Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjeb20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] Date: 11 January 2016, At: 22:09
Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
A Case Study in Effectively Bridging the Business
Skills Gap for the Information Technology
Professional
Michael F. Gorman
To cite this article: Michael F. Gorman (2011) A Case Study in Effectively Bridging the Business Skills Gap for the Information Technology Professional, Journal of Education for Business, 86:1, 17-24, DOI: 10.1080/08832321003663348
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832321003663348
Published online: 20 Oct 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 172
CopyrightC Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0883–2323
DOI: 10.1080/08832321003663348
A Case Study in Effectively Bridging the Business
Skills Gap for the Information Technology
Professional
Michael F. Gorman
University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio, USA
A longitudinal study of information technology (IT) managers at a Fortune 200 company in the Southwest United States was conducted to assess the effectiveness of a training program at bridging the perceived business skills gap for IT employees. A needs assessment was carried out, resulting in a 4-module training program. The program was evaluated for its ability to meet specific business skills deficiencies. Student perceptions were measured both at the time each skill module was delivered and at the conclusion of the training program with an online survey of all participants. Based on these results, the authors propose business training for skills often lacking in technology professionals to bridge the gap between technical skills training and leadership training.
Keywords: business skills, future trends, nontechnical, skills gap, training
INTRODUCTION
Information technology (IT) has been recognized for its abil-ity to transform the organization, but as Weiss and Anderson (2004) noted, the technologists themselves can have a similar transforming impact on the technology if enabled with both business and technology skills. As pointed out by McGrath (2007) and Swartz (2005), technology and project manage-ment skills alone are not enough for IT professionals to have a more significant impact on their projects and a broader impact on the organization. A technology professional well versed in critical business skills can have a positive influence on not only the successful outcome of a project, but also the features and functionalities of a software project, as well as which projects are eventually undertaken.
Business skills for IT employees are a growing need. Luftman, Kempaiah, and Nash (2006) identified key enablers for successful IT organizational alignment with business management, such as (a) IT understands the firm’s business environment, (b) IT and the business have a close partner-ship, (c) IT demonstrates strong leaderpartner-ship, and (d) IT’s plans
Correspondence should be addressed to Michael F. Gorman, Uni-versity of Dayton, School of Business, Department of Manage-ment Information Systems, Operations ManageManage-ment, and Decision Sci-ences, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH 45469–2130, USA. E-mail: michael.gorman@udayton.edu
link to business plans. Smith and McKeen (2006) conducted a technology executive focus group to evaluate anticipated changes in IT from 2005 to 2010. The study reports that IT executives see the role of the IT function changing from strategy mobilization (carrying out the business strategy in 2005) to strategy collaboration (collaborating with the busi-ness functions in formulating strategy in 2010). Smith and McKeen (2005) reported IT staffing priorities would change from emphasizing business technologists (staff with business and technical competencies in 2005) to business-technology conductors (leaders with IT and business skills who can co-ordinate complex initiatives involving many different partic-ipants in 2010).
Zwieg et al. (2006) reported on interviews of IT execu-tives who identified that a key challenge in the IT workplace is to transform technically skilled entry-level hires into mi-dlevel IT managers with strong business management skills, as the required skill mix shifts from technical to more project management and business skills. A survey found in Johnson (2006) confirms this trend; business and process-analysis skills are reported among the top three skill needs in upcom-ing years. Similarly, a survey by Plice and Reinig (2009) found written and communication skills, not technical skills, top the list of most important skills for IT. Kim, Hsu, and Stern (2006) found that combining the top business skills with top technical skills is important to filling the perceived skills gap in IT professionals.
