Social outcome expectations and women's intentions to return to IT employment
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Date
2023-05-27
Open Access Location
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Australasian Association for Information Systems and Australian Computer Society
Rights
(c) The author/s
CC BY-NC 3.0 Australian
Abstract
Women leaving IT employment for childcare or other reasons, and never returning, is a
phenomenon that contributes to the underrepresentation of women in IT. However, potential
women returners, women who have recently left IT employment and may or may not return,
remain an under-researched group. We studied the effects of social outcome expectations on
the intention to return to IT employment for 182 potential women returners from New
Zealand, Australia, and the United States. The data were obtained via a survey questionnaire.
Expectations of friendly co-workers, work-life balance, and family proximity were included;
and the expectations of friendly co-workers had a statistically significant effect on the
intentions of potential women returners to return to IT employment. The results highlight the
difficulty of creating an environment that encourages potential women returners to return to
IT because, unlike work-life balance or family proximity, friendly co-workers is a factor that is
difficult to control via managerial interventions. For practice, the results suggest that
organisations should promote an environment friendly to women, which in part may be
achievable by implementing agile approaches to organizing IT work.
Description
Keywords
IT, Women, Social Outcome Expectations
Citation
Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 2023, Vol.27