First Advisor

Smith, Michael R.

College

College for Professional Studies

Degree Name

MS Computer and Information Technology

School

School of Computer and Information Sciences

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Number of Pages

106 pages

Abstract

In today's business environment, organizations look to technology to solve a myriad of issues. These issues range from 24 X 7 X 365 shopping hours via the internet to dashboards that indicate the health of the business to knowledge management implementations where timely, accurate access to organizational knowledge is available. In all cases, the technology enables the business functions. Because of this reliance, technical resources and technical teams are expected to display leadership in actions, in thinking and on an equal plane as their business person counterparts. Most Master of Business Administration programs require a "Ëœmanagement' or a "Ëœleadership' section where students are exposed to leadership principles and practices. This is a major difference in technical master's programs. In most of those programs, a leadership section is not even offered much less required. Technical leadership has suffered tremendously because of this disparity. In today's environment, technical resources are not the people locked in the server room simply making sure that servers and computers are up and running. The technical resources are on the front lines, enhancing business decisions with technical possibilities. This lack of leadership training hurts from two angles. First, the employees have not had exposure to leadership skills so they are unsure of how or when to apply them in different situations. Second, when these resources are promoted to management positions, they do not know how to attract and retain resources with leadership skills and they do not know how to build an environment where those resources can do their best work. This project will define the reasons why leading technical resources is different, define a process of how to build and manage a successful, empowered team of leaders and propose master's level coursework to expose technical students to the same leadership concepts as their MBA level counterparts.

Date of Award

Spring 2006

Location (Creation)

Colorado (state); Denver (county); Denver (inhabited place)

Rights Statement

All content in this Collection is owned by and subject to the exclusive control of Regis University and the authors of the materials. It is available only for research purposes and may not be used in violation of copyright laws or for unlawful purposes. The materials may not be downloaded in whole or in part without permission of the copyright holder or as otherwise authorized in the “fair use” standards of the U.S. copyright laws and regulations.

Download

Share

COinS