18 M. F. GORMAN
Recently proposed revisions to Management Informa-tion Systems (MIS) programs and MBA programs have sur-faced, ostensibly to meet some of these perceived needs. For examples, see Gorgone et al. (2002) on the proposed IS 2002 curriculum; also, see Clark (2005) and Celsi and Wolfinbarger (2001) for other suggested curricular design changes. Despite the identification of general business skills needs in each of these proposals, as would be expected, pro-posed curricula are still highly technology centric. Scarce course hours are allocated to core IT topics, leaving little time for badly needed general business skills except as gen-eral business course prerequisites. Kim et al. (2006) noted that many requisite business skills are still not part of typical MIS programs, except as covered by other disciplines. In any case, Schambach and Blanton (2002) suggested that in the dynamic business and IT environments, business skills re-quirements constantly evolve and need updating. Entry-level IT employees may use these skills less, and they do not fully develop or atrophy by the time in their career when they would be most useful. Additionally, it should be noted that many IT employees may not be graduates of MIS programs, thus are lacking these skills in the first place. Yet, Lee and Lee (2006) reported that business skills (management, social, and business savvy) appear as three of the top five most often sought after skill sets in recent IT job postings.
SIGNIFICANCE
This research describes the motivation, design and devel-opment of a training program undertaken by a Fortune 200 company in the Southwest United States designed to provide the most important missing business skills for its IT employ-ees and the results of a survey administered to its participants. It is a useful case study of how the skills gap was addressed in one organization and because the participants’ reception to the training is captured. The program concepts are general and easily applied in any organization. The information pre-sented here can be used by educators determining curricular needs that better meet the needs of business (Al-Imamy & Farhat, 2005) and by IT organizations trying to understand and bridge the business skills gap in their employees.
To my knowledge, this is the first longitudinal survey of IT professional training attendees’ assessment of business skills training. Previous surveys have captured MIS faculty perceptions or IT organizational needs based on surveys of IT practitioners (Banerjee & Lin, 2006), but they rarely capture the perceptions of skilled IT practitioners who are the recipi-ents of specific training meant to address these gaps (Martz & Cata, 2008). I evaluate the value of specific, in-depth courses to the participants, as opposed to surveys based on brief and possibly vague skills descriptions such as critical thinking or analytical skills.
FIGURE 1 The contextual framework for an IT business skills training program.
Training Program
The training program was designed to meet the perceived skills gap within the IT department of the company following an in-depth needs assessment of the organization. The needs were based on the perceptions of the Chief Information Offi-cer of the company and discussions with senior members of the IT department and human resources representatives, as well as those needs typically identified in the literature (e.g., Klein, Jiang, & Tesch, 2002; Schambach & Blanton, 2002). The training program focused on providing useful business skills more tailored to the specific needs of an IT profes-sional than a general MBA program would be. Thibodeau (2006) reported companies such as Dow Chemical Co. and Wells Fargo have identified similar needs, reporting the de-velopment of general business skills training courses for IT professionals.
As depicted in Figure 1, the program was developed within the context of existing job-specific, IT-centric skills training, and the more general, higher level soft skills and leadership training already offered by the company to all management employees. General leadership and soft skills training are at the top of the pyramid. The company’s human resources department provides annual general leadership training and regular teambuilding and soft skill training (such as Meyers-Briggs assessments, for example) to all of its management employees.
The hard IT technical skills that are core to IT compe-tencies reside at the base of the pyramid. Of course, the IT department provides employees essential broad-based and specific technical training. The IT department also provides training in essential IT–business crossover skills (that are at the crossroads of business practice and IT implemen-tation), such as project management and business process
analysis identified as essential by researchers such as Peslak (2005).
However, I uncovered a gap between the hard IT-centric and crossover skills and the soft leadership skills training, which gave rise to the training initiative. The program was designed to fill that gap. The training program was designed to enhance the critical business skills of the midlevel IT professionals. This training program builds capabilities in technology personnel to allow them to have more influence in the direction and design of their projects and thus have more impact on the organization as a whole. The program trains IT employees in the essential business skills to gain credibility with their end users. The training program centers on the skills identified by researchers that IT professionals generally value and are willing to use and that are badly in need in corporate IT departments (Lee & Lee, 2006; Lerouge, Newton, & Blanton, 2005); thus, I developed a program to fill that gap.
The business skills come in two levels of sophistica-tion: business foundation and business consulting courses. The foundation courses help employees efficiently and ac-curately quantify, analyze, and assess the business viabil-ity of IT projects. The consulting courses support the more advanced effective decision-making and persuasive technol-ogy consulting skills. The training program consists of four classes over seven training days. The foundation skills classes include Spreadsheet Skills Training (SST; 1 day) and Fi-nancial Evaluation of Projects (FEP; 2 days). The more ad-vanced midtier skills courses cover Effective Decision Mak-ing (EDM; 2 days) and Effective Technology ConsultMak-ing (ETC; 2 days). An employee may take any combination of these courses over a 2- or 3-year period to fit this train-ing in with technical and leadership skills traintrain-ing. Because the classes represent the perceived skill needs in the or-ganization, in the next subsection each class is described briefly.
