| Information technology (IT) flexibility continues to grow in importance as organizations become increasingly dependent on IT in increasingly dynamic business environments. The contribution of IT infrastructure towards IT flexibility is fairly well understood and managed within organizations today. The contribution of IT personnel capabilities towards IT flexibility, in contrast, is less well understood and managed within organizations today. Additionally, organizations continue to try to maximize the value of their investments, whether those investments are in IT infrastructure or IT personnel. The research question addressed in this quantitative study is whether investments in IT personnel training have a significant moderating effect on the contribution of specific IT personnel capabilities towards overall IT personnel capabilities relative to IT flexibility. The conceptual model used (pre-hypothesized moderating factors) is one commonly found in IT flexibility literature showing technical knowledge, business knowledge, interpersonal skills, and management skills as the four contributing factors of IT personnel capability. Education and training are then hypothesized to positively influence the individual knowledge or skill towards IT personnel capabilities. The research design used within this quantitative study is a non-experimental, ex post facto design. The results do not support the hypothesized moderating effect of education and training on IT personnel capabilities. The results do, however, support earlier research and validate the IT flexibility model in use today is still accurate. Finally, the results of this study indicate the contributing factors to IT personnel capabilities are an area ripe for future research. |
