IDENTITY IS HOW WE DESCRIBE WHO WE ARE AS A PERSON. STACIE PETTER, PROFESSOR OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND BUSINESS ANALYTICS, SHARES WHY ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD BE AWARE OF ONE PARTICULAR IDENTITY OF THEIR EMPLOYEES.
“My colleagues and I realized that a person’s identity, specifically their identity with information technology, influences the manner in which they use technology. One example is how we think about ourselves when we don’t have our cell phone with us. For some people that's extremely anxiety ridden. For other people they don’t have as strong of an identity in association with their cell phone.”
PETTER SAYS THAT PEOPLE WHO HAVE HIGHER LEVELS OF I.T. IDENTITY ARE MORE LIKELY TO USE TECHNOLOGY MORE CREATIVELY THAN PEOPLE WHO DON'T HAVE A STRONG INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IDENTITY.
“If we have our employees that are using our technologies in the exact same way, and we're using the same technologies as every organization, there's no benefit to that. So, by organizations understanding what is information technology identity -which employees are likely to have it, or which employees are likely to be able to be prompted to enact higher levels of I.T. identity, it creates an opportunity to find those individuals within the organization that can help identify those creative and novel uses of technology that might gain additional efficiencies in the organization. Or maybe it’s about finding new strategic value or new opportunities for using technology that weren't really thought about because rather than using the technology in the same standardized way as everyone else, these employees are finding new and creative uses to make better decisions.”
“BUSINESS REVIEW” IS A PRODUCTION OF LIVINGSTON & MCKAY AND THE HANKAMER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY.
