The thinking styles of IT students and practitioners.

Abstract

IT expenditures and organizational performance have been disconnected in the past due to an economic transition from an era of competitive advantage on information, to one based on knowledge creation. The earlier era was characterized by slow change that could not be interpreted by most formal information systems (Lubbe, 1997). IT managers therefore need to develop a greater appreciation of their intangible human assets such as knowledge and inquiring styles. In other words, an investigation into knowledge creation rather than Knowledge Management needs to be undertaken (Lundin et a/., 2000). According to IT managers, attention should be paid to the human aspects of knowledge creation in current formulations of IT enabled knowledge management (Lundin eta/., 2000). This research therefore provides guidelines in overcoming the challenges of miscommunication and misunderstanding of IT people in knowledge creation and management. This research is structured in such a way that students and professionals as well as marketers and IT personnel can use it. This study has been conducted at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Westville Campus), in the School of Information Systems and Technology. The population included all students studying Information Systems and Technology. The population for the Information Systems and Technology practitioners has been selected from the University of KwaZulu- Natal's School of Information Systems and Technology department.