| The ability to adapt to constantly changing environmental pressures can be the difference between business survival and extinction. Information Systems (IS) organizations the internal departments or divisions responsible for guiding the development of information systems technology for the parent organization---often play a crucial role in making change happen. IS managers have primarily focused on the technology change itself. However, IS managers must deal not only with technical issues, but they must also deal with the human issues of managing change. Therefore, it is important to understand the determinants of attitude for the overall organizational change that is associated with a new information system or technology.; The purpose of this study has been to identify the determinants of attitude toward not just a new information systems implementation, but to the overall organizational change that goes along with it. A survey methodology was used to investigate a proposed model of influence. The questions on the survey are from instruments validated in previous empirical studies, or derived from previous research.; Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the results. The hypothesized model was largely supported by this analysis, although there were some changes suggested by the results. The initial independent personality variable, general attitude toward change, was revised to focus only on risks associated with change. In addition, the model was revised to include influences discovered through the statistical analysis, but not originally hypothesized.; The overall results indicate that attitude toward a new systems implementation is influenced by several independent variables, referred to as Transitional Support, Organizational Change attitudes, Knowledge Gap, and attitude toward Risks Associated with Change. These variables also influence users, perceptions of the Usefulness and Ease of Use of the system, which in turn influences the attitude toward the new system implementation.; The study provides a robust set of scales which are designed to be easily generalizable to other settings, and which can be used in assessing end-user acceptance and possibly the need for change management interventions. |
