HYBRID MANAGERS FOR THE CORPORATION OF THE 1990S - EDUCATIONAL-IMPLICATIONS

The integration of business and human resources strategy has been addressed as being one of the most important research topics of the 1990s. In the 1980s the importance of information technology/systems (IT/IS) in obtaining strategic advantage was also raised as a key topic. Business, human resources and IT strategies should be now integrated in order to discover the new requirements for IT/IS management. Executives need new skills and knowledge to manage the IT/IS area i.e. to correctly envision the strategic opportunities available through IT and to ensure appropriate IS development. One solution could be hybrid managers i.e. managers possessing both IT/IS and business knowledge. Hydrid managers may be critical human resources for the organization of the 1990s. The question is: ''How do we educate and develop hybrids?'' Requirements for ''hybridization'' are presented and evaluated in this paper. Attempts to solve the educational problem are reviewed through two examples of which the first is the university level IS education curriculum in one of the Finnish business schools and the other an example of a management education programme designed to increase managerial learning and collaboration in the IS planning process.