Abstract

Research suggests that IS people have lower social needsthan people in other occupations. Indeed, personal research on what motivates IS professionals reveals that interacting with other people and establishing relationships are some of the lower-rated motivational factors. Perhaps then, it should not be too surprising to learn that one of the most often heard complaints of IS majors relates to the inadequacy of their communication skills. Corroborating evidence is abundant. For example, IS departments, consulting companies, and computer vendors often recruit people who do not major in IS. These firms instead overlook the best and brightest IS students to recruit non-IS students that have developed interpersonal skills through other means --experience with student organizations, fraternities or sororities, or membership in student chapters of professional business societies on campus. When asked why this is the case, recruiters indicate that the ability to communicate effectively is a critical skill in their organizations, and that the interpersonal skills possessed by their candidates were fundamentally more important than the technical skills possessed by IS graduates. Recruiters feel that technical deficiencies possessed by their newly-hired employees can be overcome in training programs, whereas deficienciesin the ability to communicate effectively present a much larger training challenge. This is consistent with recent literature which reports that of all skills, the following are the most sought after by employers [1]: •listening and oral communication •group effectiveness: interpersonal skills, negotiation, and teamwork •adaptability: creative thinking and problem solving •personal management of career development Consequently, we as IS educators owe it to our students to begin to consider developing these skills within the IS curriculum

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