Linking Economic Development and Workforce Diversity through Action Research Eileen M. Trauth, Ph.D. College of Information Sciences and Technology The Pennsylvania State University 1-814-865-0077 (phone) 1-814-865-6426 (fax) etrauth@ist.psu.edu Haiyan Huang College of Information Sciences and Technology The Pennsylvania State University 1-814-865-8952 (phone) 1-814-865-6426 (fax) hhuang@ist.psu.edu Jeria L. Quesenberry, Ph.D. Information Systems Program Carnegie Mellon University 1-412-268-4573 (phone) 1-412-268-6938 (fax) jquesenberry@cmu.edu Stephen McKnight GSP Consulting Pittsburgh, PA 1-412-765-1180 (phone) 1-412-765-1480 (fax) smcknight@gspconsulting.com ABSTRACT The link between economic development and workforce diversity is being explored through an action research project based in an economically transitioning region of central Pennsylvania. This project consists of a collaboration between university researchers, a local college, economic development professionals and the local business community. It is directed at the creation of a sustainable knowledge-intensive, technology-enabled workforce. The intended outcome of this action research effort is ongoing awareness and education programs for the local business community that focuses on helping them to understand: 1) the connection between diversity and economic development in the region; and 2) the barriers to greater workforce diversity that exist in this region. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.1 Models and Principles; K.7 The Computing Profession; K.4 Computers and Society General Terms Management, Human Factors, Theory Keywords Action research, economic development, information economy, IT skills, IT workforce, human capital, diversity, minorities, race, gender, ethnicity, under represented groups, social inclusion 1. INTRODUCTION The twenty-first century is witnessing, on a global scale, the transition from labor-intensive agrarian and industrial economies to knowledge-intensive, technology-enabled service economies. Thus, the predictions of Daniel Bell about the emergence of a post-industrial society are coming to fruition [6]. Even though this transition is occurring unevenly around the world, it appears that economic development is increasingly tied to the viability of technology-enabled, knowledge intensive “high tech” work [36]. Just as the availability of good land and water is crucial to the viability of an agricultural economy, and access to appropriate natural resources is crucial to an extraction-based industrial economy, access to human capital is crucial to the long-term viability of a knowledge economy. To the extent that a region or nation has a supply of this human capital, it will be attractive to knowledge economy employers, thereby strengthening its economic development status. The challenge for regions that already have a supply of human capital is to retain this economic asset; the challenge for regions experiencing economic underdevelopment is to find ways to retain a greater share of their human capital and to attract more. Addressing this economic development hurdle requires the efforts of economic development professionals, policy makers, local industry and the educational community. Thus, the existence of a human talent pool can be seen as a significant infrastructural requirement for a knowledge-intensive economic sector, and the development and sustainability of this human infrastructure can be seen as directly tied to the success of economic development efforts. One aspect of this challenge that needs attention is the role of workforce diversity in the overall effort to develop a sustainable human infrastructure. Thus, an important research question is centered on the linkage between knowledge-economy development, and the development, recruitment and retention of a diverse labor pool. An appropriate location for the examination of these issues is Pennsylvania. Beginning in the last quarter of the twentieth century, and accompanying the decline of the steel industry and the subsequent spillover to other sectors, Pennsylvania is among the states feeling the greatest negative effects of the out-migration Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. SIGMIS-CPR’08, April 3–5, 2008, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. Copyright 2008 ACM 978-1-60558-069-2/08/04...$5.00. 58