If we implement it, will they come? User resistance in postacceptance usage behaviour within a business intelligence systems context

The aim of this article is to examine individual, corporate and technology-related factors that shape user resistance in business intelligence systems (BIS) post-acceptance usage behaviour. The author develops a conceptual framework and a series of propositions, grounded on previous studies of user resistance to information systems (IS) and post-acceptance usage. The framework proposes that three individual-level variables (loss of power, change in decision-making approach, change of job or job skills), four corporate-level variables (information culture, communication, user training, service quality) and a technology-related variable (system issues) can be attributed to fuel user resistance towards BIS post-acceptance usage stages. A series of propositions is offered that aims to stimulate empirical research in this topical subject. Despite wide acknowledgement of the importance of user resistance for IS implementation success, this area has been under-researched in the field of BIS. This article draws insights from theoretical and empirical studies to shed some light on this area. A framework is presented which transcends previous works on user resistance to IS by looking at the context of BIS use within the voluntary use environment

User Resistance to the Implementation of Information Systems: A Psychological Contract Breach Perspective

The current study proposes an exploratory model to examine the antecedents of user resistance in information system (IS) implementations from the perspective of a psychological contract breach (PCB). The purpose of this study is to investigate PCBs between users and IS providers (ISPs), which extends IS theory in two ways: by elaborating on why some users psychologically resist the IS, and by more deeply exploring the social-psychological determinants of user resistance. Our results show that user-perceived PCBs can lead to user resistance and feelings of violation via reneging, high user vigilance, and incongruence between the users’ and the ISP’s understandings of the obligations. Our results also show that users’ interpretations—i.e., causal attribution of the breach and perceived fairness after the breach—moderate the relationship between user-perceived PCBs and feelings of violation. We discuss our findings and their academic and practical implications, and suggest directions for future research

WHY DO PEOPLE REJECT TECHNOLOGIES – A LITERATURE-BASED DISCUSSION OF THE PHENOMENA “RESISTANCE TO CHANGE” IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND MANAGERIAL PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH

In 2008, Ford et al. (2008) pointed out for management research, that “it is time to expand our understanding of resistance to change”. Since 1947, when Kurt Lewin discuss the first time the concept of resistance to change within his field theory, managerial psychology researchers have extended, criticized, modified and re-conceptualized the understanding of employees‟ responses to change initiatives. Also information systems research has identified resistance to change as major reason for IT project failures. However, as our analysis in this paper shows, there are a lot of opportunities for IS research to research resistance to IT-induced change. Using a literature review the paper discusses different concepts of resistance to change from managerial psychology and IS research in order to provide a better understanding of resistance to IT-induced change. The paper highlights implications from managerial psychology research to update the understanding of resistance to change in information systems research

Multidimensional Knowledge Flow Dynamics in Context

Knowledge is a sustainable advantage and knowledge assets can increase value with use. A snowball effect of knowledge advantage advocates effective knowledge management and fosters its continual growth as it flows. Knowledge, however, flows unevenly throughout an organization and the problem is that the fundamental dynamics of these flows are still not well characterized in theoretical and computational models. This study built on existing work—knowledge-flow theory, need knowledge generation, and the critical success factors for enterprise resource planning implementation—to examine the multidimensional knowledge-flow phenomenon in context, and used the case study methodology for knowledge-flow theory building. The research question was two-pronged: how can need knowledge and its flow across stakeholders within an organization be explained using a multidimensional knowledge-flow model and how can Nissen’s five-dimensional knowledge-flow model be validated using a real-life immersion case? The researcher relied on three sources of evidence for this case study: project-related documentation, archival records, and interviews. Data triangulation yielded three results components: (a) a chronology of key events that obstructed knowledge flow, (b) a logic model depicting themes that contributed to knowledge-flow obstruction, and (c) explanations of the knowledge-flow patterns. This case study suggested enabling need knowledge determinants and obstructing conditions are in play that determine the path of need knowledge flow. These two research artifacts should be considered together to provide a fresh research avenue towards better understanding of knowledge flow dynamics

Exploring enterprise social systems & organisational change: Implementation in a digital age

