APPLYING ATTRIBUTION THEORY TO IS RESEARCH AS A PRACTICAL METHOD FOR ASSESSING POST-ADOPTION BEHAVIOUR

Researchers and practitioners alike see great valu in understanding the implementation, adoption, and use of technology, and acknowledge the need to better understand post-adoption behaviour. Among theories that explain and predict human behaviour, attribution theory is recognised for its extensive investigation of behaviour´s antecedents and consequnces. This paper provides an overview of the theory, suggests a practical method for using it in IS contexts, and shows evidence that this method provides meaningful results. In order to address the complexities encountered in field-work, this paper argus that system-usage can be treated as an interpersonal relationship between the user and the system. This perspective allows us to draw on extensive knowledge gained in the field of interpersonal relationships research, in particular a relationship diagnostics method that uses interview data, followed by an analysis of the attributions mentioned in the interviews. The paper provides evidence from a study that successfully used attribution theory in this way to investigate a non-interpersonal relationship “ an employee-organisation relationship. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research in IS based on this method

Towards predicting employee turnover using a relational perspective: Adapting mixed-methods from marital research

Although workforce changes can have beneficial aspects, organisations with high turnover are significantly outperformed by rivals. Indeed, employee turnover can have adverse effects on both the employing organisation and the leaving employees. The exte nsive literature on turnover has identified many factors leading to unwanted employee turnover, however existing methods of predicting if and when turnover will occur rarely offer accuracy greater than 50%

A tri-modal theory of agency

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University London.This study aims to determine the relationship between agency and freedom and it has developed a Tri-Modal Theory of Agency that explains an agent’s decisions with a focus on freedom. Here, based on Berlin’s (1958) ideas we have conceptualised positive and negative sides of freedom with a focus on agency. Meanwhile, agency is defined and measured in three following modes: (A) the conative mode is developed based on Sen’s (2007) capability approach, (B) the cognitive mode is conceptualised based on Weber’s (1993) rationality types and Bakhtin’s (1935) dialogism, and (C) the affective mode is developed based on Weiner’s (2010) attribution theory of emotion. A Tri-Modal Theory of Agency is tested and developed in five empirical studies that include 21 in-depth interviews, two surveys on career choice of 1063 employees and a university major selection of 4086 students in Iran, and finally the theory is applied to one case study that explains an entrepreneur’s agency-freedom relationship after a business failure. In summary, the Tri-Modal Theory of Agency establishes that freedom matters but having agency to give up freedom in pursuit of one’s values ought to be the primary aspiration. This study can be exploited in the field of social psychology, appraisal psychology and organisational behaviour to understand an agent’s decisions in a social context with a focus on her freedom