Human Capital of IT Professionals: A Research Agenda

Information Systems researchers have studied various aspects of the role of human capital in the IT workforce such as the definition of IT professionals, human resource practices for managing IT professionals, returns to human capital, human capital and innovation in IT industries, and turnover among IT professionals. This panel argues that the field is at crosswinds of change due to factors such as rapidly changing technologies, organizational processes, technology delivery mechanisms such as cloud computing, new forms of organization such as virtual teams and social networks, outsourcing, offshoring, globalization, and a new generation of IT professionals entering the workforce. These changes in the environment for IT work will affect the roles, jobs, skills and careers of IT professionals and will prompt more inquiry from IS researchers in two main directions: one, some findings from prior research may not hold in this new environment and scholars will need to reexamine these. Two, these changes will raise additional issues, and call for new research on IT human capital. The objective of this panel is to present a framework to identify important trends and changes that will impact IT professionals and to define an agenda for future research on IT human capital.