IS personnel: do they form an occupational community?

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which information system (IS) personnel form an occupational community. To this end, a model of an occupational community is developed. Occupational communities are hypothesized to form when people are highly involved in and identify with their work, when the work itself is inclusive, and when people are isolated (in terms of geography and/or time.) Data was obtained on the strength of the IS occupational community, and on the three antecedents of involvement, inclusivity, and isolation, through semi-structured interviews with IS personnel. The results show that IS personnel form a weak occupational community, if they can be said to form an occupational community at all.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.7 THE COMPUTING PROFESSION
      K.7.1 Occupations

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.1 Project and People Management
          Subjects: Staffing

General Terms:
Human Factors, Management, Measurement, Performance