Financial Evaluation of Projects
The greatest perceived need was in applied financial con-cepts such as time value of money, net present value, and internal rate of return. The FEP class was designed to show attendees how daily technology-centric decisions affect cor-porate financial health so that they can make better financial decisions for the company. Students were motivated through the application of these concepts to familiar decisions such as refinancing a home or saving for retirement or college education. Once the basics were mastered, I turned toward corporate finance as it applies to IT decisions.
Although financial skills training is not usually identified in the literature as a key skill for IT employees, I saw immedi-ate benefits of such thinking. IT professionals too easily view their projects as technology projects but have less ability to describe and evaluate what they do from a financial perspec-tive. Long-held preconceptions about the best technology
(e.g., most reliable, secure, scalable) take on a different color when viewed from a financial business perspective. Students learned that common practices such as an equitable spread-ing of scarce resources among multiple competspread-ing projects reduces the return on investment of all of the projects by delaying all of their delivery dates. Relatively arcane top-ics such as tax and depreciation law on IT investment help with understanding the financial impacts of project schedul-ing, build versus buy decisions, and outsourcing decisions. The course was designed so that technology professionals would see their projects the way the finance group would assess them—as immediate cash outlays with future returns. Attendees came to understand and appreciate the technology project approval process, which was driven by these financial drivers, and were able to more fully participate in the process given these new skills.
Spreadsheet Skills Training
Because any class on financial analytical skills would be less useful without a means for efficient and practical implemen-tation, the FEP class was offered in a hands-on computer lab environment, using spread sheets (via Microsoft Excel) as the vehicle for implementing the analytics. I found early on that somewhat surprisingly, IT professionals are often lacking un-derstanding of key Excel functionalities, despite the attention to personal productivity software technology in MIS curric-ula. This deficiency is particularly true for more senior IT staff who may not have first-hand experience, or training, in these functionalities that have only become widespread (e.g., Pivot Tables) in the last 10 years.
Somewhat tellingly, Kim et al. (2006) pointed out that non-IT employees rank spreadsheet skills significantly more important for IT employees than IT employees do. They in fact find this is the single greatest disparity in perceived IT skill deficit between non-IT and IT employees. This skill gap also demarks a key disconnect between many IT profession-als and their business counterparts, who rely on spreadsheets for the vast preponderance of their business analytics and for much of their communication of analytical topics. The SST class helps to address this disparity. Proficiency with spreadsheets helps the IT professional to speak the analytic language of the client.
Effective Decision Making
The midtier courses build on the analytical and tool skills of the foundation classes, but turn toward the psychological and organizational challenges of making good technology deci-sions. The EDM class was designed around perceived skills deficiencies, such as problem-solving and critical-thinking skills also identified by Downey, McMurtrey, and Zeltman (2007). EDM describes the decision-making process, po-tential pitfalls, and the tools and techniques that lead to better thought out decisions. This course provides rational,
20 M. F. GORMAN
objective, and quantitative approaches to making any deci-sion, including the financial ones described in the FEP course. These are the similar approaches identified by Enns, Huff, and Higgins (2003) and Holmes (2006) as most effective for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) for gaining buy-in from their peers; this training enables the same kind of think-ing throughout the IT organization, as suggested in Pratt (2007).
In the EDM course, both common and complicated de-cisions are viewed from numerous perspectives, including consideration of quantifiable and nonquantifiable factors. In particular, attendees see the application of cost/benefit anal-ysis in both simple and relatively complex multiple crite-ria decision-making problems. Attendees further learn the role of sophisticated skills such as optimization, regres-sion analysis, and deciregres-sion trees to help support their deci-sions. Additionally, the psychological challenges of group decision making and evaluating risks of a decision are discussed.
