ENHANCING FACTORS.
Organizational context and the implementation of IT programmes:
the moderating role of programme implementability enhancing factors
Wouter Zijlstra
S1729063
January 2015
Master Thesis MSc Programme of Change Management
Faculty of Economics and Business
University of Groningen
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3 ABSTRACT
The major objective of this study was to investigate the role of organizational context and implementability enhancing factors on the implementation of IT programmes. First, the
relationship between three context variables and implementation success was investigated. These context antecedents were: flexibility in policies and procedures, perceived organizational support and trust in senior organizational leaders. Although the antecedents used in this study were grounded in current literature, it was found that generally these antecedents do not significantly relate to implementation success.
Second, this study found evidence that implementability enhancing factors activate the effect that antecedents have on implementation success. Implementability enhancing factors, such as participation in the development of the change and attention to organizational politics during the development of the programme moderated the relationship between antecedents and implementation success. This study shines new light on the relationship between organizational context and implementation success of an IT programme.
Quantitative survey research was done among 100 Dutch employees. This research shows that attention to organisational politics and participative development are important
implementability enhancing factors. When organisations use these two enhancing factors correctly, change management programs will result in higher system usage and end-user satisfaction. Research limitations and recommendations for future research are provided.
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5 Organizational context and the implementation of IT programmes:
the moderating role of programme implementability enhancing factors
Organizations are more and more switching from ‘cost reduction’ strategies towards strategies of competing through innovation (Hailey, 2001). This constant drive for innovation leads to an increasing importance of change management. Currently, there is a limited amount of practical knowledge regarding change management found in many organizations (Bamford & Forrester, 2003; Whelan-Berry & Sommerville, 2010). The main aim of this investigation is to assess the relationship between organizational context (antecedents) and the implementation succes of a IT change program.
Information technology (IT) projects lead to organizational changes that influence the organizational form and function (Volkoff, Strong, & Elmes, 2007). Technological change has to be properly managed for it to be beneficial to a company. However, due to a lack of or poor change management, IT projects were found to lead to high follow-up costs, lost investments and loss in productivity (Jørgensen, Owen, & Neus, 2009). The lack of managerial attention to the human aspects of change is leading to low acceptance for change programs and even employee dissatisfaction (James, 2005; Trader-Leigh, 2002). To make matters worse, only 30% of change programs seem to succeed (Kotter, 1995; Keller & Aiken, 2007).
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6 their workplace environment. The last is trust in senior organizational leaders, which is the trust that employees have in their organizational leaders to make the right decisions. These
antecedents will be discussed in depth in the theoretical model.
In this thesis, the subject of the change management process is an IT implementation at a Dutch corporation. When researching the implementation process of IT software, the end result is the success of the implementation. In this thesis I focus on two aspects of implementation succes: usage and satisfaction. User satisfaction is defined as the extent to which users believe the system meets their needs (Ives, Olson, & Baroudi, 1983). System usage is defined as the amount of time per day spent utilizing the system (Lee, Kim, & Lee, 1995). These two combined give a reliable estimation of the implementation succes.
To better understand the implementation of HR programmes, Emans et. al (2011) developed a model of implementablity levers. Implementability was defined as the way that those who are supposed to use it feel inclined and enabled to do so. The aim of this research is to provide a practical framework based on specific process levers of the framework of
implementability by Emans et.al (2011). This framework is important because it is one of the few research directions that tries to answer the question of ‘how’ to make change successful.
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7 about creating the right atmosphere, conditions and politics (Hayes, 2002). For this reason, this research focuses on implementation promoting factors that enhance the success rate of change programs.
In this thesis, two of these implementation enhancing factors are taken from the framework of Emans et.al (2011). The first is participation in the development of the change program. This factor promotes implementation success by involving employees in the
development of the change program. The second implementation promoting factor is attention to organizational politics. When change programs are developed, attention to organizational politics is important to ensure that the program takes the organisation’s social structures into account.
Supportive staffs departments, such IT departments are often tasked to develop new software or procedures. After this development, the responsibility to implement this software is put onto the managers, which often have to act as change managers. This is called the process of devolution (Cunningham & Hyman, 1999). I argue that change management should focus on both the change recipients and change agents. To better understand the process of IT
implementations, this thesis researches antecedents that create an environment for successful change and implementation promoting factors that enhance this effect. This leads to the following research question: How do antecedents and implementability enhancing factors influence implementation success?
The societal importance of successful change is increasingly important for the growth and survival of an organization. The concepts of antecedents and implementability enhancing factors can help influence the change management processes and make it more effective.
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8 enhancing factors to increase the effectiveness of change management programs. Next to that, the antecedents indicated by Rafferty & Simons (2005) are replicated in a corporate setting, parts of the implementability framework by Emans et.al (2009) are tested on a large sample and implementation success measures are validated on a specific IT change program.
