The impact of outsourcing IT jobs to low-wage economies has attracted significant public attention in recent years, particularly during the last Presidential election campaign. Some predicted that IT outsourcing would escalate at the rate of over 50% in the subsequent two years with a total of $7.8 billion shifted toward offshoring. Indeed, industry research firm Gartner Group estimated one out of every 10 IT jobs would be outsourced overseas by the end of 2004 [2].
Exposed to this news and the massive IT job downturn resulting from the dot-com bubble bursting, students of information systems (IS) and computer science (CS) became quite concerned about their job prospects after graduation, understandably fearing unemployment. These events created an impetus for IS/CS students to change their major and caused students considering IS/CS to reconsider, leading to a significant decrease in enrollment in IS and CS majors in recent years. For example, by the end of 2004, the enrollment in the IS program at the University of Florida had decreased 66% from its peak. In the computer science program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the decrease was 60%, and at Ohio University it was 71%. Nationally, IS enrollments in recent years are down between 15% to 75% [3].
The gravity of the situation faced by IS programs was addressed in panel discussions at the International Conference of Information Systems—an annual meeting on IS organized by the Association of Information Systems. While recognizing the possible job loss due to offshore outsourcing, panelists questioned the accuracy of the extent of IT job losses reported in the media. They encouraged IS faculty to think of ways to deal with the negative perceptions students have developed toward IS job prospects in light of the publicity surrounding outsourcing.
Realizing the impact of offshoring on the computing community as a whole, ACM took action by forming the ACM Job Migration Task Force charged with examining this challenging and serious issue [1]. Former ACM President David Patterson [6] encouraged deeper and more creative thinking on the offshoring issue in an effort to avert young IS professionals from making "career decisions they would later regret. He called on computing educators and professionals to "share your thoughts with others."
Dealing with students’ negative perceptions toward a career in IS is a critical issue for the IS discipline [3]. For some IS programs, it may even be an issue of survival. This article presents our experience at the MIS department of Ohio University where faculty addressed this issue through curriculum revision and efforts to change the negative perceptions students held about IS job prospects.
Identifying the Source
The initial step in the process was to determine the sources of information that gave students a negative view of IS as a major. By determining why students were convinced that IS graduates would not be able to find jobs due to offshoring, effective methods of addressing these factors could be developed. Interviews were conducted with a focus group of eight randomly selected IS majors taking an IS course. Students were asked if offshoring prompted concern over IS as a major. If so, they were asked about information sources that colored that picture. All of the student participants said they had negative perceptions toward outsourcing and the IS job market in the near future.
When asked for the primary information source regarding IS job loss, 46% of the students responded they heard this information from their parents, 31% from the news, and 17% from colleagues (classmates, friends, or faculty). Further, when asked about the secondary source regarding the loss of jobs, 29% of students said they learned this from friends and 21% from the news. Moreover, 88% of the students believed their parents and friends received this negative view about IS job prospects from the news.
Indeed, students did not hold firsthand information about the IS job market. Rather they received their information from three main sources: their parents, the news, and friends.
The information presented in the news can sometimes be biased, which can further be exploited by politicians to promote their political agendas. Mass media coverage of offshore outsourcing has created an unbalanced view of IS job prospects in the last 3-4 years and readers frequently read articles or viewed TV programs discussing IS job losses due to offshoring, but seldom saw opposing views. Consequently, it would not be surprising to learn that 100% of the IS majors in the focus group reported negative perceptions about IS job prospects. It is also not surprising that many IS programs have recently experienced sharp enrollment decreases.
Dealing with students’ negative perceptions toward a career in IS is a critical issue for the IS discipline. For some IS programs, it may even be an issue of survival.
How Negativity Impacts the IS Major
After identifying the informational sources playing a role in these perceptions, the next step is to address the unbalanced IS media coverage directly by presenting factual evidence and counterarguments.
The focus group interviews also showed that because of the "defensive behavior" of college students, they would not feel comfortable or fully convinced if IS faculty expounded on how the IS major was still a good major, even with the practice of offshoring looming in the future. A more effective way, we found, is to ask IS students to do their own research on this important issue and uncover the answers for themselves, with the support and guidance of IS faculty.
This alternative method was used in an IS course taken by junior IS majors. Students in the class were asked to form groups to do a research project on the effects of offshore outsourcing on the IS job market, and explore ways for them to deal with any possible negative impacts.
At the start of the project, the students were provided with some basic information about research methodology in terms of how to conduct a comprehensive literature review to search for papers with both positive and negative views on the IS job market. They were also instructed on how to categorize those papers based on criteria such as relevance and importance, and how to do a quality review of those research papers. The students were provided a template for the quality review process.
Student groups were also asked to present and discuss their research findings and suggested solutions with the entire class. This exercise revealed three primary findings. First, through their own research and subsequent presentations, students began to realize that some news articles written for the general public were largely biased. Indeed, the media coverage was peppered with exaggerations regarding the fear of job loss in the near future. Contrary to previous predictions, the U.S. Labor Department reported that for the 4,633 jobs moved offshore during the first three months of 2004, it was less than 2% of the layoffs for the same time period [4].