Effective Technology Consulting
Recent research by Enns, McFarlin, and Huff (2007) empha-sizes the importance of the CIO’s ability to influence out-comes, while focusing on the importance of the presence of influencing skills in CIOs for effective outcomes. Lower tiers of IT management can play similar roles on a lesser scale, extending the application of that finding deeper into the IT or-ganization. Smith and McKeen (2005) suggested that if the CIO has such skills, but the remainder of the organization does not, whatever progress the CIO makes in influencing decisions may be diminished as projects are carried out by lower levels in the organization.
Although rational influencing behavior is effective, an emotional connection helps gain significant buy-in (see Enns et al., 2003; Holmes, 2006.) The ETC module covers the many hard and soft consultative skills required for in-house technology consulting. Topics covered are drawn from the 11 influence behaviors exhibited by CIOs described in Enns et al. (2007), such as rational persuasion, inspirational and personal appeal, collaboration, exchange, and coalition. The course outlines the general consulting process as it applies to technology projects, including requirements specification, project scoping, and project management stages. However, it focuses on the critical, but often underutilized, entry and exit skills so practiced by consultants but discounted by many in-house IT staff. The importance of relationship development, trust building, and maintaining a medium- to long-term per-spective with the business client is paramount to building a collaborative, peer-to-peer relationship. The course also trains participants on negotiating skills when influencing their decisions. In summary, it is not enough to be tech-nologically sophisticated and make good decisions; rather, the effective business professional must be persuasive to be effective.
A longitudinal survey of midlevel managers (senior ana-lyst through director level) who participated in the course was conducted at two stages: immediately after taking each course module and at the end of the training program via an online survey. I evaluated their opinions both immedi-ately upon taking the course and after returning to work for a period of time of 1–4 years. The questions focus on the value of particular skills gained in the courses and their use-fulness to the participant’s present position. Further, I asked them to project the usefulness of the course content in future positions they might hold.
The response rate for the online survey at the end of the training program was 44% (91 responses out of 208 survey requests). Many of the respondents took more than one of the courses, thus the student–class responses total was 130. Not all participants took all of the course offerings; each respondent only commented on the course or courses that he or she had taken.
Demographic data for the participants is based on the online survey. The average survey respondent age was 45 years old, with an average of 13 years of service at the com-pany. The course targeted midtier IT employees (managers and project leaders), although some assistant vice presidents and analysts were trained as well. Table 1 summarizes the frequency of each position title of survey respondents.
The education level of the survey respondents varies widely, as is shown in Table 2. Table 3 breaks down the prior education by type of degree.
TABLE 2
TABLE 3
Table 3 shows most respondents have neither a business major nor an MBA, either of which could have provided skills like those provided at general business skills training class. The plurality of the IT employees has graduated from more technical (computer science or computer information science) programs. This statistic emphasizes the need for the development of MIS-like skill sets in this IT organization. This observation also lends to a difference between academ-ically based MIS curricular surveys and practitioner surveys on IT skill set needs: a survey of MIS academics centers en-tirely on MIS curricular requirements; however, practitioner IT groups have employees from a number of different aca-demic backgrounds.
Table 4 shows the percent of survey respondents who had prior training (including university coursework) in key busi-ness subject areas that were identified in the needs assess-ment. Only between 14 and 35% of the trainees had formal business training to assess the business context in which they apply their skills. Regardless of educational background or former training, refresher courses on these skills may have merit.
RESULTS
I report the results in two parts: the in-person course exit surveys and the online survey conducted at the conclusion of the program.
TABLE 4
Prior Formal Training in Course Topics
Training subject area Percent (%)
Spread sheeting skills training 35 Financial evaluation of projects 26 Effective decision making 25 Effective technology consulting 14
Course Exit Survey Results
The participation rate of the in-course surveys was essen-tially 100%. (Although there was no tracking of those who opted not to respond, virtually all participants filled out an evaluation.) The in-course survey used a 5-point Likert-type scaled ranging from 5 (excellent) to 1 (poor).
