Technical Expert, Pair-of-Hands or Collaborator:What Determines the Role Choices of IS Specialists?

摘要

Effective working relationships between informationrnsystems (IS) specialists and their business clients are anrnessential organizational asset. They contribute to customerrnsatisfaction, IT project success, and IS specialistrncredibility. In turn, high quality IS-client relationships arerninfluenced by the roles IS specialists adopt as they interactrnwith clients on IS implementation tasks. IS specialist rolesrnmay be classified as “technical expert”, “pair-of-hands”rnand “collaborator”, where these terms are defined as in thernconsulting skills literature. Prior research has shown thatrnthe technical expert and pair-of-hands roles contribute tornlow quality IS-client working relationships, while therncollaborator role contributes to higher-qualityrnrelationships. Therefore, the influences on--, IS specialists’rnrole choice is a topic of great theoretical and practicalrnimportance. This paper looks for such influencesrnoriginating in the institutional context of IS work. In recentrnyears, there has been a significant shift in the employmentrnstatus of IS specialists. Many now perform IS work asrnexternal consultants rather than as employees of thernorganizations for whom the IS work is performed.rnTherefore, the context more likely to influence IS specialistrnrole choice is that of the specialist’s employer rather thanrnthat of the client organization (when the two differ). Ourrnfindings show that the human resource managementrnpolicies and service climate in the IS specialist’s employerrnare strongly associated with the IS specialist’s role choice.rnThis finding has important implications for IS personnelrntheory and practice.