Understanding the Importance of IT Competencies for Human Resource Managers: A Cluster Analysis of Working HR Students Perspective

Information technology (IT) competencies of business managers has been recognized as one of the prerequisites to achieve business value from IT However, little research has investigated IT competencies beyond the IS profession, and especially for human resource (HR) managers. Drawing on data from a sample of 150 working HR students, we conducted two different cluster analyses, one on the level of IT competencies of the respondents and another on the perceived importance of IT competencies for HR managers. The first cluster analysis provided a strong separation of the sample in three clusters labelled as weak, fair and strong group with respect to self-assessed IT competencies. The second cluster analysis produced also three distinct clusters that are labelled as skeptic, average and enthusiast group with regard to the importance of IT competencies for HR managers. Cross-tabulation of the two sets of 3-cluster solutions reveals interesting patterns. First, four group out of six, the strong group and the enthusiast group as well as the fair group and the average group exhibit a stronger constancy over the level of IT competencies and the perceived importance of IT competencies for HR managers. Of those with strong or fair level of IT competencies, 50% are enthusiasts or averages with regard to the importance of IT for HR managers. In contrasts, those with weak level of IT competencies are almost equally scattered over skepticism, averageness and enthusiasm with regard to the importance of IT competencies for HR managers