The first section of this paper will examine the theoretical model. After that, the method section, results section and discussion section will answer the research question. Finally, the conclusion gives a brief summary and critique of the findings.
Theoretical model
In the following, the theoretical background, the variables and the corresponding hypotheses will be discussed. A graphical representation of the model can be found in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Research model
Antecedents and implementation success
The dependent variable of this research is implementation success. Implementation success can be measured with beliefs, attitudes and behaviour (Haines & Petit, 1997). I have operationalized these elements by measuring both satisfaction and system usage. User satisfaction is defined as the extent to which users believe the system meets their needs (Ives, Olson, & Baroudi, 1983). System usage is defined as the amount of time per day spent utilizing the system (Lee, Kim, & Lee, 1995).
Antecedents:
Flexibility in policies and procedures Perceived organizational support Trust in senior organizational leaders
Implementation success: System usage End-user Computing Satisfaction Implementability enhancing factors:
Participation in the development of the change program
FACTORS.
9 In a recent study by Raffery & Simons (2005), nine different antecedents for
implementation succes were tested. The goal of this research was to find out if there are specific contextual factors that are required for an organization to be able to change succesfully. Three out of these antecedents were found to be influental to change succes. These were: flexibility in policies and procedures, perceived organizational support and trust in senior organizational leaders. These variables were found to lead to positive beliefs, attitudes and intentions of employees, which lead to successful change (Rafferty & Simons, 2005). This research will use the antecedents that were found to be most beneficial to implementation succes.
The first antecedent that is used in this thesis is flexibility in policies and procedures. This is defined as an organizations ability to implement policy and structural change rapidly (Rush, Schoel, & Barnard, 1995). Flexibility results in a workforce that believes that the organization is flexible enough to change quickly when necessary. For the implementation of new IT, the belief that an organisation is not able to change quickly can be rather damaging. An example of this is the implementation of the Electronic Patient File system. Employees were afraid that the organisation could not adapt quick enough to the new system and that it would not be beneficial to current working routines, power, and culture. The employees resisted the change and in the end the project failed (Boonstra, Boddy, & Bell, 2008). I propose that flexibility in policies and procedures is positively related to both factors of implementation success and come to the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1a: Flexibility in policies and procedures is positively related to System usage
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10 The second antecedent is Perceived Organizational Support (POS) which is an
individual’s believe that their organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being (Eisenberger et. al, 1986). Strong evidence was found for a positive effect of POS on implementation success. Employees who perceive the organisation as supportive are more committed to the organisation and it’s change management programs (Rhoades, Eisenberger, & Armeli, 2001). Because of the positive effect of POS I propose that POS is positively related to both factors of implementation success and come to the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1c: Perceived organizational support is positively related to System usage
Hypothesis 1d: Perceived organizational support is positively related to End-user Computing Satisfaction
As a third antecedent this thesis uses trust in senior organizational leaders. Trust in senior organizational ensures that employees trust that the organizational leaders can successfully achieve change (Cook et. al, 1981). Again the case from Boonstra, Boddy, and Bell (2008) is a good example. The implementation of the EPD change program did not turn out as expected. Instead of adjusting the change program, the whole implementation was cancelled because the employees did not trust that the senior organizational leaders would be able to successfully implement the software. Trust in senior organizational leaders is an important factor for
implementation success and it was found to have a positive influence on implementation success (Rafferty & Simons, 2005). I therefor come to the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1e: Trust in senior organizational leaders is positively related to System usage
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11 Implementability enhancing factors
The effectiveness of a change program is not only determined by the content or context of the program, but also the implementability of this content. The term implementability refers to the way that those who are supposed to use it feel inclined and enabled to do so (Emans et. al, 2011). For example, the content of an IT implementation could be a new communication tool that helps employees find empty working spaces. The program has adequate content and clear benefits to the employees. However, employees might not feel inclined to use it because the organisational culture or procedures weren’t taken into account when the change program was developed.
The subject of the previously mentioned research by Emans et. al (2011) was the implementability of HR-tools. Emans explored the effectiveness of HRM by looking at three types of implementation promoting factors: content, process and context related factors. This three-fold distinction is based on work by Pettigrew (1985). The content related factors have to do with what is being changed, for example a new software implementation. The context related factors are specific to the organization where the change is taking place. This research will focus on examining the process related factors, or the how of change. The aim of this thesis is to provide a practical framework and process related factors are most manageable. The innovation in this thesis lies in exploring the process related factors of the framework by Emans et. al (2011).
