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An Examination of Employers’ Perceptions and Expectations of IS Entry-level Personal and Interpersonal Skills

An Examination of Employers’ Perceptions and Expectations of IS Entry-level Personal and Interpersonal Skills. Debbie Tesch Jerry Braun Elaine Crable. Objective of the Study.

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An Examination of Employers’ Perceptions and Expectations of IS Entry-level Personal and Interpersonal Skills

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  1. An Examination of Employers’ Perceptions and Expectations of IS Entry-level Personal and Interpersonal Skills Debbie Tesch Jerry Braun Elaine Crable

  2. Objective of the Study This study investigates the perceived importance of personal and interpersonal/management skill categories for entry-level IS/IT employees and the observed level of expertise in these skill areas for recent hires.

  3. Requisite Skill Base of IS Professionals • Technical skills • Business function skills • Personal skills • Interpersonal and management skills Stakeholders hold a measurable set of expectations for the skill categories and have a perception measure of how that skill category is being met

  4. Personal and Interpersonal/Management Skills • Technical skills are “necessary, but not sufficient • Need for interpersonal skills as IS professionals interact with end users during project development and training (LeRouge, et al, 2005) • Communication, problem solving, creativity (Covey, 1989)

  5. Personal and Interpersonal/Management Skills • Thinking skills paired with the ability to learn (Davis, 2003) • Writing, speaking, persuading and socialization skills (Ehie, 2002) • Team skills, communication skills, critical thinking skills, personal motivation, creative thinking ranked most important skill sets by IS recruiters (Fang, Lee, Koh, 2005)

  6. The Perception Gap • Satisfaction is related to extent to which outcomes match those desired (Locke, 1976) • Given positive discrepancies  perceived attribute > standard of comparison • Given negative discrepancies  performance level < expected • Capel (2001) – gaps tended to be greatest for non-technical skills

  7. Research Hypotheses • There is an existing gap between employers’ perceptions of importance of personalskills for entry-level positions and the observed level ofexpertise of those skills • There is an existing gap between employers’ perceptions of importance of interpersonal/management skills for entry-level positions and the observed level ofexpertise of those skills

  8. Assessment • Skills extracted from the literature and organized by skill category • Skill questions by category presented in pairs (expected level of expertise vs demonstrated level of expertise) • 8 constructs measured personal skills • 4 constructs measured interpersonal/management skills • Constructs adapted from (Braun et al, 2004; Fox et al, 2001; Lee et al, 2005)

  9. Demographics • IS professionals with Midwest employment status from PMI IS and IT SIGs • 191 usable responses/84 non-deliverable of 2500 total responses (8%) • Cross-section of industries represented • Service, manufacturing, education, retail, consulting, insurance, financial services

  10. Results • Confirmatory factor analysis produced a good fit • Chi-square for the four hypothesized latent variables = 470.35, p < .001 • Factors were positively correlated. • Highest correlation between interpersonal/management and personal factors was .85

  11. Results

  12. Results

  13. Discussion • There is a difference between what practitioners are expecting of new hires and what new hires are delivering • Poor interpersonal skills are associated with failure of newly hired employees (King, 2005) • In this study, largest difference is teamwork • In this study, employers place largest emphasis on teamwork

  14. Discussion • Implications for curriculum development  increase team building skill opportunities • Largest personal skill discrepancies • Ability to listen • Written communication • Self-motivation • These top 3 skills with largest discrepancy values rank in the top 5 skills in importance

  15. Conclusion • Course development must expand its focus on technical skill development to include opportunities for improving personal and interpersonal skills

  16. Future Study Opportunities • Effect of skill discrepancies on career satisfaction, job satisfaction, project success • Analysis from the employees’ perspective • Improved sample size

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