MISQ Article : THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY WORKFORCE : TRENDS AND IMPLICATIONS
MISQ Executive - The Information Technology Workforce: Trends and Implications 2005-2008
Type of article: Research Article
Audience: Managers, IT professionals, and senior executives.
Central Focus / Theme: Examining current trends in the IT workforce – in particular the idea of IT firms and departments building up the quality and quantity of their work force.

The report was based on data collected from interviews with 81 IT executives in 77 IT departments from a range of industries. A substantial number of these executives were CIOs or Senior Vice presidents.

The research report focuses on five key results of the study.
1. Most large organizations anticipated an increase in their IT staff
2. A shift from an emphasis in technical skills to project management and client facing capabilities
3. IT executives were more likely to outsource technical skills
4. CIO’s felt that systems design and analysis were often retained in-house
5. IT executives were also on the lookout for individuals with traditional technical skills, that is programming, analysis, database and operating systems.

Implications for IT professionals

The article discusses how in the past IT professionals with technical skills became middle managers through years of experience. The authors propose the idea that there needs to be a shift in the way that organizations develop or train young IT professionals so that they gain the critical project skills that are essential to organizations. This report also highlighted the fact that the younger generation of IT workers are more mobile and Human resource management will have to implement strategies to leverage this mobility. There are other points raised in this article, however I have chosen to highlight these results , as these findings are relevant not only in the IT sector but in other industries as well.

Critique
The article is intended as a challenge to organizations to acknowledge knowledge capital and manage it effectively. The authors present this information in a clear, compelling and informative way. This information is meant to challenge executives, in the way that they view and manage their workforce. A major strength of the article is that it is well researched and well supported using statistics and relevant graphs. The authors use a very accessible and reader- friendly writing style to discuss important trends in the workforce.