Human Resource Management Challenges in Government Information Technology

• Date: 01 September 2005
• Published date: 01 September 2005
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X05276216
• Author: David H. Coursey
• Subject Matter: Articles

10.1177/0734371X05276216

REVIEWOFPUBLICPERSONNELADMINISTRATION/Sept.2005

Coursey/INTRODUCTION

Human Resource Management

Challenges in Government

Information Technology

DAVID H. COURSEY

Florida State University

Information technology (IT) personnel practices are often cited by IT scholars as

requiring special treatment. This symposium seeks to merge work from human

resource and IT management to address just how,if at all, IT personnel practices

are, or should be, different from mainstream personnel management.

Keywords: e-government; information technology; human resource manage-

ment; computing; Internet; intranet; recruiting

Humanresource (HR) management is perhaps the most commonly cited

challenge in government information technology (IT) systems. Many of

the problems, such as recruitment and retention difficulties, are not unique.

This fact raises an important question: Just how different is IT HR practice?

Does it justify special consideration? Typically, government IT articlesarise

from an IT perspective and not from traditional public HR management.

Likewise, public HR management researchers rarely venture into the IT field.

This situation creates a notable void where government IT could learn from

general HR management, although the HR field remains silent to perceived

IT differences.

Specifically,this symposium requested articles addressing topics such as

the following:

•What are the primary factors influencing retention and recruitment of gov-

ernment IT staff, especially in comparison to other professional government

employees?

•How does IT staff differ from other professional government employees, and

what role do these differences play in HR management issues?

•How are job performance and productivity best evaluated?

203

SYMPOSIUM

Review of Public Personnel Administration,Vol. 25, No. 3 September 2005 203-206

DOI: 10.1177/0734371X05276216

© 2005 Sage Publications