The purpose of this study was to examine the skills deemed to be useful to data processing managers and to systems analysts in data processing environments of varying levels of maturity. The subjects of the study were 35 data processing managers and 50 systems analysts from a sample of 35 companies of varying size and of varying experience with electronic data processing (EDP). The research method used to gather the data was the mail questionnaire. Two questionnaires were developed: one to measure an EDP organization's relative maturity in terms of data processing, and one to measure EDP practitioners perceived usefulness of 99 data processing skills in terms of their own job position. The results obtained indicate that data processing managers and systems analysts of both more and less mature organizations perceived generalist skills as being more useful than specialist skills. In particular, people, organization and society skills were perceived to be the most useful to data processing managers, whereas people, organizations and system skills were perceived to be the most useful to systems analysts. Model and computer skills were perceived to be the least useful to both groups of practitioners. Data processing managers of more mature organizations perceived people and society skills to be more useful than did their counterparts in less mature organizations. Finally, generalist skills were perceived to be more useful to data processing managers than to systems analysts, whereas specialist skills were perceived to be more useful to systems analysts than to data processing managers. The implication of this study on university curricula in information systems is that universities should prepare their information systems graduates to solve people and organization problems rather than technical problems. However, it was pointed out in this study that a good technical background is necessary to function effectively as an EDP practitioner in the data processing community. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

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Voluntary turnover has become a problem for many organizations in today's society. The cost of this turnover reaches beyond organizational impact, but also affects the employees themselves. For this reason, there has been a plethora of research conducted by both academicians and practitioners on the causes and consequences of voluntary turnover. The purpose of this study is to test the validity and generalizability of the job embeddedness model of voluntary turnover to the information technology (IT) industry. The IT field has been plagued with high turnover rates in recent years. In this study, the job embeddedness model (Mitchell et al., 2001) is applied to a population sample consisting of health care information technology employees.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Glasgow, 2008. / Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Department of Computing Science, Faculty of Information and Mathematical Sciences, University of Glasgow, 2008. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

Bibliography: pages 80-86. / The aim of the present study was to test a model of stress and to examine whether the theoretical construct of sense of coherence (SOC) moderated the relationship between stressors and health-related and work-related outcomes. This construct of SOC was identified by an Israeli medical sociologist, Antonovsky. He maintained that the current focus of research on stress is largely pathogenic in nature. He suggested that it would be of value to shift research more towards that which identifies the origins of health. He consequently developed the term "salutogenesis", which requires people to focus on those factors which promote well-being. He also argued that people are not either sick or well, but rather are located on a continuum between health-ease/dis-ease. With respect to their health, persons will find themselves somewhere along this continuum, where they may shift between the two positions. He then suggests that certain factors contribute to facilitating the movement along this continuum. These factors together form a construct which he calls the SOC. The SOC is comprised of core components. He hypothesizes that someone with a strong SOC is likely to make better sense of the world around him/her, thereby engendering resilience towards the impinging stressors. The person with a weak SOC is likely to capitulate to these stressors · more readily and by succumbing to them is going to increase the likelihood that (s)he will move to the dis-ease end of the continuum. This study attempted to investigate the following research questions, namely, whether (1) the stressors were related to the stress outcomes, (2) the SOC was related to the stressors and outcomes, and (3) the SOC moderated the relationships between stressors and outcomes. In the present study the subjects were drawn from all data processing professionals in a large financial organisation. The respondents (~ = 194) replied to a questionnaire which contained scales which measured a variety of job-related stressors, an SOC scale as well as job-related and health-related outcome variables. Intercorrelations between the stressor, moderator and outcome variables were calculated. Other statistical procedures that were utilized were subgroup analyses and the moderated multiple regression analyses. Partial support for all three research questions was obtained. Four of the six stressors were found to correlate significantly with somatic complaints, thereby suggesting that stressors result in persons feeling the results of stress and reporting them physically. The SOC was found to relate to some of the stressors and outcome variables. This would lend partial support to an interpretation of the SOC as having a main effect relationship to stressor and outcome variables. In the subgroup analyses the results showed that out of a possible 54 relationships, the SOC moderated in only seven of them that the moderated multiple regression (MMR) analyses showed out of 54 possible relationships, the SOC moderated in 12 of them health-related variables. Furthermore, the SOC moderated between six outcome variables and six work-related outcomes. These findings then partially support research question 3, which examined whether the SOC would moderate relationships between stressors and outcome variables. This study was concluded by a discussion of the findings, its implications, and the limitations of this research.

