Targeting COBOL programmers for C training: The role of job insecurity and organizational tenure

Targeting COBOL Programmers for C Training: The Role of Job insecurity and Organizational Tenure

Ritu Agarwal and Jayesh Prasad University of Dayton, Department of MIS and Decision Sciences, Dayton, Ohio

A majority of the applications development workforce in business today received its formal training and ensuing experience in mainframe computing and COBOL programming. Reskilling these individuals and persuading them to adopt innovations such as the C language represents a problem of considerable magnitude. We report the results of a study focused on experienced COBOL programmers and their transition to the C language. The study was conducted at a major financial services firm that is in the process of transforming its application development practice from a primarily mainframe, COBOL-based environment to a client-server, C-based environment. Two research questions motivated and guided the study: one, what are the perceptions of COBOL programmers about the C language, and two, how can training in the C language for COBOL programmers be targeted effectively? Results validate the general perception that COBOL programmers do not have very positive attitudes towards C. Results also point to the contingent effects of job insecurity and organizational tenure on training outcomes. 0 1997 by Elsevier Science inc.

INTRODUCTION

The corporate information systems application back- log in 1989 averaged 29 months. A Pentagon study estimated that at existing rates of growth in demand for software, by the year 2010 almost half of the U.S. labor force would need to be engaged in software development (Port, 1988). The spiraling demand in industry for applications software, together with the shortage of qualified personnel, has forced industry to search for development paradigms that allow for speedier delivery of applications to users.

Address correspondence to Dr. Ritu Agawal, Unk.ersiq of Dayton, Department of MIS and Decision Sciences, Dayton, OH 45469-2130.

For several decades, business information systems have been constructed using third generation languages, with the bulk of application development using COBOL. In recent years, there has been

considerable debate about whether COBOL has outlived its useful life; the language has been char- acterized as “geared towards large-scale monolithic business applications” and as “the language of the living dead” (Cunningham and Pursell, 1994). While C may be superior for memory management and the development of graphical user interfaces, unlike COBOL, it was not specifically developed for business applications which emphasize file processing and report preparation. C may be more versatile but, as long as standards are followed, COBOL programs are far easier to maintain (Cunningham and Pursell, 1994). Consequently, whether C is superior to COBOL for business systems is still open to question.

Still, as industry moves away from mainframe- based computing to more flexible architectures such as client-server and distributed systems that demand alternative methods of system construction, C and C + + are emerging as the preferred languages for implementing new application systems; and indeed, also reengineering existing systems (Cunningham and Pursell, 1994). A major source of flexibility in the new architecture is the ability to include different platforms (Cunningham and Pursell, 1994); this open systems capability usually implies the use of operating systems such as UNIX, which was developed in conjunction with the C language, and is, in fact, written in C. Consequently, the use of C for business applications development allows for a better interface with the operating system and more powerful usage of its resources. In the new environment, even system construction using fourth generation rapid application development tools often needs

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6 J. SYSTEMS SOFTWARE 1997; 37:5-17

R. Agarwal and J. Prasad

to be supplemented with the use of C. For example, a popular tool for building client-server applications, Magic, has 13 predefined operations; additional cus- tomized procedures can be called if they are defined in C (Eldred et al., 1994). A significant cost associated with the shift to this new development paradigm is that of equipping the human resource in the business (Moad, 1994).

A majority of the applications development workforce in business today received its formal training and ensuing experience in mainframe computing and COBOL programming (Fryer, 1994). For organizations desiring to exploit the flexibility and other benefits that the new development paradigms pur- port to offer, retraining and reskilling this group of systems professionals represents a problem of considerable magnitude. Appreciation of the importance of learning new skills is not limited to management alone; recent research by the Gamer group (Moad, 1994) indicates that 90% of information systems professionals believe that they will need retraining in the near future. Evidence of the magnitude of the training problem can be found in articles in the popular press as well as in books that exhort COBOL programmers to reskill themselves (Pugh, 1993). Indeed, organizations desiring to move their application development efforts to new platforms are faced with only two choices: either they replace their existing information systems professionals with those experienced in the C language; or they initiate programs to retrain their COBOL professionals in the use of the new language. The former option is often infeasible because of the paucity of C programmers; it is often undesirable because firms may not want to lose the business expertise and general development knowledge their systems professionals have acquired as a result of their tenure in the firm (Fryer, 1994). Consequently, for firms that wish to move their application development to C, the ability to retrain COBOL programmers with lengthy firm- specific experience is a critical issue.

The nature of the implicit employment contract has changed amidst the restructuring of corpora- tions. Job security or the long-term relational contract between employer and employee is a scarce commodity today that has given way to a transac- tional contract (Byron, 1995). In order to benefit from such contracts, both employer and employee are now responsible for growing resilient employees (Waterman, 1994). As suggested by some recent studies of the demand for various types of programmers (Fryer, 1994), skills in the new systems develop ment paradigm and the C language could potentially contribute to such resiliency. In the meantime, per-

sistent job insecurity has many negative consequences for employers and employees including turnover, reduced job satisfaction, and even somatic complaints (Ashford et al., 1989). Successfully retraining such a traumatized workforce is a significant challenge.

