| The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a positive relationship between end users, the organization's culture, and an information system development project. A positive relationship might be manifest in a higher utilization and value of the new information system. The research design, using portraiture, the method of inquiry developed by Lawrence-Lightfoot and Hoffman Davis in 1997, employed a convenience sample of end users and project members from a single information system development project in a government bureaucracy. This research used the questionnaire from Communication as a Dimension of User Participation developed by Barki and Hartwick in 1997 to verify four dimensions of end user participation. The questionnaire was augmented with three additional questions concerning the perceived utility and value of the new information system. Of the project members who were asked to participate in the study, 100% of the members responded. In addition to the written questionnaire, the researcher interviewed seven members of the project team.;The responses to the written questionnaire, the interviews, and the researcher's observations came together in a portrait of the project. The results indicated that most of the project members did not reply to the written questions in the same manner that previous end users answered. The variation was explored in the interviews and the ensuing conversations suggesting that the end users in this study were actual end users and not managers who might have responsibility for budget and cost, estimating project benefits, making decisions concerning hardware and software, and arranging formal work agreements between departments. The Barki and Hartwick (1997) questionnaire contained questions around those particular tasks. For future research, more specific definitions of end users are needed to accurately compare results. More research on organizational culture, specifically reward systems, and information system development is needed to give more credence to these findings. |
