Omnificence or Differentiation? An Empirical Study of Knowledge Structure and Career Development of IT Workers

Amid the growing importance of information technology (IT) in the business landscape, the pivotal role of IT knowledge on the demand side of the labor market, at both industry and firm levels, is well documented. However, the important labor supply side concerning IT workers has remained largely unknown. This raises challenges about how IT professionals should strategically cultivate their IT knowledge structures toward a sustainable, well-compensated career path. This paper bridges this gap by examining how different types of IT knowledge structures of IT workers impact their salaries and job security over time. We theorize, define, and operationalize two new metrics to characterize the knowledge structures of an IT worker. Knowledge omnificence measures the breadth of an IT worker’s own knowledge structure, whereas knowledge differentiation assesses the extent of difference between one’s knowledge set and those of their peers. By analyzing extensive career data of IT workers from 2000 to 2016, we demonstrated that, on average, a high level of IT knowledge differentiation or omnificence yields positive economic returns for IT workers. However, there is an intriguing twist: such a positive relationship is not monotonic. The most advantageous strategy is to acquire IT knowledge at moderate levels of knowledge omnificence and differentiation. Further, our results revealed another new twist: to increase salary potential or pursue a better position, one should aim for knowledge omnificence, whereas those valuing job security should aim for knowledge differentiation. This aligns with our theoretical rationale that utilizes a structured framework, integrating the dynamic capability framework and the boundaryless career theory. Besides, we found that both knowledge omnificence and differentiation reduced gender disparity in the labor market. In particular, females benefited more, with a 14.74% (or 1.38%) increase in salary, from having a one-unit increase in knowledge omnificence (or differentiation). This study holds critical managerial implications for IT workers, firms, and policymakers. It emphasizes the importance of strategic management of IT knowledge structure in enabling IT workers to thrive in the dynamic and competitive IT job market.

History: Manju Ahuja, Senior Editor; Yuliang Yao, Associate Editor.

Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72272003].

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.0634.