Knowledge Sharing in Information Systems Development: A Social Interdependence Perspective

This paper focuses on 18 well-known recommended practices for information system (IS) development projects to assess their relative dissemination and effectiveness and to examine the role of standardization frameworks in promoting them. Findings from a survey of 97 information technology (IT) professionals show that most of these practices tend to be adopted, that they are associated with higher chances of success in IS development projects and that software process improvement models, project management maturity models and formal development methodologies tend to promote such practices. Findings show however some notable exceptions that may require to refine this existing set of recommended practices. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The roles of information technology (IT) professionals have expanded from technical staff into service providers. However, IT professionals are usually better trained in dealing with computers instead of how to interact with human being. The attitude and behavior of IT professionals’ service orientation, that is the ability of service employees to help their customers, affects the service quality of information system as well as IT projects. This study is to identify the personal and environmental factors affecting service orientation in IT service provision. Results showed that IT professional’s work locus of control, which is the personal factor, and organizational service climate, which is the environment factor significantly affect IT professionals’ service orientation attitudes and behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are to be discussed in the conference.

Introduction Goal of the Research Numerous researchers have indicated that a particular piece of misinformation, the perception of Information Technology (IT) professionals as being geeks and loners, may be one of many explanations for the under-representation of women in Information Technology. In particular, Jepson and Perl (2002) identified a nerdy image of IT people as one of six reasons that girls do not choose IT careers. Hazzan and Levy (2006) identified a geeky and loner image as one of three factors discouraging women from IT careers, positing that women are more likely to be interested in careers involving more interaction with people. Margolis and Fisher (2002) suggested that women are more likely to be affected by the geek stereotype than men are, and thus, when women do not experience an intense obsession with computers, they are more likely to contemplate whether they really belong in the IT field. Eglash (2002) described the geek identity as not only a gender but also a race concern that acts as a gatekeeper and paradox in the participation of science and technology as it potentially hinders diversity. The purpose of this research was to determine if girls in the United States, ages sixteen through eighteen, at the age when they are making university and career choices, do indeed view IT professionals in this negative way. Significance of the Issue The geek/loner issue is important for multiple reasons. The predicted growth of IT jobs in the United States (Hecker, 2005), the shortage of IT professionals (McGee, 2005), and the under-representation of women in the IT field have raised serious concern regarding the US technology workforce in the 21st century (Camp, 1997; Grant, Knight, & Steinbach, 2006; Holzer, 2006; Lazowska, 2002; Sanders, 2005). According to the employment outlook for 2004-2014 by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (Hecker, 2005), and mathematical science occupations are projected to increase 30.7 percent, an additional 967,000 jobs. Of the 30 fastest-growing occupations during this time, six are in computer-related disciplines: network systems and communications analysts, application software engineers, systems software engineers, network and systems administrators, database administrators, and systems analysts. A 2005 study by the Society for Information Management (cited in McGee, 2005) lists critical shortages in IT project management and business domain experts for 2005-2008. McGee (2005) cites two reasons for the shortage of IT professionals. A 10 percent decline from 10 or 15 years ago in the number of students majoring in technology-related degrees has been estimated. Some universities report upwards of a 50 percent decrease in enrollment in these degrees. As baby-boomer professionals begin retiring, an expertise shortage will exacerbate the situation. There has been an 18.5 percent decline in the percentage of women in the IT workforce since 1996 (Information Technology Association of America, 2005). Women composed 32.4 percent of the total IT workforce in 2004. A third of these women are in administrative occupations such as data entry keyer and computer operator. If these administrative occupations are removed from the calculations, women IT professionals and managers fall to 24.9 percent, virtually the same percentage as in 2002. Over the past two decades, the number of young women in the US pursuing careers in Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) has significantly decreased. The National Center of Educational Statistics (2005) reported that in 1984, 32,439 undergraduate students received bachelor's degrees in CIS. Men represented 20,416 of the total (63 percent), while women were 12,023 (37 percent). However, in 2004, 59,488 students received their bachelor's degrees in CIS of which 44,585 (75 percent) were men and 14,903 (25 percent) were women. Thus, the percentage of CIS majors who are female has dropped from 37 percent in 1984 to just 25 percent in 2004. …

