Sheila Smith is Associate Professor, Department of Business Information Technology, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana.

Transcription

1 Career Barriers amog Iformatio Techology Udergraduate Majors Sheila Smith Structural chages i the ecoomy have created a employmet eviromet that dictates hirig selectivity withi the iformatio techology (IT) field. Higher employer expectatios combied with a tighter career market have itroduced challegig career barriers for IT udergraduate majors. Swaso ad Woitke (97) defied career barriers as evets or coditios, either withi the perso or i his or her eviromet, that make career progress difficult (p. 4). The purpose of this study was to examie the perceived likelihood of ecouterig certai career barriers ad, if the barriers were ecoutered, the degree to which the barriers would hider udergraduate IT majors career progress. The fidigs of this study support recet research (Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001) that foud wome perceived sigificatly greater career barriers tha me did, especially for career choice. Ethic miorities perceived greater barriers to fidig a job, job performace, ad career balace tha o-miorities. Itroductio Structural chages i the ecoomy have created a employmet eviromet that dictates hirig selectivity withi the iformatio techology (IT) field. Higher employer expectatios combied with a tighter job market have itroduced challegig career barriers for IT udergraduate majors. Elevated qualificatios ad ecoomic fluctuatios combied with iteral (psychological) ad exteral (evirometal) iterfereces i choosig a career, fidig a job, performig a job, ad balacig career ad family ca make career iitiatio ad advacemet problematic. Swaso ad Woitke (97) defied career barriers as evets or coditios, either withi the perso or i his or her eviromet, that make career progress difficult (p. 4). Idividual career choices ofte deped o persoal appraisal of ad the respose to perceived career barriers (Let, Brow, & Hackett, 94, 96, 2000). Barriers may have a impact o emotios, thoughts, ad actios durig the career selectio process (Lodo, 2001). Career plas may be altered if idividuals believe they are likely to ecouter career-related barriers or if they feel they are uable to overcome certai barriers if ecoutered (Swaso, Daiels, & Tokar, 96). Eve if idividuals possess high levels of cofidece ad iterest, perceived obstacles to career etry or advacemet may ifluece career selectio (Albert & Luzzo, 99; Brow & Let, 96). Recet research idicates that udergraduate studets perceive substatial barriers to career goals (Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001; Swaso, Daiels, & Tokar, 96; Swaso & Tokar, 91a, 91b). Barriers are viewed as cotextual factors that ca explai restrictios to wome s career aspiratios ad wome s ability-achievemet gap (Let, Brow, & Hackett, 2000; Swaso & Woitke, 97). I additio, the curret system of discrimiatio presets eve more obstacles to wome s career choices (Fassiger, 2000; Heyma, 2000; Reich, 2001). Uder-represetatio of wome ad ethic miorities i the field of iformatio techology may compoud career barriers for these groups (Margolis & Fisher, 2002). Accordig to the Cesus Bureau (2000), wome represet 46 percet of the total workforce but oly 30 percet of the IT workforce. Africa Americas fill oly eight percet of IT professios, while makig up 12 percet of the U.S. populatio. Nearly 13 percet of the populatio is Hispaic America, but makes up less tha 5 percet of the IT workforce. I May Sheila Smith is Associate Professor, Departmet of Busiess Iformatio Techology, Ball State Uiversity, Mucie, Idiaa. Iformatio Techology, Learig, ad Performace Joural, Vol. 22, No. 1, Sprig

