Initial Results

Abstract

Chapter V revealed how the three IT organisations varied in their structure. Remember that Organisation X is an insurance company; however what is referred to as Organisation X herein is the IT support group for the wider organisation. Organisation Y differed insofar as it is a management consultancy with a specialisation in IT; to that end, the staff under study represent the core of the organisation, rather than the IT support staff, as is the case in Organisation X. Organisation Z is a home and office furniture supply company, however what is referred to as Organisation Z here is the IT group providing support to the logistics of storing and selling furniture items. Thus, Organisation X and Z under study are similar insofar as they provide a service role to the wider organisation. Organisation Y differs, as its mission is to deliver IT/IS managerial expertise. The population of the organisations not surprisingly reflects this. For example Organisation Y is made up of predominantly senior mono-cultural “first language is English” personnel. The other two organisations have a much broader staff profile with a far higher level of multiculturalism. There are a couple of other issues need to be clarified at this stage because they are continually referred to from now on. They are the Australian Computer Society (ACS, 2000; ACS SA, 1999) levels because of the nature of their role in relation to employee experience in each of the firms. It is also considered worthwhile to provide a short discussion on the selection of our “expert” sample population at this stage.