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The impetus for this paper was the recognition, based on recent surveys and our own experiences, that organizations face special challenges when designing and validating selection procedures for information technology (IT) workers. The history of the IT industry, the nature of IT work, and characteristics of IT workers converge to make the selection of IT workers uniquely challenging. In this paper, we identify these challenges and suggest means of addressing them. We show the advantages offered by the modern view of validation that endorses a wide spectrum of probative information relevant to establishing the job relatedness and business necessity of IT selection procedures. Finally, we identify the implications of these issues for industrial/organizational psychologists, human resource managers, and managers of IT workers.

The goal of this study is to investigate the nexus among TFP (total factor productivity), IT (information technology) capital accumulation, skills and key plant variables of 34 Indian industries for the period of 2009–2015.

Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) data series are extracted and formulated using Microsoft SQL server. The authors employ Wooldridge (2009) technique to estimate productivity. To investigate the linkages among productivity, IT, skills and key plant variables, the authors estimate specifications using system generalized method of moments (sys-GMM). Advanced estimation techniques such as Heckman two-step process, probit equations, inverse Mills ratio and panel cointegration are applied to overcome problems of nonstationarity, omitted variables, endogeneity and reverse causality.

The results indicate that the level of IT capital influences the TFP of Indian industries, so does the level of skilled workers. The outcome suggests that intermediate capital goods, location and ownership type enable the strength of IT capital and that in turn boosts productivity. The authors fail to find any impact of regional factors and contractual labor on IT capital and productivity. While medium-level gender diversity is statistically significant to influence productivity, however, no complementarities exist between gender diversity and IT capital accumulation. The results also indicate that IT demand of Indian industries is sensitive to availability of skilled workforce, fuel and electricity and access to short-term funding.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the nexus among TFP, IT capital accumulation, skills and organizational factors using ASI unit level data. Besides this, the paper offers two more novelties. First, it uses Wooldridge (2009) technique to estimate productivity, which is used by a handful of studies in the context of India. Second, the study identifies factors that impact productivity growth, IT demand and its adoption in Indian industries and thus contributes to growth and development literature.

The concepts of ‘information literacy’ and ‘digital literacy’ are described, and reviewed, by way of a literature survey and analysis. Related concepts, including computer literacy, library literacy, network literacy, Internet literacy and hyper‐literacy are also discussed, and their relationships elucidated. After a general introduction, the paper begins with the basic concept of ‘literacy’, which is then expanded to include newer forms of literacy, more suitable for complex information environments. Some of these, for example library, media and computer literacies, are based largely on specific skills, but have some extension beyond them. They lead togeneral concepts, such as information literacy and digital literacy which are based on knowledge, perceptions and attitudes, though reliant on the simpler skills‐based literacies

This paper analyses the link between educational qualification structure and information technology (IT) in the service production process. The analysis is based on 1996 cross‐sectional data for approximately 1,000 West German firms. The empirical evidence indicates that IT capital and high‐skilled labor are complements in the production process: firms with higher IT investment output ratios employ a larger fraction of high‐skilled workers at the expense of unskilled workers. To a lesser extent, the positive IT effect carries through for workers with vocational degrees including masters and technicians. Furthermore, we find that firms’ expectations of the future size of their high‐skilled workforce are positively related to their initial IT investment output ratio. To account for censoring in the employment variables, the empirical analysis uses Powell’s Censored Least Absolute Deviations estimators as well as standard Tobit estimators.

This paper describes efforts by the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, to develop effective strategies with which to develop students’ skills in communications and information technology (C&IT). The strategy adopted was to develop these skills within modules that tackle traditional earth science subjects rather than devise a specific skills development module. Two modules were utilised: Geohazards and the Malta Fieldcourse, which specified the achievement of C&IT skills as key objectives. The results of the first year’s experiment were surprising. Students on the Geohazards module, who received extensive practical instruction in C&IT skills, did not demonstrate appreciable attainment of C&IT skills. In contrast, many students on the Malta Fieldcourse, who received no practical C&IT instruction, created Web pages for assessment. The reasons for these results were evaluated and alterations made to both modules, mainly in respect of the learning environment. Results in 1998 were dramatically improved and demonstrate the importance of creating and maintaining an experiential learning environment to encourage students to develop and demonstrate C&IT skills.