Table 5 summarizes the course exit survey responses. The courses were well received, with attendee ratings on an exit survey averaging on the question How would you rate this course overall? between very good and excellent (4.3–4.5 out of 5). Perhaps most interesting is that in response to the question, How would you rate the applicability of the course material to your job, participants generally rated them very good applicability (3.7–4.7 out of 5); similarly, participants found the material useful (4.2–4.5) and interesting (4.2–4.7). From these results, it was observed that technology profes-sionals value the course material in these core business skills training classes. The ETC course was offered on a limited basis to the most senior managers who would benefit most from this advanced training; thus, its sample size is low. De-spite this, these more senior members of the IT organization see the greatest applicability of this training to their jobs.
In their exit surveys, students may also provide textual comments on the courses. Generally, students comment on valuing a different way of thinking about things and on the relevance or usefulness of the course material. Some selected student comments on the various courses included:
• “I see a lot of things I can use to be more efficient in my future work with Excel. The time I will save will give me a good return on my investment in this class.” (SST Course, FEP Course)
• “It [FEP] provoked thought on how to plan and justify our work. We too often don’t consider the financials.”
• “Great [FEP] course! We get so buried in technology, sometimes difficult to see the financial result.”
• “We prepare the numbers before Finance puts a NPV and IRR on it. Now I will be able to know how they are going to view our projects.” (FEP Course)
• “This [EDM] course helps me reflect on my strategies being used in decision making and will help me avoid pitfalls and mistakes.”
• “You can’t just know the technology. What good is having a good idea, if you can’t convince the client?” (ETC course)
End-of-Program, Follow-Up Survey Results
As a follow-up to the exit survey, an online survey was ad-ministered in fall 2007, which took place 1–4 years after the training was administered, depending on when the student took each course. The purpose of the survey was to both evaluate the participants’ perspectives on the courses after some time had passed and they were able to integrate course content into their jobs, but also to allow them to compare
22 M. F. GORMAN
TABLE 5
Course Exit Survey Responses
Financial evaluation of projects
Spread sheet training
Effective decision making
Effective technology consulting
How would you rate: Mean S.D. Mean S.D. Mean S.D. Mean S.D.
•This class overall? 4.44 0.61 4.33 0.62 4.33 0.62 4.50 0.52
•The usefulness of the course content? 4.28 0.66 4.31 0.68 4.22 0.58 4.50 0.52
•The course’s ability to meet its objectives and your expectations? 4.20 0.64 4.27 0.66 4.21 0.69 4.50 0.52
•Your interest level in the topic? 4.18 0.76 4.31 0.70 4.36 0.59 4.67 0.49
•The applicability of the course material to your job? 3.73 0.84 3.87 0.83 3.94 0.71 4.67 0.49
•The overall pace of presentation /volume of material? 3.90 0.81 3.75 0.84 3.76 0.84 4.17 0.72
•The instructor’s enthusiasm? 4.90 0.33 4.85 0.39 4.84 0.37 4.67 0.49
•The instructor’s expertise? 4.86 0.37 4.85 0.39 4.93 0.26 4.67 0.49
•The prepared course materials? 4.45 0.71 4.45 0.58 4.48 0.65 4.33 0.49
Count 153 75 86 12
the course content to other, technology-specific courses they have taken. Not all courses were taken by all survey respon-dents; respondents commented only on the courses that they attended.
Table 6 summarizes attendees’ evaluations of the courses in a number of dimensions on a 7-point Likert-type scale. Respondents agreed that courses with general business skills helped them in their present position, and generally more so in future positions for the ETC and FEP classes. The classes helped them communicate, see the business context, and ana-lyze problems related to their projects, and to a lesser degree affect the direction of their projects, as well as influence the projects that the company undertakes. Most interestingly,
at-tendees feel that these business skills classes are somewhat more helpful than specific technology skill classes in their present position and anticipate them being more so for their future career. These results attest to the need for and the high attendee valuation of general business skills training for IT professionals.
DISCUSSION
In this case study evaluating business skills training for the IT professional, I observed that experienced IT managers see the value of business skills training programs. Consistent with
TABLE 6
Follow-Up-Survey Response Summaries
Spread sheet training
Financial evaluation of project
Effective decision making
Effective technology
consulting
I think the skills I gained in the class help me in my...
