INFORMATION MANAGEMENT EDUCATION IN HUMAN-RESOURCE STRATEGY

The integration of corporate or business strategy and human resource strategy has been addressed as being one of the most important research topics of the 1990s. At the same time researchers and practitioners from the information systems (IS) research field have emphasized the importance of information technology in obtaining strategic advantage. The planning and implementation of strategic information systems (SIS) can have great impact on competitive forces in the business environment and even change the structure of an industry. We should examine one extremely important aspect of this evolutionary process: 'What are the implications for the planning of management education programmes?' Executives need new skills and knowledge in order to manage this challenging area, i.e., to envision correctly the strategic opportunities available through information technology and to ensure appropriate IS development in their organizations. Traditional organizational borders between the IS department and human resource management (HRM) experts should also be restructured in order to guarantee the appropriate contents of and instruction methods for management education. In this study a new form of management education called information management education (IME) is introduced, and an IME-programme presented - as completed in a Finnish company. © 1991.