Motivating students to acquire mainframe skills

ABSTRACT

There has been a perception in both industry and in academia that mainframe skills are obsolete. As a result, there has been a decline in curricula addressing these skills. However, recent evidence shows that many organizations are still actively supporting mainframe technologies and report a need for students graduating in information technology to be trained in those skills, especially as much of their current mainframe workforce moves toward retirement. This paper examines the question of what motivates students to acquire mainframe skills. To do so, this research is investigates IBM's Master the Mainframe contest, a competition that attempts to engender enthusiasm for acquiring mainframe skills and ensure an adequate supply of such skills to organizations relying on them.

References

1. Ajzen, I. (1991). The Theory of Planned Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179--211.
2. Bullen, C. V., Abraham, T., Gallagher, K., Kaiser, K. M., and Simon, J. (2007). Changing IT skills: The impact of sourcing strategies on in-house capability requirements. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 5(2), 24--37, 39--46.
3. Carr, D., and Kizior, R. J. (2000). The case for continued COBOL education. IEEE Software, 17(2), 33--36.
4. Database Trends and Applications. (2011). Big Data Workhorse. Retrieved from http://www.dbta.com/Articles/Editorial/Think-About-It/Big-Data-Workhorse-The-Mainframe-79352.aspx on March 15, 2013.
5. Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of Information Technology," MIS Ouarterly, 13(3), 319--339.
6. Deci, E. and Ryan, R. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68--78.
7. Deci, E. L., and Ryan, R. M. (2008). Facilitating optimal motivation and psychological well-being across life's domains. Canadian Psychology, 49, 14--23.
8. Downey, J. P., McMurtrey, M. E., and Zeltmann, S. M. (2008). Mapping the MIS curriculum based on critical skills of new graduates: An empirical examination of IT professionals. Journal of Information Systems Education, 19(3), 351--363.
9. Fleming, M., and Couturier, G. (2002). Managing the development of a mainframe-based inquiry system for the internet. Industrial Management + Data Systems, 102(3), 203--210.
10. Gerth, A. B., and Rothman, S. (2007). The future IS organization in a flat world. Information Systems Management, 24(2), 103--111.
11. Harbert, T. (2011). A new job for mainframes? Computerworld, 45(13), 20--25.
12. Hewitt, Sue. "Defusing the demographic time-bomb." Human Resource Management International Digest 16.7 (2008): 3--5.
13. Ke, W. and Zhang, P. (2010). The effects of extrinsic motivations and satisfaction in open source software development, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 11(12), 784--808.
14. Krippendorff, K. (1980). Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
15. Lee, S. M., and Choong Kwon, L. (2006). IT Managers' requisite skills. Communications of the ACM, 49(4), 111--114.
16. Lee, Sooun, and Xiang Fang. "Perception gaps about skills requirement for entry-level IS professionals between recruiters and students: an exploratory study." Information Resources Management Journal (IRMJ) 21.3 (2008): 39--63.
17. Lepper, M. R. (1988). Motivational considerations in the study of instruction. Cognition and Instruction, 5, 289--309.
18. Lukmani, Y. M. (1972). Motivation to learn and language proficiency, Language Learning, 22(2), 261--273.
19. McAllister, Andrew J. "The Case for Teaching Legacy Systems Modernization." Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG), 2011 Eighth International Conference on. IEEE, 2011.
20. Nairn, G. (2008). The mainframe still needs to be mastered, Financial Times, (Nov 05), 5.
21. Qu, Wen Guang, Wonseok Oh, and Alain Pinsonneault. "The strategic value of IT insourcing: An IT-enabled business process perspective." The Journal of Strategic Information Systems 19.2 (2010): 96--108.
22. Pratt, M. K. (2012). Six key skills IT grads lack. Computerworld, 46(3), 18--20.
23. Porter, L. W., and Lawler, E. E. (1968). Managerial attitudes and performance. Homewood. IL: Irwin-Dorsey.
24. Ryan, R. (1995). Psychological needs and the facilitation of integrative processes. Journal of Personality, 63, 397--427.
25. System Z Academic Initiative Program. (n.d.) Retrieved March 21, 2013, from http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/education/academic/schools_na.html#texas
26. Weber, R. P. (1990). Basic Content Analysis, 2nd ed. Newbury Park, CA.
27. Clabby Analytics (2011) Mainframe Skills Report -- Sources of Mainframe Skill Training: Clabby Analytics

Index Terms

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Management of computing and information systems

      • Project and people management