2 50 Smith 2003, the Iformatio Techology Associatio of America released a study that foud the percetage of wome ad miorities i the iformatio techology field decreasig. The report foud that the percetage of wome i the IT workforce decreased from 41% to 34.9% from 96 to There was also a decrease amog Africa Americas, from 9.1% to 8.2%. The IT field experieced a slight rise i the presece of Hispaic Americas (0.9%) ad Native Americas (0.4%). Asia Americas had a icrease of 2.9% i the IT field i the same period ad are three times more prevalet i the IT workforce tha i the overall U.S. workforce (Iformatio Techology Associatio of America, 2003). Let, Brow, ad Hackett s (94, 96) social cogitive career theory asserts that wome perceive more barriers to career goals tha me ad that ethic miorities perceive more barriers to career goals tha whites. The purpose of this study is to examie the perceived likelihood of ecouterig certai career barriers ad, if the barriers are ecoutered, the degree to which the barriers hider career progress amog udergraduate IT majors. Based o theoretical implicatios that career barriers play a istrumetal role i the career developmet process, this study seeks to determie a) the perceived likelihood of ecouterig career barriers, b) if ecoutered, the degree to which the barriers hider career progress, c) whether perceived likelihood ad hidrace of career barriers vary by geder, ad d) whether perceived likelihood ad hidrace of career barriers vary by ethicity. Related Literature The literature review is a overview of research studies that have observed career barriers with a special emphasis o the examiatio of geder ad ethic differeces. Swaso ad Tokar (91a) ivestigated types ad geder differeces i perceptios of career-related barriers amog college studets. Barriers to six commo career-related experieces were examied: academic major ad career choice, obtaiig traiig or degree, first career after college, career advacemet, balacig career ad family, ad special cocers for wome. The study foud that the greatest obstacles were ot beig iformed, ot beig capable, curret ad future fiacial cocers, ad sigificat others ifluece o academic major ad career choice. Although o statistically sigificat geder differeces were foud, wome were more cocered tha me about balacig career ad family, sexual harassmet, equity icome, ad advacemet opportuities. Usig a udergraduate studet sample, Luzzo (96) examied the role of perceived career barriers i the career decisio-makig (CDM) process. The results idicated o relatioship betwee the umber of past career barriers ad CDM attitudes, CDM kowledge of priciples, or CDM self-efficacy. The study also did ot fid a relatioship betwee the umber of future career barriers ad CDM attitudes. I additio, the study did ot fid a relatioship betwee the umber of future career barriers ad CDM kowledge of priciples. A iverse relatioship was foud betwee future career barriers ad CDM selfefficacy, idicatig that perceptios of future related career barriers resulted i lower CDM self-efficacy. Studets who perceived past family-related barriers exhibited more mature attitudes toward the CDM process ad higher levels of CDM self-efficacy tha studets who did ot perceive obstacles due to family issues. McWhirter (97) examied ethic ad geder differeces i perceived educatioal ad career barriers amog Hispaic ad white high school juiors ad seiors. The career barriers ivestigated were ethic ad sex discrimiatio, ad the educatioal barriers were fiacial problems, family attitudes, perceived lack of ability, fit, ad iterest. The results idicated that Hispaic studets were more likely to ecouter ethic ad sex discrimiatio ad had less cofidece i their ability to overcome barriers to their future careers tha white studets. Hispaic studets were also more likely to experiece egative family attitudes ad to be perceived as lackig ability ad ot fittig i. Although ot statistically differet, wome i the study believed they were more likely to ecouter sex discrimiatio ad less likely to ecouter ethic discrimiatio tha the male participats. The oly statistically sigificat geder

3 Career Barriers Amog Iformatio Techology udergraduate Majors 51 differece foud i the study was i the lack of iterest barrier amog the wome who did ot pla to atted college, because they believed educatio would ot help their future. A geder differece did ot exist for the lack of iterest barrier betwee the me ad wome who plaed to atted college. Luzzo ad McWhirter (2001) admiistered a measure of perceived educatio ad career barriers ad a measure of copig efficacy to 286 college studets to examie geder ad ethic differeces. Wome perceived greater career barriers due to sex discrimiatio, egative verbal commets about their geder, ad difficulty i obtaiig employmet due to their geder tha the male studets. Ethic miority studets perceived career barriers related to their ethicity ad