Short-term Affair or Long-term Commitment?: An Investigation of Employees without IT Background in IT Jobs

Barbara Prommegger; Mathias Wendrich; Manuel Wiesche; Helmut Krcmar

doi:10.1145/3378539.3393860

Short-term Affair or Long-term Commitment? An Investigation of Employees without IT Background in IT Jobs

Barbara Prommegger
, Mathias Wendrich
, Manuel Wiesche
, Helmut Krcmar

Informatics 17 - Chair of Information Systems and Business Process Management

Technical University of Munich
pro3dure medical GmbH

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

The IT profession is constantly changing. The rapid development of technology and the high demand for IT specialists has led to a broader and more diverse profile of IT professionals with fewer boundaries regarding organizations and occupations. As a result, companies have encouraged the migration of employees with different backgrounds into the IT sector. Drawing on the theory of the boundaryless profession, we explore this transformation in IT careers. By studying 355 career sequences of IT professionals in Germany, we investigate the career mobility of employees without an IT background working in IT jobs. Our results show that only around one-third of employees without an IT background remained in IT for the long-term. The majority of the sample, however, either returned to their original sector or moved to another after a few years in IT. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the boundaryless IT profession and sheds light on the role of employees without an IT background in IT jobs.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Computers and People Research Conference
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages	91-98
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450371308
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3378539.3393860
State	Published - 19 Jun 2020
Event	2020 Computers and People Research Conference, SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Nuremberg, Germany Duration: 19 Jun 2020 → 21 Jun 2020

Publication series

Name	SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Computers and People Research Conference

Conference

Conference	2020 Computers and People Research Conference, SIGMIS-CPR 2020
Country/Territory	Germany
City	Nuremberg
Period	19/06/20 → 21/06/20

Keywords

Boundaryless career
Career transition
It experience
It professionals
It workforce

Access to Document

10.1145/3378539.3393860

Cite this

Prommegger, B., Wendrich, M., Wiesche, M., & Krcmar, H. (2020). Short-term Affair or Long-term Commitment? An Investigation of Employees without IT Background in IT Jobs. In SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Computers and People Research Conference (pp. 91-98). (SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Computers and People Research Conference). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1145/3378539.3393860

Prommegger, Barbara ; Wendrich, Mathias ; Wiesche, Manuel et al. / Short-term Affair or Long-term Commitment? An Investigation of Employees without IT Background in IT Jobs. SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Computers and People Research Conference. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2020. pp. 91-98 (SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Computers and People Research Conference).

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abstract = "The IT profession is constantly changing. The rapid development of technology and the high demand for IT specialists has led to a broader and more diverse profile of IT professionals with fewer boundaries regarding organizations and occupations. As a result, companies have encouraged the migration of employees with different backgrounds into the IT sector. Drawing on the theory of the boundaryless profession, we explore this transformation in IT careers. By studying 355 career sequences of IT professionals in Germany, we investigate the career mobility of employees without an IT background working in IT jobs. Our results show that only around one-third of employees without an IT background remained in IT for the long-term. The majority of the sample, however, either returned to their original sector or moved to another after a few years in IT. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the boundaryless IT profession and sheds light on the role of employees without an IT background in IT jobs.",

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Prommegger, B, Wendrich, M, Wiesche, M & Krcmar, H 2020, Short-term Affair or Long-term Commitment? An Investigation of Employees without IT Background in IT Jobs. in SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Computers and People Research Conference. SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Computers and People Research Conference, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, pp. 91-98, 2020 Computers and People Research Conference, SIGMIS-CPR 2020, Nuremberg, Germany, 19/06/20. https://doi.org/10.1145/3378539.3393860

Short-term Affair or Long-term Commitment? An Investigation of Employees without IT Background in IT Jobs. / Prommegger, Barbara; Wendrich, Mathias; Wiesche, Manuel et al.
SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Computers and People Research Conference. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2020. p. 91-98 (SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Computers and People Research Conference).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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AB - The IT profession is constantly changing. The rapid development of technology and the high demand for IT specialists has led to a broader and more diverse profile of IT professionals with fewer boundaries regarding organizations and occupations. As a result, companies have encouraged the migration of employees with different backgrounds into the IT sector. Drawing on the theory of the boundaryless profession, we explore this transformation in IT careers. By studying 355 career sequences of IT professionals in Germany, we investigate the career mobility of employees without an IT background working in IT jobs. Our results show that only around one-third of employees without an IT background remained in IT for the long-term. The majority of the sample, however, either returned to their original sector or moved to another after a few years in IT. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the boundaryless IT profession and sheds light on the role of employees without an IT background in IT jobs.

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Prommegger B, Wendrich M, Wiesche M, Krcmar H. Short-term Affair or Long-term Commitment? An Investigation of Employees without IT Background in IT Jobs. In SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Computers and People Research Conference. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. 2020. p. 91-98. (SIGMIS-CPR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Computers and People Research Conference). doi: 10.1145/3378539.3393860