Emans et. al (2011) have specified two process factors. The first factor is participative programme development. This is defined as the degree to which those who have to enact a programme were enabled to contribute to its development. This factor is based on the
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12 should empower employees to act, communicate openly, facilitate in ownership of the change process and its outcomes and that a culture of collaboration and continuous learning should be promoted (Hurley, Churh, Burke & Van Eynde, 1992; Burnes, 2004).
When end-users are able to contribute to the development of a change program, the chances for succesfull organizational change improve. Participation in the development of a change program has been known to improve the effectiveness of change management programs (Kotter, 1995; Freeman, 2010). Literature regaring organizational change so far has concluded that employee involvement is crucial to succesfull change (Burnes, 2004). This mechanism therefor is a very suitable to apply to IT change implementations.
When employees are able to participate in the development of the program, this increases the implementability of the program and therefor leads to implementation succes. I therefor propose the following moderator hypotheses:
Hypothesis 2a: Participation in the development of a change program by end-users moderates the relationship between Antecedents and Implementation success such that this relationship becomes more positive when Participation in the development of a change program by end-users is high rather than low.
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13 implementations, Murray (1989) stated that: “the use of new technology is subject to processes of organizational decision-making and implementation characterized by often conflicting managerial objectives, rationalities and strategies developed through the mobilization of organizational power” (p. 285). Power and politics are an important factor to take into account when developing an IT change program.
In this thesis, I propose that when change programs attend to organizational politics, this enhances the implementability of the change program. For example, when an organization is very flexible and employees have high trust in organizational leaders, change management processes can still fail. When there is no regard for organizational politics in the implementation of a new IT, antecedents do not always lead to implementation success. However, attention to organisational politics can explain this relationship. I therefor propose the moderation hypothesis for the second implementability enhancing factor:
Hypothesis 2b: Attention to organizational politics moderates the relationship between Antecedents and Implementation success such that this relationship becomes more positive when Attention to organizational politics is high rather than low.
The relationship between antecedents and implementation success is widely researched (Armenakis et. al, 1993; Rafferty & Simons, 2005). However, as presented before, change programs often fail. To better understand this relationship I proposed two implementability enhancing factors that moderate the relationship between between antecedents and
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14 measures for implementation succes (System usage and End-user Computing Satisfaction). To improve the readability of this section, these hypotheses were combined.
This section has reviewed the literature and proposed the hypotheses of this research. In the following chapter, the method and measures are discussed.
Method
Participants and Procedure
In the previous chapter, the literature and research question have been presented. In this part, the research method and the organisation at which the research took place will be presented.
First, the organization and the change program of this research will be discussed. The subject of this study is an IT Implementation at a large telecom corporation in the Netherlands, which will be referred to as Telecorp. Telecorp is well known for their on-going interest in new technology adaptation (NTA) and is continuously developing their procedures to better suit their employees. NTA is used to effectively utilize their new software and is considered to be crucial to the company’s success.
In 2009, the development of the implementation program for Microsoft Lync (a
communication tool) was started. This tool was implemented throughout the company. In 2010, the implementation of the communication tool started. The software was distributed across the infrastructure and there was a special team that guided the implementation. This team organised workshops, information evenings and informed the employees of the process. The
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15 To answer the research question, the change implementation of Lync at Telecorp is taken as the subject of this research. To answer how antecedents and implementability enhancing factors influence implementation success, a survey was created and distributed across 3000 employees at Telecorp. The survey was available in Dutch. The measures were originally developed in English and were translated to Dutch. These translations were verified by a translator and colleague and can be found in Appendix 2. The survey was distributed digitally. Every few days, a blog was posted on the intranet reminding the employees the benefits of answering the survey. After two weeks, the business unit directors sent a direct request to the employees by e-mail for their cooperation with the survey.
The survey lead to 100 respondents in the data set. 81% of all respondents were male (N = 81) and 19% of all respondents were female (N = 19). The average age was 41 years. The education of the respondents was diverse. 44% had a ‘Applied sciences’ education and 33% had a “University or higher” education. The average organizational tenure was 11 years, while job tenure was on average 5 years.
Measures
Flexibility in policies and procedures was measured by means of the four items
developed by Rush, Schoel, & Barnard (1995). An example of this scale was “Our policies and procedures allow us to take on new challenges effectively.” (α =.82).
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16 Trust in senior organizational leaders was assessed with the items from Cook,
Hepworth, Wall, & Warr (1981). An example of this scale was “Management can be trusted to make sensible decisions for the firm's future.” (α = .89).
User satisfaction was measured with the End-user Computing Satisfaction Instrument by Doll & Torkzadeh (1988). This scale measures user satisfaction of employees with the new IT implementation. An example for this scale was “Are you satisified with the accuracy of the system?” (α = .97).