expected to experiece egative verbal commets about their ethicity more tha o-miority studets. I additio, ethic miority studets perceived more career-related barriers due to fiacial ad family issues tha white studets. Although o sigificat geder differeces were reported i cofidece to cope with ad maage perceived career barriers, ethic miorities reported sigificatly lower copig efficacy for perceived career barriers tha white studets. Perroe, Sedlacek, ad Alexader (2001) foud geder ad ethic differeces i perceptios of barriers to career goals amog 2,7 college freshme. Wome i the study reported more barriers to career choice goals tha me did. Geder differeces were ot foud for academic resiliece ad career-related help-seekig behavior. Ethic differeces were foud for career choice goals, barriers for attaiig career goals, academic resiliece, ad career-related help-seekig behaviors. Native Americas were more likely tha others to possess academic resiliece. White, Asia Americas, ad Native Americas were more likely to exhibit career-related help-seekig behaviors tha were Africa Americas or Hispaic Americas. Method This sectio discusses the participats, research istrumets, procedures, ad data aalysis used i the study. Data were collected each semester for two years begiig i the fall of 2000 through the sprig of Participats icluded 7 ( female ad male) udergraduate studets attedig two large Midwester uiversities. All the participats were busiess iformatio techology majors, comprisig maagemet iformatio systems (=133, 54%) ad busiess iformatio systems (=114, 46%). Participats grade classificatio was as follows: 44% seiors, 34% juiors, 13% sophomores, ad 9% freshme. Ages of the participats raged from 18 to 34, with a mea age of 21.7 years. The racial/ethic compositio was classified accordig to their represetatio withi the field of iformatio techology. The first group, classified as ethic groups cosidered represeted withi the field of iformatio techology, was composed of Europea Americas (=154, 62%) ad Asia Americas (=50, 20%). The secod group, classified as ethic miorities cosidered uderrepreseted withi the field of iformatio techology, was composed of Africa Americas (=31, 13%), Hispaic Americas (=9, 4%), ad Native Americas (=3, 1%). The percet ad placemet of each racial/ethic group used i the preset study coicides with atioally reported statistical iformatio about racial/ethic represetatio withi the iformatio techology field (Iformatio Techology Associatio of America,.d.; 2003). To elicit studets perceptios of potetial career barriers, a modified versio (Byars, 97) of Swaso ad Tokar s (91b) Career Barriers Ivetory (CBI) was admiistered. The 34-item measure is divided ito two subscales: the likelihood of ecouterig barriers, ad the degree to which the barrier would hider career progress. Each category cotais the same questios ad is divided ito four topics: (a) choice of career, 6 items, (b) fidig a job, 8 items, (c) performig your job, 14 items ad (d) balacig your career with other aspects of your life, 6 items. The measuremet is 7-poit Likert-type scales ragig from 1 (very ulikely) to 7 (very likely). Studets completed the questios about the likelihood of barriers before they completed the same questios about hidrace to career progress. The data were aalyzed usig repeated measures (MANOVA) to determie model effects. The depedet variables were the career choice,

4 52 Smith Figure 1: Model of Repeated Measure MANOVA Factor 1 Factor 2 Withi Subject - (depedet variables) Likelihood Hidrace Career Choice Career Choice Job Search Job Search Job Performace Job Performace Job Balace Job Balace Betwee Subjects - (idepedet variables) Geder Ethic Idetity 1. Female 1. Well represeted groups (White/Asia) 2. Male 2. Ethic Miorities (Black/Hispaic/Other) job search, job performace, ad career balace scales, each measured at two levels, oce to assess the likelihood of a particular barrier ad oce to assess how much hidrace such a barrier would preset. I additio to this withi-subjects factor, the betwee-subjects factors of geder ad ethic idetity were icluded i the model as the idepedet variables. A series of factor models were tested to determie validity usig cofirmatory factor aalytic (CFA) procedures. I the preset study, the goodess of fit idex (GFI) (Betler, 90) was the fit