In this article, we examine the problem of training COBOL programmers to become users of the C language in these circumstances prevalent today. An intuitive expectation might be that programmers experienced in one programming language are able to transfer their skills to another environment with relative facility. However, evidence suggests that learning subsequent programming languages may pose a significant burden, particularly if the to-be- learned language has constructs that are dissimilar to the existing knowledge base of the programmer. Thus, a major hurdle to be overcome in the transition from COBOL to C is the inherent difirence between the two languages (Pugh, 1993). As noted by Fryer (1994), learning the new skills is particularly difficult for software engineers experienced in the procedural development methods that have been the basis for COBOL program development. For such programmers, the C language represents an innovation (an idea or artifact perceived to be new by the adopting group (Rogers, 1983)). As underscored by an extensive body of research (Rogers 1983; Moore and Benbasat 1991), the adoption of innovations poses a difficult management and behavioral problem.

We report the results of a study conducted at a major financial services firm that is in the process of transforming its application development practice from a primarily mainframe, COBOL-based environment to a client-server, C-based environment. The study is based upon a behavioral model of the impacts of training that draws it theoretical bases from research in innovation acceptance (Rogers 1983). This theory emphasizes that it is not enough to master the complexity of an innovation; potential adopters must also believe in its value and be able to au!!& to it. Research also suggests that mandating the use of an innovation can have undesirable consequences (Ram and Jung, 1991); adoption requires the acceptance of the innovation. The model posits a relationship between training and the development of such favorable perceptions about the target of training. Research has shown that focusing on perceptions is important because they are key determi- nants of actual use of the innovation (Davis et al., 1989); behavior is predicated upon perceptions of the attributes of the target technology (Moore and Benbasat, 1990, as opposed to the intrinsic charac-

Targeting COBOL Programmers for C Training J. SYSTEMS SOFTWARE 1991; 31511

teristics of the technology. Perceptions, in turn, may be influenced by external interventions such as training. The moderating effects of job insecurity and organizational tenure on this influence are the focus of this study.

Two research questions motivated and guided the study; one, what are the perceptions of COBOL programmers about the C language, and two, how can training in the C language for COBOL programmers be targeted effectively? The first question was motivated by a need to validate the general perception that COBOL programmers do not have very positive attitudes towards C (Fryer, 1994). Although there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that COBOL programmers may not find the C language very attractive, we are not aware of any systematic empirical examination of this question. The motivation for the second question stems from a pragmatic perspective-as corporate spending on this type of training continues to increase (Moad, 19941, there is clearly a need to examine the contingencies under which training in the C language for COBOL programmers is more effective. For example, knowledge about which COBOL programmers are likely to require more training would allow for a more effective allocation of training resources. In this regard, the possible contingent effects of job insecurity and organizational tenure are particularly important in the prevailing environment.

MODEFIATORS

0rganMional tenure Job insecurity

THE RESEARCH MODEL

The research model underlying the study is shown in Figure 1. The relationship depicted on the right-hand side between user perceptions and future adoption or usage behavior, although not explicitly examined by us here, highlights the importance of examining influences on perceptions. This relationship derives its conceptual underpinnings not only from research on innovations (Rogers, 1983; Moore and Benbasat, 1991) but also the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980) and its adaptation to the information technology domain, the technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis et al., 1989). A growing body of empirical research has shown that perceptions influence information technology acceptance behavior directly or as mediated by their effects on attitudes and usage intentions, e.g., (Davis et al., 1989; Moore and Benbasat, 1991).

Through a synthesis of several previous studies examining adoption behaviors, Rogers (1983) identi- fied several attributes of an innovation that determine user acceptance. Moore and Benbasat (1991) refined this work and showed that perceptions of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, result demonstrability, visibility, and trialability in addition to voluntariness predicted technology acceptance. However, subsequent empirical results, e.g. (Agarwal and Prasad, 1995) suggest that only a few of these perceptions may be critical in influencing accep-

ACCEPTANCE OF THE C LANGUAGE I

Figure 1. The research model.

8 J. SYSTEMS SOFTWARE 1997; 375-17


tance. In fact, in a meta-analysis of the work on innovation characteristics, Tornatzky and Klein (19821, found that only three innovation characteristics-relative advantage, complexity, and compatibility-have been related consistently to adoption. Given the key role that beliefs or perceptions play in determining individual decisions to adopt an innovation, the central focus of this study is on the processes involved in the development of these three salient perceptions which are defined next.

Salient Perceptions

Relative advantage captures the extent to which a potential adopter views the innovation as offering an advantage over previous ways of performing the same task. Moore and Benbasat (1991) claim that this construct is similar to the notion of usefulness in TAM (Davis et al., 1989), where usefulness is defined as the user’s subjective assessment that using an innovation will increase his or her job performance within a given organizational context. Empiri- cal studies, e.g. (Davis et al., 1989; Moore and Ben- basat, 1991) support the importance of relative advantage in predicting adoption behavior.

