Tor Guimaraes

Testing the determinants of microcomputer usage via a structural equation model

The objective of this study was to develop and test an integrated conceptual model of microcomputer usage. This study used the technology acceptance model and sought to extend it by investigating the impact of the external factors (i.e., individual, organizational, and system characteristics) on the user acceptance of microcomputer technology. The paper reports the results of a field study investigating the determinants of microcomputer usage. The analyses of the measurement model confirm the existence of two distinct constructs of (1) beliefs-perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use; (2) organizational support-management support and end-user computing (EUC) support; and (3) microcomputer usage-perceived usage and variety of use. The tested conceptual model confirms the effects of individual, organizational, and system characteristics on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. The model also confirms the influence of perceived ease of use on perceived usefulness, and the effects of perceived usefulness on perceived usage and variety of use. Results confirm several previously proposed notions, including the effects of individual, organizational, and system characteristics on ease of use and usefulness; the influence of ease of use on usefulness, and the effects of perceived usefulness on usage and variety of use. The results demonstrate the utility of investigating factors contributing to microcomputer usage and the external factors affecting endogenous variables such as system usefulness. The importance of EUC support and management support is corroborated, as well as the need for designing mechanisms such as training programs and newsletters to improve user perceptions of microcomputers.

The relationship between user participation and user satisfaction: an investigation of four contingency factors

User participation has been widely touted by the MIS community as a means to improve user satisfaction with systems development. This claim, however, has not been consistently substantiated in the empirical literature. In seeking to explain such equivocal results, the effects of four contingency factors - task complexity, system complexity, user influence, and user-developer communication - on the relationship between user participation and user satisfaction were investigated. As suggested in the literature, this research tests hypotheses that these specific contingency factors should aid in identifying situations where user participation would have a strong relationship with satisfaction.Analysis of 151 independent system development projects in eight different organizations indicated that user participation has a direct relationship with user satisfaction. In addition, the four contingency factors were found to play key roles on this relationship. Task complexity and system complexity proved to be pure motivators. That is, the strength of the participation-satisfaction relationship depended on the level of these factors. In projects where there was a high level of task complexity or system complexity, the relationship between user participation and user satisfaction was signifiantly stronger than in projects where task complexity or system complexity was low. User influence and user-developer communication were shown to be independent predictors of user satisfaction. That is, user influence or user-developer communication was positively related to user satisfaction regardless of the level of participation.The results help explain the relationship between user participation and user satisfaction by suggesting the nature of the relationship under different sets of conditions. The implications are relevant to system developers and to academicians seeking to explain how, when, why, and where user participation is needed.

Exploring the factors associated with expert systems success

As the widespread use and company dependency on expert systems (ES) incease, so does the need to assess their value and to ensure implementation success. This study identifies and empirically tests eight major variables proposed in the literature as determinants of ES success, in this case measured in terms of user satisfactions. IBMs Corporate Manufacturing Expert Systems Project Center collected information from 69 project managers to support the study. The results clearly support the hypothesized relationships and suggest the need for ES project managers to pay special attention to these determinants of ES implementation success. ES success is directily related to the quality of developers and the ES shells used, end-user characteristcs, and degree of user involvement in ES development, as each has been defined in this study. For exploratory purposes, the component items for each of these major variables were correlated with the components of user satisfaction. Based on the results, several recommendations are proposed for ES project managers to enhance the likelihood of project success, including: adding problem difficulty as a criteriaon for ES application selection; increasing ES developer training to improve people skills; having the ability to model and use a systems approach in solving business problems; sharping end-user attitudes and expectations regarding ES; improving the selction of domain experts; more thoroughly understanding the ES impact on end-user jobs; restricting the acquistion of ES shells based on a rpopsoed set of criteria; and ensuring a proper match of ES development techniques and tools to the business problem at hand.

Exploring differences in employee turnover intentions and its determinants among telecommuters and non-telecommuters

As telecommuting programs proliferate, a better understanding of the relationship between telecommuting and career success outcomes is required to provide human resources managers, telecommuters, and information systems managers with information to decide the future of telecommuting arrangements. This paper addresses this need by exploring whether turnover intentions and their determinants differ for telecommuters and non-telecommuters. Four hundred salespeople from one large company in the southeastern United States were asked to participate in the study. The organization entry point was the marketing director. One hundred and four telecommuting employees and one hundred and twenty-one regular employees responded, with a total of 225 usable questionnaires. Telecommuters seemed to face less role conflict and role ambiguity and tended to be happier with their supervisors and more committed to their organizations. They also showed lower satisfaction with peers and with promotion. Based on the results, recommendations are proposed for managing the implementation of telecommuting programs and their impact on the rest of the organizations employee population.