Information systems (IS), since their introduction into organisations over five decades ago, have promised to streamline business processes, integrate disparate systems, increase innovation, and offer greater competitive advantage. Over the past decades, the evolution of Information Systems have mirrored many of the challenges experienced by our work organisations. For example, throughout the 1980s a primary concern for many organisations was the attainment of competitive advantage within their respective industries (Porter, 1980). The IS field responded by developing systems that sought to provide management with timely information to assist in making better strategic decisions, e.g. executive support and decision support systems. In the 1990s, organisations began to look inwards searching for key strategic resources that would yield unique core competencies (Barney, 1991). Similarly, the IS field responded by building highly integrative enterprise-wide systems (Davenport, 1998), which would unite every pillar of the organisation with a single transparent view of firm competencies and business processes, viz Enterprise Systems. The first decade of the 21st century continued in this vein, with organisations extending their global reach through new and innovative business models (Johnson et al, 2008). Similarly, IS have responded with the emergence of digital technologies and their continued growth as transformative organisational systems enabling boundary-less corporate structures, 24/7 real-time customer-centric communication, collaborative supply chain environments, and virtual IS infrastructures delivered via cloud computing

NOT JUST ANOTHER TYPE OF RESISTANCE – TOWARDS A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF SUPPORTIVE NON-USE

Research on information system (IS) adoption and resistance has accumulated substantial theoretical and managerial knowledge. Surprisingly, the paradox that end users support and at the same time resist use of an IS has received relatively little attention. The investigation of this puzzle, however, is important to complement our understanding of resistant behaviours and consequently to strengthen the explanatory power of extant theoretical constructs on IS resistance. We investigate an IS project within the healthcare sector in the UK in which end-users, who were heavily involved during the de-sign, implementation and roll out, expressed their support for the system, while simultaneously showing resistance. To examine this behaviour in detail, we applied Q methodology. As a result, we identified three different groups: (1) The convinced connector, waiting for collaborators. (2) The savvy explorer, sceptical about the tools’ benefits. (3) The ambivalent follower, overwhelmed by complexity. While the behaviour is similar across all three groups, the reasons for not using the system differ significantly. Based on these groups, as our main contribution, we explain the paradox of supportive non-use. We further add a fine grained understanding of supportive non-use to the existing types of IS resistance

Research on information systems failures and successes: Status update and future directions

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10796-014-9500-yInformation systems success and failure are among the most prominent streams in IS research. Explanations of why some IS fulfill their expectations, whereas others fail, are complex and multi-factorial. Despite the efforts to understand the underlying factors, the IS failure rate remains stubbornly high. A Panel session was held at the IFIP Working Group 8.6 conference in Bangalore in 2013 which forms the subject of this Special Issue. Its aim was to reflect on the need for new perspectives and research directions, to provide insights and further guidance for managers on factors enabling IS success and avoiding IS failure. Several key issues emerged, such as the need to study problems from multiple perspectives, to move beyond narrow considerations of the IT artifact, and to venture into underexplored organizational contexts, such as the public sector. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Revealing the Voices of Resistance: A Q-Methodology Study on Platform Workers in the Gig Economy

While algorithmic management generates several benefits for platform companies, it emanates several issues for workers, which they perceive as threats triggering different forms of resistance behaviors. Although recent studies identify these issues and resistance behaviors, the perspective of the actual subject of resistance, i.e., the gig worker or group of gig workers with resistant behaviors, is yet not well understood. By adopting a Q-methodology mixed-method approach this study tries to identify resistance types of gig workers, explore their characteristics and similarities, and therefore give a voice to the subject of resistance. Based on 21 threats and 14 resistance behaviors, identified in a literature review, we develop a Q-set containing 35 statements, which will be used for data collection with the goal of revealing the richness of the resistance phenomenon in the context of work in the gig economy

Organizational Learning and ERP Post-implementation Phase: A Situated Learning Perspective

In this paper, we interpret the sequence of events and issues that led to the ERP failure during the post-implementation phase in a large IT service management company in Australia. For this purpose, we used theoretical frameworks from the domain of organizational and situated learning. We found that several factors created severe complexities and failure at the post-implementation phase of the ERP: 1) staff’s lack of understanding of the SAP-ERP, 2 the interconnection of ERP with business processes, 3) a disconnection between the training that the vendor provided and actual work practices, and 4) management’s and staff’s misunderstanding about the adequacy of the training and staff engagement. Our findings suggest that the theoretical space that situated learning theories provide can enhance our understanding about post-implementation issues