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Managing Computer Professionals
Managing computer professionals is both similar and dissimilar to managing other groups of workers. This section provides an overview of how to manage computer professionals. Objectives
Management RoleManagers work at different organizational levels. A manager supervises others, is supervised by someone and has peer managers with whom he or she coordinates activities.
Managers have to motivate, coordinate and maintain control over the activities of their subordinates. Among programming staff, many are hired on contract basis. Some are working in physically different areas and telecommuting to work. Still others live in different countries and work under different time zones and cultures. The manager's task of coordinating individuals in different locations becomes more urgent and more difficult when programmers are not in physical proximity to each other. Managers need to contribute and fit within budgets and plans of their supervisors. Organization's demands from information technology units are constantly changing. Managers need to understand these changes, assist in planning for a comprehensive and strategic approach to meeting IT needs. To achieve these goals, managers need to keep close contact with their supervisors. All along, managers need to maintain a collaborative arrangement with their peers. They need to understand the roles of different units, be able to seamlessly work with other units, and evaluate their own effectiveness in bringing about organization wide improvements. Asides from relationships within the organization, managers need to play significant roles with individuals outside the organization including maintaining supply relationships, understanding changes in environment, recruiting personnel, managing public relations, and negotiating mergers and acquisitions. What Is Management?Management is "getting tasks done through others." Sometimes, in small organizations managers are personally involved in the production of code or operation of software. Often these managers have achieved their position through technical excellence and may wish to continue using these skills. Some level of understanding of computer programming is helpful for managers who supervise computer professionals. But there is a fine line to cross. When managers are so involved in doing the tasks that they have no time for helping and coordinating others, then something is wrong. An unorganized harassed manager carries his/her attitudes to the individuals he/she is supervising and in the end transfers these attitudes to the product being produced. Successful managers should help others accomplish the task instead of doing the task themselves. Data management is one component of managing information systems. This component includes:
Managerial skills are different from technical, or clinical skills. Obviously knowing the tasks to be done is important. Having technical skills to understand programmers' issues is important. Knowing how to operate hardware and use software is important. But the most important skill a manager must have is management skills. Skills such as budgeting, communication, planning, coordination, negotiation and so on are not technical programming skills but they are essential for success of managers. As technical programmers advance up the organizational ladder they need to rely more on their management skills and less on their technical know-how. They need to personally perform less and less technical tasks but nevertheless accomplish more work. Management FunctionsEffective managers carry out certain functions within the organization. Including among these are: We will briefly describe each of these activities. ForecastingA key task of managers is to anticipate future events and plan for these occasions. Forecasting is used to predict demand, profits, revenues, costs, utilization of Information technology, productivity changes, technology changes and other similar activities. In spite of use of computers, forecasting remains a mix of science and art. No future forecast is for certain. Nevertheless, managers are often called upon to anticipate the future and act accordingly. One advantage that managers do have in forecasting the future is that they can takes steps to make the anticipated future come about. If profits are forecasted to be high, over time the manager can take numerous little steps to ensure that profits remain high even when external events are not as favorable as expected. If a software is supposed to be finished by January and it is falling behind schedule, managers can make the organization to work over time to produce the product on the anticipated timetable. So while predicting the future is tough, managers have an advantage: They can influence the future. All forecasts have a number of common components. Forecasts generally assume that history repeats itself; that there are lessons to learn from how events have occurred in the past. Many forecast techniques project current trends to anticipate future events. Some forecast techniques ask individuals with experience with the underlying event to advise the manager. In both approach, the assumption is that current experience and trends are valid for predicting the future. Another common feature of forecasts is that the longer the time period the larger the size of the error. Generally speaking short ranged forecasts must account for fewer uncertainties. There are many approaches to forecasts. Some are based on analysis of historical data (e.g. time series analysis, correlation analysis, moving average, regression analysis). Others are based on opinions and judgments of experts (e.g., executive opinions about budget changes, sale force forecasts of demand). Still others are based on consumer opinions (e.g., satisfaction surveys, household surveys). A naive forecast is the simplest method of forecasting. It assumes that tomorrow will be the same as today. Sometimes the manager's role for forecasting the future is presented under different headings. Often managers are expected to have a "vision" for the future. Managers are expected to predict a number of related events will unfold and describe how the organization will operate under these new scenarios. Predicting the future of information technology is difficult because of the rate of change in this industry. Many managers organizing panel of experts to understand key changes that are occurring in the information industry. Predicting future business operations and functions is by far more important than keeping pace with technology. Effective managers need to understand what changes are occurring in their business more than they need to understand what new technology is becoming available. Among most industries health care has been least successful in implementing information technologies. While banks have changed to the point that Automated Teller Machines and online banks are part of everyday business, in most health care companies technology is under used. How should managers forecast future events? In the section on information needs analysis we show a structured approach that managers can use to predict information needs. PlanningManagers can plan in several distinct manners. First, managers can set up parallel organizations to innovate and plan for radically new ways of doing business. Such organizations are physically separate from the main company and are staff by new personnel, most of whom are not in contact with the organization. Parallel organizations often use new information systems to radically modify