statistic used i the CFA. For the likelihood category topics the GFI measures were Career Choice (.93), Fidig a Job (.86), Job Performace (.70), ad Career Balace (.). For the hidrace category topics, the GFI values were Career Choice (.91), Fidig a Job (.82), Job Performace (.70), ad Career Balace (.85). Results The descriptive statistics ad reliability coefficiets for the two categories (likelihood ad hidrace) ad the four topics (career choice, fidig a job, job performace, ad career balace) are preseted i Table 1. Table 1: Descriptive Statistics Female Male Career Choice Job Search Job Performace Career Balace Likelihood Barrier Likelihood Barrier Likelihood Barrier Likelihood Barrier Crobach s Alpha Ethic Miority Total Female Nomiority Nomiority Ethic Miority Total Male Total Nomiority Ethic Miority Total Mea Mea Mea Mea Mea Mea Mea Mea Mea

5 Career Barriers Amog Iformatio Techology udergraduate Majors 53 A betwee-subjects multivariate aalysis of variace (MANOVA) was performed o the four depedet variables, career choice, job search, job performace, ad career balace. With the use of Wilks criterio, the combied depedet variables for both geder [F (4, 0) = 2.81, p <.05] ad ethic idetity [F (4, 0) = 6.49, p <.01] were sigificat. The withi-subjects effect [F (4, 0) = 20.23, p <.001] for the scale total ad the withisubjects iteractio for ethic idetity were sigificat [F (4, 0) = 3.70, p <.01]. Table 2 presets the multivariate results of estimatig the model. Usig a uivariate ANOVA, betwee-subjects geder differeces were foud for three of the four topics: career choice [F (1, 3) = 9.27, p <.01], job search [F (1, 3) = 6.67, p =.01], ad job performace [F (1, 3) = 10.02, p =<.01]. Ethic differeces were foud for the career balace topics [F (1, 3) = 18.42, p =<.001]. Withi-subjects differeces were foud for all four topics: career choice [F (1, 3) = 26.49, p <.001], job search [F (1, 3) = 30.78, p =.001], job performace [F (1, 3) = 45.77, p =<.001], ad career balace [F (1, 3) = 4.12, p =<.05]. Withi-subjects ethic differeces were foud for the job performace topic [F (1, 3) = 5.70, p =<.05]. Table 3 gives the uivariate results of the model estimatio. Discussio This study was desiged to examie the perceived likelihood ad hidrace of career barriers amog udergraduate IT majors. I geeral, IT majors did ot believe career barriers were likely to occur. Moreover, eve if a barrier occurred, IT majors did ot thik the ecouter would hider their career. IT majors, however, did cosider the hidrace of a career barrier more serious tha the likelihood of ecouterig a barrier. Examiatio of geder ad ethic idetity differeces revealed sigificat scale differeces amog IT majors for both geder ad ethic idetity. Based o geder, there were differeces betwee the career choice, job search, ad job performace scales. Wome cosistetly assessed barriers as beig more problematic tha me. Wome were more likely tha me to perceive the likelihood of ecouterig barriers to career choice, for fidig a career, i job performace, ad balacig a career with other aspects of their lives. Cosistet with prior research, the fidig that wome perceived more barriers to career choice goals suggests that wome believe they lack iformatio about careers, expect career choice limitatios, ad are discouraged from pursuig careers i techology (Perroe et al., 2001). Withi the hidrace category, oly the career choice topic produced a geder differece. Wome perceived that if they ecoutered career choice barriers (e.g., beig limited to certai career choices because of geder), those barriers would hider career progress. The fidigs of this study support recet research (Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001) that foud wome perceived sigificatly greater career barriers tha me did. Most otably i this study, there were differeces amog IT majors of differet ethic idetities i their perceptios of the likely Table 2: Results of Multivariate Tests of the Repeated Measures Model; Wilks Lambda for Model Effects Betwee Subjects Degrees of Freedom Effect Lambda F Hypothesis Error Sig. Geder * Ethic Idetity *** Geder x Ethic Idetity Withi Subjects p * <.05 p **<.01 p *** <.001 Scale *** Scale x Geder Scale x Ethic Idetity ** Scale x Geder x Ethic Idetity