A second construct, ease of use, recurs in several studies as a significant determinant of adoption behavior (Davis et al., 1989). Ease of use is similar in definition to Rogers’ notion of complexity (Moore and Benbasat, 1992) and encapsulates the degree to which a potential adopter views usage of the target technology to be relatively free of effort (Davis et al., 1989). Innovations that are perceived to be easier to use and less complex have a higher likelihood of being accepted and used by potential users. Both relative advantage and ease of use are relative concepts and not innate attributes of the innovation and can be perceived differently by different individuals.

The final user perception examined here, compatibility, was proposed by Rogers (1983) and subse- quently found to be a good predictor of usage behavior by Moore and Benbasat (1991). Compatibility is “the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with the existing values, needs, and past experiences of potential adopters” (Rogers, 1983, p. 195).

Because these are the salient perceptions influencing adoption behavior, it is crucial to investigate whether COBOL programmers differ from C programmers on these perceptions. If they do not, adoption of the C language by COBOL programmers should be a facile task. If they do, it is

important for organizations who wish to move their application development to the C language to focus attention on enhancing these perceptions to facili- tate adoption of the C language. Training is a critical intervention in this regard.

Training and The Development of Perceptions

The primary focus of our study is on the relation between training and the development of salient perceptions. Innovation diffusion and adoption theory suggests that the adoption of a technological innovation creates uncertainty in the minds of potential adopters about its potential consequences (Rogers, 1983). At the same time, the innovation represents an opportunity for potential adopters to assess its ability to address any felt needs. These uncertainties compel potential adopters to engage in information seeking behavior and to exert effort to learn more about the innovation. The decision to adopt or reject is predicated upon the information gathered and processed by the individual; adoption is related to the extent to which the information results in a positive evaluation of the innovation.

In the current research model, the relationship between training and perceptions is premised on the uncertainty reduction effects of training. The traditional definition of training characterizes it as “the formal procedures which a company utilizes to facili- tate learning so that the resultant behavior contributes to the attainment of the company’s goals and objectives” (McGehee and Thayer, 1961, p. 10). Key elements in this definition include the facilita- tion of learning and the modification of behaviors. In this view of training, information is imparted to potential adopters so that they may reduce the uncertainty associated with the target innovation and be able to better evaluate outcomes associated with adoption. Thus, the research model suggests that training, through the process of uncertainty reduction, affects individual perceptions about the target innovation; in essence, training serves the role of a communication channel (Rogers, 1983).

Moderating Effects on Training

Although training transmits information that can be used to develop perceptions, not everybody absorbs this information equally. Information that is obtained may be used differently by different people. The fact that training experiences may not be equally efficacious for all individuals-also referred to as

Targeting COBOL Programmers for C Training J. SYSTEMS SOFTWARE 9 1997; 375 17

aptitude-treatment interactions (ATI)-has been a recurring theme in several studies (Tannenbaum and Yukl, 1992). An aptitude is broadly defined as any characteristic of trainees’ that is a determinant of their ability to benefit from training, including knowledge, skills, attitudes, and previous experiences (Cronbach and Snow, 1977). Tannenbaum and Yukl(1992) highlight the need for research in training to move away from studies that show that a particular training method is useful to research examining the contingencies under which a particular training experience is effective.

Although empirical research in this area is limited, prior research in systems and software training has proposed conceptual schemes for classifying variables that may exhibit moderating effects on the outcomes of training (Sein et al., 1987; Bostrom et al., 1990). The two variables examined in this study for their moderating effects on the relationship between training and perceptions are individuals’ tenure in the specific organization and their insecurity in their current job. The organizational tenure of an individual, a descriptive trait as per Bostrom et al. (1990), is perhaps a source of task domain knowledge in the classification proposed by Sein et al. (19871 because it implies familiarity with business applications. The inherent job insecurity of COBOL programmers, a state variable in Bostrom et al.% (19901 scheme, is a motivational trait in that of Sein et al. (1987).

Examining the effects of organizational tenure and job insecurity is important for two reasons. First, prior empirical work in training has not specifically studied these variables as moderating influences. However, the filtering effects of such variables (e.g., prior experience and stress) in interpreting information is well documented (Davis and Olson, 1984). Second, given that job insecurity and its negative consequences are now pervasive, the objective is to determine if organizations can channel it positively; and, at the same time, capitalize on their employees’ organizational experience. Organizations who have made the decision to migrate to the C language stand to gain if COBOL programmers with organizational tenure and job insecurity benefit from C training.

Expected Relationships

Prior research on organizational tenure has high- lighted the nature of the organizational knowledge possessed by individuals who have spent a significant length of time with a firm (Gregerson, 1993). These

individuals typically demonstrate a deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the firm and have an ability to recognize the value of innovations for the firm and perhaps for themselves.

The organization in question is undergoing a major change in the organization and structure of its information technology (IT) function from being a predominantly centralized mainframe operation to a decentralized, “premise-based” architecture; the movement from COBOL to C is an integral part of this shift in structure. Operating in a highly competitive investment banking industry sector, the firm is extremely dependent on IT for creating and sustain- ing competitive advantage. Insofar as management believes that moving application development from COBOL to C permits the firm to be more responsive to environmental changes and develop applications more quickly, one would expect individuals with greater organizational tenure to recognize the benefits or the relative advantage offered by C more apparently as they learn about the language. Al- though perceptions of management and those of other employees may not necessarily be the same, previous research has shown that, through psycho- logical processes such as identification and internal- ization, employee perceptions can converge to su- pervisor perceptions (Kelman, 1958). Thus, we test the following hypothesis for COBOL programmers.