Background: Information technology (IT) consultants find themselves in a fast-paced, fast-changing environment where client satisfaction, project success and problem-solving are their greatest responsibilities. Because of the characteristics of this environment, there is a need in the IT consultancy industry for effective knowledge sharing, to assist their consultants to solve problems faster. Objectives: The focus of this study was therefore to create such a knowledge sharing strategy by investigating what would be included in a strategy, what the benefits of a knowledge sharing strategy is and what could hinder consultants from sharing their knowledge. Method: Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the consultants from the IT consultancy, with the intention to investigate their current knowledge sharing habits and needs, while literature was also consulted to determine the current practices within similar industries. Results: The outcome of the data and literature analysed lead to the development of a knowledge sharing strategy for the IT consultancy where the research was conducted. Conclusion: In summary, this study concludes with the development of a customised knowledge sharing strategy, with the intention to increase the IT consultants’ ability to deliver better products and enhance their problem-solving abilities. Contribution: This study contributed to the limited existing research on knowledge sharing within South African IT consultancies, thereby enhancing the field of Information Science. It has also granted IT consultancies with insight into how consultants share knowledge and what these consultants believe could be improved regarding knowledge sharing.

The ethical integrity and accountability of Information Technology (IT) professionals is important given our reliance on various forms of IT. We examined the applicability of Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of Cognitive Moral Development (CMD) in non-Western contexts by investigating the ethical values of IT professionals in Asia’s two largest economies. Analysis of survey data from Japan (n=289) and China (n=290) indicates support for the basic six-stage model of CMD. The concept of abiding by universal laws and rules (termed stage 4 reasoning by Kohlberg) was widely accepted by IT professionals in both Japan and China, despite the Confucian cultural emphasis on personal relationships with particularistic obligations. However, differences between Japanese and Chinese IT professionals were found while, in direct contrast with the stage-wise theory of CMD, the respondents from Japan and especially China exhibited significant volatility, reasoning at different stages simultaneously. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

Background: Cervical radiculopathy, commonly called a “pinched nerve,” occurs when a nerve in the neck is irritated or compressed where it branches away from the spinal cord concerning particular neurologic and musculoskeletal conditions in the neck and upper limbs. Fifty-nine percent of work-related musculoskeletal disorders are reported annually by information technology (IT) professionals, among which 30% are neck pain-related disorders. Thus, this study aims to know the prevalence of cervical radiculopathy among IT professionals with neck pain. Aims: The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of cervical radiculopathy among IT professionals with neck pain. Objectives: The objective of this study was to establish the relationship between cervical radiculopathy and neck pain and to find out the percentage of disability by using the Neck Disability Index (NDI). Materials and Methods: The prevalence study was carried out with a sample size (n = 92) involving IT professionals in Bangalore. The NDI questionnaire (NDI) related to daily life activities was used. To identify cervical radiculopathy, specialized testing was performed. Results: Out of 92 samples, 46 tested positive for cervical radiculopathy, showing a prevalence of 50%. Cervical radiculopathy was more prevalent among males than females. There was a difference (P < 0.05) in neck disability according to a special test. Conclusion: This study provides evidence for the prevalence of cervical radiculopathy among IT professionals with neck pain with a positive correlation with gender and working hours per day.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict, work‐overload, work‐family conflict), job stress, job satisfaction and organizational commitment on the information technology (IT) professionals' intention to quit their jobs in Turkey.Design/methodology/approachA structural equation modeling approach was employed to identify the variables that significantly affect the decision to quit. Using LISREL 8.54, data collected from 204 IT professionals were used to test the proposed research model.FindingsThe results revealed that intention to quit one's job is explained by job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Besides, role ambiguity and job stress exert negative indirect effects on the intention to quit one's job. Additionally, organizational commitment is strongly explained by job satisfaction, and job satisfaction is predicted by role ambiguity and job stress.Practical implicationsThe study offers several significant suggestions for the continuity of IT professionals in companies.Originality/valueThere are two contributions of this paper. First, this study provides evidence for the impact of stressors, job stress, job satisfaction and organizational commitment on intention to quit jobs among IT professionals in Turkey. Second, it also provides insight into the importance of stress factors by dividing the stressors into specific stress factors such as work‐family conflict, work‐overload, role conflict, and role ambiguity.

