Abstract

In this paper, we argue that the “PsychophysiologicalPerspective” has a valuable contribution to make to our understanding of the impact of new technology on individual and organizational performance. In essence, the psychophysiological perspective views the human agent as a “multi-component, multi-modal system” made up of interacting physiological, behavioral and experiential subsystems (Gale and Christie 1987). By triangulating these three dimensions, psychophysiology has the potential to yield a much richer account of the dynamics of user interaction with complex technologies than conventional approaches. Although psycho-physiological investigations are something of a rarity, there are encouraging studies in the literature where psychophysiology has provided critical diagnostic insights: for example, in situations where paradoxical decrements in perform,a.nce have ensued following the introduction of new systems (e.g., Brown, Wastell and Copeman 1982; Wastell 1990).

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