IT services professionals feel undervalued by management

Vantage point: Insights from cutting-edge research

A majority of IT service management (ITSM) professionals (82 per cent) believe they are staring at more challenging roles ahead and feel undervalued by the management, according to a recent survey. The survey by ManageEngine, a global enterprise IT management software provider consisted of 10 questions focusing on the opportunities and challenges faced by ITSM.

More than 60 per cent respondents feel current global and local political scenarios — such as Brexit, the recent US election and Australian immigration policies — will adversely affect recruitment for IT roles. Cloud technology continues to enjoy positive feedback from ITSM professionals in spite of a major outage. Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t seen as a major job disruptor yet, with only 16 per cent respondents saying it will affect jobs. Meanwhile, only 24 per cent professionals show confidence in existing best practices, making a strong case for their revamp. With an incoming millennial workforce, 77 per cent professionals believe IT teams will have to do more to manage the expectation gap between younger and older employees.

“The ITSM industry is continually evolving in response to its micro and macro influencers, like technology, people, practices and government regulations,” said Rajesh Ganesan, director of product management at ManageEngine. “Being aware of potential future challenges and opportunities helps ITSM professionals stay relevant and responsive to changing landscapes in IT and business, giving their organisations a competitive edge.”

Staying cool to win high-stakes negotiations

A research study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, led by a team at the Rotman School of Management, shows that taking a moment to assess your best qualities leads to better results when negotiating a high-stakes deal with someone who has more power than you. Previously, many researchers had explored the phenomenon of stereotype threat, a situation where individuals might perform poorly at an activity because of unfounded generalisations about race, gender, age or other attributes.

Sonia Kang, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of organisational behaviour and human resources management with the Department of Management at the University of Toronto Mississauga, was curious about how employees could combat the pressures that come with negotiating with someone in a higher position of power.

“When people are told that they are going to perform poorly, whether it’s on a test or in a certain job position, they usually perform down to those expectations,” says Kang. Through self-affirmation these individuals could counter these negative effects and perform much better than they or others expected.” Buyers who were under pressure tended to walk away with worse deals, settling for higher purchasing prices, than buyers who weren’t under that same pressure.

“Don’t wait until you are faced with a difficult situation to try to figure out how you will overcome it and succeed. Instead, you need to plan ahead and think about all of the potential obstacles you may encounter and what skills you already have to take on those challenges,” says Kang.