Elsevier

Information & Management

Volume 19, Issue 4, November 1990, Pages 237-247
Information & Management

Research
Knowledge, skills and abilities of information systems professionals: past, present, and future

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-7206(90)90033-EGet rights and content

Abstract

This study provides information and direction regarding the skills needed by current and future information systems (IS) professionals. Based on information gathered in 1978, 1987, and 1988 through structured interviews with a total of one-hundred-eighty senior information systems managers responsible for planning, training, and hiring IS personnel, the trends in the current and future usefulness to project managers, systems analysts/designers, and programmers of twenty dimensions of knowledge, skill, and ability are evaluated. The results indicate that senior IS managers believe that human factors and managerial knowledge, skills, and abilities have and will continue to increase in importance for all IS professionals, particularly for project managers. The findings also confirm the increasing need to personnel with knowledge of advanced technologies and an increased awareness of the value of information as a corporate resource. Collectively, the results suggests a clearer division of labor among IS professionals, precipitated by advances in technology and their application to ever increasingly complex and ill-structured problems.

References (19)

  • Curriculum Recommendations for Graduate Professional Programs in Information Systems: A Report of the ACM Curriculum Committee on Computer Education for Management

    Communications of the ACM

    (May 1972)
  • Bureau of Labor Statistics

    Occupational Projections and Training Data

    (1986)
  • J.I. Cash et al.

    Corporate Information Systems Management: The Issues Facing Senior Executives

    (1988)
  • P.H. Cheney et al.

    Information Systems Skill Requirements: A Survey

    MIS Quarterly

    (March 1980)
  • P.H. Cheney et al.

    Information Systems Skill Requirement: 1978 and 1987

    (1988)
  • Council of Economic Advisers

    Economic Indicators

    (December 1980)
  • Council of Economic Advisers

    Economic Indicators

    (December 1989)
  • J.C. Crystal et al.

    Redesigning Jobs

    Training and Development Journal

    (March 1983)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (50)

  • Construction of a nurses' interpersonal communication knowledge system: A Delphi study

    2023, Nurse Education Today
    Citation Excerpt :

    This study constructs a knowledge system of interpersonal communication based on the theoretical framework of Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes (KSA). ‘Knowledge’ refers to the content or technical information needed to adequately perform a job and is usually obtained through formal education (Cheney et al., 1990). Winterton et al. (2006) defined ‘skills’ with respect to speed and accuracy in performing particular tasks.

  • Profiles of Brazilian IS/IT professionals: Hierarchical and decision levels in an organization

    2009, Technology in Society
    Citation Excerpt :

    The findings also confirmed the growing need for personnel with knowledge of advanced technologies and an awareness of the value of information as a corporate resource. Collectively, the results suggested a clearer division of labor among IS professionals, precipitated by advances in technology and their application to increasingly complex and ill-structured problems [9]. As stated earlier, technical abilities are no longer enough for IS/IT professionals.

View all citing articles on Scopus

Some of the data presented in this paper is reported in “Information Systems Professions: Skills for the 1990's”, in the Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, January 3–6, (1989), Vol. I, 331–336.

1

Paul Cheney is currently the Area Coordinator and Professor of Management Information Systems in the College of Business Administration at Texas Tech University. He received his Ph.D. in MIS from the University of Minnesota in 1977 and had taught at Iowa State and the University of Georgia prior to joining Texas Tech University in the summer of 1988. He has published over 30 articles in such journals as Decision Sciences, MIS Quarterly, and Information and Management. He has also conducted numerous professional development seminars and consulted widely for firms such as FORD, IBM, AT&T, and EXXON.

2

David P. Hale is Assistant Professor of Information Systems and Quantitative Sciences at Texas Tech University's College of Business Administration. He received his Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1986. His research interests include collaborative problem-solving systems and software engineering. His papers on joint human-computer problem- solving systems, data base management systems design, decision-group connectivity, and software maintenance have appeared in Management Information Quarterley, Journal of Management Information Systems, and several conference proceedings.

3

George M. Kasper is Associate Professor of Information Systems and Quantitative Sciences at Texas Tech University College of Business Administration. He received the Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His primary research interests are decision support systems and expert system-aided decision making. His research has been published in such journals as Decision Support Systems, Journal of Management Information Systems, Information and Management, Decision Sciences, and others. Dr. Kasper has also served as a visiting member of the Faculty of Informatics, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, and has worked and consulted for both government and private industry.

View full text