Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The haphazard manner in which IBM recruited its own top program-
mers, and the diverse character and backgrounds of them, reveals much
about the state of computer programming at the end of its fi rst decade
of existence. On the one hand, computer programming had successfully
emerged from the obscurity of its origins as low-status, feminized clerical
work to become the nation's fastest-growing and highest-paid techno-
logical occupation.
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The availability of strong programming talent was
increasingly recognized as essential to the success of any corporate com-
puterization effort, and individual programmers were able to exert an
inordinate amount of control over the course of such attempts.
But at the same time, the “long-haired programming priesthood”—the
motley crew of chess players, music lovers, and mathematicians who
comprised the programming profession in this period—fi t uncomfortably
into the traditional power structures of the modern corporate organiza-
tion.
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The same arcane and idiosyncratic abilities that made them well-
paid and highly sought-after individuals also made them slightly suspect.
How could the artistic sensibilities and artisanal practices of program-
mers be reconciled with the rigid demands of corporate rationality? How
could corporate managers predict and control the course of computeriza-
tion efforts when they were so dependent on specifi c individuals? If good
programmers “were born, not made,” as was widely believed, then how
could the industry ensure an adequate supply?
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The tension between art and science inherent in contemporary pro-
gramming practices, unwittingly but ably captured by the “Talk of the
Town” gossip columnists, would drive many of the most signifi cant
organizational, technological, and professional developments in the
history of computing over the course of the next few decades. This
chapter will deal with early attempts to use aptitude tests and personality
profi les to manage the growing “crisis” of programmer training and
recruitment.
The Persistent Personnel Problem
The commercial computer industry came of age in the 1960s. At the
beginning of that decade the electronic computer was still a scientifi c
curiosity, its use largely confi ned to government agencies as well as a few
adventurous and technically sophisticated corporations; by the decade's
end, the computer had been successfully reinvented as a mainstream
business technology, and companies such as IBM, Remington Rand, and
Honeywell were selling them by the thousands.