System usage was measured with a single item: “In a typical week, how often do you use the system?” as per recommendation of the implementation succes study by Jones, Jimmieson and Griffiths (2005).
Attention to organizational politics was measured with four items of the
Implementability Levers questionnaire developed by Emans et. al (2011). An example for this scale was “When the programme was introduced, support from important and powerful parties in the organization was made sure.” (α = .97).
Participation in the development of the program was measured with six items of the Implementability Levers questionnaire developed by Emans et. al (2011). An example of this scale was “Those employees who were going to play a role in the execution of the programme were involved in its development.” (α = .97).
Control variables were age, gender, education and organizational tenure. As the company had a large population of men and older employees these control variables were included as a precaucion. Control variables were measured by single items such as “What is your highest achieved education?” and “What is your age?”.
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17 A reliability analysis was done to improve the reliability of the scales. The Flexibility in Policies and Procedures scale had two items removed and the End-user Computing Satisfaction
Instrument had one item regarding content clarity removed. A complete list of the items used in this thesis can be found in Appendix 1 and 2. This list also includes the items that were removed.
Principal component analysis showed that the measures for attention to organizational politics and participation in the development of the change should be combined to form one factor as the initial eigen values for one component resulted in 80.7% explained variance. The component matrix with varimax rotation showed only one component. As both of these factors are implementability enhancing factors, this will be the name for the newly created variable. The results for this analysis can be found in Appendix 3.
Results
Descriptive statistics
The descriptive statistics together with the inter-variable correlations can be found in Table 1. As shown, there is a significant positive correlation between Flexibility in Policies and Procedures and Implementability enhancing factors (r=.23, p < .05). This relationship was also found between Implementability enhancing factors and Perceived Organizational Support (r=.23, p < .05). Understandably, there were significant correlations between the antecedents. Flexibility in Policies and Procedures had a significant positive correlation with Perceived Organizational Support (r=.29, p < .01) and Trust in Senior Organizational Leaders (r=.38, p < .01).
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18 (r=.25, p < .05). No control variables correlated with the dependent variables in this study, they were therefor not incorporated in further analyses.
Table 1
Descriptive statistics & Correlations for the model variables
Variables N Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. Flexibility in Policies and Procedures 100 3.48 1.13 2. Perceived Organizational Support 100 4.50 1.20 .29** 3. Trust in Senior Organizational Leaders 100 4.59 1.16 .38** .72** 4. Implementability enhancing factors 100 3.69 .93 .23* .23* .19 5. End-user Computing Satisfaction 100 3.36 .82 .05 .25* .20* .32** 6. System usage 100 3.79 1.23 .04 .09 .08 .25* .74**
Note. *Significant at the 0.05 level. **Significant at the 0.01 level.
Hypotheses testing
Regression analysis was used to test Hypothesis 1. Results are shown in table 2. Table 2
Results of regression analyses for testing hypothesis 1. Dependent variable: System Usage
Predictor B SE t p Adj. R Model F Model p
Model -.03 .40 .81
Hypothesis 1a
Flexibility in Policies and Procedures .05 .13 .38 .70 Hypothesis 1c
Perceived Organizational Support .07 .15 .48 .64 Hypothesis 1e
Trust in Senior Organizational Leaders .03 .16 .21 .83
Dependent variable: End-user Computing Satisfaction
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19
Model .03 1.77 .14
Hypothesis 1b
Flexibility in Policies and Procedures -.01 .10 -.06 .95 Hypothesis 1d
Perceived Organizational Support .18 .12 1.52 .13 Hypothesis 1f
Trust in Senior Organizational Leaders .06 .13 .42 .67
Hypothesis 1a predicted that Flexibility in Policies and Procedures is positively related to System usage. The regression analysis showed that this relationship was not significant (B=.05, p=.70). Hypothesis 1b predicted that Flexibility in Policies and Procedures is positively related to End-user Computing Satisfaction. The relationship was found to be not significant (B=-.01, p=.95)
Hypothesis 1c predicted that Perceived organizational support is positively related to System usage. The regression analysis did not support this prediction as the relationship was not significant (B=.07, p=.64). Hypothesis 1d predicted that Perceived organizational support is positively related to End-user Computing Satisfaction. The regression analysis showed that this relationship was not significant (B=.18, p=.13)
Hypothesis 1e predicted that Trust in senior organizational leaders is positively related to System usage. No support was found for this prediction as this relationship was not significant (B=.03, p=.83). Hypothesis 1f predicted that Trust in senior organizational leaders is positively related to End-user Computing Satisfaction. The regression analysis showed that this relationship was not significant (B=.06, p=.67)
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20 analyses will be discussed. There are three antecedents, one moderating factor and two
dependent variables.
