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International Conference on Well-Being in the Information Society

WIS 2018: Well-Being in the Information Society. Fighting Inequalities pp 42–52Cite as

The War of Talents in Software Business

Polarisation of the Software Labour Force?

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 907))

Abstract

The modern business world is undergoing digitalisation in fast pace and, therefore, more jobs are born in the field of information and communication technology (ICT). Only in Finland, one of the leading countries in digitalisation, there is an estimated need for 7,000–15,000 software professionals while the demand for skilled labour is growing every year. The skill set required from professionals is also changing and different skills are needed in the future. ICT companies are facing problems of finding highly skilled professionals to ensure their rapid growth and new innovations. At the same time, when companies are fighting for the talents, there are ICT professionals unemployed. Offered and requested skills are not meeting in the ICT industry, which can lead to bigger problems in the eyes of workers and companies. This study focuses on the skill polarisation between software professionals at the war of talents by using data collected with a survey (n = 90) to software businesses. The results reveal some signs of ongoing skill polarisation in the field and its possible impacts are discussed.

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Notes

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    World Economic Forum. “South Korea and Sweden are the most innovative countries in the world”. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/02/south-korea-and-sweden-are-the-most-innovative-countries-in-the-world/. Accessed April 10, 2018.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thanks Managing Director Rasmus Roiha and Finnish Software Industry & Entrepreneurs Association for sharing the dataset used in this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Sonja M. Hyrynsalmi

  2. Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Minna M. Rantanen

  3. Pervasive Computing, Tampere University of Technology, Pori, Finland

    Sami Hyrynsalmi

Authors
  1. Sonja M. Hyrynsalmi
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  2. Minna M. Rantanen
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  3. Sami Hyrynsalmi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sami Hyrynsalmi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland

    Hongxiu Li

  2. University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Ágústa Pálsdóttir

  3. Fachhochschule Flensburg, Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

    Roland Trill

  4. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Reima Suomi

  5. Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Yevgeniya Amelina

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Hyrynsalmi, S.M., Rantanen, M.M., Hyrynsalmi, S. (2018). The War of Talents in Software Business. In: Li, H., Pálsdóttir, Á., Trill, R., Suomi, R., Amelina, Y. (eds) Well-Being in the Information Society. Fighting Inequalities. WIS 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 907. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97931-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97931-1_4

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97930-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97931-1

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