Diversity and the information technology workforce

Abstract

Most IT professionals would agree that diversity in IT leads to positive outcomes. However, few studies have empirically tested differences in diversity perceptions among groups. This research-in-progress develops a survey to test perceptions in four diversity categories: gender, ethnicity, age, and disability. Currently, we have begun collecting data from students in three universities. Upon completion of data collection, we plan to validate the survey instrument using factor analysis. Then we will test a series of directional hypotheses theorizing differences in diversity perceptions among groups. We will use multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to analyze group differences and possible interaction effects. Upon completion of the study, we anticipate empirically validating a survey instrument to be used in future diversity studies, while also providing support for differences in diversity perceptions between the groups analyzed.

Understanding Career Choice of African American Men Majoring in Information Technology

“…Since 2000, 50 papers on the topic of under represented groups have appeared in the conference proceedings. But only ten of these papers have considered the topic of race or ethnicity [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Trauth's [12] review of papers on the topic gender and IS that were published in IS journals between 1992 and 2012 shows a similar pattern: only two out of 132 journal articles addressed the topic of race or ethnicity [13,14].…”