First, the moderating effect of Implementability enhancing factors on the relationship between Flexibility in Policies and Procedures and System usage was tested. Results of the moderation analysis showed no interaction between Implementability enhancing factors and Flexibility and Policies and Procedures (B=.05, p=.60). Implementability enhancing factors therefor did not moderate this relationship. However, Implementability enhancing factors did have a significant positive main-effect on System Usage (B=.26, p=.01). The statistics of this analysis can be found in Table 3. In this table, the PROCESS output for the moderation analysis is shown. The tables show the simple slopes (B-values) for the moderator effects and the upper and lower bound confidence intervals (LCI & UCI).
Table 3
Results of moderation analyses for testing hypothesis 2
Predictor Dependent variable: System Usage
B SE t p R2 Model F Model p
Model
Hypothesis 2
.06 2.20 .09
Constant -.01 .10 -.11 .91
Implementability enhancing factors .26 .10 2.53 .01 Flexibility in Policies and Procedures -.02 .10 -.21 .84 Implementability enhancing factors
x Flexibility in Policies and Procedures
.05 .09 .52 .60 Moderator effect of Implementability enhancing
factors B
p 95%LCI 95%UCI
Low (M - 1SD) -.07 .63 -.36 .22
Middle -.02 .84 -.22 .18
High (M + 1 SD) .03 .83 -.23 .29
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21 moderation analysis showed that Implementability enhancing factors significantly moderated the relationship between Perceived Organisational Support and System Usage (B=.24, p=.02). Further analysis indicated that Perceived Organisational Support had a significant positive effect on System Usage for high values of the moderator (M +1 SD =.30, 95% CI = .01 to .59) and not for low- (M -1 SD =-.18, 95% CI = -.44 to .08) or middle- (M =.06, 95% CI =-.14 to .26) values of the moderator. In this second moderator analysis, Implementability enhancing factors also had a significant direct effect on System Usage (B=.31, p=.00). The results of this analysis can be found in Table 4.
Table 4
Results of moderation analyses for testing hypothesis 2
Predictor Dependent variable: System Usage
B SE t p R2 Model F Model p
Model
Hypothesis 2
.12 4.27 .00
Constant -.06 .09 -.56 .57
Implementability enhancing factors .31 .10 3.01 .00 Perceived Organisational Support .06 .09 .61 .54 Implementability enhancing factors
x Perceived Organisational Support
.24 .09 2.45 .02 Moderator effect of Implementability enhancing
factors B
p 95%LCI 95%UCI
Low (M - 1SD) -.18 .17 -.44 .08
Middle .06 .54 -.14 .26
High (M + 1 SD) .30 .04 .01 .59
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22 not significant. Implementability enhancing factors remained significantly related to System Usage (B=.26, p=.01).
Table 5
Results of moderation analyses for testing hypothesis 2
Predictor Dependent variable: System Usage
B SE t p R2 Model F Model p
Model
Hypothesis 2
.08 2.65 .05
Constant -.02 .09 -.19 .84
Implementability enhancing factors .26 .10 2.56 .01 Trust in Senior Organizational Leaders .07 .10 .68 .49 Implementability enhancing factors
x Trust in Senior Organizational Leaders
.10 .09 1.19 .23 Moderator effect of Implementability enhancing
factors B
p 95%LCI 95%UCI
Low (M - 1SD) -.03 .77 -.26 .19
Middle .07 .49 -.14 .28
High (M + 1 SD) .17 .25 -.13 .48
Having tested the three antecedents on the dependent variable System Usage, the analysis is repeated for the dependent variable End-user Computing Satisfaction. As a fourth analysis, the moderating effect of Implementability enhancing factors on Flexibility in Policies and
Procedures is tested. The results for this analysis can be found in Table 6. There was a significant moderator effect of Implementability enhancing factors on the relationship between Flexibility in Policies and Procedures and End-user Computing Satisfaction (B=.18, p=.04). However, the simple slopes that were tested for low, middle and high values of the moderator were not significant as shown in Table 6.
Table 6
Results of moderation analyses for testing hypothesis 2
Predictor Dependent variable: End-user Computing Satisfaction
B SE t p R2 Model F Model p
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23 Hypothesis 2
Constant -.04 .09 -.44 .66
Implementability enhancing factors .36 .09 3.72 .00 Flexibility in Policies and Procedures -.05 .09 -.47 .64 Implementability enhancing factors
x Flexibility in Policies and Procedures
.18 .09 2.09 .04 Moderator effect of Implementability enhancing
factors B
p 95%LCI 95%UCI
Low (M - 1SD) -.23 .09 -.51 .04
Middle -.04 .64 -.24 .15
High (M + 1 SD) .14 .26 -.11 .38
As a fifth moderator analysis, the effect of Implementability enhancing factors on the relationship between Perceived Organisational Support and End-user Computing Satisfaction was tested. There was a strong moderation effect of Implementability enhancing factors on the relationship between Perceived Organisational Support and End-user Computing Satisfaction (B=.32, p=.00). Further analysis showed that Perceived Organisational Support had a significant positive effect on End-user Computing Satisfaction for both middle (M =.21, 95% CI = .03 to .39) and high values of the moderator (M +1 SD =.54, 95% CI = .27 to .81). Also, both Implementability enhancing factors (B=.37, p=.00) and Perceived Organisational Support (B=.21, p=.02) had a direct significant relationship with the dependent variable End-user Computing Satisfaction. The results of this analysis can be found in Table 7.
