Computerworld — Organizational psychologist Billie Blair IT managers and their staffs are different from the rest of us.

They view the world in terms of "us against them" and see others in an organization as pests or threats to their IT universe, says Billie Blair , who holds a doctorate in organizational psychology and heads Change Strategist Inc., a Los Angeles-based management consulting firm.

Organizational psychologists have an understanding of management and psychology. They use that knowledge to help firms and organizations understand behaviors that can impinge on the ability to implement required changes, said Blair.

Blair also has the perspective of having once overseen an IT department as a former dean of the College of Psychology and Human Services at California State University.

Blair looks at the performance of an entire organization, including IT, and draws observations from that work.

IT managers see themselves as "reigning supreme," says Blair, but they are also capable of having a dramatic impact. In an interview with Computerworld, she outlines various personnel and organizational issues facing IT executives.

Are IT managers different from other managers in an organization? IT managers are different than managers in the other parts of the organization, for the most part. They tend to adopt a persona of aloofness. They are different from the operations and sales folks. They feel themselves to be odd men out to start with, and they are. They perform a specific service that the organization can't do without.

What makes IT managers different? Is it the type of job or the characteristics of the people it attracts? It is a little bit of both. It is the type of job, and clearly people choose their professions based on their proclivities, interests and natural inclinations. It's the same thing with CFOs, or people in the financial accounting arena. In IT's case, it is a love of things technical and they are typically very good at it. Mostly, in these days, people in those positions have been told since childhood that they were gifted in all things technical. They feel very comfortable in what they do. They have chosen their job because they like it a lot. I would tend to say that they love it. Technical jobs are an engagement with things rather than people, for the most part, and it's that engagement with things which is what got them to the management level. Now, as managers, they have to deal in a whole new arena. With IT managers, within their group, their cadre of other IT folks, it's pretty much an 'us versus them' approach. We are the gurus and the knowledgeable people and those other people are the ones that are always making demands and keeping us from doing our real jobs.

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