All accountants make extensive use of information technology (IT) in their working lives, and IT skills have long been part of the Accounting and Finance undergraduate degree programme at the University of Glamorgan. This degree scheme was redesigned on a linear basis with effect from September 2002; one of the major changes being to integrate the teaching of management accounting and IT at the introductory level. The teaching of management accounting lends itself well to the use of IT. This paper describes both the rationale behind, and the design and development of, a case study which aims to integrate the use of IT with the development and application of management accounting techniques. The case study attempts to emulate a “ive” work‐based environment as closely as possible. Completion of tasks at intervals throughout the year form part of the assessment of the module. These are based on data from a variety of sources which students manipulate, using various software packages, in order to produce useful management accounting information. In this way, students learn both management accounting and IT skills, and how to apply these skills to provide management accounting information. The experiences of both students and staff in using the case study over a six‐year period are reported, together with a description of how the case study and its use have evolved in light of the experience.

Information technology (IT) is a new service sector characterised by an intensive dynamic that puts high demands of learning, flexibility and mobility on IT specialists. This article identifies two features that are decisive for the formation of work identities of employees working in the sector: first, an “entrepreneurial” employment model that transfers responsibilities for skills acquisition, professional development and risk management to the individual; and second, a conflict between a strong identification with IT‐related technology and flexibility requirements. The article analyses the implications these features have in terms of the role of initial and continuing vocational training, skills demands and the professional development of employees working in the sector. It also discusses how boundaryless career paths, characterised by ambiguity and uncertainty, influence work‐related identities of IT specialists.

Users’ mistakes due to poor cybersecurity skills result in up to 95 per cent of cyber threats to organizations. Threats to organizational information systems continue to result in substantial financial and intellectual property losses. This paper aims to design, develop and empirically test a set of scenarios-based hands-on tasks to measure the cybersecurity skills of non-information technology (IT) professionals.

This study was classified as developmental in nature and used a sequential qualitative and quantitative method to validate the reliability of the Cybersecurity Skills Index (CSI) as a prototype-benchmarking tool. Next, the prototype was used to empirically test the demonstrated observable hands-on skills level of 173 non-IT professionals.

The importance of skills and hands-on assessment appears applicable to cybersecurity skills of non-IT professionals. Therefore, by using an expert-validated set of cybersecurity skills and scenario-driven tasks, this study established and validated a set of hands-on tasks that measure observable cybersecurity skills of non-IT professionals without bias or the high-stakes risk to IT.

Data collection was limited to the southeastern USA and while the sample size of 173 non-IT professionals is valid, further studies are required to increase validation of the results and generalizability.

The validated and reliable CSI operationalized as a tool that measures the cybersecurity skills of non-IT professionals. This benchmarking tool could assist organizations with mitigating threats due to vulnerabilities and breaches caused by employees due to poor cybersecurity skills.

Utilising data from 18 in‐depth case studies, this study seeks to explore training, development and human resource development (HRD) practices in European call centres. It aims to argue that the complexity and diversity of training, development and HRD practices is best understood by studying the multilayered contexts within which call centres operate. Call centres operate as open systems and training, development and HRD practices are influenced by environmental, strategic, organisational and temporal conditions.

The study utilised a range of research methods, including in‐depth interviews with multiple stakeholders, documentary analysis and observation. The study was conducted over a two‐year period.

The results indicate that normative models of HRD are not particularly valuable and that training, development and HRD in call centres is emergent and highly complex.

This study represents one of the first studies to investigate training and development and HRD practices and systems in European call centres.

The paper reviews literature that claims that for the first two decades of its existence, the computer industry was insular, esoteric and disproportionately populated by men. It cites feminist and industry commentary that claims that these sub‐cultural features have had a negative impact on information systems (IS∥ development, and that because they possess more rounded profiles ‐‐ typically possessing both social as well as technical skills ‐‐ the advent of more women into the sector would lead to improvements in design and golden opportunities for female developers. The paper discusses qualitative interview data elicited from developers designed to assess the likelihood of these predictions holding true. Specifically, it discusses the common‐sense discourses deployed to represent male and female workers’ social and technical skills. It concludes that the processes whereby both types of skills are recognised are highly complex and that such processes often privilege male workers and their competencies, so that we should remain sceptical of any over‐optimistic predictions that a shift in the quantities of women undertaking IS work will automatically lead to a shift in the qualitative nature of such systems and the contexts within which they are produced.