business processes. In essence, they re-do the business. Managers can plan within their organization by creating a champion for the idea (often the manager him or herself) and working out the details of a plan prior to its implementations. The idea is the organization should be exposed to the proposed new information system only after it is working and functional. Champions continue working on perfecting information systems and ignore early feedback. They do not abandon their course. As time goes by and organizations become increasingly prepared to implement new technology, then the champion is available. Champions toil for years for the hope of eventual adoption of the system. Sometimes in planning for information system personnel, the champion arrives at a master plan that others connect to or plug in. The relationship between the champion and many of the other information system workers is often hierarchical and strained. The champion innovates and others carryout the tasks. Managers can plan within their organization by involving large number of employees in the planning process. This is often done by selecting employees from different organizational departments to work on a common problem. Data show that when employees participate in planning, they are more likely to carryout the plans and to accomplish the goals in shorter time. Participatory planning relies on contribution from different information system professionals. A master plan may not exist or if it does it may be modified by many parties. Some work may be redone as employees create overlapping functions. OrganizingOnce a plan has been made, the manager needs to organize the personnel and resources to carryout the tasks. If the plan has been made with participation of personnel close to the process being changed, then organizing is not difficult. Each participant can or has already specified what changes need to happen and when these changes should occur. When change has not been widely discussed, then organizing becomes more difficult and more formal. Managers organize by assigning tasks to various employees. The first step in doing so is to divide the work in separate and identifiable tasks -- where individuals have specialized skill. Then responsibilities are assigned and people are held accountable. There are different types of assignments. Some will have direct line responsibility; others will act as advisors. To enhance work routines, groups of employees may be made into separate departments, keeping in mind the optimum span of control for any one person. To ease communication and reduce conflicting instructions, it is important that employees are organized in such a manner that they report to one and only one person. They may serve a matrix organization, in which one units serves multiple other functions. But they report to one and only one person. Management literature refers to the organizing components under the headings of:
In organizing computer professionals, there are other organizing concepts that are important beyond the traditional concepts listed above. Many computer professionals are organized in virtual and networked environments. A significant part of managing these professionals is organizing principles, policies and procedures that allows remote workers to contribute. Like before there is assignment of tasks and responsibilities but now there is also organizing of social events, of communication networks and legal contracts that enable employees to work as a team. StaffingStaffing is the process of recurring personnel to work on the task. In managing computer professionals, there are many different ways of recruitment. Sometimes entire functions are moved out to other organizations. For example, many health care organizations have out-sourced payroll to firms that specialize in these activities. Other times individual employees are recruited but on contract basis for a specific task. Still other times employees are hired. Managers need to decide about types of employment and out-sourcing. Staffing also means looking after employees careers and growth within the organization. Managers need to put in place policies regarding retirement, re-training, conflict resolution, drug use, promotion, equity of pay, and benefits. They need to create an environment within which the contractor or the employee can successfully contribute. The environment for telecommuting workers is specially difficult. In one recent example, a telecommuter that lived in a different State was asked to utilize a physician network that did not exist in her area. Because the number of telecommuters may not be very large across some organizations, policies that accommodate their needs have not been fully developed. InfluencingEmployees, specially professionals, do not do what they are told. To manage computer professionals managers must go beyond asking for change and motivate the change. Organizations are complex and often multiple competing tasks are required from the same employee. To manage effectively, it is important to motivate employees. Managing by directives is recipe for failure. But how could we motivate computer professionals? ControllingManagers do many things. We have already discussed: forecasting, planning, organizing, staffing, and influencing. In this section we discuss how managers control and set limits on activities. The controlling is the feedback loop in which managers monitor that plans are followed and activities are accomplished. Managers, for example, control budgets. They see to it that expenditures are within limits. Managers may control behavior of computer professionals in subtle ways. They may gather data that shows the average performance of the group and ask everyone for improvement. By monitoring performance and communicating the data to computer professionals, managers may remove the need for direct control. Managers also control computer professionals by using version control software. Version control allows programmers to check out portions of the software code, work on them and re-write back to the main copy. Managers can then review and accept the work. When work is done across time zones it is important to maintain close tab on versions of computer programs. Mistakes in version control can lead to incompatible portions of code. NegotiatingOne important function of the manager is to negotiate the future of the organization. As organizations merge and grow, manager's negotiating skills are going to be increasingly important. Furthermore, managers need to negotiate with suppliers, collaborators, and even with large customers. In all these activities, managers are guiding the future of the organization. Un-organizingIt is seldom realized but one of the functions of a manger is to dismantle organizations. Sometimes organization units survive well after their usefulness. Managers need to break these organization units into components that are more successful. This is often the case with information technology where legacy systems are no longer compatible with newer systems. Managers need to think through how to dismantle the legacy system without loosing connection with previous accounts and services. Sometimes, though rarely, managers need to dismantle the entire organization. Sometimes this is done through bankruptcy courts. Other times this is done after an organization has been acquired. Finally, managers choose or may have to fire employees. The effective way that managers accomplish this task affects the morale of employees who remain. Motivating Computer ProfessionalSelf interestA simple method of motivating is through rewards and punishment.
