Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 32, Number 1
Winter 2001
An Exploratory Analysis of the Value of the Skills of IT
Personnel: Their Relationship to IS Infrastructure and Competitive
Advantage
Terry Anthony Byrd
Department of Management, College of Business, Auburn University,
Auburn, AL 36849, email: tbyrd@business.auburn.edu
Douglas E. Turner
Department of Management and Business Systems, Richards College
of Business, State University of West Georgia, Carrolton, GA
30118, email: dturner@westga.edu
Abstract. Determining and assessing the requisite skills
of information technology (IT) personnel have become critical
as the value of IT has risen in modern organizations. In addition
to technical skills traditionally expected of IT personnel, softer
skills like managerial, business, and interpersonal skills have
been increasingly cited in previous studies as mandatory for
these employees. This paper uses a typology of IT personnel skills—technology
management skills, business functional skills, interpersonal
skills, and technical skills—and investigates their relationships
to two information systems (IS) success variables, IS infrastructure
flexibility and the competitive advantage provided by IS. The
study investigates these relationships using the perceptions
of chief information officers (CIOs) from mostly Fortune 2000
companies. The contributions of this study are: IT personnel
skills do affect IS success, technical skills are viewed as the
most important skill set in affecting IS infrastructure flexibility
and competitive advantage, and modularity is viewed as more valuable
to competitive advantage than integration. Several explanations
are offered for the lack of positive relationships between the
softer IT personnel skills and the dimensions of IS success used
in this study.
Subject Areas: Information Technology Personnel, IS
Implementation, Strategic Information Systems, Structural Equation
Models, and Survey Research/Design. |