The Future of the is Discipline by Hirschheim

8/2/2019 The Future of the is Discipline by Hirschheim

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Slide 1

The Future of the IS Discipline:The Future of the IS Discipline:

Further ReflectionsFurther ReflectionsRudy Hirschheim

Ourso College of Business&

Center for Computation and Technology

Louisiana State University

Presentation to LSE Department of Information Systems

10 July 2006


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Slide 2Rudy Hirschheim, 2006

Is there a future?

Emasculation"With dollars and people moving from corporate IS units to business

units (and even further out to IT industry firms), central IS units (not

just hardware) have been downsized. Corporate IS groups that oncehired hundreds of people are today mere shadows of their former

selves - sometimes only five or six people. (Markus 1999, p.184)

Press Reports

Wall Street Journal article suggesting if you are in IT, youneed to find another job

Bradburys Silicon.com article IT Department Headed for

Extinction?

Dropping IS student numbers Most schools are experiencing a dramatic drop in IS majors. And

not just in the US. Many Business School Deans no longer support

a vibrant IS department. IS PhD grads are having a hard timefinding academic jobs.


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Shrinking Student Numbers Konrad (2005) notes that recent computer science graduates aren't even

looking for jobs in IT anymore since they believe that there are no IT jobs leftin the US. Worse, citing a recent Gartner Group report, she suggests that 15%

of the IT workers will drop out of the profession by 2010, and that the world-wide demand for systems developers will shrink by 30% during the sameperiod.

In a survey of PhD-granting computer science departments in the UnitedStates, the Computer Research Association found that the number of new

undergraduate majors dropped 18 percent in 2003 (Frauenheim & Yamamoto2004).

Datz (2004) reported the drop in undergraduate computer science andcomputer engineering programs to be 23% from 2003 to 2004.

Vegso (2005) noted that the percentage of incoming undergraduate students in

US universities who indicated they would major in CS declined by over 60%between 2000 and 2004, and is now approximately 70% lower than it was inits peak during the 1982-83 time period.

Similar declines have also been anecdotally noted in the IS field resulting in areduced demand for IS faculty (Frolick et al. 2005).


4/34Slide 4Rudy Hirschheim, 2006

Is this just cyclical? Saw the downturn in IS hiring before

early 1990s IS had to take its fair share of the downsizing

Economy driven, when the economy came backso too did IS jobs



Some say it is a more deep routed

problem

The IS students we turn out are the problem: cant

think, cant write, cant communicate

Need business knowledge not technical

knowledge Havent we heard this all before? Wasnt this why IS

programs were created?

Doesnt this also conflict with what recruiters seem toask for? There is a disconnect between the CIOs wants

and the recruiters for the companies



But will they hire?The question is if we do deliver what they

want, or say they want, will they hire ourstudents?

recent CIO magazine article suggests otherwise

(see previous point)http://www.cio.com/archive/011505/edit.html

Seems they hire 5+ year experienced peoplefrom consulting companies and /or vendors
http://www.cio.com/archive/011505/edit.htmlhttp://www.cio.com/archive/011505/edit.htmlhttp://www.cio.com/archive/011505/edit.html


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What is the market?

Seems the IS market is soft, but will it

rebound?Answer: Depends on who you talk to

See the unscientific Ives survey results


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Supply and demand for IS students*

Here is the summary from the brief survey participated in by large state supportedprograms with large undergraduate B-School populations. They include

Washington State University (WSU), Louisiana State University (LSU), University

of Virginia (UVA), University of Central Florida (UCF), University of Georgia

(UGA), Indiana University (IU), Oklahoma University (OU), and the University of

Houston (UH).

The good news, if there is any, is that our problem appears to be evolving from one

of too few jobs to one of too few students. Student disinterest appears to be

increasingly caused by the perception, rather than the reality, of too few

jobs. While off-shoring might have been a factor in the loss of jobs it now runs therisk of being the consequence of the lack of graduates to fill available jobs.

*from an informal survey conducted by Blake Ives



(1.) Are You Still Seeing a Fall Off in Student Majors or Has It

Begun to Level Off or Even Increase?

WSU: The official count as of yesterday is 170 official majors. I suspect we'll be

above 200 next year. We dipped to 90 I believe a couple years ago. Our business

school now has more people trying to get in than it has the last four years (more thanwe can accommodate), so we're going to start doing a new enrollment management

process to limit majors. While in our heyday we were in the high 400's (in terms of

MIS majors), I suspect with enrollment management (and filtering on GPA) we'll

target maximum growth at about 250 MIS majors.

UVA: We saw a fall off of approximately 50% of our IT concentrators from our highs

in 2000 to this year. The fall off does appear to have leveled off this year.

