Why students choose MIS: what makes a major-job-career in management information systems interesting?

  • Authors:

  • Thomas W. Ferratt;Stephen R. Hall;Jayesh Prasad;Donald W. Wynn, Jr.

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA;University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA;University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA;University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the special interest group on management information system's 47th annual conference on Computer personnel research
  • Year:
  • 2009

  • ICT career track awareness amongst ICT graduates

    Proceedings of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists Conference on Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership in a Diverse, Multidisciplinary Environment

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Abstract

Students choose a major based on a number of factors, with interest in the subject matter consistently being important. Given declining MIS enrollments at our university, we seek to understand our students' selection of a major so that we may take appropriate steps to address the decline. Besides understanding our situation better, we seek to contribute to the literature by developing a deeper understanding of what is meant by interest in the major. Our research is guided by the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Our primary focus is to examine students' expected outcomes that lead to attitudes, with a particular focus on aspects of an MIS major that generate interest in the major. We will use open-ended survey questions and conduct qualitative interviews with students at our university, including new and returning students, MIS and non-MIS majors. Results will be reported at the conference.