Start Date
16-8-2018 12:00 AM
Description
Contemporary organizations utilize ICT to standardize and optimize workflows, and the associated workflow changes often disrupt how users perform their jobs. These disruptions could be very rewarding if user agreement about the workflow changes is optimized. Often, such process re-engineering is initiated by top management. Mostly, there is lack of user participation in the new workflow design and evaluation as a result. Thus, changes may or may not reflect users’ expectations which could affect usage optimization. For better optimization, it is important that the cognitive dynamics of these workflow changes in the organization are understood from the users’ perspective. Several unique expectation variables have been theorized (ie. Perceived usability, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and performance expectations) to this effect with different contexts of application. In this study, we seek to understand how users’ changing expectations from the technology-induced changing workflow agreements (our key unique expectation variable) impact their tasks’ solution satisfaction in a mandatory context. \ \ In a mandatory setting where users are obliged to continue using the technology irrespective of the changes to it, their solution satisfaction is essential for optimizing the usage extent. This usage extent is closely related to task performance and organizational productivity. Using solution satisfaction as the dependent variable within the lens of Expectation-conformation theory, we seek to investigate the following research questions: \ 1. How does individual cognitive agreement of old workflows influence their expectations about newly introduced technology feature? \ 2. How do changes in workflow agreements over time (temporal differences) contribute to users satisfaction in their continual and effective usage of the technology to complete mandatory tasks? \ 3. How do these workflow changes compare with perceived performance changes in predicting users’ solution satisfaction? \ \ We collected data based on users’ perceived agreement about their old workflows as well as new workflows induced by changes in the technology feature changes (Change from campus solutions A to campus solutions B). In theory, this study posits that workflow agreement leads to the formation of users’ solution satisfaction, whereas job performance may enhance it through the feedback route as the main focus in extant studies. From an expectation-confirmation perspective, this study theorizes the two routes of influences and compares their effects on solution satisfaction. As aforementioned, a seemingly slight increment in workflow engagement makes a difference in business operations. Therefore, in the context of workflow improvement and mandatory settings, user satisfaction with a new solution is a more meaningful predictor than the behavioral intention on whether to adopt a new system or not. \ \ Our comparative model had two mediated routes between user expectation and solution satisfaction: One through workflow agreement and the other through perceived performance. The model was tested with survey observations collected from 118 participants in an organization that recently underwent a major transition in electronic workflow. In the overall model testing, the paths in perceived performance route were significant, but those in the workflow agreement route were not. When the perceived performance route was suppressed, however, the workflow agreement route became significant. Each of the routes, when tested separately, predicted the same R-squared value(0.45) in solution satisfaction. The preliminary results underscore the relative importance of user workflow agreement as compared to perceived performance measures on the system. \
Recommended Citation
Treku, Daniel N. and Sun, Jun, "User-Centered Changes in Workflow Agreement and Solution Satisfaction: An Expectation-Confirmation Perspective" (2018). AMCIS 2018 Proceedings. 106.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2018/TREOsPDS/Presentations/106
User-Centered Changes in Workflow Agreement and Solution Satisfaction: An Expectation-Confirmation Perspective
Contemporary organizations utilize ICT to standardize and optimize workflows, and the associated workflow changes often disrupt how users perform their jobs. These disruptions could be very rewarding if user agreement about the workflow changes is optimized. Often, such process re-engineering is initiated by top management. Mostly, there is lack of user participation in the new workflow design and evaluation as a result. Thus, changes may or may not reflect users’ expectations which could affect usage optimization. For better optimization, it is important that the cognitive dynamics of these workflow changes in the organization are understood from the users’ perspective. Several unique expectation variables have been theorized (ie. Perceived usability, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and performance expectations) to this effect with different contexts of application. In this study, we seek to understand how users’ changing expectations from the technology-induced changing workflow agreements (our key unique expectation variable) impact their tasks’ solution satisfaction in a mandatory context. \ \ In a mandatory setting where users are obliged to continue using the technology irrespective of the changes to it, their solution satisfaction is essential for optimizing the usage extent. This usage extent is closely related to task performance and organizational productivity. Using solution satisfaction as the dependent variable within the lens of Expectation-conformation theory, we seek to investigate the following research questions: \ 1. How does individual cognitive agreement of old workflows influence their expectations about newly introduced technology feature? \ 2. How do changes in workflow agreements over time (temporal differences) contribute to users satisfaction in their continual and effective usage of the technology to complete mandatory tasks? \ 3. How do these workflow changes compare with perceived performance changes in predicting users’ solution satisfaction? \ \ We collected data based on users’ perceived agreement about their old workflows as well as new workflows induced by changes in the technology feature changes (Change from campus solutions A to campus solutions B). In theory, this study posits that workflow agreement leads to the formation of users’ solution satisfaction, whereas job performance may enhance it through the feedback route as the main focus in extant studies. From an expectation-confirmation perspective, this study theorizes the two routes of influences and compares their effects on solution satisfaction. As aforementioned, a seemingly slight increment in workflow engagement makes a difference in business operations. Therefore, in the context of workflow improvement and mandatory settings, user satisfaction with a new solution is a more meaningful predictor than the behavioral intention on whether to adopt a new system or not. \ \ Our comparative model had two mediated routes between user expectation and solution satisfaction: One through workflow agreement and the other through perceived performance. The model was tested with survey observations collected from 118 participants in an organization that recently underwent a major transition in electronic workflow. In the overall model testing, the paths in perceived performance route were significant, but those in the workflow agreement route were not. When the perceived performance route was suppressed, however, the workflow agreement route became significant. Each of the routes, when tested separately, predicted the same R-squared value(0.45) in solution satisfaction. The preliminary results underscore the relative importance of user workflow agreement as compared to perceived performance measures on the system. \