there is considerable amount of evidence that self interest (e.g., pay) motivates
employees. Literature on Value Expectancy and Multi-attribute Expected Utility
confirm that human behavior is explained by rewards and punishment. Employees act in
their own self interest. But do they? Employees do not act in their own self interest in part because they act out of habit and do not always decide about issues in front of them. Habits that may endure despite the attitudes of the employee. A computer professional may come late to work and stay late through the night because of force of habit. In part because his or her life is organized around these timetables. To change this work habit he would need to change many other life habits. To go home earlier, he may need to organize an activity for himself away from work. he may organize to socialize after work hours, an activity that he may not be comfortable. Changing a work habit may not be easy because it is related in inexplicable ways to other aspects of employee life. Other times, employees peers influence them to do things that may not be in their direct self interest. Many employees change by imitating the behavior of individuals they admire. While self-interest is an important component of how we change, group influences on the individual are ignored by this approach to change. Setting a higher pay will motivate the individual but so do other activities. If the people they admire encourage them to change, many employees are likely to change whether or not they see any direct benefit from the change. Managers often assume that employees are aware of the rewards and punishment involved. They think that employees know and think about these policies. This may be wrong. Often the information about the impact of the decision on the employee's self interest is not available -- not to the employee and perhaps even not to the manager. Take the case of a manager at Harvard Community Health Plan who organized a parallel organization in San Francisco to develop a technology based health delivery system. Is this in the interest of the employee? Many answers are possible. Yes, if the project succeeds then the employee gets a promotion. But the project may fail. More interesting the project may neither fail nor succeed. In this case after the first year the project received independent venture capital to proceed, but within 7 years the original manager had been fired and the project ended in failure. Success and failure of the project are not clear even in retrospect as it may have led to new learning for the organization. Managers assume that employees are aware of the short or long term rewards, specially financial rewards. But for the most part employees do not think about these issues everyday. These managers assume an ideal person willing to gather information and decide in a rational manner. When we look at employee's behavior from the perspective of self-interest, we are likely to blame people who do not act in their own interest. At the personal level, this leads to blaming the victim and at the organizational level this leads to defensive and perhaps counter productive behavior. It creates an environment of fear. Self interest (as defined by pay changes and threats of loss of job) are not everyday reasons for influencing employees, in general, and computer professionals, in particular. Then the original question remains. What can motivate individuals beside pay changes and threats of loss of job? Manipulate information processingOne way that a manager can influence employees behavior is through how they present information to employees. Managers can repeatedly ask for change, they can do the task in different ways (formally on paper, verbally in passing, etc.), they can make simple vivid arguments for change, they can put the main reason for change first, and so on. Bettman in his book titled "An Information Processing Theory of Consumer Choice" (Addison Wesley, 1979) highlights how information processing may affect decisions. In this book he reviews data that suggest:
Managers influence employees by many ways other than direct manipulation of how information is presented. Attribute success to the employee and failure to the systemData suggests that how employees attribute causes to behavior and events in the organization may influence their willingness to change. Managers can influence employees by helping them attribute their success to themselves and their failures to external events. Two employees faced with the same information may act differently because they attribute it to different causes. A complex process helps human beings decide what is the cause of an effect. In part, causes should precede effects, should co-occur with effects and should not co-occur with other spurious events. Attribution is highly subjective process and can easily be manipulated by a manger. When change occurs people have a mix of failures and successes. Sometimes a pattern of failure may make the employee less willing to try. Other times employees continue trying despite early failures. Data show that attribution of a failure to stable or internal causes leads to expectations of more failures and loss of self esteem. Similarly, when failure is attributed to uncontrollable events or to global causes, future effort will diminish. Managers can influence how failure is interpreted by attributing it to different causes. Managers need to develop a therapeutic relationship with employees undergoing change. They need to understand how employees perceive the reasons for change. To the extent that these reasons highlight external, controllable, stable and specific causes, optimism will prevail and more effort may be exerted. Managers should promote optimism. If the objective is to make sure that difficult tasks are initiated and continued despite early obstacles, it is important for managers to attribute success to the person's effort and failure to events outside the control of the person. In this fashion the employee will remain optimistic despite evidence of failure. Change work normsThe literature on Reasoned Action suggests that human behavior is
influenced by two factors: attitudes towards the behavior and the influence of social
environment and general subjective norms on the behavior. Social norm is determined by
examples that significant others set for us and by the attitudes they convey to us.
