e., as part of one main course) is compared against the use of those modules in isolation (i.e., inserted into other courses). The modules have been designed to teach complex and domain-specific IT applications in three main domains – anthropology, sociology, and chemistry. The study, which involved 76 undergraduate students, suggests that the integration of modules into one single course, when compared with the option of using the modules in isolation, significantly increased the level of perceptions of IT’s potential for solving complex problems, perceived learning about specialized IT applications, and perceived learning about IT issues in general. The key conclusion of the study is that integration may be a desirable option regardless of the potential extra costs involved.

Special issue on the evolution of the CIO role

Articles in this special issue address the evolution of the CIO role during the past and predict drivers for change in the future. This Janus approach is well-represented by an in-depth study of the IT leader's role over more than forty years at Texaco and by a study using interviews with over fifty IT leaders about the "future of in-house IT organizations." The enthralling Texaco study should be required reading for all IS graduate students. As a saga of our profession's history and the evolution of the CIO role, this article provides a painful, personal view of IT leaders' struggle to gain recognition for the IT function's real contributions. "The Evolution of the Corporate IT Function and the Role of the CIO at Texaco -- How do Perceptions of IT's Performance Get Formed?" (Hirscheim, Porra, Parks) questions a basic assumption of prior research, that the IT function and the CIO have failed in some way: failed to establish a relationship with top management, failed to demonstrate value, failed to improve the performance of the organization, failed to provide an IT vision or link that vision to the organization's strategy. This longitudinal study demonstrates clearly that "Texaco's IT function did a stellar job," and that the "small investment in IT was put to an increasingly effective use at a staggering rate." CIOs or IT leaders have been effective at Texaco, some amazingly so. Yet during all these years from 1957 on, there was not a time when "top management or users expressed their satisfaction with the IT function." The authors conclude that "top management perceptions of the IT leaders' and IT functions' performance developed in a vacuum." Applying Peppard and Ward's perceptions gap categories, Hirscheim, Porra, and Parks call into question the very questions which have been asked in IT leadership research, and offer some new directions. Interestingly, the authors posit that charge back systems which reflect cost but not contribution and which are accumulated in overhead accounts may be the "most consequential mistake the IT profession has made so far." The perception gap is also a theme in Reich and Nelson's "In Their Own Words: CIO Visions about the Future of In-House IT Organizations." They conducted interviews with fifty CIOs and IT leaders in twenty-two organizations. As the technology has become more complex, user expectations have become very high: "Expectation is instantaneous delivery at zero cost, with zero bugs and zero defects." Their findings are presented in two sections: "Drivers of change" and "Transitions in in-house IT organizations." The richness of experience and insights into the future revealed by the authors' analyses of these fifty interviews is rare. Quotations selected for inclusion are memorable: "the IT workforce are the coal workers of the 21st century." Primary future trends are projected and leading research opportunities identified. Some interesting subsidiary future trends also emerge: systems analysts in-house providing requirement for outsourced development, a natural evolution toward "a significant increase in telecommuting," consulting as a career path for aspiring CIOs, the importance of the transition from individual-based IT work to team-based work and mindset, the need for both a CTO and CIO as complementary functions. Reich and Nelson's in-depth view of the evolution of the CIO role and the IT function should help academic research to "lead practice rather than follow it."

Challenging Dualisms in Female Perceptions of IT Work

This paper explores the way that professional women working in the IT industry discuss the nature of their work and it is suggested that the way women talk about their work reinforces widely held impressions of the Information Technology industry. Structuration theory illuminated how this talk is not always consistent with the womens' lived experiences. The interview data revealed contradictions in these dualisms, indicating that these polarised views of women and IT work are being undermined by women in the IT industry. This paper suggests that mentoring, interactions with professional IT organisations, and professional IT women talking to females in their IT education years can give new ideas to the perceptions of IT and thus challenge these dualisms. The interviews were coded using NUD*IST, which allowed the researchers to explore the interviewees perceptions of IT work. In this paper, the perceptions of the interviewees are discussed as structures of signification that need to be altered in order to successfully challenge these dualisms. It is suggested that exposing females in their IT education years to the professional IT women who are challenging these dualisms is an essential part of transforming these structures of signification. This research is part of an ongoing project (WinIT) commenced in 1995, which seeks to understand the declining female participation in IT education and work. In order to have a better understanding of the way women help configure the institutional realm of IT work, we propose that more qualitative studies of women at work in IT as well as women talking about IT are needed.

