A synergistic strategy for MIS curriculum development: response to rapidly advancing information technology - Management information systems

College Student Journal, Dec, 2001 by Mayur S. Desai, Thomas von der Embse

Training and education of Information Systems (IS) professionals by both business organizations and educational institutions are critical in the pervasive Information Technology (IT) advances and utilization by end users. Due to rapid changes in IT, educational institutions have to constantly upgrade their training for providing appropriate education to their graduating students who along with their employers will be the end users of IT. It also makes these students more marketable in the competitive environment. The present strategy of MIS curricula seems to be broad and focuses more on concepts versus specific IT tools. This study addresses key issues with the existing strategies and proposes a synergistic approach to MIS curriculum development to augment the current strategies. A synergistic approach calls for a four-way partnership between Information Systems faculty, software developers, business and education faculty, and corporate management. The proposed strategy is based on a technique similar to integrated IT planning in organizations suggested by several researchers.

Introduction

The advent of foreign competition, increased efficiency, and the spread of postindustrial revolution have forced business leaders to regard training end users as a major part of their total expense. The postindustrial revolution is an era in which there is a widespread retraining need by white-collar, college-educated employees in contrast to traditional blue-collar workers retraining (Sims, 1990). These white-collar, college graduates are the future end users of information technology (IT). The prime objective of training end users is to help achieve the goals of business leaders through the optimum use of personnel. Training can reduce, if not eliminate, the difference between actual and the desired end-user performance (Agresta, 1992). This implies that organizations should provide special attention in formulating effective training mechanisms. Business leaders have also realized the importance of retraining the end users of IT rather than replacing them (Sims, 1990). Since the knowledge base of science will expand and each new wave of technology will embody more knowledge than its predecessor, training for new technology will continue to grow in importance (Rosow and Zager, 1988). By 1996, more than half of U.S. firms of over 100 employees provided computer programming training and over 70 trained people in PC applications. (Training, 1996). It is possible that end users' computer skills could become obsolete in a short period of time due to fast changing Information Technology (IT). Thus, trainers and designers of training programs should provide effective training methods to retool end users' computer skills to use new IT (Chang, 1994). IT itself is enhancing training opportunities, as corporate intranet use expands for this purpose. (Croft, 1996).

New technology designed to process and transport data and information has been developing at an exceptional rate for more than four decades (Frenzel, 1996). This has resulted in increase in end-user-computing (EUC), need for proficient end users, and end-user training. For many, the growth of IT has been a blessing. "New" technology was a major part of their formal education that forms the basis of their employment, and serves as a platform on which their future depends (Frenzel, 1996). While, as noted above, most large organizations provide IT / Computer training to their end users, most of it is delivered by outside groups. This implies that educational institutions can have an important role as a provider of IT training. In turn, they face a major challenge of retooling the skills of their staffs so that they can better serve the needs of the students and trainees (Hadidi, 1996; Pick, 1996). The end result is to create end users with good IT skills, such as ability to apply the techniques they learned in the training to their present tasks

This paper proposes a synergistic (model) approach in formulating MIS curriculum that requires a close partnership between business faculty and IS faculty. Several researchers have suggested an integrated approach to IT planning that organizations should use as a part of their overall strategy (Frenzel, 1996; O'brien, 1993). The synergistic model is based on the integrated approach to IT planning. It is the authors' contention that such a curriculum will provide students with an education necessary to understand IT; to manage it; and to develop and use new IT applications.

Implications for Educational Institutions and the MIS curriculum

A number of researchers and organizations report IT's increasing pervasiveness. For example, Client-Server technology is gaining momentum in a number of organizations. To understand client-server systems (CSS) technology requires knowledge of heterogeneous hardware and software products, their use within CSS and the impact of CSS on various organizational functions and its cost assessment. Thus, a student who aspires to be an IS manager must have both the business knowledge and the technical ability to apply the tools used in the business. If an MIS curriculum is totally based on IT, it might produce an acceptable IT expert. However, this expert is not sufficiently versed on IT's implications for business processes and functions. This suggests certain standards for developing curriculum. Such standards will provide a curriculum that imparts necessary ingredients of IT and business knowledge. They also induce the faculty to assess skills they need to provide students the requisite IT knowledge so that these students enter the industry as competent end users.