What Motivates First-generation College Students to Consider an IT Career? An Integrative Perspective

2023 | Communications of the Association for Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Deng, Xuefei (Nancy); Zaza, Sam; Armstrong, Deborah

Abstract: A career in information technology (IT) presents a viable source of economic ad ... Expand

Abstract: A career in information technology (IT) presents a viable source of economic advancement for college graduates, yet ethnic minority students remain underrepresented in the IT workforce. Such underrepresentation is often exacerbated by their first-generation student (FGS) status. It, however, remains unclear what causes the discrepancy between FGSs and their counterparts in terms of their choice to enter into an IT career. To address this gap, this study aims to reveal the factors motivating FGSs to consider an IT career and examines the association of influencing factors with personal and demographic factors (gender, race, ethnicity). This qualitative research overlays capital theory and social cognitive career theory to develop an integrated sensitizing framework and draws on individual difference theory in interpreting the findings. Our analysis of the open-ended narrative responses of 193 surveys collected from a minority-serving university revealed 10 key factors influencing IT career choice. A theoretical model incorporating individual differences, generational status, and environmental influences is proposed to advance the discussion of influencing factors in IT career choice toward further theory building and empirical testing. The paper concludes with implications for motivating the IT career choice of the ethnic minority, first-generation student population. established career theory, premises various forms of capital as enablers of career decisions (Bourdieu, 1986), and has been previously applied in the information systems (IS) literature (e.g., Joshi et al., 2016). This qualitative positivist case study research develops an analytical generalization (Galli, 2011) regarding the IT career choices of ethnic minority college students. This approach is appropriate for identifying the applicability of key constructs for this population as we investigate their IT career choices. This paper proceeds as follows: We describe the context of our investigation in Section 2 and then review research on IT careers, social cognitive career theory, and capital theory, and their use in the IT context in Section 3. In Section 4, we present our research method and illustrate the data analysis procedures, and in Section 5, we detail the results regarding the motivating factors. In Section 6, we discuss the themes that emerge in ethnic minority college students' IT career choice motivations and propose a variance model based on prior research and our empirical findings. We discuss the study's contributions to theory and practice in Section 7, followed by the study's limitations and future research directions in Section 8. Collapse

Topics: IT career self efficacy IT workforce social capital individual characteristic

Methods: case study survey qualitative interview qualitative coding theory development

Theories: individual differences theory of gender difference theory

What Motivates First-generation College Students to Consider an IT Career? An Integrative Perspective

2022 | Communications of the Association for Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Deng, Xuefei (Nancy); Zaza, Sam; Armstrong, Deborah

Abstract: A career in information technology (IT) presents a viable source of economic ad ... Expand

Abstract: A career in information technology (IT) presents a viable source of economic advancement for college graduates, but ethnic minority students remain underrepresented in the IT workforce. Such underrepresentation is often exacerbated by their first-generation student (FGS) status. Yet, it remains unclear what leads to FGSs' IT career choice compared to their counterparts. To address this gap, this study aims to reveal the factors motivating FGSs to consider an IT career and examines the association of influencing factors with personal and demographic factors (gender, race, ethnicity). This qualitative research overlays capital theory and social cognitive career theory to develop an integrated sensitizing framework and draws on individual difference theory in interpreting the findings. Our analysis of the openended narrative responses of 193 surveys collected from a minority-serving university revealed 10 key factors influencing IT career choice. A theoretical model incorporating individual differences, generational status, and environmental influences is proposed to advance the discussion of influencing factors in IT career choice toward further theory building and empirical testing. The paper concludes with implications for motivating the IT career choice of the ethnic minority, first-generation student population. Collapse

Topics: IT career IT workforce self efficacy social capital IT skill

Methods: case study survey qualitative interview qualitative coding theory development

Theories: individual differences theory of gender difference theory

Socio-Technical Change: The Equilibrium Paradox

2018 | European Conference On Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Fischer, Louise Harder; Baskerville, Richard

Abstract: In the domain of change and information systems (IS), we have persisted in the a ... Expand

Abstract: In the domain of change and information systems (IS), we have persisted in the assumption that a wellfunctioning IS exhibits a balance between the social and the technical structures such that this system rests in a state of stable equilibrium. When transformational change arises, the system falls into a state of disequilibrium, until it reaches a new state of equilibrium. This assumption no longer gives a full explanation of the complex dynamics in today’s enterprise. In this paper, we explain the concept of unstable equilibrium that results from the continuous change that individuated individuals make in socio-technical structures. Our findings arise from a critical realist perspective used to interpret data from an e-group interview with 11 professionals working in platform-based organizations. We find that a generative mechanism of contradictory complementarity, denoted as individualization and socialization, now inhabits the IS and causes outcomes that are both individual-technical and sociotechnical. Now change happens in the surface-structures resting in unstable equilibrium, while the deep structures remain in stable equilibrium. This equilibrium paradox in socio-technical change explains how platform-based organizations achieve change by both achieving agility from their IS while simultaneously achieving stability. Collapse

Topics: cloud computing productivity mobile application electronic mail enterprise resource planning

Methods: group interview focus group survey personal interview qualitative coding

Theories: punctuated equilibrium theory theory of change sociotechnical systems theory adaptive structuration theory economic theory

Understanding the value of integrated RFID systems: a case study from apparel retail

2009 | European Journal of Information Systems | Citations: 14

Authors: Thiesse, Frédéric; Al-Kassab, Jasser; Fleisch, Elgar

Abstract: This contribution is concerned with the business value of Radio Frequency Identi ... Expand

Abstract: This contribution is concerned with the business value of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in retail. We present a case study of an RFID project at Galeria Kaufhof, a subsidiary of Metro Group and one of the largest department store chains in Europe. The project encompasses a variety of RFID applications at the intersection of store logistics and customer service. The contribution that our study makes to the literature is threefold. First, we describe an innovative large-scale trial that goes beyond what was done in earlier projects in several respects. The most fundamental difference from previous trials is the full integration of RFID event data with point-of-sale (POS) and master data, which for the first time offers the retailer the opportunity to directly observe and analyse physical in-store processes. Second, the heterogeneity of RFID applications implemented by Kaufhof allows us to theorise about the effects that RFID may have on business processes from an IT value perspective. We develop a conceptual model to explain the different cause-and-effect chains between RFID investments and their impact on firm performance, the role of complementary and contextual factors, and the difficulty of assessing these impacts using objective performance measures. Third, we compare the case to a prior trial conducted by Kaufhof about 5 years earlier. The differences between the lessons that the company learned in the two projects illustrate the impact of technological advances and standardisation efforts in recent years on managerial perceptions of RFID business value, which allows for the derivation of a number of useful implications for practice. Collapse

Topics: radio frequency identification organizational value IS value data quality organizational productivity

Methods: case study conceptual modelling qualitative interview literature study theory development