CEO and CIO perceptions of information systems strategy: evidence from Hong Kong

Studies in the literature indicate that many organizations have experienced a crisis of confidence in information systems (IS) functions and IS executives. We address the issue of joint chief executive/IT executive responsibility in building a corporate culture to overcome resistance to technological changes. This paper reports a study of differences in IT perceptions between chief executives and IS executives. The results suggest a similarity of views in three major dimensions of perception: IT vision, organizational IS issues and IT support for knowledge management. The study also suggests that national culture, industry type and the chief executive/IT executive relationship contribute to differences in IT perception.

CEO and CIO perceptions of information systems strategy: evidence from Hong Kong

Studies in the literature indicate that many organizations have experienced a crisis of confidence in information systems (IS) functions and IS executives. We address the issue of joint chief executive/IT executive responsibility in building a corporate culture to overcome resistance to technological changes. This paper reports a study of differences in IT perceptions between chief executives and IS executives. The results suggest a similarity of views in three major dimensions of perception: IT vision, organizational IS issues and IT support for knowledge management. The study also suggests that national culture, industry type and the chief executive/IT executive relationship contribute to differences in IT perception.

Confluenţe literare: Studii de literatură comparată româno-maghiară , and: Ego, Alter, Alter Ego (review)

BOOK NOTES reaUy two constantly interacting texts: the original (the source text or "father") and "the interpretative layers which, over the years have been and continue to be grafted onto [it]" (124). Vittoz, mindful of both past and present, uses pseudo seventeenth-century vocabulary and syntax alongside modern slang, borrowings from earUer translators, quotations from modern authors, and Lacanian word-play. He thus offers "both an imaginary French version of Shakespearian language and, simultaneously , our own perception ofit" (127). Vittoz is "aware of the absence of the father" but wants "to expose the father as a cultural object"; and his translation does "not attempt to define Shakespeare's meaning but to multiply it" (131). Despite a tendency toward the restatement of already weUestabUshed points, Heylen's book is carefuUy researched, rich in detaUed analyses, well-written, and eminently readable. It amply demonstrates and Ulustrates its socio-cultural thesis and worthüy takes its place as the third volume in a new series, "Translation Studies," edited by Susan Bassnett and André Lefevere. This new field assumes that translation is "rewriting and manipulation" in the service ofpower, with results potentiaUy either positive or negative in the evolution ofa Uterature or society. Philip Cranston University of North Carolina, Asheville KÁROLY KOLLÓ. Confluenfe literare: Studii de literatura comparatä romäno-maghiarä. Bucharest: Kriterion, 1993. ANDREI CORBEA. Ego, Alter, Alter Ego. Iasi: Omnia, 1993. Despite the enormous economic and existential difficulties of a transitional period that turns out to have been much tougher than anticipated, comparative Uterature is thriving in Romania. Placed at the margins of the European realm, ever uncertain of its identity, the country has generated, by way of response (one among many, to be sure) a spate of inteUectuals versed in many languages, literatures, and cultures. An older generation, including Paul Cornea, Adrian Marino, Alexandru Du{u, or Dan Grigorescu is still active. Somewhat younger scholars, including Mihai Zamfir, Mircea Martin, Monica Spiridon, or Liviu Petrescu are quickly overcoming the handicaps of several decades' isolation. The two books here reviewed Alústrate the potential of comparatism in Romania. Andrei Corbea, chair ofthe German department at the University of Iasi and pubUsher of the Iasi University Press, is a speciaUst in the multi-ethnic culture ofthe Bucovina, the province at the confines ofthe Ukraine and ofRomania where Romanians, Jews, Germans, Ruthenians, and stiU other groups had managed to create during two hundred years or more a flourishing and (given the mixture) a surprisingly harmonious cosmopoUtan culture under benign Hapsburg administrative auspices. Vol. 19 (1995): 160 THE COMPAKATIST Károly Köllö, a Transylvanian researcher of Hungarian ethnic background writing in Romanian, concentrates his book on an area that is still outrageously under-researched—the interactions of Romanian and of Magyar cultures over the centuries. Both books are collections of separate essays; they are solid and manage to bring a wealth of new information and new suggestions. KoUo covers a wide historical range. He begins with some fascinating information about Transylvanian students (Hungarian and Romanian alike) at the universities of Leyden and Oxford in the late seventeenth centuries: numbers, courses taken, and so forth. He continues with materials about the surprisingly strong attraction exerted by theories of Jansenist source on the Catholics of Transylvania. He discusses in some detaü how the apocryphal (or pseudo-Homeric) comic epic Batrachomyomachia was provided a late eighteenth-century imitative variant by Csokonay Vitez Mihály and promptly enjoyed a further imitation by a Romanian author. Short, but interesting pieces deal with the concerts ofFranz Liszt in Bucharest in 1847, the favorable response to I. L. Caragiale (Romania's leading comic dramatist in the late nineteenth century) among Hungarian intellectuals, the impact of Machiavelli 's theories in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the interfacing of Hungarian-Romanian avant-garde poets in 1922-23. Corbea deals (in a more theoretical vein) with Adorno, Lukács, and Habermas; he relates a personal meeting with Ernst Jünger; he includes in his volume good short reviews on recent Romanian poets and German novelists. Longer essays are devoted to the leading figures of the critical school of Konstanz, as well as to some issues of the "Goethezeit." Still, as noted earlier...