Hypothesis 1. Organizational tenure will exhibit a positive moderating effect on the relationship between training in the C language and the perception of relative advantage.

Lengthy experience in a particular environment can result in inertia. Prior studies on skill transfer indicate that prior knowledge and experience with a particular formalism may inhibit an individual’s ability to form a mental representation of a task using some other formalism. For example, in the domain of user interfaces, Whiteside et al. (1985) found that the performance of transfer users (those experienced in a particular type of interface) deteriorated as they moved from a command line to an iconic interface, even though the latter interface was theo- retically claimed to be easier to use. Studies focused on the transfer of skills between text editors (Polson et al., 1987) emphasize that positive transfer effects will be noted only when the two editors share elements in common. Similar results were obtained in programming studies of recursion and iteration, where students found it difficult to learn recursive techniques once they had learned about iteration



(Kessler and Anderson, 1986). Soloway et al.‘s (1988) study on program comprehension found that performance deteriorated when the programs did not con- form to plans and programming conventions.

Given that the origins of the C language do not lie in business systems, C is very different from many other languages. For example, business data processing emphasizes the analysis and presentation of for- matted data, whereas C does not intrinsically facili- tate this. Considering that the C language is very different from COBOL along this and a variety of other dimensions (Pugh, 19931, we expect the “viola- tions in expectations” (Soloway et al., 1988) of the COBOL programmers to result in negative outcomes. As Scholtz and Wiedenbeck (1990) observe in their study of transfer between programming languages, instruction in the new tool must “take into account the experience of the programmer, anticipate possible biases acquired from this experience . . . ” (p. 70).

In a firm that has been a COBOL shop for several decades, COBOL is very much part of the information systems culture and firmly ingrained in the minds of the systems professionals. The decision to migrate to C was not made by IS professionals; the movement to C was an outcome of a higher-level management decision driven by the expectation that a C-based IT application portfolio would provide greater flexibility in meeting user needs. As training facilitates individuals’ understanding of C, the longer individuals have been immersed in the COBOL culture, the more apparent the differences are between what they did before and what they are expected to do in the new environment and the more apparent is the difficulty of using a new and different language. Thus, consistent with the research examining skill transfer from one domain to another, we state the following hypotheses for COBOL programmers:

Hypothesis 2. Organizational tenure will exhibit a negative moderating effect on the relationship between training in the C language and the perception of ease of use.

Hypothesis 3. Organizational tenure will exhibit a negative moderating effect on the relationship between training in the C language and the perception of compatibility.

The training literature has treated motivation as both an exogenous variable (i.e., an input to the training process) and as an outcome variable. For example, Sein et al. (1987) propose that there are two primary outcomes associated with end-user soft-

ware training-the acquisition of an appropriate mental model of the system and a high level of motivation to use the system in the future. On the other hand, Noe (1986) posits that training outcomes can be influenced by a variety of factors, including trainee expectations, motivation, and attitudes. A positive relationship between trainee motivation and training outcomes was also empirically supported in other cases (Tannenbaum and Yukl, 1992).

There is extensive evidence to suggest that COBOL may be a skill that is rapidly losing its marketability, while the demand for individuals experienced in C continues to grow (Fryer, 1994). Recognizing the erosion of their marketable skill base, one would expect that training in the C language would lead to more positive perceptions for the more insecure COBOL programmers. In this context, job insecurity together with the recognition that C is an important skill in demand serve the role of motiuutors to learn. The extent to which this demand is predicated on fact; i.e., whether C represents a superior development environment when compared to COBOL or not, may not be relevant here because, as repeatedly underscored by the literature on innovation adoption, it is not the intrinsic characteristics of an innovation, but rather the perceived characteristics that influence behavior. Greater job insecurity should encourage programmers to engage in the following information-seeking behaviors in the course of their training and after- wards: more actively look for how using C can im- prove their job performance; be more motivated to absorb information and learn C so that it seems easier to user; and be more motivated to seek a fit of C with their current work (or more willing to over- look potential incompatibilities). Thus, we expect the following hypotheses to be true for COBOL programmers.

Hypothesis 4. Job insecurity will exhibit a positive moderating effect on the relationship between training in the C language and the perception of relative advantage.

Hypothesis 5. Job insecurity will exhibit a positive moderating effect on the relationship between training in the C language and the perception of ease of use.

Hypothesis 6. Job insecurity will exhibit a positive moderating effect on the relationship between training in the C language and the perception of compatibility.

Targeting COBOL Programmers for C Training J. SYSTEMS SOFTWARE 11 1997; 37517

In summary, we examine the moderating effects of two variables on the relationship between training in the C language and programmers’ perceptions about C. The a priori direction of these effects is derived from prior research.

METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS

Data Collection and Sample

The context for the study is a large investment banking organization headquartered in New York City. The organization provides a variety of investment and brokerage services to individual as well as institutional clients and is in the top ten such organizations in the United States. Its operations are global and, in keeping with the information intensive nature of its business, it is an aggressive user of information technology. A questionnaire to collect data for the variables described was developed and pilot tested with a select group of programmer/analysts at the headquarters location. The pilot test resulted in some revisions in format and wording of demo- graphic questions for clarity. The survey was distributed to 140 systems professionals and 71 usable responses were received for a response rate of ap- proximately 50%. Table 1 contains some demo- graphic information about the respondents. All but three have at least a four-year college degree. Re- spondents are primarily programmer/analysts at different levels and average almost 10 years in the full-time work force and have close to 9 years of experience in programming. Thus, while the sample exhibits substantial variability, on balance it appears

Table 1. Sample Demographics

Title New Associate P/A Associate P/A P/A Senior P/A Project Leader/Manager

Highest Degree Obtained High School Associate BA/BS MA/MS Ph.D.

N %

4 5.6 13 18.3 11 15.5 32 45.1 11 15.5

1 1.4 2 2.8

52 73.2 13 18.3 3 4.2

Years in Work Force

YearsofP rag-ing Experience Notes: P/A Programmer/Analyst.

MealI S.D.

9.76 7.22

8.91 5.42

to consist of well-educated and experienced information systems professionals.

Interviews with the sponsoring manager revealed that a variety of training options were available for personnel to learn the C language. A total of five different training options were considered: in-house classes, classes taken outside the firm through a degree program or a continuing education arrange- ment, self-training, computer-based training, and multi-media or video training. In-house classes typically last for an entire day; they are held in a structured, classroom environment with a mix of lecture and hands-on exercises. The training is deliv- ered on company time by an external provider. Con- tinuing education and degree programs are widely supported in the organization through a tuition as- sistance program. This training option, however, is availed of by systems professionals through their own initiative and on their own time; the organization’s involvement is limited to the approval of their managers for reimbursement. Self-training, again, is the initiative of the individual. The training department loans out relevant books and manuals for a small charge; this expenditure has to be approved by the individual’s manager. There is no explicit time set aside for engaging in self-training and each individual must manage their current responsibilities first before doing any self-training. The organization has also purchased on-line tutorials on the C language and installed them on an IBM mainframe. The tutorials consist of a number of different lessons exposing trainees to various C concepts; each lesson ends with a test. Trainees are required to obtain approval from their managers before using the available computer-based training and a small charge is levied for each user. The final training option, multi-media training, involves the use of video-cas- settes on the C language. These tapes are obtained from the training department after the manager signs-off on the rental agreement. Trainees may take the videos home or view them in-house in a screen- ing room.

Despite the wide range of training options available in terms of differing delivery mechanisms, the focus of each method of delivery and the topics covered were the same. Each training method focused exclusiuely on the C language and emphasized C language concepts and programming techniques. No attempts were made to draw comparisons between one language and another.

Respondents were asked to estimate the number of hours of training they received via each mecha- nism along with their assessment of the quality of


R. Aganval and J. Prasad

that type of training. The sample means and standard deviations for the amount (in hours) and quality (on a 5 point scale) of each type of training undergone are reported in Table 2.

Respondents were also asked to classify themselves as COBOL or C programmers based primarily on their prior experience. Of the 71 respondents, 52 classified themselves as COBOL programmers and 15 as C programmers while the remaining four considered themselves to be experienced in languages other than COBOL or C (such as PASCAL).

Measures

The dependent variables-relative advantage, ease of use, and compatibility-were each measured using the 7 point Likert scales developed by Moore and Benbasat (1991) with appropriate minor wording changes to reflect the different context of this study. The alpha coefficient for the g-item relative advantage scale was 0.94 while the coefficients for the &item ease of use and 4-item compatibility scales were 0.92 and 0.76, respectively; these scale reliabilities are considered appropriate for field research.

Training, the independent variable, was assessed by computing the, sum of the number of hours of each type of training received within the previous five years weighted by the quality rating for that training mode. This operationalization is reasonable in that it yields a score that reflects not only the amount of training but also its perceived effectiveness. This is necessary since the training came from different sources and so could be of variable quality. (However, the analyses were also conducted using an alternate operationalization of training without weighting the amount of training by the quality rating; the substantive results were the same as reported in this article.) The five-year time frame was chosen because it is consistent with this organization’s efforts to make C language training available. As noted by Davis (19931, although self- reported time estimates may not be completely pre-

Table 2. Training Opportunities

Training type

Time in hours Self-rated quality

Mean S.D. Mean S.D.

In-House classes 76.32 70.96 3.44 0.91 Continuing education 44.76 31.61 3.94 1.03 Decree uroeram 41.25 17.50 4.00 1.00 Sektraihng 75.70 114.86 3.38 1.14 Commuter-Based trainina 96.31 271.61 2.77 1.17 Multi-media video trainiig 8.50 7.45 2.75 1.49

cise, they are reasonably accurate as relative indicators of the amount of time spent (Hartley et al., 1977). Ten respondents reported receiving some C training more than five years ago; however, the decision was made not to measure that because of the increased potential for unreliable recall.

