Gina Harden

Knowledge Sharing in the Workplace: A Social Networking Site Assessment

Enterprise executives are taking note that great potential exists for enhancing knowledge sharing and linking experts within the organization when incorporating social software technologies into their operations. But there are warnings of potential negative effects if ineffective use or even misuse of these technologies occurs. There is relatively little empirical research examining the business impact of social software implementations evolving from Web 2.0 applications when considering the effects of trust on knowledge sharing. This paper attempts to fill this gap in the research by proposing a theoretical framework to study the effects of trust, risk and benefits, critical mass, and social influence on knowledge sharing intentions of employees using social media technology in the organization.

Motivating students to acquire mainframe skills

There has been a perception in both industry and in academia that mainframe skills are obsolete. As a result, there has been a decline in curricula addressing these skills. However, recent evidence shows that many organizations are still actively supporting mainframe technologies and report a need for students graduating in information technology to be trained in those skills, especially as much of their current mainframe workforce moves toward retirement. This paper examines the question of what motivates students to acquire mainframe skills. To do so, this research is investigates IBMs Master the Mainframe contest, a competition that attempts to engender enthusiasm for acquiring mainframe skills and ensure an adequate supply of such skills to organizations relying on them.

Exploring gender and job embeddedness in information technology professionals

Despite the current difficulties in the economy, the demand for information technology (IT) workers is expected to grow substantially in the next several years. The need for talented IT workers is exacerbated by the looming retirement of many IT professionals. Thus, it is becoming increasingly important for organizations to find ways to retain their valuable and skilled IT employees. One construct that has been introduced to assess reasons employees choose to stay in their current position is job embeddedness. This paper explores the effect of gender on the three dimensions of job embeddedness: an employees fit with the organization, the potential sacrifice they would make if they left their job, and links or connections they have to others in their organization. This research-in-progress paper hypothesizes that there are differences between males and females in in each of the embeddedness dimensions.