LSU: IS student numbers at LSU continue to fall, although as a proportion, the

decrease is pretty small now. We are currently at about 25% of what we were in thedotcom era. There is a feeling that the decrease has bottomed-out, but we're not sure

when/if we'll see an upswing.



(1.) Are You Still Seeing a Fall Off in Student Majors or Has It

Begun to Level Off or Even Increase?

UCF: Our majors have dropped from 700 in 2002 to 300 this year. We have bottomed

out but we see no increase as yet. Our MS/MIS program is down from 100 to 86

students.

IU: Yes, we saw a significant drop -- in 2000 or so, we'd graduate 250 CIS majors; this

year, slightly less than 100. I am hopeful that we are stabilizing, but the jury is still

out.

UGA: We are still seeing some fall off, but there is a topping up process within the B-

school. Those who can't get their major of choice are being sent to MIS, but it turns

out that these students don't seem to care to much and are doing quite well and staying

in the major.

UH: Our incoming class of majors is the smallest in recent years (60) and

approximately 15% of peak(400) our peak year.



(2.) Roughly What Proportion of Your Students are Getting IS-

related Jobs?

WSU: Things are much better than 2 years ago. We are seeing SIGNIFICANTrecruitment and internship opportunities. The companies are back in strength.

Anybody good can get a job.

LSU: No, demand is soft. Fortunately, there aren't many students we have to find jobs

for... that is the good news. The bad news is that we're not seeing an upswing indemand.

UCF: About 80% of our MIS graduates are working in MIS. The good students have

multiple offers. Yes, demand began picking up about 6 months ago.

IU: Thejob market is improving; the problem is, I fear, that we do not currently or in

the near-term have enough students to deliver.


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(2.) Roughly What Proportion of Your Students are Getting IS-

related Jobs?

UVA: Roughly 90% of our IT concentrators got at least one job offer last year. The

average number of offers per IT concentrator was 2.2. The average reported salary forIT concentrators was $46,393.

UVA: We do seem to be experiencing a slight increase in recruiting at the

undergraduate level this year, and a significant increase in job postings directed at the

graduate students.

UGA: We see an increase in demand, but I have no numbers. Recruiters are more

active and good students get multiple offers.

UH: Most of our most recent group of majors to graduate got IT related jobs. Typical

salaries for those with no previous experience is in the low to mid 40's. Several

students got multiple offers, with many of the turned down offers coming from

programming body shops.


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(3.) What, If Anything, Have You Done to Increase the Numbers of

Majors and has the Innovation Worked?

WSU:

(a.) We have put one of our best teachers in our intro section

(b.) We changed our MIS club (student MIS social organization) to a Mu Iota Sigma Professional

student organization, which will have officers selected by faculty (who will then be given

scholarships). The idea here is to pick the best and brightest who can serve to communicate the

MIS to the other students and make us more visible to the student body. In addition, in association

with Mu Iota Sigma we're going to have the MIS Honor Roll (top students in our discipline). Forboth the officers and honor roll, we're going to publicize those people internally in our BSchool

(bulletin board pictures, visiting classrooms, etc.).

(c.) We took one of our most popular teachers and put him in charge of Mu Iota Sigma

(d.) We also have plans for a MIS new-board on a central walkway in the b-school. The idea here

is flat panels with rotating MIS content (here's jim bob working in a MIS career at Boeing..., here's

the upcoming course offerings, here's where our recent grads got jobs), photos of item "b." above,

photo's of faculty, faculty research, etc... The concept here is visibility to students.


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(3.) What, If Anything, Have You Done To Increase The Numbers Of

Majors And Has The Innovation Worked?

LSU: We have done a lot of talking!!! We are trying to change the direction of the program more

towards project management, security, and networks. We've talked about adding a course on

'Sourcing' but frankly our changes have been very, very modest. We've also talked about

dramatically changing the program towards 'business processes'. With the rise in BPO, it seems

that we in IS are best positioned to understand business processes, and given that most (all) are IT-

enabled, we are the natural field to teach/research this area.

UCF: We have changed our curriculum adding an ERP Implementation (SAP) and a Data Mining

classes but it's too soon to tell if that has had an effect. We also have begun to promote MIS as a

major in the required College of Business MIS course. This has helped slightly.

UVA: We are in the process of rolling out a new set of IT courses that are designed to be moreinterdisciplinary in nature, and offered in a more flexible (easy to access) structure.