Respondents reported their organizational tenure in number of years. The theory-based, multidimen- sional job insecurity measure developed by Ashford et al. (1989) was utilized in this research. This measure consists of five components: perceived threat to various job features (17 items, e.g., promotion opportunity), the perceived importance of each job feature (used to weight the corresponding threat), perceived threat to the total job (10 items, e.g., being laid off), the perceived importance (impact) of negative outcomes affecting the total job (used to weight the corresponding threat), and perceived powerless- ness to resist the threats (3 items). It is computed as: job security = [(Z likelihood of losing job feature x

importance of job feature) + (Z likelihood of job loss x importance of job loss)] x perceived power- lessness.

Data Analysis and Results

Means and standard deviations of the variables for the entire sample as well as the COBOL and C subsamples are shown in Table 3. The sample means for relative advantage, ease of use, and compatibility are toward the center of the 1 to 7 scale. In response to the research question about the perceptions of COBOL programmers, t-tests (see Table 3) reveal that they have significantly lower perceptions of relative advantage, ease of use, and compatibility than C programmers (p = .OOO). Consistent with the organization’s history of COBOL usage, C programmers have not been with the organization as long as COBOL programmers (p = .OOO); however, the differences between the two groups in training (less for the COBOL programmers) and, more interesting, in job insecurity (higher for the COBOL programmers) are not statistically significant. Because this study examines the training and perceptions of COBOL programmers, all further analyses utilize this subsample of 52 respondents to minimize contamination of the results due to experience in C.

Table 4 contains the intercorrelations (Pearson correlation coefficients) among the independent, moderator, and dependent variables for the COBOL programmer subsample. While training is correlated with both moderator variables, the moderator variables are not significantly correlated with each other. Thus, it is appropriate to analyze the effects of each

Targeting COBOL Programmers for C Training J. SYSTEMS SOFTWARE 13 1997; 37:5-17

Table 3. Descriptive Statistics

Variable

Overall (II = 71)

Mean S.D.

COBOL (n =c 19

COBOL vs. C (II = 52) T-Test

Meall S.D. Mean S.D. t P

Organizational Tenure (ORGYRS) 5.61 4.01 6.58 4.13 2.67 1.54 5.60 DO0 Insecurity (INSECURE) 977.36 387.71 1009.34 409.73 877.12 346.45 1.20 ,243 Training (TRAIN) 436.41 678.72 385.04 615.71 655.93 917.36 - 1.08 ,296 Relative Advantage (RELADV) 4.22 1.28 3.86 1.15 5.55 0.83 -6.14 ,000 Ease of Use (EOU) 4.06 1.31 3.73 1.13 5.43 1.02 -5.55 .ooo Compatibility (COMPAT) 4.36 1.21 4.09 1.08 5.54 0.91 -5.20 .OOO

Notes: ORGYRS is number of years. INSECURE and TRAIN arc computed scales. RELADV, EOU, and COMPAT are measured on 7-point scales.

moderator variable individually which is desirable given the limited sample size in this study. On the other hand, the three dependent variables are highly intercorrelated which must be taken into account in analyzing the data.

In keeping with the observed pattern of intercorrelations, the following procedure was used to examine the moderating effects and hence answer the research question about targeting training. Multi- variate multiple regression with all three user perceptions as dependent variables and including a multiplicative interaction term as an independent variable in addition to training and a moderator variable was used. Univariate regression procedures were used then only if the overall, multivariate Pillai’s F-statistic was significant. If the univariate F-statistic was significant, the coefficient for the product term was then examined for significance as evidence of the existence of a moderating effect. Because the existence of moderating effects is hypothesized, examination of direct effects is not meaningful.

The results of this analysis are presented in Table 5. Multivariate Pillai’s F-statistics were significant for both moderator variables. All of the univariate regressions except that of ease of use on training

and job insecurity were significant. Regression coefficients and p values are not shown in Table 5 for the univariate regression that was not significant. The significance of the interaction terms shows that three of the six hypotheses-the negative moderating effect of organizational tenure on compatibility (H3) and the positive moderating effects of job insecurity on relative advantage (H4) and compatibility (H6)-were supported. These results, organized ac- cording to the research questions, are discussed in the next section.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

At the outset of this study we posed two research questions: what are the perceptions of COBOL programmers about the C language, and, how can training in the C language for COBOL programmers be targeted effectively?

The means of the salient perceptions for the COBOL programmers are close to the mid-point of the scale, suggesting that these individuals are not aUerSe to the C language. However, our results suggest that COBOL programmers have distinctly different and less positive perceptions about the C language than do programmers experienced in C.

Table 4. Variable Intercorrelations

ORGYRS l.olxl INSECURE - .0591 TRAIN .5634** RELADV - .3285* EOU - .2419 COMPAT - .2825*

ORGYRS

Notes: * p < .05 (t-tail). **p < .Ol (2-tail).

