This ITWF award provides support to study whether differences in individual characteristics and situational experiences lead women and minorities to develop different levels of professional identification (compared to majority individuals), and to examine the influence of professional identification on the career persistence of IT workers. The PI and co-PI's postulate a multivariate model and 14 specific hypotheses around which their proposed research project is based. Their general proposition is that many antecedent factors that have the potential to influence career retention operate through professional identification. In terms of women and racial minorities, the researchers propose to determine which and/or if antecedent factors are experienced differently by members of these groups and how these differences influence attachment to the profession. The antecedent factors they will study include: (1) motivation for choosing the IT profession; (2) socialization into the IT profession; (3) self-efficacy regarding a career in IT; (4) experiences in the IT workplace; and (5) congruence of professional and other valued identities.
The researchers plan to use the cooperation of a number of employers of IT workers to identify and contact a panel of respondents in a program of original data collection. They will develop a data collection instrument that will be used to create longitudinal records on individuals at 3 time periods.