- COMM 420 - Project Management (all Commerce students, required of IT)

- COMM 421 - Financial Systems Engineering (finance)

- COMM 422 - Database Management (IT)

- COMM 423 - E-Commerce (marketing)

- COMM 424 - Innovation & Technology (all Commerce students)

- COMM 427 - IT Project Practicum (IT)

- COMM 428 - Data Communications (IT)

This curriculum is designed to prepare IT concentrators for job types 3, 4, & 5 in the IT Job

Pyramid (from a recent Business Week)..Early indications are that these changes will result in atleast a slight increase in IT concentrators.


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(3.) What, If Anything, Have You Done to Increase the Numbers of

Majors and has the Innovation Worked?

IU: After a significant analysis of recruiting, student perceptions, etc etc. I significantly revised

the requirements for our CIS major, largely to make it "easier" for students to double major, e.g.,

Accounting-CIS. This is rather popular with Kelley undergrads. I also introduced a new "business

info systems" co-major. This is really a minor (we don't have minors) consisting of 4 core IS

courses. My goal here is to service the other majors, e.g., Marketing, and increase enrollment in

core courses. I need to minimize preps for faculty. Both changes were implemented this year so it

is a bit too early to assess.

UGA: We have tended to try offering service courses for other areas (e.g. accounting)

OU: The new interdisciplinary (open to all business undergraduates as well as MIS) courses wehave introduced are:

-- E-Business (focusing on the net-enabled extended enterprise)

-- Project/Relationship management

-- Technology Management (similar to the Innovation and Technology at UVA)

-- Business Data Modeling (an Excel based course focusing on building models used in finance,

accounting, supply chain, etc.)

UH: We are preparing a marketing campaign to convince students that there are jobs and that they

pay well. We are following up with students that dropped out of our introductory course to find

out why. We are bringing in speakers to talk to the intro class about careers in information systems.

We may conduct focus groups of students in the introductory class that have not yet selected

majors. We are looking for ways to demonstrate that IT careers are "cool" and "fun."


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(4.) Is The Problem One of Supply (Too Few Students) or Demand (Too

Few Jobs) And, How Serious is the Problem Identified?

UVA: The primary problem seems to have been perceived demand. That is, students have a

perception that there won't be many IT-related jobs available when they graduate (due to

offshoring, post dot com era, downsizing of IT, etc.). I am concerned that the smaller number of IT

concentrators will result in a supply problem, causing recruiters to look elsewhere, and a downward

spiral effect.

LSU: The problem is VERY real.. it isn't a myth. What worries me is that many CIOs, or at least

the CIOs of the big companies, don't seem too concerned about where their talent comes from.

Most seem to hire (when they need to hire) from consulting firms. They let the Accentures of the

world 'train' talent, which they then 'buy' later on an 'as needed basis. IT organizations seem too

quick to turn activities over to third party providers, particularly offshore providers. This may likelycome back and bite them in the proverbial ass, but by then, they will have all moved on leaving the

mess for someone else to clear up!

UCF: I think the problem is the perceived lack of employment opportunities.

IU: Too few students.

OU: we are experiencing a pickup in companies hiring ... We have more jobs than qualified MIS

majors right now. The problem we are facing is dispelling the widespread view (in some cases,

perpetuated by our colleagues in other departments) held by business undergraduates (and, perhaps,

their parents) that there are no jobs when in fact there are very good jobs available.


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Computer Information Systems

CIS Ranked Top in World!Study Ranks Robinson Computer Information Systems Department Top in the World - June 06, 2005 continued

CIS Makes Top Ten Again (graduate and undergraduate programs)!Once again the CIS Department graduate program is ranked as one of the ten best in the nation. For public universities, theCIS Department ranked fifth. According to the US News & World Report, for the third consecutive year, the MIS program wasrated as one of the ten best in the United States. continued

CIS Alumni Spotlight

Colonel (U.S. Army Retired) Joseph "Tom" Catudal (MS/CIS, 87), formerly the U.S. Army's CIO in Iraq, is appointed CIO ofSegovia, Inc. According to Col. Catudal, My MS/CIS from GSU gave me a super platform by which I have developed thesuccesses in information and communications technology (ICT), Chief Information Officer (CIO), and now Senior VicePresident level appointments. continued

Great Time to Consider a Career in Computer Information SystemsWill there be incredible and unrecognized new opportunities for information systems students? Read on!

Shortage of Information Systems GraduatesThe potential of this opportunity is improved because the number of new computing graduates has decreased dramatically. Theshift is not unlike those of the late 1980s, when for example, Northeastern Universitys Computing program saw (in 1987) a 40%drop in freshmen. By the mid-1990s this decline became one of the reasons for a nationwide shortage in IT workers. Todaysdecreasing enrollments in such programs nationwide, like those of the late 1980s, could mean that a resuming demand for ITworkers would meet with an unfortunate and significant shortfall.