It is seen that information technology (IT) professionals are at higher risk of developing mechanical low back pain due to numerous factors such as a sedentary lifestyle, attaining inappropriate posture for a prolonged period of time, work stresses, and inadequate exercise which lead to overload on the back musculature. Working from home has become the new normal for these professionals in which they attain abnormal posture which leads to pressure on the muscles and thus there is a need to estimate and analyze spinal muscle performance among IT professionals. Our main objectives were to estimate the spinal muscle performance in work-from-home IT professionals of Karad and to find the association between spinal muscle performance with respect to age, gender, and body mass index (BMI). Depending on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 120 IT professionals working from home were selected for this study by simple random sampling. Written consent was taken and a detailed outcome assessment was done by using the static and dynamic abdominal test, extensor test, internal/external oblique test, and back rotators test. Also, functional performance was measured using the back performance scale. SPSS version 20 was used to carry out the analysis of data and results were obtained. In participants of sample size 120 (100%), 27 (26%) were normal, 30 (32%) good, 24 (20%) fair, 21 (14%) poor, 18 (8%) trace; whereas, static extensor strength was 16 (12%) normal, 9 (18%) good, 24 (28%) fair, 18 (36%) poor, 3 (6%) trace. For oblique's, static strength was 10 (20%) normal, 12 (24%) good, 15 (30%) fair, 9 (18%) poor, 4 (8%) trace; whereas, for back rotators strength was 10 (20%) normal, 17 (34%) good, 15 (30%) fair, 8 (16%) poor. The mean number of repetitions for the dynamic endurance test for extensors was 11, for abdominals wase 24 and for obliques was 12. A back performance scale was found with a minimum score of 6 and a maximum score of 11 for activity limitation. There was statistically significant found to be between spinal muscle performance and age (P = 0.041), BMI (P = 0.027). In this study it was found that spinal muscle performance was decreased in IT professionals. It was concluded that there was a significant reduction in static extensor performance compared to static abdominal muscle performance. Also, the spinal muscle performance of extensors was less as compared to that of abdominals. The data also revealed that there was a remarkable association that was seen between spinal muscle performance and age as well as spinal performance and BMI.

Knowledge hoarding in Requirements Elicitation (RE) phase could lead to Information Systems Development (ISD) project failure. Many researchers have discussed important factors in knowledge sharing. Nevertheless, the success rate for ISD projects is low and there are other major factors for consideration. Review was conducted to identify potential gaps in existing literature and to explore new factors that impact ISD knowledge sharing in RE. Based on systematic review of literature, two new factors are identified namely Organizational Justice and Social Interdependence. The success of ISD projects are impacted by organizational justice and social interdependence. The proposed theoretical model provides project managers a new platform to further understand ISD knowledge sharing between business users and external IT professionals in RE.

As the significant success of business enterprises, information system development becomes IT managers' concern to keep the balance between business and information system. The information system has an important role to deliver advantages to the business enterprises. To keep maintain these issues, information system should be developed to innovate the business process. However, in developing an information system, the information system process improvement may obtain the possibility of information system development failures. Therefore, to avoid the failures in implementing information systems there are some important factors. Those factors are called critical success factors (CSF). Therefore, this study observes the critical success factors (CSF) in information system development (ISD) projects. This systematic literature review discusses critical success factors in information system development. The method section determines the research question. It also describes how to collect and filter the data. The order of this research written is according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses Checklist or also known as PRISMA Checklist. Therefore, to collect and filter the data, this systematic literature review uses Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses method or also known as PRISMA method. There were 20 papers selected to help this research based on the filtering papers due to PRISMA flow diagram. Most of those papers are discussing information system development and the rest are about factors of information system development. The result section has two parts, which are study characteristics and study results. This systematic literature review concluded that there are five critical success factors in developing information system projects. Those critical success factors are people, project, organization, knowledge, and expertise. Those critical success factors are also supported by several items of each factor. Therefore, the output of this research is expected to satisfy the information system development projects to meet the organizations' need and reduce also possibly avoid the failures in information system development projects.

