A Measurement Instrument for Understanding Student Perspectives on Stereotypes of IS Professionals

Abstract

Academic and popular literature suggest that one plausible explanation for declining enrollments in the Information Systems (IS) discipline is the negative stereotypical image students have about IS professionals and the profession. However, there is a lack of empirical research that investigates the image of IS professionals. This study addresses this research gap. First, an instrument was developed to measure stereotypes of IS professionals. A series of empirical analysis was conducted to establish the measure's psychometric properties. The findings revealed a fivefactor, 15-item instrument that measured IS stereotypes in terms of geeks, gender, intelligence, managerial and technical dimensions. Then, the presence of stereotypes along each of these dimensions was examined. The literature has generally assumed that IS professionals are viewed as geeks, mostly male, intelligent, technically oriented, and lacking managerial skills. The study uncovered that strong stereotypes do exist along these dimensions. However, interestingly, most of the stereotypes were found to be in the opposite direction than the literature suggested. Students disagreed that IS professionals were geeks, that the IS profession was typically dominated by men, and that IS professionals were too technically oriented. They agreed that IS professionals possessed good managerial skills and were intelligent. The paper concludes with implications for theory and practice.

Intentions to Pursue a Career in Information Systems and Technology: An Empirical Study of South African Students

“…All students seemed to share a positive attitude towards computers independent of gender, race, computing experience or choice of major. This supports the view that students not majoring in IS do not necessarily have negative perceptions of the field [2], but frequent users do have the highest positive attitudes toward computers (F=4.07, p< 0.01).…”

“…A strong information technology (IT) workforce is considered part of the core human capital needs of a knowledge society. However, high school and university students are expressing little interest in pursuing information systems (IS) or IT careers, and enrolment figures in IT related majors has declined globally since the Dot-com failures of 2001 [1], [2]. Although there are some reports that enrolments may soon increase, there remains concern over impending IT workforce and skills shortages [3].…”

“…Yet, others consider student backgrounds, attitudes and their perceptions of IT as the primary determinants of their career and study choices. To this end, some exploratory studies are uncovering student awareness and expectations of an IT career [9], the factors important to them in the selection of a major [10], [11], as well as the stereotypes they may have of IS/IT professionals [2]. The role of gender and ethnicity in influencing attitudes and IT career intentions has also been explored [12] along with perceptions of job availability, interests in IS, perceptions of the curriculum, and views of family and professors [13].…”

“…The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is divided into 5 Faculties comprising 34 Schools. It is a research focused university and, as one of only 5 universities in Africa (universities of Cape Town, Cairo, Natal and Pretoria being the other four) that are listed in the Shanghai Jaio Tong Top 500 rankings, it has an important role to play in Africa's hopes to become a knowledge society 2. Over the last decade, enrollments for further study in IS have fallen roughly 70% from their peak at the beginning of the millennium.…”

Best Practices for Increasing IS Enrollment: A Program Perspective

“…Adding to the mounting IS enrollment literature [Akbulut-Bailey, 2009;Dick, Granger, Jacobson, and Van Slyke, 2007;Downey, McGaughey, and Roach, 2009;Granger, Dick, Jacobson, and Van Slyke, 2007;Granger, Dick, Luftman, Van Slyke, and Watson, 2007;Scott, Fuller, MacIndoe, and Joshi, 2009;Street, Wade, Bjorn-Anderson, Ives, Venable, and Zack, 2008], this article makes two unique contributions. First, it provides proven, actionable strategies to increase IS enrollment.…”