IT Workforce Issues and Trends

Baby-boomer retirements and declining information technology enrollments in U.S. and European universities have resulted in changes in global IT sourcing.  As the skills and capabilities available to and desired by vendor, provider and client organizations change, a mismatch of supply and demand could result. 

To address that concern, the Society for Information Management (SIM) sponsored research to better understand current and future needs for IT skills in both internal IT departments and IT service providers.  The research also sought to determine how organizations are recruiting and developing in-house IT skills and capabilities and the extent to which organizations access IT skills and capabilities through global sourcing.

Organizations in this first global study represented a wide range of industries and sizes and were referred to as “client organizations” to distinguish them from organization who participated in the second study, “provider organizations” such as hardware or software vendors and third-party providers of IT staff.

Participants in the study were CIOs or high-level IT managers who had knowledge of hiring practices and skills needs.  About two-third of participants were from North and South America, with the remainder from Eastern and Western Europe, Australia and India.

Phase three of this continuing research involves and added focus on successful retention and advancement of IT employees and their related skills and capabilities.  Results of the first two studies have been published in both academic and practitioner journals and widely reported in news outlets.

The research team includes Dr. Judy Simon (jsimon@memphis.edu, Department of Management Information Systems at the University of Memphis Fogelman College of Business & Economics), Dr. Cynthia Beath (University of Texas at Austin), Dr. Christine Bullen (Stevens Institute of Technology), Dr. Keith Frampton (business consultant in Melbourne, Australia), Dr. Kevin Gallagher (Northern Kentucky University), Dr. Tim Goles (Texas A&M International University), Dr. Stephen Hawk (University of Wisconsin-Parkside), and Dr. Kate Kaiser (Marquette University).