As
information and communication technologies have become more and more
essential to produce goods and services in organizations, the role of IT
workers has become correspondingly more critical in the development,
acquisition, management, use, support and maintenance of these
information technologies and systems. Unfortunately, in recent years,
the general trend in the U.S. has been decreasing enrollment in academic
programs in information technology majors, underrepresentation of women
and ethnic minorities and high turnover intentions which have been
reported even at early stages of their careers. This dissertation topic
pertains to the cultural factors that adversely influence the adjustment
and commitment to the IT occupation, especially by underrepresented
groups. According
to Trice (1993) occupational cultures comprise unique clusters of
ideologies, beliefs, cultural forms, and practices that arise from
shared educational, personal and work experiences of individuals who
pursue the same profession. Results of a previous study suggest that IT
professionals indeed occupy a recognizable "occupational
culture" that crosses and transcends the organizational cultures
within which those IT professionals are embedded (Guzman et al., 2004).
This dissertation investigates the cultural aspects of the IT occupation
that may influence persistence and commitment to the occupation of
students or recent graduates of IT-related majors who were recently or
currently involved in some type of pre-professional work activity such
as an internship and examined the differences of perceptions by gender
and ethnicity. This dissertation presents a sequential mixed methodology
approach composed of two linked phases: The first qualitative phase
includes 25 interviews conducted with students in order to obtain their
impressions of the occupational subculture of IT. Verbatims from
interviews suggested that pre-professional experiences had given these
students a realistic preview of IT occupational subculture. In the
second phase, students' impressions received from the interviews were
transformed into a set of evaluative dimensions relevant to the
characteristics of IT occupational subculture. A survey instrument was
implemented in order to assess these evaluative dimensions, and then
administered to N=215 participants to see if any differences existed
among students grouped by gender or ethnicity. Finally, the measures of
these evaluative dimensions were used to predict an outcome variable
relevant to persistence in IT, namely occupational commitment. Some
differences did arise among different groups of students, and some of
the evaluative dimensions were useful in predicting occupational
commitment. Results showed that adaptation to occupational subculture
predicts occupational commitment.