Table 7
Results of moderation analyses for testing hypothesis 2
Predictor Dependent variable: End-user Computing Satisfaction
B SE t p R2 Model F Model p
Model
Hypothesis 2
.23 9.74 .00
Constant -.07 .09 -.80 .42
Implementability enhancing factors .37 .09 3.88 .00 Perceived Organisational Support .21 .09 2.32 .02 Implementability enhancing factors
x Perceived Organisational Support
.32 .09 3.48 .00
FACTORS. 24 factors B Low (M - 1SD) -.10 .39 -.35 .14 Middle .21 .02 .03 .39 High (M + 1 SD) .54 .00 .27 .81
As a sixth and final moderator analysis, the effect of Implementability enhancing factors on the relationship between Trust in Senior Organizational Leaders and End-user Computing
Satisfaction was tested. The results showed a marginally significant interaction effect between Implementability enhancing factors and Trust in Senior Organizational Leaders (B=.16, p=.06). Further analysis indicated that Trust in Senior Organizational Leaders had a significant positive effect on End-user Computing Satisfaction for both middle (M =.20, 95% CI = .00 to .39) and high values of the moderator (M +1 SD =.36, 95% CI = .07 to .65). The results of this analysis can be found in Table 8.
Table 8
Results of moderation analyses for testing hypothesis 2
Predictor Dependent variable: End-user Computing Satisfaction
B SE t p R2 Model F Model p
Model
Hypothesis 2
.16 5.98 .00
Constant -.03 .09 -.32 .84
Implementability enhancing factors .32 .09 3.34 .00 Trust in Senior Organizational Leaders .20 .09 2.02 .05 Implementability enhancing factors
x Trust in Senior Organizational Leaders
.16 .08 1.93 .06
Moderator effect of Implementability enhancing factors B
p 95%LCI 95%UCI
Low (M - 1SD) .04 .72 -.18 .25
Middle .20 .05 .00 .39
High (M + 1 SD) .36 .02 .07 .65
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25 Discussion
The main goal of this research was to investigate the relationship that antecedents and implementation enhancing factors have on implementation success. The results of the correlation analysis showed that perceived organizational support and trust in senior
organizational leaders had the strongest relation to end-user computing satisfaction, and that flexibility in policies and procedures had no significant relation to either of the two dependent variables.
After analysing the correlations, the direct relationship that antecedents have on implementation success was tested. This resulted in non-significant results for the regression analyses. The antecedents did not significantly relate to both measures of implementation success.
During the moderator analysis, the antecedents were tested individually. The moderator analysis was done for both dependent variables: System Usage and End-user Computing Satisfaction. In these analyses, main effects were found for both perceived organisational support and trust in senior organizational leaders. However, these effects were only found with regards to the dependent variable End-user Computing Satisfaction and not for System Usage.
In every of the moderator analyses there was a significant main effect of implementability enhancing factors on both the dependent variables. Implementability enhancing factors showed in all the analyses to be positively related to both measures of implementation success.
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26 System Usage was used. Possible limitations for the dependent variable System usage will be discussed later.
In the moderator analysis, there was one significant moderator effect in the relationship with System Usage. Implementability enhancing factors moderated the relationship between Perceived Organisational Support and System usage. High values of implementability enhancing factors were found to lead to a positive relationship between organisational support and system usage.
In the moderator analysis for the dependent variable End-user Computing Satisfaction there were three moderator effects to be found. First, there was a significant moderator effect of implementability enhancing factors on the relationship between flexibility in policies and procedures. The simple slopes indicated that this moderator effect is only apparent for very high values of the moderator (M >1 SD).
Second, there was a significant moderating effect of implementability enhancing factors on the relationship between perceived organisational support and end-user computing
satisfaction. The results showed that high values of implementability enhancing factors were found to lead to a positive relationship between perceived organisational support and end-user computing satisfaction.
Last, there was a significant moderator effect of implementability enhancing factors on the relationship between trust in senior organizational leaders and end-user computing
satisfaction. For middle and high values of the moderator the relationship between the
dependent and independent variable became positive. Next, the theoretical implications of these results will be discussed.
