In Alliance With:

Call for Papers

Special MISQE Issue on

Domestic and Global Sourcing

of the IT Workforce

The most recent annual survey of SIM members indicates that ‘attracting, developing and retaining IT professionals’ has again become the top concern of CIOs.  In contrast to the late 1990s, the desired skills mixes for client firms are changing -- with technical skills vital for some jobs, but change management and business knowledge & capabilities, in various mixes, becoming increasingly important. 

Projections for Western Europe and other developed economies also indicate future IT skills gaps, while the major offshore destination of India is experiencing high labour turnover, rising pay demands, and skills shortfalls leading to the offshoring of some of its own IT work to ‘nearshore’ or cheaper destinations.  Other countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, and Ireland are seeking to deal with rising demands related to new sourcing strategies. There are also over 120 emerging IT industries around the world in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and non-BRIC countries, with considerable implications for the location and management of domestic and global IT workforces.

We are pleased to announce that the December 2009 issue of MISQ Executive will be a special issue dedicated to academic research on Domestic and Global Sourcing of the IT Workforce. All papers submitted for this special issue will be submitted to a regular MISQE review process under the guidance of the special issue editors. 

Themes to be addressed include but are not restricted to:

  • Key IT skill requirements and building for the next decade – in client and vendor organizations
  • Implications of future  requirements on IT skills supply systems
  • The implications of offshoring and outsourcing arrangements for skills portfolios
  • IT skills gaps –  old versus new skills, the roles of automation, redesigning work, individual career structures, organizational  development strategies
  • Applying core/non-core concepts to IT workforce strategies
  • Applying 24-hour follow-the-sun concepts to different types of IT work
  • Strategic human resource challenges and practices to address skill needs and career development in today’s global sourcing environment. Recruitment, retention, training, remuneration issues and case studies
  • The implications and challenges of IT-enabled business process outsourcing (BPO)
  • Country and regional studies – leveraging IT sourcing changes in developed countries as well as BRIC and non-BRIC developing countries

Authors are encouraged to submit papers intended for an IT executive readership that describe practice-oriented research findings and guidelines.

Important Dates:

Special Issue full paper submission deadline:  April 20th  2009

First Editor Reports Returned:  June 8th 2009

Resubmission Due for Selected Papers:  August 3rd 2009

Final Submission for Conditionally Accepted Papers: September 14th 2009

MISQE Publications Editor Work: Completed by October 19th 2009

MISQE Publication: December 2009

 

All submissions should be sent to the Special Issue Co-Editors:

 



ISSN 1540-1960