Examining the Influence of Cultural Values on the Routine Post-Adoptive Use of Knowledge Management Systems

This work-in-progress examines culture\u27s consequences on routine knowledge sharing behavior. It employs two complementary cross-cultural theories to develop an integrative model of culture and habitual system use in the context of knowledge management. More specifically, using the Theory of Basic Human Values and the Theory of IT-Culture Conflict, we posit that such cultural values as an emphasis on the legitimacy of an unequal distribution of resources, an emphasis on active mastery and change of the environment, and an emphasis on voluntary commitment to the welfare of others may, under certain conditions, lead to habitual knowledge management system use for contributing knowledge. In carefully selecting and integrating these two theories, this study overcomes major methodological problems inherent in much prior cross-cultural IS scholarship. We propose a quantitative methodology to test the model and discuss why structural equation modeling is the best-fitting data-analytic technique for quantitative cross-cultural IS research

Intersection of race and religion for youth in foster care: examining policy and practice

Religion and race are primary forces affecting both individuals' identities and social relations. Consequently, their impacts on child welfare systems, and the clients of the system, are important to understand. In addition to protections against discrimination on the basis of religion and race, positive affirmations and connection to relevant communities are also needed to achieve client well-being. This analysis examines both historical and contemporary approaches to addressing religion and race in child welfare policy and practice, with a particular focus on adolescent youth. Our primary focus is on Blacks and Christians because these groups have received predominant attention in the literature. We argue that because racial/ethnic and religious identity development are critical to adolescent well-being, race and religion must receive explicit and consistent attention in child welfare practice. Moreover, the importance of religion has often been overlooked, particularly in its intersection with race. Quality practice needs more explicit attention to religion, but this also raises cautions in the current political environment.Accepted manuscrip

The influence of organizational culture on the outcome of an IS implementation

A number of information system (IS) studies have adopted organizational culture (OC) theory to investigate IS implementations. The studies highlight that members will reach consensus or agreement in the use of an IS but also experience inevitable tensions and ambiguities in the use of the IS. However, literature related to IS implementation/OC has rarely examined the influence that the saliency of specific cultural practices may have on the success or failure of IS implementations. Using a case study approach, we adopted the “soft positivism” research philosophy to collect data, underpinned by Martin’s (1992) integration and differentiation perspectives of OC to study organizational implementation of an IS. These perspectives served as interpretive lenses through which to explain how members’ salient behaviors towards an IS evolved during the implementation process. Our study augments the IS implementation/OC literature by demonstrating how salient cultural practices influence the outcome of IS implementatio

Understanding Collaborative Technologies Adoptive and Post-Adoptive Outcomes: a Longitudinal Study

Numerous studies in the Information Systems (IS) domain explain what determines user adoption of collaborative information technology (IT) in the workplace. Few, however, explain what the influences of collaborative IT adoption on behaviors are over time. Partly based on DeLone and McLean (2003), this paper fills this knowledge gap by formulating and testing a model positing that IT adoption (system usage and satisfaction) influences perceived benefits (flow and collaborative performance) and post-adoptive behaviors (trying to innovate and creativity). In order to test the research model, a longitudinal survey has been conducted over a 6 months period of time with actual users of a collaborative platform based on the Google Apps Service in an insurance company. The results show that; as expected, IT adoption do influence perceived benefits, which in turn influence post-adoptive behaviors. This latter influence is mediated by trust. The results are discussed and contributions to theory and practice are emphasized

Understanding Agile Software Development Assimilation Beyond Acceptance

Agile software development methods represent a departure from the heavily regimented and document-driven procedures of traditional, waterfall approaches. Despite the highly touted benefits of employing agile ISD methods and the growth of agile adoption rates over the past two decades, it is not clear why some organizations fail to routinize agile methods, while others do so and realize their promised benefits. Motivated by the need to understand the factors that influence agile routinization, this study empirically examines the deep contextual factors that impact the extent to which agile methods are proliferated throughout an organization. Findings indicate that project success from initial agile use does not translate to routine agile use. Instead, findings from the study suggest that organizational factors of organizational culture and structure play a pivotal role in the routinization of agile methods