Further, students discovered some positive news about the impact of offshoring on the U.S. job market. For example, Delta Airlines, with headquarters in Atlanta, outsourced 1,000 call-center jobs to India in 2003, but the $25 million in savings from the deal allowed the firm to add 1,200 domestic reservation and sales positions. Although 70,000 computer programming jobs were lost in the U.S. between 1999 and 2003, more than 115,000 computer software engineers found higher-paying jobs during that same period. In addition, offshore outsourcing between developed and developing countries can, as a whole, benefit both countries [1].
Based on these research findings, the student groups discussed ways of dealing with possible job challenges resulting from outsourcing in the near future. The faculty guided students through a discussion about which types of IS jobs could be more easily outsourced, and which jobs would be more difficult to do so. Through constructive arguments and discussion, students realized that some IS jobs, such as basic programming, can be more easily outsourced, while higher-level jobs, such as consulting, project management, and business process analysis, are more tightly linked with core business processes and/or local customers and therefore more difficult to outsource. Indeed, integrating IS skills and knowledge could better prepare students for dealing with the possible threat of job losses due to outsourcing.
During group discussion sessions, the students were guided through an analysis of the role of IS in organizations, so that students could clearly realize that IS is critical in modern businesses. Having high-level business-related IS skills is a plus for future job hunting and career development, even with continued offshoring. As a result, through their own research, presentations, and discussions, students arrived at the conclusion that IS was important to every business, and the IS major was still an attractive major compared to other traditional disciplines. Further, when facing the challenge of IS outsourcing, one optimal solution was to double major, combining IS and another business major such as finance or accounting.
At the end of this project, a questionnaire was handed out to each student to test whether the negative perceptions about IS job prospects, outsourcing, and IS as a major had changed. The survey results indicated that students originally having negative perceptions now had more balanced views toward IS offshoring. More students (31.25%) thought that outsourcing would be beneficial to the U.S. economy in the long run than those who disagreed (25%), while the rest of the students were not sure. This was a significant difference from the outset, when 100% of the students held negative perceptions.
As a result of their own research, students no longer felt as uncertain about their own job prospects. Instead, they felt they knew how to better deal with the possible negative outsourcing on the IS job market. Most students (77%) thought the best solution was to double major within the business college. Only a few students (8%) thought that being the best student in the class was useful, 8% believed they should focus on enhancing their skills (communication skills and business skills), the final 7% thought that becoming a certified IT professional would be valuable.
When asked for additional solutions, 45% recommended broadening their horizons by improving their skills and knowledge in business, 28% recommended understanding the industry better, and 27% responded with a desire to learn and improve interpersonal skills. When asked for a third solution, 33% of the students responded with business as usual, 17% cited more emphasis on creativity skills, 17% were going to build business skills, 17% recommended not worrying about it too much, and 16% said to drop the IS major.
One encouraging outcome was that after students understood methods for dealing with the negative impact of outsourcing, no student considered dropping IS as a major. Even if their first two solutions didn’t work, only 17% of the students would consider dropping IS as a major. These results indicate that with such valuable information at hand most students would be confident about choosing IS as a major.
It is interesting to note that more students agreed that the job market should be fully determined by market forces (25%) compared to those who disagreed (13%), with 56.25% students being unsure. On the other hand, 43.75% of the students still believed the government should take action to protect IS jobs from being outsourced (with 37.5% disagreeing and 18.5% not sure). This may indicate that even though students rationally thought the job market should be fully determined by market forces, it would be human nature to sometimes let self-interest supersede logic, resulting in students essentially preferring job protection. Indeed, politicians may still have an opportunity to use this offshoring issue to create media controversy in the future.
A research project designed to cause students to construct their own conclusions was largely effective in terms of facing and dealing with the negative perceptions toward the potential of future opportunities in the IS field. Enrollment data from Ohio University’s MIS department by the end of 2005 showed that more than 70% of the IS majors were taking a double major with another business major. This indicates that most IS majors understand the value of broadening their major to make it more marketable.
The approach described here applies to students who are currently IS majors. The next step is to apply this approach to students who have not yet decided on a major or might be willing to consider adding IS as a major. OU’s IS department has completed a major curricular revision with a focus on integrating business analysis and systems development throughout the curriculum. All these efforts have reversed the recent decline in enrollment in the IS program and have increased enrollment in the major by 30% to date. Many factors may be contributing to this reversal including the revision of the curriculum and the recent turnaround in the job market. The approach outlined here could be an additional factor applied in the introductory IS course to allow all business majors to see that IS is a viable major.
In addition, this approach may be also relevant to a CS program. For example, those students might also consider the double-major as one possible choice as well, by taking some business courses or a project management course.
Conclusion
The challenge created by offshore outsourcing to IS and CS education programs is so huge that many such programs, if not all, have experienced serious enrollment decreases in recent years. Professional associations in the field have realized the importance of this challenge, and have called for effective and creative methods to deal with it.
This article described one potential method that has proven successful at Ohio University. We believe this method is also easily implemented in other IS or CS programs at other universities facing the same problem. It is our belief that the IS (or CS) enrollment decrease in recent years, partially due to IS outsourcing, is a temporary phenomenon, which should be faced seriously and can be solved by using creative and effective methods.
Our suggested approach is not a solution to all the problems related to IS enrollment decreases. Other solutions, such as meeting the challenges of the global economy, skills related to entrepreneurship and project management, knowledge, and experience related to global e-commerce and m-commerce [5], and overseas internship experiences are also important [1]. It is our hope the method presented here stimulates more creative methods and provide better solutions to this important issue in the near future.
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