Careers Available to Computer Information Systems MajorsCorporate careers for majors in Computer Information Systems continue to be strong and varied. The jobs and salaries reach farbeyond programming. Entrepreneurs will also emerge through many similar roles over time in their own companies. These arecareers specific to information systems majors. Like other business majors, there many additional opportunities in generalmanagement leading to other executive positions up to, and including, Chief Executive Officer (CEO). continued

Copyright 2005 Computer Information Systems Department, Georgia State University. All rights reserved.
http://robinson.gsu.edu/news/05/cais_study.htmlhttp://robinson.gsu.edu/news/05/cais_study.htmlhttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/news/usnews2005grad.asphttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/news/usnews2006undergrad.asphttp://robinson.gsu.edu/news/05/US_News_ranking.htmlhttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/news/caudalnews.asphttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/about/shortage.asphttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/about/career.asphttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/about/career.asphttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/about/career.asphttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/about/career.asphttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/about/career.asphttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/news/caudalnews.asphttp://robinson.gsu.edu/news/05/US_News_ranking.htmlhttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/news/usnews2006undergrad.asphttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/news/usnews2005grad.asphttp://robinson.gsu.edu/news/05/cais_study.htmlhttp://robinson.gsu.edu/news/05/cais_study.htmlhttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/about/shortage.asphttp://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/about/shortage.asp


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So what?

What do we really know? Not much

There are (at least) three possible scenariosScenario 1:

Im OK, your OK. We simply look at thehistorical trend line, assuming that it is a good

predictor of the future


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Dot.com effect

IS student numbers

2005late 90s


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Scenario 2: IS is a Commodity*

Nicholas Carr is right IT Doesnt Matter

But havent we heard all of this before? cf.Dearden, etc.

IS is a commodity is old hat, it is justanother attack on the fieldold wine in

new bottlesnothing new here

* What exactly is a commodity? Is a commodity an 'input' or an 'output'? Also what is the relationship between

'commodity' and 'economies of scale'..... answer: nothing. But a more interesting issue is not what is or is not a

'commodity' but the act of 'commoditization, i.e. rationalization (see scenario 3). That is, how does an organization'commoditize' its business processes? In a sense, that is what organizations do when they implement ERP. This also

drives BPO.


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Scenario 3: Commoditization of Work

Carr was wrong, the IS function isnt a commodity butsignificant parts/processes of IS work are beingcommoditized through IT for better or worse

IT may now be a root cause of the crisis

Need to pay attention to the mediating role of IT thatdifferentiates IS from other business disciplines;

Consider for example:IT as Enabler of Sourcing

IT is clearly an enabler that has opened up new strategic options forstructuring IT and business operations

IT as Enabler and Catalyst for Commoditization Modern IT has allowed extending the market logic of commoditization

to white collar work - clerical work initially and now all the way tobusiness processes (BPO). Hence, IT has served both as a medium andcatalyst of turning subjective skills and know-how into a market

commodity


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Scenario 3: Continued

IT as Enabler of OffshoringIT is clearly an enabler that has opened up the opportunity for offshoring, and

not just IS workit will expand to include many/most/all business processes

Where does it end? Is the ultimate nature of the application of IT (i.e.

automation and informatization) the commoditization ofmanagement (and engineering)? If not, what exactly

cannot be commoditized?

Does offshoring/outsourcing lead to extinction? Where does the next generation of managers come from?

Is anyone worried about this?


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TheRealConcern

Wall Street Effect = Short-termism, driven

by capitalism and greedWhat is the long term effect?

Could it be an Enron-like implosion? Searching for the latest silver bullet of the

day, this is management fadism

Probably good for consultants cf. from insourcing to outsourcing to backsourcing


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Where does this leave us?

Are we the next OR? Ackoff, Checkland, etc. warned of the dangers of irrelevance.

we too must be concerned dont forget our external market* consider Computer Sciences view of things:

Computer science is just as good a first major as ... English, Economics orHistoryyou can go on and do anything [Prof. J. Wing, Head of CS at CarnegieMellon]

many CS students dont even know what SQL is [Keselman, CTO of McKesson]

But there is a key difference: IS is so ingrained/embedded in all business processes it is hard to see itgoing away but it is changing

Need to focus on business processes or the IT enabling ofbusiness processesthe good news is that we do thisalready with ERP, BPR, BPO, etc.

* But have they forgotten about us?

