Harvey G. Enns

How CIOs obtain peer commitment to strategic IS proposals: barriers and facilitators

Effective initiation and execution of strategic information systems/technology (IS/T) projects has become a critical competence for many organizations. One key to this is the ability of the senior executive responsible for IS/T, called the Chief Information Officer (CIO), to obtain peer commitment to implement strategic IS/T projects. This paper explores the barriers and facilitators of peer commitment to the implementation of such projects. Peer commitment barriers and facilitators include the firms external and internal IS/T environment, appropriateness of the IS/T initiatives, peer relationships, the ability to use the peers preferred influence behaviors, and post-commitment implementation realities.

Beyond stereotypes of IT professionals: implications for IT HR practices

IT professionals are complicated---managers need to go beyond stereotypes to truly understand them.

Information Technology Implementation in Developing Countries: Advent of the Internet in Mongolia

AbstractInternet Service Providers (ISPs) in developing countries experience great difficulties in the implementation of technologies that provide access to the Internet. These difficulties are due to technical challenges, such as poor telecommunication infrastructure, lack of technological readiness, inadequate technical skills and training, financial barriers, and the like. Often they require assistance from non-government organizations to successfully implement these types of projects. This paper begins with an overview of the factors that lead to successful implementation of information technology projects in developing countries. A framework is then presented which categorizes these factors into environmental, technical, intra-organizational, and inter-organizational components. The paper then reports the efforts of one company in implementing a series of telecommunications projects to provide access to the Internet for Mongolian companies, governmental organizations, and others. The paper concludes ...

Employment arrangement fit for IT professionals: an examination of the importance of fit components

A model of employment arrangement fit for IT professionals has been proposed by Enns, Ferratt, and Prasad (2002). An expanded version of that model used in this study includes eleven employment arrangement characteristics (e.g., job/income security). Consistent with the definition of fit based on needs and supplies (Kristof, 1996), fit is the degree to which the actual amount of a characteristic supplied by the employer is congruent with the IT professionals preferences (or needs). The major issue examined in this study is whether the relationship between fit and various outcome variables is moderated by the importance of the characteristics on which fit is assessed, as hypothesized by Kristof. Data have been collected from over 500 IT professionals. This research-in-progress will present the results of analyzing the data to examine the moderating effects of importance. Implications for theory, measurement, and analysis will be discussed.

Instrument validation for investigating a model of employment arrangement fit for IT professionals

A model of employment arrangement fit for IT professionals in traditional (e.g., permanent, full-time employee) and contractor positions has been proposed by Enns, Ferratt, and Prasad (2002). Employment arrangement fit is based on differences between an IT professionals preferred employment arrangement and the employment arrangement provided by an employer. The dimensions of the employment arrangement on which these differences are calculated include length, depth, specificity of performance requirements, economic benefits, risk, career development opportunities, work discretion, and work location discretion. This research-in-progress presents the results of pilot studies to conduct initial investigations of the validity of an instrument to measure employment arrangement fit. These results include the instruments psychometric properties and its ability to reflect the nomological network of relationships in the model for traditional and contract IT professionals.

How CIOs Overcome the Competing Values Challenge: Irish CIOs' Perspectives

Competing values are a fact of organizational life. However, there are gaps in our understanding about how these opposing beliefs hinder influence processes. This article draws on interview data to demonstrate how Irish Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are able to convince their colleagues to support new projects within their firms in the face of competing values. Focused interviews were used to explore the influence process and the competing values phenomenon, since this type of research is at an early stage and qualitative methods and analysis serve as a rich source of theory development. The data showed that the CIOs who did not face competing values were able to successfully influence other executives to support proposed projects. Additionally, half of the remaining CIOs who did face competing values were also successful at influencing their colleagues. In these cases, several features of the situation existed, including (a) small relative project size, (b) projects that were consistent with both external and internal environmental conditions, (c) the use of upward influence, and (d) the right combination of influence behaviors. Finally, we suggest actions that CIOs can use to successfully influence other executives when faced with the challenge of competing values.

Issues in managing information technology (IT) professionals

The purpose of our panel is to understand: issues that Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are currently facing or expect to be facing in the next few (e.g., 3-5) years with regard to managing people responsible for information systems and technology; e.g., issues could include such traditional human resource (HR) issues as recruiting, retention, and development in light of contemporary phenomena, such as Big Data, Cloud Computing, Mobile Computing, and Enterprise Social Networking or other HR issues, such as job/work design, stress, outsourcing, managing a diverse workforce, or managing change how CIOs have addressed, are addressing, or expect to address those issues through practices that have demonstrated or are demonstrating success, practices that they expect to be successful, or challenges that they have experienced (including obstacles or practices that have not worked so well) and what they have done to address those challenges

Too much of and less than a good thing: implications for managing IT professionals

The management of information technology (IT) professionals is an important managerial concern. The way that IT organizations manage their IT professionals is essentially manifested in their implementation of human resource management (HRM) practices, such as those related to work environment and career development opportunities, social support, compensation, and employment security. This paper briefly introduces person-environment (P-E) fit theory to explore what an IT professional wants from an employment arrangement and what is supplied by the employer. However, a criticism of P-E fit theory is that it does not specify the form of the relationship between P-E fit and other constructs, such as satisfaction and job search. In order to address this gap, the paper investigates both equity theory and prospect theory as possible explanations. Ultimately, prospect theory is used to develop illustrative hypotheses. The paper then describes the methodology that will be used to test these hypotheses. The results of the tests, when completed, will be used to suggest directions for managing IT professionals and future IT HRM theory development and testing.

An empirical comparison of direct and indirect measures of person-organization (P-O) fit

Person-organization (P-O) fit is an important concept for understanding the attitudes and behavior of individuals in organizations, in general, and information technology (IT) professionals, in particular. The objective of this paper is to examine a controversial issue related to the measurement of P-O fit. We explain the controversy and empirically investigate it using a sample of IT professionals.