If IT professional development is good for overall corporate performance, as well as for IT professionals' employment prospects, security, self-esteem, and climbing the corporate ladder, why don't more of them do it?

Design and development of effective information technology (IT) based systems depends upon a staff of competent information technology professionals (ITPs). Due to the rapid pace of technological innovation, diverging application of IT, and changing role responsibilities of ITPs, it is becoming increasingly difficult for ITPs to maintain up-to-date professional competency.Although not extensively examined in IT research, professional obsolescence threats have been acknowledged and evaluated in referent research. Psychologists studying the engineering discipline have suggested individual characteristics, nature of work, and organizational climate as being important determinants of obsolescence.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationships between individual personality differences and manageable work context factors and the degree of professional competency, or conversely obsolescence of ITPs. Structural equation modeling was employed in evaluating the direct-effects model of professional competency. The study used questionnaires to obtain 161 usable self-report responses from systems analysts. The results suggest that individual personality differences and factors of the work environment do effect professional competency levels. Overall, the research model accounted for 44% of the variance in ITP competency.

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