6 54 Smith Table 3: Results of Uivariate Tests of the Repeated Measures Model; ANOVA Table Source Measure SS df Mea Square F Sig. Betwee Subjects Geder Career Choice ** Job Search ** Job Performace ** Family Ethic Idetity Career Choice Job Search Job Performace Career Balace *** Geder x Ethic Idetity Career Choice Job Search Job Performace Career Balace Error Career Choice Job Search Job Performace Career Balace Withi Subjects Scale Career Choice *** Job Search *** Job Performace *** Career Balace * Scale x Geder Career Choice Job Search Job Performace Career Balace Scale x Ethic Idetity Career Choice Job Search Job Performace * Career Balace Scale x Geder x Ethic Career Choice Idetity Job Search Job Performace Career Balace Withi Subjects Error Career Choice Job Search Job Performace Career Balace P * <.05 p **<.01 p *** <.001 occurrece of a barrier ad i whether a barrier would hider their careers if ecoutered. Differeces amog those of differet ethic idetities were foud i respect to barriers preseted by tryig to balace a career with family. Ethic miority IT majors cosidered both the likelihood of a family barrier ad the hidrace preseted by such a barrier to be lower tha omiorities. Examiatio of the questios listed uder the career balace topic revealed a sigificat differece for two of the six questios. Nomiority IT majors idicated they were more likely

7 Career Barriers Amog Iformatio Techology udergraduate Majors 55 to ecouter career barriers due to gettig married ad havig a career/family coflict tha ethic miority IT majors did. This fidig may suggest that ethic miority families are more likely tha o-miority families to assist with work-related issues, such as child care (Shellebarger, 93). No-miority IT majors perceived a greater hidrace to career progress for each of the six career balace questios tha ethic miority IT majors did. The questio that refereced havig a career/family coflict was the oly questio that idicated a statistically sigificatly differece, however. Accordig to Reich (2001), youg college graduates are delayig plas for combiig work ad family. The work-family coflict has bee attributed to pressures from hadlig fiacial hurdles associated with child care, workig log hours, ad difficulties bledig work ad family (Heyma, 2000; Reich, 2001). The fidig that o-miority IT majors perceived more difficulties balacig work ad family is i cotrast to previous fidigs (Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001). Ethic miority IT majors cosidered the likelihood of fidig a job ad performig a job a greater obstacle tha o-miority IT majors. Job performace due to racial discrimiatio i promotios ad lack of respect was cosidered a greater hidrace to ethic miority IT majors tha to o-miority IT majors. Iformatio techology educators must ecourage studets to idetify all of the potetial barriers to the pursuit of career goals. Studets eed to distiguish realistically betwee the likelihood of ecouterig barriers ad how barriers ca hider career progress. Kowledge about studets perceptios of career barriers could ehace IT educators ability to assist studets with developig strategies that will help them overcome obstacles. Studets also eed career developmet that optimizes skills ad abilities related to potetial barriers. Educators should cocetrate o providig guidace that will help idividuals surmout career barriers. Examiatio of geder ad ethic differeces i career barriers ca help clarify the role that perceptios ad reality play i the career developmet process. Recogitio of geder ad ethic differeces may also help highlight the special eeds of idividual groups ad lead to awareess that ca facilitate i the elimiatio of career impedimets. Although a limitatio of this study was the use of subjective, self-reported measures of career barriers, the fidigs sigify the eed for educators ad employers to istitute policies ad practices that embrace iclusio, equity, ad diversity. New directios i the ecoomy alog with cotiuously chagig work eviromets preset umerous career barriers for IT graduates. The examiatio of perceived career barriers is oe approach to uderstadig the more cocrete effects of factors that cotribute to varyig career barriers. It is critical for idividuals to target career barriers directly to produce chages that ca make the field of iformatio techology a more viable career optio. Refereces