Features of technology and its linkages with turnover intention and work exhaustion among IT professionals: A multi-study investigation

PurposeThis study examined how six institutionalized socialization tactics affect a particular occupation of knowledge workers – information technology (IT) professionals' role adjustment (role conflict and role ambiguity) and organizational attachment variables (job satisfaction, affective commitment, continuance commitment and intention to quit).Design/methodology/approachThe research model and hypotheses were tested using path analysis techniques with survey data collected from 187 recently hired IT professionals.FindingsThe results showed that the six socialization tactics affected IT professionals differently. Socialization tactics that recognize employees' values and skills (investiture tactics) and that emphasize the interpersonal and mentoring aspects (serial tactics) had the most significant effects on employees' role adjustment and organizational attachment. The study also revealed complex mediating relationships among socialization tactics, role adjustment and organizational attachment variables.Originality/valueThis study provides new insights about the differential effects of the various socialization tactics on IT professionals' role adjustment and organizational attachment. It also sheds light on the complex mediating relationships among socialization tactics, role adjustment and organizational attachment variables. Without considering the logical relationships between the various variables, studies examining the direct effects of socialization on isolated organizational outcome variables may overlook important linkages that are critical for explaining the inconsistent results in past empirical studies.

This study explores the different aspects of organisational commitment and its determinants for Information Technology (IT) professionals. IT-dependent companies should consider organisational commitment and ensure that relevant issues are properly addressed in their human resource strategies. The study employs Meyer and Allen’s approach to develop a new instrument to measure organisational commitment and its determinants. They defined three dimensions: Affective, continuance and normative commitment. The study covered IT professionals in Turkish private banks. Results showed that affective commitment is higher among IT professionals than the other types of commitment meaning that they work in their organisations because they want to.

Modern research is becoming data-intensive. Data-intensive refers to volume, velocity, heterogeneity, and complexity of data as well as the intricate interactions among combinations of research objectives, models, users, and information systems that deal with these data. Increasingly, scientific discovery will be powered by advanced computing capabilities that help researchers explore, manipulate, analyze, visualize, and synthesize big datasets.Computation is a fundamental element of modern research. Information Technology (IT) professionals use algorithms to design experiments, simulate real-world operations, analyze scientific problems, and suggest practical solutions. The speed at which any given scientific discipline advances will depend on how well its researchers collaborate with one another and with IT professionals in areas such as cloud computing, workflow management, databases, modeling, analytics, and others. As a result, computation changes the role of IT professionals from service providers to collaborators whose input is critical to the success of the research. Through their understanding of technology and best practices, IT professionals contribute substantive knowledge to the advancement of research methodology and modern science.This presentation discusses a new paradigm of scientific discovery based on data-intensive research and offers insights into how it can be realized through a few real-world research projects at the Agricultural Research Service.

The increasing need for adaptive e-learning systems among information technology (IT) professionals highlights the need for intelligent performance analysis framework for handling complex and high-dimensional data. Thus, this research introduced a deep learning based model for analyzing the performance of IT professionals in adaptive e-learning scenario. Initially, the data acquisition is employed based on behavioral, interactional and assessment metrics. The gathered data are preprocessed using noise elimination based on redundant data removal, K-nearest neighbor based imputation for handling missing values and synthetic minority oversampling technique for balancing class distribution across performance levels. Then, to reduce dimensionality and enhance learning efficiency, ensemble-based feature selection approach is devised using symmetric uncertainty, mutual information, F-Score, Gini Index, and Chi-Square. The chosen features are utilized by the proposed attention based cascaded shuffle long term dependent network (ACLNet) model for analyzing the performance of the IT professionals. The proposed model is optimized using the chaotic football team training (ChF2T) algorithm for enhancing the convergence and generalization by integrating chaotic dynamics into the parameter search process. The proposed ChF2T-ACLNet method acquired the accuracy, precision, recall, F-score, Kappa, and computation time of 98.9%, 99.1%, 98.7%, 98.4%, 0.985, and 175 s respectively.