∗
Mean S.D. Mean S.D. Mean S.D. Mean S.D.
current position. 6.10 0.88 5.70 0.94 6.00 0.76 5.70 1.51 future positions. 6.00 0.98 6.00 0.93 6.00 0.71 6.20 1.28 These classes have helped me to better...
∗
...communicate with my business partner. 5.63 0.99 5.40 1.03 5.50 1.05 5.67 1.03 ...understand the big picture business context of my projects. 5.74 1.01 6.10 0.77 5.60 1.01 5.83 1.17 ...analyze and make better business decisions surrounding my
projects.
6.04 1.17 5.90 0.77 6.00 0.82 5.83 0.89
...affect the direction and outcome of my projects. 5.64 1.10 5.45 1.00 5.61 0.92 5.83 1.17 ...influence the types of projects IT undertakes. 5.16 1.54 5.35 1.18 4.69 1.49 6.08 1.16 Generally, I find general business skills classes like the ones
discussed here to be helpful than specific technology skills classes for my...
∗ ∗
...current and past positions. 4.89 1.14 5.00 1.11 4.81 1.13 4.83 1.47 ...career. 4.98 1.11 5.45 1.10 4.91 1.03 5.00 1.26
Count: 58 22 44 6
Scales:∗Strongly agree (7), Agree (6), Agree somewhat (5) Neither agree nor disagree (4), Disagree somewhat (3) Disagree (2), Strongly disagree (1).
∗ ∗
Much more (7), More (6), Somewhat more (5), Equally (4), Somewhat less (3), Less (2), Much less (1).
research on trends in IT, and with recommended curricular changes in MIS programs, results from the present study sug-gest that this training program develops key business skills for IT professionals.
Limitations
The study had limitations that should be noted. As a case study, the demographics presented of the IT personnel may not be shared more globally, but there is no reason to believe they are unusual in any particular way. The perceived busi-ness training needs of this organization may not reflect those of some other organizations, though they are largely con-sistent with the IT training needs identified in the literature. Also, I was only able to evaluate the effectiveness of training classes that were offered and can say nothing about the ap-propriateness of alternative business skills training topics that were considered but not offered in this program (i.e., contract negotiations). Future researchers should evaluate the value to IT professionals of other courses or test the applicability of these findings in other organizations.
The proposed training program was aimed at teaching specific technical business skills: financial, spreadsheet, and decision making as they apply to the IT professional to fill the gap between the hard IT training and the soft HR skills training. The higher end, ETC course began to delve into softer topics, such as influencing, group decision making, and emotional intelligence which begins to carry some per-ceived material overlap to some degree with HR training and leadership programs. I observed that at the other end of the spectrum, spreadsheet training is somewhat similar to spe-cific technology skills training (e.g., database design, spespe-cific programming languages). Thus, I saw some grey areas in the defined program, but despite these grey areas, attendees per-ceived value with respect to other training courses. Future researchers should further delineate these skill sets to both better fill training gaps and to avoid duplication of efforts in different parts of the organization.
Recommendations
In today’s IT environment, it is not enough for IT profes-sionals to get the project done on time and under budget. Often, IT professionals are seen as out of touch with the business, focusing strictly on requirements, costs, and code. IT professionals need to cultivate an image as enablers of business rather than gatekeepers of technology. In order to successfully cultivate such an image, IT professionals re-quire business skills training. Recent research and surveys on future trends indicate critical skills that are necessary and often underdeveloped in IT professionals. Analytical, finan-cial, decision-making, and persuasion skills are critical for IT employees to be able to guide and influence technology decisions.
This article describes a training program to foster devel-opment of those skills to meet these future needs of an IT
organization. Such training programs enable members of the IT organization to more effectively work with their busi-ness units; it also ensures present technical professionals are more broadly trained, resulting in better adaptability for the present cultural shift to multisourced IT environments. Per-haps more importantly, trainees themselves see this training as more valuable than the technology skills training they re-ceive. Armed with strong analytical skills, sound business decision-making methods and the ability to make the busi-ness case to their clients, IT professionals can lead the direc-tion technology takes in their organizadirec-tions.
REFERENCES
Al-Imamy, S., & Farhat, N. (2005). The MIS expectation gap in the UAE: Industry expectations versus academic preparation.Journal of American Academy of Business,7(2), 78–84.