1.000 - .3454* - .4731* - .2937 - .3046*

INSECURE

1.000 .0846 .I353 .0414

TRAIN

1.000 .6683* * .7246* *

RELADV

1.000 .7254** EOU

1.000 COMPAT

14 3. SYSTEMS SOFIWARE 1997; 375-17


Table 5. Multivariate Multiple Regression

Organizational Tenure Relative Advantage Ease of Use Compatibility Pillai’s Test R2 = .166, = .009 p R2 = .116, = .033 p R* = .172, = .008 p

F = 2.928, p = .003 Hypothesis Beta P Hypothesis Beta P Hypothesis Beta P

ORGYRS - .521 .014 - .500 .022 - .158 .444 TRAIN .460 .136 .340 281 .871 .006 ORGYRS x TRAIN Hl - .091 .810 H2 .087 .822 H3 - .830 .031 Job Insecurity Pillai’s Test R2 = .257, = ,002 p R2 = .047, = .177 p Rz = .196, = .007 p

F = 2.408, p = .015 Hypothesis Beta P Hypothesis Beta P Hypothesis Beta P

INSECURE - .649 .OOO - .530 ,002 TRAIN - .531 .037 - ,686 .Oll INSECURE x TRAIN H4 .482 .043 H5 H6 ,697 .006

From the perspective of an organization that wishes to make the transition from COBOL to C, this is clearly an undesirable phenomenon as perceptions are indicators of adoption behavior. This result is somewhat surprising; although the C language has gained considerable favor as a preferred implementation language for new business systems as evident from the popular press, this recognition of the value of C is not exhibited by COBOL programmers. Of course, the popular press can be inaccurate and perhaps these programmers believe that the relative merit of C versus COBOL is still an open question. While the validity of this belief at a personal level for the COBOL programmers is moot, at an organizational level, it does not bode well for the acceptance of C. Another possible explanation for the perceptions of COBOL programmers derives from innovation diffusion theory. The theory suggests that individuals seek information about an innovation from a variety of channels, including the mass media and interpersonal sources such as the opinions of peers and co-workers (Rogers, 1983). The theory also identifies interpersonal channels as the more effective medium for communicating information to reduce uncertainty. Thus, while information about C may be widely available in the mass media, there could be an element of selective perception here in that COBOL programmers choose to ignore this information perhaps because this media does not have much credibility in their view.

Therefore, if an organization wishes to migrate their COBOLbased application development staff to the C language, it is incumbent upon management to proactively “sell” the benefits of the new technology, as opposed to placing the onus of evalu- ating outcomes solely on individuals. Appropriate management interventions may be required to help COBOL programmers as they make the transition to C; simply waiting for information to diffuse from

communications channels and allowing individuals to reach their own conclusions about the language may be insufficient. Clearly, training is one such intervention; beyond just language training, however, it may be important to use a variety of mechanisms such as seminars, mentorship programs, and meaningful work to perform using the new technology. These activities may potentially provide the broader context for systems professionals to understand and appreciate the benefits of the new language and how it fits into the work they perform. However, further research similar to ours, which focused on conventional language training only, is required to empirically investigate the efficacy of such interventions.

The second research question was motivated by the problem of allocating limited resources to training and maximizing the outcomes of training in light of organizational tenure and job insecurity. Based on prior research we hypothesized that training in the C language may be more beneficial for some COBOL programmers than for others.

The organizational tenure of a programmer was expected to positively moderate the effect of training on perceptions of relative advantage but this was not supported by the data. One potential explanation for this result is that individuals who have been with the firm longer are likely to occupy positions with more seniority and responsibility. Typically, such positions entail responsibilities such as project management in addition to the tasks of analysis and programming. Furthermore, a reasonable expectation is that individuals with longer organizational tenure probably have used COBOL for longer peri- ods of time because of the nature of applications development in the organization. If the training resulted in demonstrating to these individuals how C may be used to construct systems more quickly and in a more flexible manner, management’s manifest

Targeting COBOL Programmers for C Training J. SYSTEMS SOFTWARE 15 1997; 37:s17

reasons for moving to the new language; perhaps it also raised questions about associated development methodology and project management practices. For instance, unlike COBOL, C programs are not inher- ently self-documenting; also, C program structures can exhibit greater variability than do typical COBOL programs, a characteristic that can add to the maintenance burden while updating C programs. For such senior individuals, the innovation is not just the language itself, but all of the other activities involved in using the language to deliver systems. Therefore, management may need to communicate information about how the innovation could be useful for the broader set of activities these individuals are responsible for.

The data also did not support the hypothesis that organizational tenure would negatively moderate the effect of training on perceptions of ease of use. This expectation was premised on the presumed interfer- ence from the existing COBOL knowledge base deeply ingrained as a result of greater organizational tenure. However, greater experience can also lead to the development of programming expertise which refers to the individual’s deep knowledge and ability with regard to the particular task of programming and programming constructs in general. Prior research on expert and novice performance in various domains (Adelson, 1984; Soloway et al., 1988) under- scores the role of expertise in problem solving. The superior performance of experts is attributed to their ability to identify and activate the right solution schema. Chi et al. (1982) hypothesize that “the problem-solving difficulties of novices can be attributed mainly to inadequacies of their knowledge bases and not to limitations in either the architecture of their cognitive systems or processing capabilities” (p. 71). The ability of experienced programmers to tran- scend the syntactical constructs of a specific language might have countered any negative skill transfer due to experience with a different language.