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27 In this thesis, three antecedents were explored: flexibility in policies and procedures, perceived organizational support and trust in senior organizational leaders. These three antecedents explained only a very limited amount of variance of implementation success.
Even though the antecedents explained only a very limited amount of variance of implementation success, the relationship between perceived organisational support and
implementation success was activated when implementability enhancing factors were added as a moderator. This indicated that perceived organisational support did have a positive relationship on implementation success but that this was conditional on implementability enhancing factors. The moderator effect of implementability enhancing factors also gave conditions for the positive effect that trust in senior organisational leaders had on implementation success. This study has demonstrated that implementability enhancing factors are critical for antecedents to have a beneficial effect on implementation success.
The results of this research show that implementability enhancing factors give
manageable factors to positively influence implementation success. Factor analysis was done on the scales and the PCA showed that there was no clear distinction between the factors
participation in the development of the change and attention to organizational politics. The scale was combined to one new variable: Implementability enhancing factors. The definition of
FACTORS.
28 factors, and thus the regard for the employees perceptions and politics, of a change program is high, this activates the relationship between antecedents and implementation succes such that this relationship becomes positive. Even though there was no clear disctinction to be made in the two factors of implementability enhancing factors, implementability enhancing factors of a change program is a very relevant variable. The factor analysis done in this thesis simplifies the process factors of the model of Emans et. al (2011) and provides quantitative support. In the following, limitations and suggestions for future research will be discussed.
Limitations and suggestions for future research
Several limitations to this thesis need to be acknowledged. The most important limitation of this research is the sample. This research was done at a single company. Although the company had many different subdivisions that took part in the research there was still an availability bias. Also, the response rate was low as only 100 employees out of 3000 took part in the survey. This was primarily because of the large amount of other surveys being distributed in the company. The male-female distribution was also rather tilted as 81% of the employees that participated in the research was male. These limitations do not disqualify the results of this study, but limit the generalizability. Future research should test the model for implementability on a larger and more divers sample.
FACTORS.
29 40%) than this study. With regards to flexibility in policies and procedures, it was reasonable to expect that in a company with over 3000 employees the employees would not find the
organisation very flexible. Also perceived organisational support and trust in senior
organisational leaders might have different effects at large corporations than it does at small companies. Notwithstanding these limitations, the results of this study did show that the positive effect of these antecedents on implementation success can be activated when implementability enhancing factors are considered.
One of the limitations of the dependent variable system usage was that it was measured by a single item. Future research should use a scale for system usage that is more specified to the implementation program being researched. This might explain why the End-user Computing Satisfaction Instrument turned out to be a better measure, as it had more items. One weakness of the End-user Computing Satisfaction Instrument was that employees found the questions rather unclear and vague. Even though the employees complained about the clarity of some of the questions in this scale, the reliability analysis did not show any items that had to be removed.
Future research should continue the development of implementability enhancing factors. This thesis shows a clear benefit of implementability enhancing factors on implementation success. A study with a larger set of antecedents and more specified measures for
implementation success would be very interesting and have empirical merit.
Practical implications
FACTORS.
30 the process that makes a big difference. The implementability enhancing factors provide a
framework for manageable factors that help the implementation process. These factors support the change management process and should be further developed.
This research provides support for the benefits of attention to organisational politics in the development of a change management program. Organisations should develop change programs that take the power and politics of the organisation into account. Attention to
organisational politics will increase both usage and satisfaction. Also, organisations need to give employees the opportunity to participate in the development of the change management program as this increases the chance for implementation success. Organisations can use the evidence in this thesis to merit the bottom-up development of change programs.
FACTORS.
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FACTORS.
36 Appendix 1. Original scales
End-user Computing Satisfaction Instrument
Does the system provide the precise information you need? Removed Does the information content meet your needs?
Does the system provide reports that seem to be just about exactly what you need? Does the system provide sufficient information?
Is the system accurate?
Are you satisified with the accuracy of the system? Do you think the output is presented in a useful format? Is the information clear?
Is the system user friendly? Is the system easy to use?
Do you get the information you need in time? Does the system provide up-to-date information? Implementability levers
When the programme was introduced, support of the main stakeholders was made sure.
During the development phase of the programme, support from important and powerfull parties in the organization was made sure.
When the programme was introduced, support from important and powerfull parties in the organisation was made sure.
During the development phase of the programme, those employees who were going to be affected by it were informed about what was going to happen.
Those employees who were going to play a role in the execution of the programme were involved in its development.
During the development phase of the programme, those employees who were going to be affected by it had a decisive voice.
During the development phase of the programme, those managers who were going to play a role in it were informed about what was going to happen.