Successful strategies for user participation in systems development

Past MIS research has indicated a mixed relationship between user participation and user satisfaction with system development projects, suggesting that user participation is not equally effective in all situations. This has led researchers to investigate the contexts within which user participation can be used to improve user satisfaction. This study builds on this past body of research by examining the relationship between specific user participative behaviors and user satisfaction in different contextual situations in order to identify the most successful participative behaviors. To do this, data were collected from 151 independent system development projects in eight different organizations. The context of development was described by two factors--task complexity and system complexity. As suggested in the literature, the combination of these two contextual factors determine the need for user participation. The relationship between specific participative behaviors and user satisfaction was then examined where the need for participation was high and those results were compared with situations with a lower need for participation. Not all participative behaviors were equally effective in all situations. Depending on the level of task complexity and system complexity, some user participative behaviors resulted in improved user satisfaction, while others had no relationship with satisfaction. The results add to earlier studies by identifying those specific user participative behaviors most beneficial under different contexts. The implications apply to both practitioners involved in the development of systems and academicians seeking to explain where and how user participation should be used. Strategies based on the results are suggested for the most appropriate involvement for users during system development.

Antecedents and consequences of job satisfaction among information center employees

The determinants and consequences of job satisfaction for Information Center (IC) personnel have received very little attention, despite their importance to the successful implementation and use of computer technology in organizations. This study explores the antecedents and consequences of job satisfaction for IC employees. Five components of job satisfaction--work, supervision, coworkers, pay, and promotion--were examined besides overall job satisfaction. Two stress variables--role ambiguity and role conflict--were considered as antecedents to satisfaction. Organizational commitment and intention to leave the organization were considered as outcomes from job satisfaction. The study also assessed the importance of personal characteristics as moderating variables to the relationship between the two role stressors and job satisfaction. Results show that role ambiguity was the most dysfunctional variable for IC employees in relation to job satisfaction. Organizational tenure was found to moderate the relationships between role stressors and overall job satisfaction, and some of its components. In addition, the relationship between role ambiguity and some components of job satisfaction were found to be education- and age-dependent. Results also confirmed the importance of job satisfaction in predicting organizational commitment and intention to leave. Implications for IC management and future research are discussed.

Determinants of Turnover Intentions: Comparing IC and IS Personnel

Personnel is one of the most important resources for the performance of Information Systems IS and Information Center IC organizations. The scarcity of new employees, the difficulty of training and a high turnover make personnel management in these areas a difficult problem. For IS employees, the relationships between job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intention to leave the organization have been established. Because the size of the investment and the number of organizations establishing IC organizations are growing dramatically, it has become important to understand the determinants of turnover intentions for IC as well as IS employees. Are IC employees similar to their IS counterparts? Or, is their nature basically different, as some studies have suggested? This study examines the differences between IS and IC employees in terms of demographic characteristics, participation on boundary spanning activities, role stressors, overall job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intentions. The differences are found to be significant and call for special attention from IC managers to manage more properly their personnel resources. IC employees were found to participate more extensively in boundary spanning activities, experienced more role stressors role ambiguity and role conflict, were less satisfied with their jobs and less committed to their organization. The findings also demonstrate the importance of organizational commitment as an intervening variable in models of turnover. While overall job satisfaction had both direct and indirect effects on turnover intentions among IC employees, for IS personnel it had only indirect effects through organizational commitment. The effects of role stressors and boundary spanning activities were found to be indirect via overall job satisfaction and organizational commitment for both IC and IS employees. The implications of these findings for practicing managers and for future research are discussed.

Integrating artificial neural networks with rule-based expert systems

Abstract The Rule-Based (RB) and the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approaches to expert systems development have each demonstrated some specific advantages and disadvantages. These two approaches can be integrated to exploit the advantages and minimize the disadvantages of each method used alone. An RB/ANN integrated approach is proposed to facilitate the development of an expert system which provides a “high-performance” knowledge-based network, an explanation facility, and an input/output facility. In this case study an expert system designed to assist managers in forecasting the performance of stock prices is developed to demonstrate the advantages of this integrated approach and how it can enhance support for managerial decision making.

Exploring the Importance of Business Clockspeed as a Moderator for Determinants of Supplier Network Performance

As the importance of supplier networks becomes increasingly recognized as a vital factor to company performance, researchers and practitioners alike are focusing their attention on this subject. The studys main objective is to test the specific hypotheses that effective use of Information Technology (IT) and the depth of company relationships with suppliers are directly related to Supplier Network (SN) performance, and that industry clockspeed moderates these relationships. A convenience sample of 135 manufacturing organizations was used to empirically test these hypotheses. Our results indicate that clockspeed does moderate the relationship between IT use effectiveness and supplier network performance. The same is true in the case of supplier relations depth, and hence, managers are encouraged to pay attention to the items comprising network performance as a determinant of supplier network performance.

TQM’s impact on employee attitudes

Successful implementation of total quality management depends heavily on changes in employee attitudes and activities. But what is the impact of these changes on the employee, especially on employee turnover intentions? Describes empirical testing of several hypotheses which compare employee turnover intentions before and after the implementation of a TQM programme. Studies the differences revealed from a one‐company field test using 113 employees before TQM and a subset of 73 employees after TQM implementation. Results indicate significant improvements in role ambiguity, job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment, and employee turnover intentions, but no significant changes in role conflict, task characteristics, and career satisfaction.