Literature on Social Learning suggests that behavior dynamically influences the
environment and personal constructs. Likewise, the environment and personal
characteristics affect each other and the person's behavior. Give them a shoulder to cry onThere is extensive data that peer support influences employees behavior.
Managers can influence the availability of positive peer support through organizing
national conferences, seminars or social gatherings of select employees who are trying to
change. How social support affects behavior is not known. It is possible that
peer support provides the employee with key information about copying with change.
It is possible that it provides the employee with a sense of acceptance and that we are in
this together. Employees who feel that they are not accepted may fail to get help
even when help is available to them. Individuals reassured about their social
support worry less about where help might come from and spend more time facing their
problems. The ecological model sees social support as a feature of neither the
individual nor the environment, but as a transaction between
the two. The person must maintain relationships by providing support to
others when needed. In return, others will provide support when the
individual is in need. Over time, the transactions of helping and being
helped must balance, otherwise social ties change. Thus, in stressful
situations sometimes relationships break and other times strengthen,
depending on whether the support has been reciprocated. This
interdependence in helping each other need not involve the same types of
support, one may provide informational support to others and in turn receive
emotion support.
In a rational world there would be no need for social support. People would implement the things they believe in. But in reality, social support is essential to continued success. Managers can influence employees behavior by providing them with social support around the change desired. Let early adopters change imitatorsResearchers refer to implementation of innovations over time as diffusion. Diffusion is assumed to occur in two steps. During the first steps early adopters think through the benefits of the proposed innovation and select to try it. In the later stages, others see early adopters using the new innovation and decide to try it. Implementation of an innovation may fail for several reasons including:
Managers can influence employees by selecting individuals who have changed and using them to highlight the advantages for change. In this fashion, change follows a domino theory where one-by-one employees adopt new procedures. Some change earlier than others. These early adopters can influence others by providing them with examples. Highlighting their success will help bring change to more employees. Home-based information workers(Based in part or verbatim on Bailyn L. Toward the perfect work place? The experience of home based systems developers in Allen TJ, Morton MSS. Information technology and the corporation of the 1990's, New York, Oxford University Press 1994).Research on employees working from home has arrived at different views on the productivity and employee satisfaction with the arrangement. We discuss this literature in terms of three distinct groups depending on method and type of monitoring: (1) self employed workers, (2) autonomous workers loosely managed, (3) closely monitored workers. Data show that closely monitored workers (mostly mothers doing clerical work) chose to work at home not because they wanted to but because they had to. They were generally not satisfied with the experience of working at home. Furthermore, when clerical workers work from home their autonomy decreases. In contrast, some home-based workers (mostly professional men) who work from home report having more autonomy and more job satisfaction. For self employed, it matters not whether they are doing clerical or professional work. Self employed workers report high autonomy and flexibility, even when doing clerical work. Supervision of remote workersContract and self employed workers require a different type of supervision than office-based workers. A recent survey by Lotte Baylin suggests:
When managers supervise workers at home or through contracts, they need to keep in mind that these workers seem to put high value on learning, challenges, and family time. They put relatively less value on money. They tend to have scarce skills that keeps them in demand. In supervising these workers, managers need to emphasize values they emphasize. Furthermore, data on monitoring home based workers suggest that the best way to monitor these workers is by their productivity and not by the effort they put in these activities This page was last edited on
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