| The effects of a technological change can have a significant impact on the individuals in an organization. Since this impact can have adverse affects on the organization as a whole, it is important to mitigate the effects of a technological change throughout the entire technology project life-cycle. Mitigation techniques are intended to attenuate, or even eliminate, negative responses (individual or organizational) to technological change. That is, they lessen the severity of spontaneous or emergent negative behaviors that may be experienced during a technology change. Mitigation techniques include methods or processes for managing change as part of the overall technology implementation. Many of these techniques already exist. This research has categorized existing techniques as leadership support, communication, training and education, and end-user involvement.;This research identified groups undergoing a technological change and examined the benefit, if any, to organizations proactively applying mitigation techniques rather than passively or reactively applying them. Results of this research indicate that some mitigation techniques are indeed more effective than others, depending on the situation. Furthermore, organizations can derive additional benefits simply by the way the mitigation techniques are applied. To quantitatively evaluate benefits, data acquired was used to link the mitigation techniques and their application to learning rates. For example, organizations experience higher learning rates, which translate directly to faster rates of adoption, for a new technology when individuals are proactively engaged particularly through the mitigation technique of end user involvement. |