Our results did indicate a negative moderating effect of organizational tenure on the relation between training and perceptions of compatibility as expected. This result is consistent with the long history of the use of COBOL in this organization and the associated negative effects of skill transfer to a new environment as suggested by prior research. As the information about C obtained from training increases, individuals who have been immersed in the COBOL culture longer find it more difficult to develop positive perceptions of compatibility. This suggests that relative to those with lesser organizational tenure, greater amounts of training and perhaps other interventions as well might be

needed to “unfreeze” (Lewin, 1947) the ingrained work styles of the more experienced COBOL programmers.

Organizations typically prefer to retain employees with long organizational tenure because of the wealth of specific experience and knowledge they have acquired as a result of their time with the firm (Fryer, 1994). Our results indicate that managing the process associated with retraining such individuals is going to pose a challenge. Training of the type studied here may not mitigate incompatibility perceptions to the extent desired. Unfortunately, such training is probably used most routinely; it is imper- ative for organizations to find and utilize more effective interventions.

Job insecurity was expected to positively moderate the effects of training on perceptions of relative advantage, ease of use, and compatibility. Two of the three expected relationships were observed, suggesting that insecurity does represent a potent motivator to learn. Insecure individuals perceive themselves as more “at risk,” and therefore have more to gain from learning a marketable skill; they are more motivated to seek out the advantages and the compatibility of the new technology. Job insecurity was not found to moderate the effect of training on ease of use perceptions suggesting that such motivation alone may not help master the C language. The language is sufficiently different from COBOL that good intentions by themselves are inadequate for enhancing the ease of use benefits of training.

We do not recommend that it is desirable to create insecurity among employees, however, as the adverse effects of an insecure work force are well documented (Ashford et al., 1989). Additionally, because insecure employees can be prone to changes that are unsuitable to the organization’s needs, care- ful management attention is required in facilitating transitions. A motivator, similar to insecurity but less pernicious, can be explicit management pro- nouncements that the specific new technology is important for the firm, thereby providing individuals with the incentive to actively engage in uncertainty reduction behavior.

In summary, our results show that COBOL programmers do have less positive perceptions about the C language than do C programmers. Although the issue of whether these lower perceptions are indeed justified in light of the relative merits of COBOL versus C is beyond the scope of our study, these results do provide empirical support for an effect that has been alluded to often in the popular press but never rigorously examined in a field set- ting. The result is important because insofar as

16 .I. SYSTEMS SOFIWARE 1997; 37:5-11

perceptions are predictors of usage intentions, COBOL programmers are less likely to adopt the C language; explicit management interventions may be necessary to achieve the desired outcome. Our results also have implication for the allocation of training resources: COBOL programmers who have spent less time in the organization and are more insecure appear to benefit the most from conventional training in the C language. A greater share of the resources in terms of extra training and other more effective interventions should be allocated for others. A one-size-fits-all training program does not constitute an equitable or effective allocation of training resources.

CONCLUSIONS

The rate of technological development far exceeds the ability of organizations to keep their human resources skilled in the use of new technologies. Consequently, new technology training continues to represent a large proportion of corporate information systems budgets. Successful training is critical to ensure that an organization can reap the benefits of the new technologies in an efficient and timely manner. We have examined the problem of making the transition from one development paradigm (centralized, mainframe computing) to a more recent one (distributed, client-server development) by looking at some issues involved in teaching COBOL programmers to use the C language. Organizations who find themselves in the process of similar transitions might wish to take these results into account; spe- cially when they are faced with training resource constraints. One-size-fits-all training programs might be a wasteful investment as certain types of COBOL programmers benefit more from traditional C language instruction than others. For others, such as those with greater organizational tenure, the traditional approach to language training-providing instruction in the syntax and semantics of the language-may not be adequate. Our results suggest that it is important to explicit& convey the benefits of the new technology to these trainees as well as to emphasize the fit of the to-be-learned material with their existing knowledge base. This raises the question of whether it is reasonable to outsource training; an external provider may not have enough knowledge about the specific organization and the trainees’ prior experiences in order to assist in the development of appropriate perceptions.

Our study suffers from some limitations. The fact that it was conducted in the field is both a strength and a weakness. The strength lies in the realism of

the sample and the study context; the weakness is the lack of controls inherent in a field study. Due to the resource constraints that affect most field studies, we used a single organization as the study site;


this choice also helped control for variability arising from differences in organizational contexts. The sample size, although adequate for the research objectives, could be improved upon. While we demonstrated that COBOL and C programmers differ on three key perceptions about C that influence its adoption, further research is required to understand the reasons for these differences. For example, future research could investigate the relative extent to which difficulty with designing and coding programs as opposed to debugging and maintenance contributes to COBOL programmers’ lower perception of ease of use. We examined a relevant but small set of moderating variables. Future research could focus on studying other moderator variables in the context of similar studies. Finally, an assumption underlying our study is that many organizations wish to move their applications develop ment from COBOL to C. While this assumption is substantiated by anecdotal evidence in the popular press, it is in need of systematic empirical investigation. Such investigation might also shed further light on the issue of whether C represents a superior development language for business applications when compared with COBOL.

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Targeting COBOL programmers for C training: The role of job insecurity and organizational tenure