Albert, K. A., & Luzzo, D. A. (99). The role of perceived barriers i career developmet: A social cogitive perspective. Joural of Couselig ad Developmet, 77(4), 1-6. Betler, P. M. (90). Comparative fit idexes i structural models. Psychological Bulleti, 107(2), Brow,, & Let, R. W. (96). A social cogitive framework for career choice couselig. Career Developmet Quarterly, 44(4), Byars, A. M. (97). Ethic ad racial iflueces o Africa America college wome s career self-efficacy. Upublished doctoral dissertatio, Arizoa State Uiversity. Fassiger, R. E. (2000). Geder ad sexuality i huma developmet: Implicatios for prevetio ad advocacy i couselig psychology. I Brow ad R. W. Let (Eds.), Hadbook of couselig psychology. (3 rd ed., pp ). New York: Wiley. Heyma, S. J. (2000). The wideig gap: Why America s workig families are i jeopardy ad what ca be doe about it. New York: Basic Books. Iformatio Techology Associatio of America. (.d.). Buildig the 21st cetury iformatio techology work force: Uderrepreseted groups i the iformatio techology workforce. Retrieved March 22, 2003, from studies/recruit.htm

8 56 Smith Iformatio Techology Associatio of America. (2003) Report of the ITAA blue ribbo pael o IT diversity. Retrieved October 1, 2003 from workforce/docs/03divreport.pdf Let, R. W., Brow,, & Hackett, G. (94). Toward a uifyig social cogitive theory of career ad academic iterest, choice, ad performace. Joural of Vocatioal Behavior, 45(1), Let, R. W., Brow,, & Hackett, G. (96). Career developmet from a social cogitive perspective. I D. Brow & L. Brooks (Eds.), Career choice ad developmet (pp ). Sa Fracisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Ic. Let, R. W., Brow, S., D., & Hackett, G. (2000). Cotextual supports ad barriers to career choice: A social cogitive aalysis. Joural of Couselig Psychology, 47(1), Lodo, M. (2001). Leadership developmet: Paths to self-isight ad professioal growth. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrece Erlbaum Associates, Ic. Luzzo, D. A. (96). Explorig the relatioship betwee the perceptio of occupatioal barriers ad career developmet. Joural of Career Developmet, 22(4), Luzzo, D. A., & McWhirter, E. H. (2001). Sex ad ethic differeces i the perceptio of educatio ad career-related barriers ad levels of copyig efficacy. Joural of Couselig ad Developmet, 79(1), Margolis, J., & Fisher, A. (2002). Ulockig the clubhouse: Wome i computig. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. McWhirter, E. H. (97). Perceived barriers to educatio ad career: Ethic ad geder differeces. Joural of Vocatioal Behavior, 50(1), Perroe, K. M., Sedlacek, W. E., & Alexader, C. M. (2001). Geder ad ethic differece i career goal attaimet. Career Developmet Quarterly, 50(2), Reich, R. B. (2001). The future of success. New York: Radom House. Shellebarger, S. (93, December 17). Coflict-easig efforts bypass may blacks. The Wall Street Joural, p. B1. Swaso, J. L., & Tokar, D. M. (91a). Developmet ad iitial validatio of the Career Barriers Ivetory. Joural of Vocatioal Behavior, 39(3), Swaso, J. L., & Tokar, D. M. (91b). College studets perceptios of barriers to career developmet. Joural of Vocatioal Behavior, 38(1), Swaso, J. L., & Woitke, M. B. (97). Theory ito practice i career assessmet for wome: Assessmet ad itervetios regardig perceived career barriers. Joural of Career Assessmet, 5(4), Swaso, J. L., Daiels, K. K., & Tokar, D. M. (96). Assessig perceptios of career-related barriers: The career barriers ivetory. Joural of Career Assessmet, 4(2), 2-4. Uited States Cesus Bureau. (2000). Labor force, employmet, ad earigs. Retrieved March 25, 2003 from /01statab/labor.pdf Material published as part of this joural, either o-lie or i prit, is copyrighted by the Orgaizatioal Systems Research Associatio. Permissio to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for persoal or classroom use is grated without fee provided that the copies are ot made or distributed for profit or commercial advatage AND that copies 1) bear this otice i full ad 2) give the full citatio. It is permissible to abstract these works so log as credit is give. To copy i all other cases or to republish or to post o a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permissio ad paymet of a fee. Cotact Doa Everett, d.everett@moreheadstate.edu to request redistributio permissio.