A call for an organization transparency framework from practitioners and academics serves as the research foundation for this study. Given scant findings in academic literature, a rigorous research method in Study 1 reveals a reciprocal phenomenon: business practice promotes academic learning and vice versa. In Study 2, through interviews with managers from different functional areas, we found that central IT transparency (CITT) is important across nine transparency characteristics (i.e., accuracy, comparability, relevance, timeliness, accessibility, clarity, completeness, reliability, and responsiveness). However, not all nine characteristics were equally important to each of the five functional departments investigated, nor did they have the same level of influence. Common factors across practitioner principles and guidelines in professional business organizations provide a theoretical rationale for a study of organization transparency. Specifically, these patterns can lead to more accurate descriptions of future phenomena in organization transparency. Moreover, in practice, the developed CITT framework may provide a means to mitigate the recurring need to introduce laws and regulations governing business transparency. In addition, defined in the framework, IT may enable direct information processes to support stakeholder decision-making. It also offers a lens for future academic research on its impact.

Purpose With increased remote working, employers are concerned with employees’ commitment and compliance with security procedures. Through the lens of psychological capital, this study aims to investigate whether strong organizational values can improve employees’ commitment to the organization and security behaviors. Design/methodology/approach Using Qualtrics platform, the authors conducted an online survey. The survey participants are college-educated, full-time employees. The authors used structural equation modeling to analyze 289 responses. Findings The results indicate perceived importance of organizational values is associated with increased organizational commitment and information security behavior. The authors find that psychological capital partially mediates these relations suggesting that employees’ psychological capital effectively directs employees toward an affinity for the organization and information security behavior. The results highlight the importance of organizational values for improving security behavior and organizational commitment. Second, the results suggest that psychological capital is an effective mechanism for this influence. Finally, the authors find that individual differences (gender, organizational level and education) are boundary conditions on their findings, providing a nuanced view of their results and offering opportunities for further investigation. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore organizational values in relation to information security behaviors. In addition, this study investigates the underlying mechanism of this relationship by showing psychological capital’s mediating role in this relationship. Therefore, the authors suggest organizations create a supportive environment that appreciates innovation, quality services, diversity and collaboration. Furthermore, organizations should communicate the importance of these values to their employees to motivate them to have a stronger affective commitment and a more careful set of security behaviors.

This study explores high school graduates’ understanding of technology careers and reasons they choose not to major in technology fields. We employed two data collection methods (surveys and focus groups) in three data collection stages to explore student views in greater depth. Pre-survey and focus group results suggest that steps should be taken to provide a more enjoyable experience for high school students and teach them relevant skills that they will recognize as beneficial. Post-survey results demonstrate that introductory technology classes that introduce students to MIS careers can lead them to a more accurate understanding of MIS careers. The study offers insights into specific ways high school courses can be improved to increase understanding of MIS, resulting in a greater likelihood that students will consider and therefore choose technology careers. Findings suggest that increased understanding of technology careers can result in more consideration of these careers by high school students.

A theoretical model of professional identification is developed and empirically examined as a means to understanding information technology (IT) workers’ attachment to the IT profession. Professional identification represents oneness with or belonging to a profession and provides a unique means of investigating and evaluating the IT profession. Results from a survey of 305 IT workers indicate that professional identification is directly impacted by three factors: (1) the individual's need for professional identification; (2) the individual's perceived similarity to others in the IT profession; and (3) the individual's perceptions of the IT profession, signifying the importance of internalization to identification. Professional identification is also indirectly impacted by the public's perception of the IT profession.

The persistently low number of women in the information systems (IS) field has led to numerous inquiries about barriers women might face to entry and advancement in the profession. Because IS has traditionally been male dominated, masculine values tend to predominate in the profession. In the current study, same sex focus groups of male and female managers discussed challenges women in IS face that their male colleagues might not. By simultaneously analyzing the perceptions of male and female IS managers, we identified areas of overlap and divergence in the concepts as well as in the linkages between the concepts. Although the men and women's maps shared 10 concepts, none of the linkages between the concepts were the same in the two maps. We thus find that men and women have little cognitive overlap about the challenges that women face. Overall, male participants generally realize that women face a number of challenges associated with female gender role expectations, and more generally challenges they encounter in their workplaces and in the IS field. Their understanding of the challenges, however, appears to be superficial. We call on organizations and the IS profession to devise novel responses and training approaches to promote change in the IS culture.

The Information Technology (IT) workforce is rapidly changing. Many of the IT baby boomers are retiring or planning to retire; the number of college students majoring in IT has declined; and, in th...

Many organizations attempt to deploy methodologies intended to improve software development processes. However, resistance by individual software developers against using such methodologies often obstructs their successful deployment. To better explain why individual developers accept or resist methodologies, five theoretical models of individual intentions to accept information technology tools were examined. In a field study of 128 developers in a large organization that implemented a methodology, each model explained significant variance in developers' intentions to use the methodology. Similar to findings from the tool adoption context, we found that, if a methodology is not regarded as useful by developers, its prospects for successful deployment may be severely undermined. In contrast to the typical pattern of findings in a tool context, however, we found that methodology adoption intentions are driven by: 1) the presence of an organizational mandate to use the methodology, 2) the compatibility of the methodology with how developers perform their work, and 3) the opinions of developers' coworkers and supervisors toward using the methodology. Collectively, these results provide surprising new insights into why software developers accept or resist methodologies and suggest what software engineering managers might do to overcome developer resistance.