Computer professionals have been agents of change in many organizations. In some cases the role inadvertently became theirs as they were the ones at the vanguard of implementing the new information processing technology in organizations. While in other cases they were the catalysts for change, to force new methods/procedures onto lethargic organizations. While introducing change on others in the organization and adapting to new technological changes themselves, the computer professionals have not really had to face a significant change in their status, power, or importance to the organization. The introduction of the personal computer has brought about significant change in the way the job of the computer professional is perceived by many in the business world. While this change is personally affecting the way they do their job, there has not been a noticeable attempt by those managing computer professionals to deal with the human emotions engendered by such a change. Part of the reason for this lack of attention may be due to the lack of a model as to how computer professionals react to change. Such a model would provide a system whereby it would be possible to recognize where efforts could be made to measure, predict, and modify situations so that a smooth transition can be made to the change. Toward this end a model was developed which presents a system as to how computer professionals react to change. This dissertation presents the model, surveys a population of computer professionals, and analyzes the model using data gathered from the population. The data was gathered in the form of a self administered survey which was given to computer professionals working for six investor owned electric and gas utilities in the Northwestern United states. They answered questions on a scale of from one to five as to their emotions and perceptions about the introduction of personal computers into their organizations. These questions spanned the timeframe as the organizations migrated from the early beginnings of personal computer introduction, to a situation where the use of personal computers was widespread in the company. In the case of three of the companies the personal computer had not yet achieved widespread use at the time of the survey. The data gathered from the computer professionals was statistically analyzed to see if relationships exist between the model and the data. Additionally, interesting demographic data was analyzed to see if certain other factors affected the computer professional's perception as to the impact of the personal computer on their quality of worklife.

The study had four main hypotheses that examined the relationships between job satisfaction and the reasons for attending continuing professional education (CPE). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between training and job satisfaction with the objective of adding to the body of knowledge related to both job satisfaction and training and development. Participation Reasons Scale was used to measure the reasons for attending CPE activities, and the Job in General Scale and Job Descriptive Index was used to measure job satisfaction. The surveys were administered over the Internet to information technology professionals working in higher education. The participants were contacted by email with a message explaining the purpose of the research and a Web link that took the participants directly to the survey. After collecting the data, it was exported into SPSS and analyzed using Spearman Rho and Mann Whitney U statistics and a simple structure exploratory factor to determine any underlying structures between the job satisfaction and CPE.

by Choi Che Shing. / Bibliography: leaves 70-71 / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1986

by Chan Chi-ming and Mak Pak Yick, Philip. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991. / Bibliography: leaves [169-170] / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.i / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / CHAPTER / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Objectives --- p.1 / Background and why this topic was chosen --- p.2 / The Solution - Training --- p.7 / Computer Training --- p.8 / Chapter 2. --- BACKGROUND OF THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY AND COMPUTER TRAINING IN HONG KONG --- p.10 / The Computer Industry --- p.10 / Computer Training in Hong Kong --- p.12 / Chapter 3. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.21 / Literature Survey --- p.22 / Problem statement --- p.24 / Theoretical Framework --- p.24 / Field Survey Design Details --- p.25 / Chapter 4. --- DATA ANALYSIS OF THE SURVEY --- p.32 / Data Analysis Method --- p.32 / Feel for Data --- p.32 / Testing and Analysis --- p.55 / Chapter 5. --- BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES --- p.76 / High Demand for Training --- p.76 / Computer Aided Training will be a growth area --- p.77 / Conclusion --- p.78 / APPENDIX I --- p.80 / APPENDIX II --- p.89 / APPENDIX III --- p.101

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