Relationships between personal demographics and motivation of information technology professionals to participate in professional development research-in-progress

  • Authors:
  • J. Ellis Blanton;Stephen C. Wingreen;Thomas Schambach

  • Affiliations:
  • University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., CIS 1040, Tampa, FL;University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., CIS 1040, Tampa, FL;Illinois State University, Campus Box 5150, Normal, IL

  • Venue:
  • SIGCPR '00 Proceedings of the 2000 ACM SIGCPR conference on Computer personnel research
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

Modern organizations are increasingly dependent on information technology (IT) enabled business systems. Development of IT systems requires a competent IT professional (ITP) staff, however, organizations are hampered by a severe shortage of qualified ITPs. Government studies recommend retaining existing ITPs and establishing professional development programs to help them obtain and maintain desired competencies. Research from related disciplines indicate that over time technical workers participate less in professional development, but still little is known about the relationships between personal demographics and participation in professional development.The major premise of this study is that since most professional development programs are voluntary, ITPs must first be motivated to participate before participation will occur. In addition, research suggests that motivation of ITPs may be related to personal demographics and, therefore, should be considered when designing and implementing professional development programs. Based upon this premise, the major objective of this study is to examine the relationships between selected personal demographics and the motivation of ITPs to participate in professional development.Survey data collected from a sample of ITPs will be analyzed first using descriptive statistics to identify graphical relationships between selected personal demographics and motivation to participate in professional development activities. Next correlation and regression analysis will be used to determine the significance of those relationships. Finding of significant relationships will improve the understanding the professional development process of ITPs, leading to more effective organizational interventions for promoting the professional development of existing ITPs.