Lyxen att välja - Strategisk gruppsammansättning i IT-konsultföretag

Abstract

This study examines how IT consulting companies in Gothenburg works with group composition. And if there is such work, which criteria is taken into consideration and how do the companies create conditions for the work groups to succeed. We also intend to examine which aspects enable and prevents a strategic work with group composition. Prior research in this area has long focused on what a group is, what will make a group successful and how the organization surrounding the group can have an impact on the group's performance but there was little or no research concerning group composition and how a organization can work with it as a strategic tool. The method used in this study to collect data is semi structured interviews with eight respondents from four different companies in Gothenburg. One of these respondents were an HR-manager and seven of the interviewed were executives. The interviews were later transcribed, coded and analyzed into two themes. The result showed that there were a more established consciousness for group composition than expected. The work connected to group composition however showed to be more up to each executive and were therefore not apart of any formal strategic work connected to group composition. The criteria that had the largest focus was technical competence but aspects such as personality and diversity were also taken into consideration when composing work groups. It also became clear that these IT consulting companies works with both aspects of heterogeneity and homogeneity when composing groups. The conclusion therefore resulted in the fact that technical competence is the basis for the choice of candidates to a work group, but when the lack of IT consultants on the labour market stop being scarce the companies will have the luxury to choose.