Of races to run and battles to be won: Technical skill updating, stress, and coping of IT professionals
✍ Scribed by Hsing-Yi Tsai; Deborah Compeau; Nicole Haggerty
- Book ID
- 102261503
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2007
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 131 KB
- Volume
- 46
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0090-4848
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Abstract
The expectation on today's information technology (IT) professionals to remain technically competent constitutes a significant source of stress. We examine how IT professionals experience and cope with the threat of technical obsolescence. Interestingly, not all IT professionals consider technology change a threat to their technical competence; some viewed updating as enjoyable and pursued learning for its own sake. However, most viewed the relentless demand to update their technical skills as stressful and used a variety of coping strategies to address this threat. Using this cognitive approach to technical obsolescence, we describe implications for managerial practice and delineate a direction for future research. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.