Assessing IT competence in business managers

This work is motivated by the recognized need for business managers to get involved in information technology (IT) activities and IT management (Henderson 1990; Keen 1991; Rockart 1988, Sambamurthy and Zmud 1994). It attempts to understand and measure the concept of IT competence in business managers. The proposed perspective on the concept of competence is related to the two types of human knowledge identified by Polanyi (1966): tacit and explicit. Explicit knowledge refers to knowledge that is transmittable in formal, systematic language, while tacit knowledge is deeply rooted in action, commitment, and involvement of a specific context (Nonaka 1994). Thus, being competent refers to both knowing and doing—using that knowledge. Following this perspective, IT competence in business managers is defined as a set of IT-related knowledge and experience that a business manager develops over time which enables him/her to contribute effectively to the deployment of IT in the organization. The purpose of this research is to investigate what IT-related knowledge and experience is required in business managers to be IT competent.