Exploiting benefits from IS/IT investments: an IT culture perspective

Despite huge global spend on IS/IT, empirical evidence shows many of these investments do not deliver expected benefits. Benefits are realized when organizations attend to contextual factors surrounding the implementation of IT and not just its technical implementation. Culture, as a contextual factor, has been shown to have a strong influence on the way IS/IT is adopted, used and exploited. We draw from IS organizational culture studies to show how individual/group IT cultures (IT culture archetypes) offer a user-centric perspective on benefits exploitation from IS/IT investments. The majority of benefits are achieved later into the lifecycle of an IS/IT investment, after implementing the IS/IT resource. Thus, this study investigates post adoption experience of an organization's IS/IT investment, an important systems lifecycle stage that has received less attention in the IS literature. We adopt a single in-depth case study approach incorporating a three stage mixed data collection strategy. From a theoretical perspective, IT culture offers an intuitive approach to address IS/IT benefits management challenges during the post-adoption stage. From a practitioner perspective, we believe findings from this study, will offer several managerial implications for business and IT managers on specific actions to realize greater benefits from their IS/IT investments

Extracting Business Value from IT: A Sensemaking Perspective of Post-Adoptive Use

How can firms extract value from already-implemented information technologies (IT) that support the work processes of employees? One approach is to stimulate employees to engage in post-adoptive extended use, i.e.,to learn and apply more of the available functions of the implemented technologies to support their work. Such learning behavior of extending functions in use is ingrained in a process by which users make sense of the technologies in the context of their work system.This study draws on sensemaking theory to develop a model to understand the antecedents, contingencies, and consequences of customer service employees’ extended use of customer relationship management (CRM)technologies. The model is tested using multi-source longitudinal data collected through a field study of one of the world’s largest telecommunications service providers. Our results suggest that employees engage in post-adoptive sensemaking at two levels: technology and work system. We found that sensemaking at both of these levels impacts the extended use of CRM technologies. Employees’ sensemaking at the technology level is influenced by employees’ assessment of technology quality,while employees’ sensemaking at the work system level is influenced by customers’ assessment of servicequality. Moreover, in the case of low technology quality and low service quality, specific mechanisms for employee feedback should be conceptualized and aligned at two levels: through employee participation at the technology level and through work system coordination at the work system level. Such alignment can mitigate the undesirable effect of low technology quality and low service quality,thereby facilitating extended use. Importantly, we found that extended use amplifies employees’ service capacity, leading to better objective performance. Put together, our findings highlight the critical role of employees’ sensemaking about the implemented technologies in promoting their extended use of IT and improving their work performance

Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology: A Synthesis and the Road Ahead

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) is a little over a decade old and has been used extensively in information systems (IS) and other fields, as the large number of citations to the original paper that introduced the theory evidences. In this paper, we review and synthesize the IS literature on UTAUT from September 2003 until December 2014, perform a theoretical analysis of UTAUT and its extensions, and chart an agenda for research going forward. Based on Weber’s (2012) framework of theory evaluation, we examined UTAUT and its extensions along two sets of quality dimensions; namely, the parts of a theory and the theory as a whole. While our review identifies many merits to UTAUT, we also found that the progress related to this theory has hampered further theoretical development in research into technology acceptance and use. To chart an agenda for research that will enable significant future work, we analyze the theoretical contributions of UTAUT using Whetten’s (2009) notion of cross-context theorizing. Our analysis reveals several limitations that lead us to propose a multi-level framework that can serve as the theoretical foundation for future research. Specifically, this framework integrates the notion of research context and cross-context theorizing with the theory evaluation framework to: 1) synthesize the existing UTAUT extensions across both the dimensions and the levels of the research context and 2) highlight promising research directions. We conclude with recommendations for future UTAUT-related research using the proposed framework

RECONCEPTUALIZING IT USE IN THE POST-ADOPTIVE CONTEXT

The information systems (IS) community has developed many theories, approaches, and models that identify conditions and determinants of successful IT use. However, each model in the IS literature has evolved to address specific aspects and dimensions. This has led to conflicting results concerning the impact of IT use. Consequently, while a rich body of knowledge has emerged, with prominent models such as the Technology Acceptance Model or the IS Success Model, the complexity of defining a suitable multi-dimensional construct for IT use has largely been neglected. In this paper, we develop a new causal model of IT use. Based on Adaptive Structuration Theory, we argue for the multidimensionality of IT use and thoroughly derive its components. Moreover, we introduce two new concepts into studies of successful IT use: functional affordance and symbolic expression. Both establish a relation between the IT system under investigation and its users. In doing so, we provide a novel, synthesized approach for investigating IT use in the context of post-adoptive behaviours and the framework of Adaptive Structuration Theory