Abstract:
The term Information Technology although not new to
most people in Pakistan is relatively recent to the
Pakistani economy. Historically the growth in Aviation in
t he l ast 100 years has been most impressive . But the growth
of I nformation Technology in the l ast few years has been
phenomenal . I n Paki stan I n formation Technol ogy may well be
termed in its nascent stage and although feverish efforts
are being made , both in the Private and Public sector, we
still lag far behind. The Government is making all out
efforts to enhance computer literacy rate , to increase
Information Technology awareness ; a number of institutions
in the Private sector have sprung up in ever y locality
offering computer education. The result is that although
the growth of Information Technol ogy is sti l l s l ow compared
t o other countries hectic efforts are on to reach a
reasonable level .
A number of Pakistani companies had already started
working in this sector and were definitely adding to our
growth , the unfortunate incident of 9/11 threw most of our
efforts in reverse gear and the business if any from abroad
also diminished . The local companies either had to close
down or severely cut down on their employees to survive on
the local demands , which weren' t much . This reduced
motivation , security and morale of the I T workers as wel l
as companies.
To assess the post 9/11 employee conditions in the IT
sector this study was undertaken . A sample of 150 employees
of the sector was taken from Software Houses and Call
Centres presently operating in Islamabad . As these two are
Ill
mainly responsible for promot ing IT development in the
country.
The variables assisted in the construction of a
questi onnaire , which was the main survey instrument. In
depth i nterviews were also conducted on a small scale to
obtain more insight.
According to the survey most of the respondents were
not satisfied with the motivational tools , development,
training facilities , career enhancement and career
de f inition. It was found that most of the workers were also
keen to seek opport unities for employment abroad . The
analysis of the survey also exhibited that the working
conditions ln the Call centres were relatively more
efficient than the Software Houses. But the overall status
of the employee conditions in the IT sector remains static ,
whereas it should be growing at a more rapid pace to bring
us at par with the International markets especially
considering our abundant Human Resource.
