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Collectivism and connectivity: culture and gender in information technology education

Although the percentage of women entering IT education is declining, Asian women continue to outnumber other ethnic groups in IT education in Australia. This paper presents some of the findings from a study of the cultural factors that influence high school students of Asian extraction to choose IT studies. These findings as well as the results of an earlier study among first year students in the School of Computing and Information Technology at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia (Greenhill, et al, 1996a. 19966) indicate that ‘hygiene factors’ such as security and status are important influences on Asian female students, and these derive from collectivism, a philosophy favoured by some Asian cultures. Such influences are less important for Non-Asian female students who are deterred from entering IT education by other factors such as low female participation, These findings have .significance for new organisational forms such as networked organisations which require cooperation and collaboration, and we suggest that collectivism rather than individualism may be better suited to these new IT environments. A preliminary conceptual model of the interrelationships of these factors is presented.