Purpose

The study aims to explore whether there is diversity of occupational culture among IT workers. Prior work conceptualizes IT occupational culture (ITOC) as based around six distinctive values (ASPIRE) but has not explored whether there is variation in ITOC.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data from 496 New Zealand IT workers was used to create factors representing IT occupational values based on the ASPIRE tool. Hierarchical cluster analysis and discriminant analysis were applied to identify distinctive segments of ITOC.

Findings

Four ITOC segments were identified: fun-lovers, innovators, independents and institutionalists. These differed in the relative emphasis ascribed to the ITOC values with each segment being distinguished by 1–2 dominant values. Segment membership varied according to level of responsibility and birth country. Institutionalists and innovators had higher concern about organizational and IT issues than fun-lovers and independents. Job satisfaction was lowest among innovators and highest along institutionalists.

Research limitations/implications

This study challenges the concept of a unified ITOC, suggesting that ITOC is pluralistic. It also theorizes about interactions between ITOC, individual motivation and values and national culture.

Practical implications

Management needs to be cognizant of the fact that IT occupational culture is not homogeneous and different IT occupational segments require unique management approaches, and that their own values may not match those of others in IT work. By understanding ITOC segments, managers can tailor support, assign tasks appropriately and design teams to optimize synergies and avoid conflict.

Originality/value

This study reveals the existence of ITOC segments and theorizes about the relationship of these to innovation-orientation, job satisfaction, individual motivation, work styles and national culture. The combination of cluster and discriminant analysis is a valuable replicable inductive method that is underrepresented in Information Systems (IS) research.

中文翻译：

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从热爱者到制度主义者：发现IT职业文化中的多元性

目的

该研究旨在探讨IT工作者之间是否存在职业文化差异。先前的工作基于六个独特的价值观（ASPIRE）将IT职业文化（ITOC）概念化，但尚未探讨ITOC是否存在差异。

设计/方法/方法

来自496位新西兰IT工作者的调查数据被用于基于ASPIRE工具创建代表IT职业价值的因素。运用层次聚类分析和判别分析来识别ITOC的不同部分。

发现

确定了四个ITOC部门：爱好娱乐者，创新者，独立人士和制度主义者。这些不同之处在于归因于ITOC值的相对重点，每个部分都以1-2个主导值来区分。部门成员根据责任级别和出生国家而有所不同。制度主义者和创新者对组织和IT问题的关注程度高于爱好娱乐者和独立人士的关注程度。工作满意度在创新者中最低，在制度主义者中最高。

研究局限/意义

这项研究对统一的ITOC的概念提出了挑战，表明ITOC是多元化的。它还对ITOC，个人动机和价值观以及民族文化之间的相互作用进行了理论分析。

实际影响

管理层需要认识到以下事实：IT职业文化不是同质的，不同的IT职业群体需要独特的管理方法，并且它们自己的价值可能与IT工作中的其他价值不匹配。通过了解ITOC细分，经理可以调整支持，适当分配任务和设计团队以优化协同作用并避免冲突。

创意/价值

这项研究揭示了ITOC细分的存在，并理论化了它们与创新方向，工作满意度，个人动机，工作风格和民族文化之间的关系。聚类和判别分析的组合是一种有价值的可复制归纳方法，在信息系统（IS）研究中代表性不足。