Leveraging the IT competence of non-IS workers: social exchange and the good corporate citizen

Abstract

Organizational IT competence is fundamental to achieving strategic value through technology investments. Importantly, as business users continually gain experience with enterprise systems and a new generation of tech-savvy workers enters the labour force, IT competence is increasingly distributed beyond the IS department. Despite its strategic potential however, IT competence residing within the functional areas of the firm is essentially untapped until it is volunteered by functional area knowledge workers. Addressing the changing landscape of IT competence across the enterprise, the current study examines factors that drive business professionals to volunteer their IT competences to the firm. This research introduces the concept of IT competence volunteering, which is conceptualized as a form of organizational citizenship behaviour that is not explicitly contracted by the firm and may not be directly rewarded. Guided by social exchange theory, a multi-foci model is introduced that positions IT competence as well as workplace exchange relationships as antecedents of IT competence volunteering intention. Overall, the study's results empirically demonstrate the important impacts that user-IS department exchange and perceived organizational support have on the business professional's intention to volunteer his/her IT competence to the firm.

Keywords:

• IT competence
• social exchange theory
• organizational citizenship behaviour
• perceived organizational support
• user-IS department exchange
• IT human capital

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joshua M Davis

About the authors

Joshua M. Davis is an assistant professor of MIS and Operations Management in the School of Business at the College of Charleston. He earned his Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the University of South Carolina. His current research interests are in the areas of IT competence, user factors in IT utilization, and enterprise architecture. His work has been published in a number of journals including European Journal of Information Systems, MIS Quarterly Executive, and International Journal of Human-Computer Studies.