Wh d hi l


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Where does this leave us:

Faculty teaching issuesNeed to realize the market has changed

We dont produce coders but analysts someone whounderstands business processes and the ability to recognizehow IT can enable them

Key skills revolve around project management - how to

manage global projects involving internal and externalresources, across diverse cultures, geographic distances andvalue systems

Many have argued that IT careers in the West should focus

on: requirements analysis, business process design, contractmanagement, business relationship management andarchitecture planning. To that add: IT strategy, systemauditing, and security

Wh d thi l


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Where does this leave us:

Faculty research issues If one assumes teaching follows the jobs (we teach what students need to get

jobs), and research follows teaching (assuming that teaching is used to fundfaculty research), then what?

If India becomes the new Silicon Valley, what does this mean for the West?(besides the obvious reduction in International students coming to ourprograms)

India may well become the world leader in IS teaching but will this translate intoworld leadership in IS research? And what would the new research priorities be ifthis were the case? Would we take academic jobs in India so we could continue ourresearch work?

What about IT innovation? Will this too be the dominated by Chindia? Mostresearchers (in the West) believe IT innovation will continue to come from theWest. But is this true?

Consider the book by Ashutosh Shashabalaya Rising Elephant (2005)

Jeffrey Gartens [Yale Business School Dean]BusinessWeekarticle (Jan.31, 2005)The High-Tech Threat from China

Lyytinen and Tilson claim that Korea and Japan are at least 6 years ahead of the USin the wireless innovation area


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The most likely scenario

Darwinism: the best way to avoid extinction is throughevolution

IS will evolve because it has to Hirschheims 3 Rs: reflection, reposition and renewal

Reflection: Organizations need IS talent because they can notrisk outsourcing/offshoring key intellectual propertythus IS

will survive but with a different set of competencies Reposition: Perhaps the field could align itself with Business

Strategy this is a natural fit given that IT enables businessstrategy and involves relationship/contract/project management,and innovation

Renewal: The bottom line: there is good news in that the fieldrecognizes its need to evolve; cf. the discussion inMISQ,JAIS,CAIS plus the recent book by Lyytinen and King


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Broad IS Challenges

IS governance how to manage the increasingly complex set ofrelationships and vendors who provide IT products and services

domestic and offshore vendors, SBU IS units, corporate ISunits, contractors, and customer desires

IS alignment how to align IS strategy with business strategy

Process outsourcing which processes to outsource?Commodity vs. strategic processes

IS succession where does the next generation of IS leaderscome from when most IS is outsourced?

FOUR GREAT FATALLY


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FOUR GREAT FATALLY

FLAWED NOTIONS

The CIO is dead (career is over to callIndia office)

IS is withering awayThere are no jobs in IS

The centralized IS organization is dead

Bush Lays Off Congress; will Outsource Lawmaking to India


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y g ; g

Washington - Citing the growing cost of running the Federal government and the need to cut costs in order to reduce the

budget deficit, President Bush announced today that he was laying off all 535 members of Congress and transferringlawmaking operations to a legislative support center in Bangalore, India. "Hey, outsourcing is the way to go these days,"

said Bush at an impromptu news conference where he announced the decision, adding, "the American people want to see

less government waste. Since every one of those ex-Congressmen had a salary of $150,000, this move will cut our costs by

over $80 million per year, and that's not even counting what we'll save on health insurance and retirement plans." Sources

indicate that the Indian replacements will be paid approximately $250 per month.

The outcry from the newly laid-off Senators and Representatives was swift. Ex-California Senator Diane

Feinstein said, "This is absolutely outrageous. How can a bunch of replacements over in India run Congress? What do theyknow about filibusters and committee hearings?" As she was being escorted out of the Hart Senate Office Building by U.S.

Capitol Police officers, Feinstein complained that the newly-terminated lawmakers were only given ten minutes to clean

out their desks and leave the building.

"I think it's a great idea," said Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking from a secure undisclosed location.

"The American people were fed up with that expensive do-nothing Congress which didn't always give the President

everything he asked for. Our new Indian replacements will be much cooperative to the President, which is what we all

want." Asked whether the outsourcing may be unconstitutional, Cheney noted, "That's up to the Supreme Court to decide,

but as you know, they usually see things our way."

The new members of Congress seem thrilled with the attention they are receiving. Speaking from the offices

of All-India Legislative Support Centre Ltd. In Bangalore, new Mississippi Senator Ramchandra Shektar Gupta told

reporters, "The Indian people are very hard working and we will do our best as U.S. Congressmen and Congresswomen.

And we are going to have some fun too. Just think: we have $2 trillion of the American taxpayers' money to spend!"

Source: The Baked Beaver

Documents

The Future of the is Discipline by Hirschheim