| Use of information technology has long been associated with changing the way that people live, work, and play. Organizations often invest in information systems as part of a strategy to empower their employees, customers or other business partners to transform behavior. However, the way that information systems are used in practice often falls short of the potential envisioned by their designers. This phenomenon is not new. Over the past several decades, researchers have studied the adoption and use of information systems to increase the success of information systems. This stream of research continues to be important since organizations expend vast amounts of resources to design, develop, implement and modify information systems with mixed results.; In this thesis, I draw upon empowerment theory to add to the stream of literature on post adoption system use. The empowerment literature identifies access to information as an integral action that management may take to support their employee's ability to take increased responsibility. In this tradition, I investigate the effect that access to functionality built into an information system that specifically simplifies access to actionable knowledge and formative feedback has on the empowerment of the system's users. Since empowerment involves the shift of power between parties in dyadic relationships, I investigate how access to the same information affects the empowerment of both parties in the relationship.; Previous research that has investigated access to information as a determinant of empowerment has not been concerned with differences between actionable knowledge and formative feedback. This study's findings help disaggregate the influence of actionable knowledge as distinct from formative feedback. The study also provides further insight into the role that expectations of changes in behavior enabled by providing access to information through an information system has on the empowerment of both parties in dyadic relationships. The study findings help explain that although the design of the system may achieve its goal of increasing the perception of access to information, the level of empowerment may decrease for the principal seeking to empower the agent. This counter intuitive finding lays the foundation for future research using the lens of empowerment to investigate the role of information access through advanced technologies. |