Banerjee S., & Lin, W. (2006). Essential entry-level skills for systems ana-lysts.Journal of Education for Business,81, 282–286.
Celsi, R., & Wolfinbarger, M. (2001). Creating renaissance employees in an era of convergence between information technology and business strategy: A proposal for business schools.Journal of Education for Business,76, 308–312.
Clark, L. (2005, March 22). IS masters degree puts focus on business skill.
Computer Weekly, 48.
Downey, J. P., McMurtrey, M. E., & Zeltman, S. M. (2007). Mapping the MIS curriculum based on critical skills of new graduates: An empirical examination of IT professionals.Journal of Information Systems Educa-tion,19, 351–363.
Enns, H., Huff, S., & Higgins, S. (2003). CIO lateral influence behaviors: Gaining peers’ commitment to strategic information systems.MIS Quar-terly,27(1), 155–176.
Enns, H., McFarlin, D., & Huff, S. (2007). How CIOs can effectively use influence behaviors.MIS Quarterly Executive,6(1), 29–38.
Gorgone, J., Valacich, J., Topi, H., Longenecker, H., Feinstein, D., & Davis, G. (2002). IS 2002—Final report of the undergraduate information sys-tems model curriculum. In L. Applegate, R. Galliers, & J. I. DeGross (Eds.),Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Information Systems(pp. 923–931).
Holmes, H. (2006). The art of influence.CIO,20(3), 48–58.
Johnson, C. (2006). CIO research reports: 2006 midyear staffing update.
CIO Magazine: Research reports. Retrieved from http://www2.cio.com/ research/surveyreport.cfm?ID=111
Kim, Y., Hsu, J., & Stern, M. (2006). An update on the IS/IT skills gap.
Journal of Information Systems Education,17(4), 395–402.
Klein, G., Jiang, J., & Tesch, D. (2002). Wanted: Project teams with a blend of IS professional orientations.Communications of the ACM,45(6), 81–87.
Lee, S., & Lee, C. (2006). IT managers requisite skills.Communications of the ACM,49(4), 111–114.
Lerouge, C., Newton, S., & Blanton, J. (2005). Exploring the systems analyst skill set: Perceptions, preferences, age and gender.Journal of Computer Information Systems,45(3), 12–23.
Luftman, J., Kempaiah, R., & Nash, E. (2006). Key issues for IT executives 2005.MISQ Executive,5(2), 81–99.
Martz, B., & Cata, T. (2008). Students’ perceptions of IS academic pro-grams, IS careers, and outsourcing.Journal of Education for Business,
84, 118–125.
McGrath, M. (2007, May). Building up your business knowledge. Certifi-cation Magazine, 34–40.
24 M. F. GORMAN
Peslak, A. R. (2005). Incorporating business processes and functions: Ad-dressing the missing element in information systems education.Journal of Computer Information Systems,45(4), 56–61.
Plice, R. K., & Rienig, B. A. (2009). Leveraging alumni and business com-munity relations to assess the information systems curriculum.Journal of Education for Business,84, 142–149.
Pratt, M. K. (2007). The IT pro as consultant.Computer World,41(18), 23–24.
Schambach, T., & Blanton, J. E. (2002). The professional development chal-lenge for IT professionals.Communications of the ACM,45(4), 83–87. Smith, H., & McKeen, J. (2005). Developments in practice XIX:
Build-ing better IT leaders—from the bottom up.Communications of AIS,16, 785–796.
Smith, H., & McKeen, J. (2006). IT in 2010: The next frontier.MISQ Executive,5(3), 125–136.
Swartz, N. (2005). Employees not receiving critical training, study says.
Information Management Journal,39(2), 7.
Thibodeau, P. (2006). Outsourcing leaders fuse IT and business skills. Com-puter World,40(15), 6.
Weiss, J., & Anderson, D. (2004). CIOs and IT professionals as change agents, risk and stakeholder managers: A field study.Engineering Man-agement Journal,16(2), 13–18.
Zwieg, P., Kaiser, K., Beath, C., Bullen, C., Gallagher, K., Goles, T., Wion, R. (2006). The information technology workforce: Trends and implications 2005–2008. MISQ Executive, 5(2), 101– 108.
