Swinburne University ICT30005: Reflective Report on IT Issues, Sem 2

This report is a reflective account of a student's learning journey in the ICT30005 Professional Issues in Information Technology course at Swinburne University. The report delves into several critical aspects of the IT field, including the pivotal role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in digital transformation, emphasizing the importance of technological awareness, people management, and work-life balance. It examines the significance of effective communication in conveying messages and professional success, illustrated through a classroom activity. The report further explores the social impact of IT, discussing the digital divide and the need for IT professionals to contribute to bridging this gap. Finally, the report addresses diversity within the IT industry, particularly focusing on gender equality, pay gaps, and the need for empowering women in the workplace. The student reflects on how the course content has shaped their understanding of professional responsibilities and their commitment to addressing these issues in their future career. The report draws on lectures, discussions, and readings to support its analysis and conclusions.

Running Head: ISSUES IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
ISSUES IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1ISSUES IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Part B:
Role of CIO:
Chief Information Officer (CIO) is the driving element for all digital transformation. The
responsibilities of CIO are to identify new opportunities of business, drive business in right path
and make timely changes. One such example of CIO is David Banger. He graduated from
Swinburne University and started his career in Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He then stayed
in London from 2001 to 2010 while playing active role in Microsoft in 2006. He became CIO of
John Holland Group from January 2013.
From his ROPE concept, I learned that there are four concepts that people are obsessed with.
They include People, Experience, Relationships and Operation technology. I also realized that
CIO is the most important person for dealing with digital transformation. The thirst for
knowledge makes CIO play important role in every business. David Banger was father to three
children and still managed large corporations proving that family can never be a barrier for an
individual’s success.
Therefore, to become an able professional, I must keep myself technologically updated, have
skills for managing people and relationships as well as maintain work-life balance (Horlacher &
Hess 2016, p. 5131). This lecture is beneficial for understanding the responsibilities of ICT
professionals in every organisation and society by life-long learning, reviewing work-life balance
and mentoring.

2ISSUES IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Communication:
Communication is the process of sharing ideas and information with other people. Effective
communication takes place when the intention for communication produced by sender is
correctly interpreted and reacted by the receiver. It is significantly necessary for development of
any business. Some researchers argue that individual’s success depend 25% on hard skills and
75% on soft skills whereas others argue that individual’s success depends on 15% hard skills and
85% communication skills. I have learned that it is important to communicate effectively with
people to convey our messages correctly to them.
Our lecturer provided us with this tutorial and asked us to perform a class activity. He divided
total students into groups of two and advised that one student will provide information about a
particular animal and the other will have to sketch it according to description given. I provided
description and my partner did the sketch. I thought that the description I provided was correct
however when I saw the sketch it was completely different from what I intended to convey. Our
lecturer said that it was due to lack of effective communication and explained us with in-class
presentation and effective feedback. He said that communication is the key aspect of
professionalism.

3ISSUES IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Social Impact of IT:
IT industry has a huge impact on society. The wellbeing of community is directly affected by IT
industry. Our lecturer being a member of the community shared his experience. The impact of
technology is not equal in every society and necessary actions are being taken to reduce gap that
is referred as “Digital Divide” (Kiliç, Kuzey & Uyar 2015, p. 370). In a particular society, it can
improve communication between members through new IT technologies like electronic mail and
video conferencing. Advancement in IT industry has led to discovery of social networking sites
that provides a great platform to people to share their ideas and opinions with their friends and
relatives. In other words, it is making people of society more social (Servaes & Tamayo 2013, p.
1053). It has also proved itself to improve education and connectivity as well as facilitating
economic growth. As we are students of Swinburne University that falls under top 3% world
universities, we have access to all resources.
However, from the differences of impact of IT industry on rural and urban areas, I feel that world
lacks equality. Being an IT professional I should help rural areas of the world gain the benefits of
ICT enabled solutions. I would not take it professionally as I would be self-satisfied by doing so.

4ISSUES IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Diversity:
Diversity in IT industry is defined as equal opportunities of both male and female employees in
workplace. Women should get equal chance to take up ICT occupations. The percentage of
female participation has increased from 35% to 45%. Still women employees are lagging behind
the male employees. Researchers have found that women are not opting for ICT management
roles where 51% of management roles are for women (Wollschlaeger, Sauter & Jasperneite 2017
p. 25). They should get equal chance to participate in workplace. Another important factor of
gender diversity that was highlighted by our lecturer was gender pay gap. It has been found that
weekly earnings of male employees are much more than female employees. The current gender
pay gap is 18.8%. He also mentioned that key factor contributing to gender inequality is leaky
pipeline.
I realised from the lectures that women should be more empowered to participate actively in
their workplace. Some changes should be made in female life cycle that would eliminate
stereotyping. Gender pay gap should be eliminated as female graduates face this problem at the
beginning of their career. I would try to bring changes in society as the lectures motivated me
largely.

5ISSUES IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
References:
Card, D., Cardoso, A.R. & Kline, P., 2015. Bargaining, sorting, and the gender wage gap:
Quantifying the impact of firms on the relative pay of women. The Quarterly Journal of
Economics, vol. 131, no. 2, pp.633-686.
Horlacher, A. & Hess, T. 2016, January. What does a Chief Digital Officer do? Managerial tasks
and roles of a new C-level position in the context of digital transformation. In 2016 49th Hawaii
International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) (pp. 5126-5135). IEEE.
Kiliç, M., Kuzey, C. & Uyar, A. 2015. The impact of ownership and board structure on
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting in the Turkish banking industry. Corporate
Governance, vol. 15, no. 3, pp.357-374.
Servaes, H. & Tamayo, A. 2013. The impact of corporate social responsibility on firm value: The
role of customer awareness. Management science, vol. 59, no. 5, pp.1045-1061.
Strand, R. 2013. The chief officer of corporate social responsibility: A study of its presence in
top management teams. Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 112, no. 4, pp.721-734.
Wollschlaeger, M., Sauter, T. & Jasperneite, J. 2017. The future of industrial communication:
Automation networks in the era of the internet of things and industry 4.0. IEEE Industrial
Electronics Magazine, vol. 11, no. 1, pp.17-27.