BUSI 4400 Management of Information Systems

1. BUSI 4400 Management of Information Systems Recruiting and developing IS human resources Dr. Gerald Grant

2. Introduction • Effective deployment and exploitation of information technology depend on high levels of managerial, technical and operational competencies • People make the difference between effective and ineffective organizational performance • Organizations need to harness the knowledge, skills and experiences of its staff to deploy and use IT systems

3. Introduction (contd) • "One of the critical factors for any organization in achieving the best results from IS/IT is the quality of people involved in terms of skills and experience. The ability to obtain and deploy highly skilled IS/IT resources in adequate numbers will determine in the long term how well the business and IS/IT strategies are brought together" (Ward and Griffiths, 1996 pp. 352-353).

4. Introduction (contd) Brancheau, et al., 1996 • Recruiting and developing IS human resources ranked 8th most important issue by IS managers • Shortages of qualified IS personnel will have a significant impact, both now and in the future, on the ability of organizations to effectively deploy and use information technology • Emphasis needs to be put on developing business skills such as teamwork and leadership • IS personnel must also stay current with emerging technologies

5. Introduction (contd) • Having highly qualified staff is not enough to ensure success in implementing and exploiting IS/IT systems • Firms need to develop key managerial, technical and operational IS/IT competencies at individual, work group and organization-wide levels • Organizational IS/IT competencies will develop more effectively if the business possesses adequate numbers of people with sufficient level of complementary training and experience

6. Group exercise (IS project group) • You are a group of consultants that have been tasked with creating the IS organization for a major company (in Ottawa) • Your task is to: • Determine the structure of the IS department • Identify the roles, levels and types of staff and their relationships • Identify the competencies needed to perform the roles • Determine whether staff will be permanent, contract, provided through outsourcing, arrangement • Suggest ways of recruiting, inducting and retaining staff • Present your report - org. chart, etc.

7. Obtaining IS/IT human resources • Training new recruitsfrom school or university. • Recruiting experienced stafffrom other organizations. • Training existing non-IS people, especially in application skills. • Using external resources through outsourcing arrangements.

8. Benefits and risks associated with New recruits Benefits • opportunity to shape the development of their knowledge, skills and attitude to suit the organization's goals • they bring fresh energy and ideas to the work place. Risks • expensive to recruit and train • require much investment in time and resources with little expectation of immediate payback • likely to move on within 3-5 years • providing trained personnel for other companies (Keen, 1988 p. 263).

9. Benefits and risks associated with experienced people Benefits • immediate benefits from their already developed skills • the competence of the organization augmented immediately • can be expected to become productive in a short period of time Risks • expensive, especially if the knowledge and skills being sought are scarce or in high demand • they may not be able to assimilate well into the culture and working practices of their new company • may bring habits and working patterns do not fit the new organization • may not have the right complementary skills • may quickly become dissatisfied and leave

10. Benefits and risks associated with training non-IS staff Benefits • have a better understanding of the organizational routines and culture • do not need to be indoctrinated • gain new skills thus improving morale and motivation • present opportunities for improved productivity • less concern about loss of jobs Risks • may mean the creation of new job categories and roles • existing staff may bring old working habits to the new positions

11. Benefits and risks associated with outsourcing Benefits • way of gaining new skills without the investment in training and development • organizations can deploy new IT systems quickly • possible cost savings Risks (Ward and Griffiths, 1996, p. 353) • An open-ended contract to meet an ever-changing requirement for strategic development. • No one in the IS/IT department is capable of understanding the new systems and supporting them in due course. • concern about what the "contractor" will do with the new knowledge • Demoralized staff

12. Retaining the most skilled IS/IT staff "If the organization is to develop its competence and provide an attractive environment to retain its most skilled and effective people, its own resources, IT and user, must be deployed on the challenging strategic or high potential systems" (Ward and Griffiths, 1996 p. 354).

13. Role and skill requirements of IS/IT personnel Keen (1988) • The organization of work for IS professionals is moving away from focus on tasks to one that focuses more on fulfilling certain roles • New roles require IS people to exhibit a far wider range of competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) than previously required in task-oriented structures • IS roles are no longer isolated from everyday business • IS people must now exercise greater levels of organizational and business skills

14. Key IS roles and skills Keen (1988) • Technical services -- very strong technical skills: business and organizational skills of minor importance. • Development support -- strong technical skills: fairly strong business/technical orientation • Business support -- strong business/organizational skills; fairly strong technical skills. • Business services -- strong business/organizational skills: technical skills of minor importance.

