Towards an Embeddedness View of IT Professionals: An Agenda for the Next-Generation Global IT Workforce

Abstract

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a software developer for a major bank. Things were different when you started some 20 years ago. Everyone came to work at the office. You discussed development projects with your team face to face, sometimes in formal meetings, sometimes just in casual chats. You had desks near each other. People went to lunch together from time to time or grabbed a drink after work on occasion. Some of your colleagues were “work friends,” if not actual friends. You lived in the same area, commuted to the same office, and had some good times together. Time passed and things changed. Some colleagues left for greener pastures. A few got promoted into managerial roles. Some retired. Instead of directly replacing many of those that left or retired, your employer now supplements IT work with contract labor sourced internationally from a country about a dozen time zones away. You have an IT contractor that is assigned to work with you, and you’re supposed to enhance your own productivity by giving them tasks that help you get your projects done. Understandably, there is a bit of a language and culture barrier, but you like them, and they work hard. They’ve been very upfront about appreciating the work and opportunity. Still, this isn’t really what you had in mind when you picked a career in software development – you never wanted to be a manager, even of just one person. You want your contractor to have work so they can help support their family, but you didn’t want to be responsible for someone else’s welfare. They regularly ask you for more work. Sometimes you have something else you can give them, and sometimes you don’t. You feel bad when you don’t. Also, if you’re honest, usually their work is solid, but sometimes it . . . isn’t. So you must consider how important something is before handing it off, because you need to do the critical work yourself. This isn’t the only thing that’s different now. More and more people started working remotely, but this really boomed post-Covid. Now, pretty much everyone works remotely. Given the new paradigm and how little you need to go in, you recently moved over an hour from the office. Meetings are all on Zoom and don’t happen that often. When they do happen, your team lead is the only one who turns their camera on. Occasionally. What used to be daily chats and a regular lunch with long-time work friends is now the occasional e-mail with newer colleagues who you have yet to meet in person. It’s not all bad, obviously. Your work-life balance is great, and, in general, you feel happier than ever. You still get just as much done, if not more. However, you don’t have a stressful commute, you have incredibly flexible hours, and you’ve realized how much more you can focus on your family and personal life when you don’t have to spend so much time in the office every week. Not being in the office much, you do wonder if you’ve become more expendable because you worry management now has you and your IT peers in the “out of sight, out of mind” category. But on the other hand, you’re sure there are a lot of jobs out there just like this that would let you do your development work from home. Would it matter that much if you were doing this for a different employer instead? Times are changing for information technology (IT) professionals across the globe. The work itself is similar, but the nature of how the work is done has changed rather dramatically. We know a few dominant factors contribute to this software developer’s feelings of uncertainty and responsibility. For decades we’ve talked about how the world is increasingly digital. Technology permeates every facet of our lives, with ever-increasing complexity and ubiquity (Benbya, Nan, Tanriverdi, & Yoo, 2020). The extent of digitalization has received significant focus regarding its broad effects on business and on society in general (Almeida, Santos, & Monteiro, 2020). Ramifications range from the manner in which businesses hire and manage employees, engage with customers, deliver products/services, and can impact almost any business process (Parviainen, JOURNAL OF GLOBAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT 2023, VOL. 26, NO. 3, 173–180 https://doi.org/10.1080/1097198X.2023.2237377