Those managers who were going to play a role in the execution of the programme were involved in its development.
During the development phase of the programme, those managers who were going to play a role in it were informed about what was going to happen
Flexibility in policies and procedures
This organisation is structured to allow managers to make needed changes quickly Managers have the ability to adjust policies to achieve the desired outcomes
The formal structure of the organization has too much red tape Removed Getting anything changed in this organization is a long time consuming process Removed Managers actively change policies and procedures to achieve desired outcomes
Our policies and procedures allow us to take on new challenges effectively Perceived organizational support
FACTORS.
37 My organization strongly considers my goals and values.
My organization shows little concern for me. My organization cares about my opinions.
My organization is willing to help me if I need a special favour. Trust in senior organizational leaders
Management at my firm is sincere in its attempt to meet workers' point of view I feel quite confident that the firm will always try to treat me fairly
Our management would be quite prepared to gain advantage by deceiving the workers
Our firm has a poor future unless it can attract better managers
Management can be trusted to make sensible decisions for the firm's future Management at work seems to do an efficient job
System Usage
In a typical week, how many times do you utilize the system? Control Variables
What is your gender? What year were you born?
What kind of contract do you have? What is your highest achieved education?
Appendix 2. Translated scales End-user Computing Satisfaction Instrument
Levert Lync de informatie die je nodig hebt? Removed
Voldoet de inhoudelijke informatie aan je eisen? Geeft Lync precies de rapportages die je nodig hebt? Geeft Lync je voldoende informatie?
Is Lync nauwkeurig?
Ben je tevreden over de nauwkeurigheid van Lync?
Wordt de informatie op een handige manier gepresenteerd? Vind je de informatie duidelijk?
Vind je Lync gebruiksvriendelijk? Vind je Lync makkelijk te gebruiken? Geeft Lync tijdig de informatie? Geeft Lync actuele informatie? Implementability levers
Tijdens de ontwikkelingfase van het programma, werd gezorgd voor steun van de voornaamste belanghebbenden in de organisatie (bijvoorbeeld senior management). Bij de invoering van het programma werd gezorgd voor steun van de voornaamste belanghebbenden in de organisatie.
FACTORS.
38 Bij de invoering van het programma is gezorgd voor steun door belangrijke partijen
binnen de organisatie.
Werknemers die met het programma te maken zouden krijgen, zijn bij de ontwikkeling van het programma op de hoogte gehouden van de plannen. Werknemers die met het programma te maken zouden krijgen, werden bij de ontwikkeling ervan betrokken.
Bij de ontwikkeling van het programma hadden werknemers die te maken krijgen met het programma, een doorslaggevende inspraak.
Leidinggevenden die met het programma te maken zouden krijgen, werden gedurende de ontwikkeling van het programma op de hoogte gehouden.
Leidinggevenden die een rol speelden bij de uitvoering van het programma werden bij de ontwikkeling ervan betrokken.
Flexibility in policies and procedures
De organisatie is zo ingericht dat managers noodzakelijke veranderingen snel kunnen doorvoeren.
Managers kunnen het beleid aanpassen om de gewenste resultaten te behalen.
Onze organisatie heeft te veel administratieve rompslomp. Removed Iets veranderen in deze organisatie is een lang en tijdrovend proces. Removed Managers veranderen actief het beleid en procedures om de gewenste resultaten te
behalen.
Ons beleid en onze procedures zorgen ervoor dat we nieuwe uitdagingen effectief kunnen oppakken.
Perceived organizational support
Mijn organisatie geeft echt om mijn welzijn.
Mijn organisatie houdt sterk rekening met mijn doelen en waarden. Mijn organisatie houdt weinig rekening met mij.
Mijn organisatie vindt mijn mening belangrijk.
Mijn organisatie is bereid mij te helpen als ik een gunst nodig heb. Trust in senior organizational leaders
Het management in onze organisatie probeert oprecht rekening te houden met het standpunt van medewerkers.
Ik ben er van overtuigd dat onze organisatie te allen tijde probeert mij eerlijk te behandelen.
Ons management zou bereid zijn om voordeel te behalen door oneerlijk om te gaan met werknemers.
De toekomst van onze organisatie komt in gevaar als we geen betere managers kunnen aantrekken.
Ik vertrouw er op dat het management verstandige beslissingen neemt over de toekomst van onze organisatie.
Het management lijkt efficiënt hun werk te doen. System Usage
Hoeveel gebruik maakt je van Lync (in een gemiddelde week)? Control Variables
FACTORS.
39 Wat is je leeftijd?
FACTORS.
40 Appendix 3. Principal Component Analysis for Implementability
Component Initial Eigenvalues
Total % of Variance Cumulative %