15. Key IS roles and skills (contd) Ross, Beath and Goodhue (Sloan Management Review, Fall 1996 p. 33) • Technical skills- rapidly changing technologies are putting increased focus on technical skills that can bridge the gap between existing technology and legacy systems and exploit opportunities for deploying new technologies in the future. • Business understanding- IT staff now need to interact more frequently with clients in order to help solve business problems. • Problem-solving orientation- every member of the IT team need to assume responsibility for tackling business problems

16. Key IS roles and skills (contd) Lee, Trauth, Farwell ( MISQ, September 1995) • Technical specialties knowledge and skills-- technical skills relating to operating systems, programming languages, DBMS, networks, telecommunications, etc.. • Technology management knowledge and skills-- concerned with where and how to deploy information technologies effectively and profitably for meeting business and strategic objectives. • Business functional knowledge and skills-- increasingly businesses are putting emphasis on applying information technology to serve business goals and to re-engineer business processes before the adoption of new information technologies. This requires IS professionals to possess in-depth business functional knowledge and skills. • Interpersonal and management knowledge and skills-- are necessary because of the substantive boundary-spanning roles played by IS professionals

17. Key IS roles and skills (contd) • Software Human Resources of Canada (SHRC) • Occupational Skills Profile Model (OSPM)

18. Core IS/IT skills (Horizon Consulting, 1997) • Employability Skills • Communication skills (oral, etc.) • Interpersonal skills (Teamwork, people management) • Thinking skills (problem solving, decision making, …) • Work skills (self-management, adaptability..) • Business skills (leadership, project management • Technological literacy (awareness and usage of technology)

19. Core IS/IT skills (Horizon Consulting, 1997) • Technical Skills • Policy and management (strategic view, coaching, etc.) • Development • Business analysis, design, programming, software engineering, hardware engineering • Service delivery • Technical support • Audit • Research • Boundary-spanning management • Education and training • Technical authorship • Technical marketing and sales

20. Key IS roles and skills (contd) 197 executives in the July (2003) CIO.com survey What IT skills are most in-demand in your organization currently? • 58%Application development • 42%Database management • 42%Help desk/user support • 5%Open source development • 37%Networking • 47%Project management • 32%Security • 30%Website development • 16%Web services • 10%Other

21. Enhance business orientation of IT Increase IT specialist's awareness of business opportunities. Enhancement of IT capabilities Increase awareness and responsiveness to different business needs. Constant retooling of IT infrastructure. Continual honing of IT skills and professionalism. Appropriate selection and use of specialist skills. Key roles of ‘hybrid’ IS managers (Earl& Skyrme, 1992)

22. Enhance organization's understanding of IT Re-focus the organization to understand IT. Educate and consult on the strategic use of IT. Reinforce IT's benefits and potential to business managers. Build successful/IS business partnerships Develop shared vision of entire business. Share responsibility for projects between IT and the business. Help line managers make IT decisions. Key roles of ‘hybrid’ IS managers

23. Organizational IS/IT competencies • Highly competent IT staff alone not enough • Organizational competencies more than the sum of individual competencies • Effective deployment of computer-based systems is not dependent on a single person • A variety of IS/IT competencies must be developed

24. Categories of competencies Grant, Liebenau (1997) Managerial competencies The skills, knowledge and attitude needed to conceptualize, plan, manage and evaluate the design, acquisition, deployment and exploitation of computer-based information systems. Technical competencies • The skills, knowledge and attitude needed to design, acquire or develop and deploy the technical and operational systems. Operational competencies • The skills knowledge and attitude needed to efficiently operate and maintain the technical and non-technical systems and processes

25. Managerial Technical Operational/User Organizational Group Individual IS/IT Competence Map (Grant/Liebenau, 1997)

26. OPERATIONAL/USER Computer network operation Telecommunications network operation Database resource management Data warehousing operations Information center operation MANAGERIAL Mission definition Environmental analysis Strategy development Strategy integration Financial planning Resource allocation Policy making Structuring the organization Human resources planning Performance evaluation Managing inter-organizational relationships Organizational IS/IT competencies • TECHNICAL • Enterprise communication network management • Enterprise database management • Technology assessment • Decision support & EIS • Inter-organizational networking • Standard setting • Procurement • Technical systems integration • Systems Research & development

27. OPERATIONAL/USER Scheduling Shared information handling Application sharing Procedure automation Conferencing Co-authoring Electronic meetings MANAGERIAL Task identification Task structuring Role assignment Group project management Conflict resolution Group problem solving Project assessment and evaluation Managing inter-group links and partnerships Group IS/IT competencies • TECHNICAL • Process and systems design • Systems engineering • Systems development • Systems implementation • Process re-engineering • Work design

28. OPERATIONAL/USER Information processing Application software usage Data entry Information presentation Personal communication Information storage and retrieval MANAGERIAL Decision-making Communication Negotiation Personal networking Judgment/evaluation Delegation Project management Knowledge of the organization Change management Logical thinking Self-management Individual IS/IT competencies • TECHNICAL • Business & systems analysis • Systems design • Systems & applications programming • Systems & application testing • Teaching & training • Information searching • Research • Formal modeling • Technology awareness

29. Developing IS human resources • Focus on outsourcing has led to a reduced commitment IS employee development • Neglect of IS personnel development and motivation a substantial risk • Organizations still need to develop high levels of managerial and operational IS/IT competencies

30. Developing IS human resources (contd) Continuous development programs • education and training • research and personal learning • satisfying jobs (job enlargement, job significance, etc..)

31. Developing IS human resources (contd) Keen (1988) Three types of education that IS professionals should be involved in. • Maintenance -- What the professional needs to know to keep up with his/her job • Development-- What the professional needs to know to develop his/her career in the field • Innovation -- What the professional does to enhance personal growth