Brief: Information Technology as an Aid to Productivity in Petroleum Exploration - Fact or Fiction?

Summary This paper considers the relationship between information technology investment, technical productivity, and business benefit. The effect of introducing IT to the industry and its impact on geoscience is described, along with a discussion of whether investment in IT has brought the expected benefits to other industries. The paper concludes with a consideration of the present business perceptions of IT and asks whether a company, by concentrating solely on such issues as technical productivity, will actually maximize the benefits of IT. Introduction The upstream petroleum industry has progressively adopted IT since the mid-1950's to aid technical operations. By the late 1980's, nearly all exploration companies had invested heavily in IT. Recently, many companies have begun to scrutinize the costs and benefits of IT more closely. As in other industries, there has been a movement in the petroleum industry to constrain IT expenditures. A major justification for continued investment in IT has been that the resulting technological change will directly improve business performance through increased productivity. This contention is now being questioned in the more difficult operating conditions of the early 1990's because of a growing belief that IT investment has not produced many of the supposed benefits. Application of IT in Petroleum Exploration The deployment of IT in petroleum exploration has had a significant impact on technical practices. The initial applications of IT were in areas like reservoir modeling, seismic processing, and mapping, which required intensive numeric calculations. During the late 1970's and early 1980's, hardware advances (e.g., the appearance of workstations) and software developments (e.g., on-line editors and on-screen graphics) enabled the creation of interactive applications. The possibility of manipulating and interpreting geological data on screen was regarded in many companies as a significant aid to productivity and critical to achieving technical excellence.

The Senior Executive as Organizational Stakeholder of Microcomputer Technology

For the past three decades information technology has been changing the way businesses operate, providing increased efficiency and productivity within organizations. Senior managers, as company stakeholders, play an important role in the assimilation of microcomputer technology in organizations. In this paper, the relationship between senior managers' perceptions of information technology and their use will be investigated. The paper examines senior managers' perceptions of the importance of information technology IT within the enterprise, their personal use of information technology typically microcomputers, their participation in applications development, their allocation of funds for information technology support staff, and the role of IT in their decision making. We will also consider the possibilities for the use of information technology in the future, and further, what changes can be made to ensure positive attitudes toward computer technology, and good organizational support. Our The Senior Executive as Organizational Stakeholder of Microcomputer Technology goal is to build a model which helps explain how senior managers' perceptions of IT impacts important organizational variables.