Veröffentlichungen von Caroline Oehlhorn

Computer science attracts few women, and their proportion decreases through advancing career stages. Few women progress to PhD studies in CS after completing master's studies. Empowering women at this stage in their careers is essential to unlock untapped potential for society, industry and academia. This paper identifies students' career assumptions and information related to PhD studies focused on gender-based differences. We propose a Women Career Lunch program to inform female master students about PhD studies that explains the process, clarifies misconceptions, and alleviates concerns. An extensive survey was conducted to identify factors that encourage and discourage students from undertaking PhD studies. We identified statistically significant differences between those who undertook PhD studies and those who didn't, as well as gender differences. A catalogue of questions to initiate discussions with potential PhD students which allowed them to explore these factors was developed and translated to 8 languages. Encouraging factors toward PhD study include interest and confidence in research arising from a research involvement during earlier studies; enthusiasm for and self-confidence in CS in addition to an interest in an academic career; encouragement from external sources; and a positive perception towards PhD studies which can involve achieving personal goals. Discouraging factors include uncertainty and lack of knowledge of the PhD process, a perception of lower job flexibility, and the requirement for long-term commitment. Gender differences highlighted that female students who pursue a PhD have less confidence in their technical skills than males but a higher preference for interdisciplinary areas. Female students are less inclined than males to perceive the industry as offering better job opportunities and more flexible career paths than academia.

The underrepresentation of women in information technology has been a much-discussed issue in information systems research and practice for years. Although few women see a personal fit with an IT career and explicitly choose this career choice, most of them experience barriers and stress at different career stages. A serious consequence is that women abandon their information technology careers and turn away from the IT domain. Our study focuses on the stress experienced in early career stages. We conduct a qualitative study with 31 female IT students using guided retrospective introspection. We examine young women’s process in responding to stressors during higher education. Our study identifies stressors young women face early in their IT careers during higher education, examines their impact on women’s perceived fit with an IT career, and illustrates the resulting career outcomes. We contribute to IS research by identifying patterns and proposing a theorized process. We also discuss implications for practice and the need for future research.

Recruiting information technology (IT) talent remains a pressing issue for employers. Organizations therefore work on enhancing and highlighting their attractiveness. Drawing on the theory of attractive quality, the Kano model, we empirically investigate attributes that specifically attract IT talents in a recruiting context. Based on 30 interviews and a survey of 301 IT professionals and IT students, we identify and evaluate 24 attractiveness attributes that are further classified according to the nature of their role in attracting IT talent. The attribute identification and evaluation involve several steps including categorization, significance, and verification testing. Our research introduces Kano analysis as a useful tool to elicit nontrivial preference portfolios relevant to the IT job market. The empirical results add to the IT workforce literature and offer a concrete classification of what attributes employers should or even need to provide to recruit these scarce talents. The analysis also discloses differences in the survey participants' work experience and gender. Organizations can use the method to develop more effective candidate communication and reveal weak spots in their employer branding efforts.

From an information systems perspective, organizations striving to leverage a strategic alignment between Information Technology (IT) and business areas often underestimate the role of human resource management in creating business value. This literature review analyzes 71 scholarly articles to assess the role of human resource management in supporting the strategic alignment between business and IT. We identify the organizational role of individual human resources in strategic alignment, their contribution to more effective strategic alignment, and how human resource management supports such contribution. Based on these insights, we formulate propositions and identify avenues for future research.