Emotions and IT
The role of emotions in the post-implementation phase of an
information technology
University of Groningen Faculty of Economics and Business
MSc. Business Administration (Change Management)
January 2018
Henk Jan Siersema - S3001520 Grote Leliestraat 99 9712 SR Groningen h.j.o.siersema@student.rug.nl
Abstract
Many organizations are changing due to advancements in technology and digital tools. However, many organizations struggle with underperformance that is caused by suboptimal use of the system. This study investigates the role of emotions in the post-implementation phase of an IT project since the use of IT is a form of behaviour and emotions influence the behaviour of people. After conducting sixteen interviews and closely observing the organization over a four month period, a model was constructed that shows the different emotional cues. More specifically, emotional cues were identified within the IT system and were found to be related to the performance, usability and functionalities of the system. These cues were also present in individual processes, such as changing tasks and the expectations of an individual. Lastly, cues were found to be present in the decision-making process related to updating the IT systems. These cues themselves were influenced in two ways. Firstly they are influenced by the behaviour of an individual via emotion-focused coping or problem-focused coping. Secondly, it changed due to the organizational culture, in the case of cues related to the individual and the decision-making process, and updates, in the case of cues related to the IT systems. Moreover, cues were also differently interpreted by the different groups of users. Consequently, one group of users was becoming more positive about the IT system and engaged in improving the system, while the other group was negative and was only changing the perception of the cues instead of participating in improving the IT. In all, this research shows that cues are changed in various ways and these changes have different consequences.
Keywords: appraisal theory, constructivism, emotions, IT use, IT, post-implementation phase, usage behaviour
Table of contents
Abstract ... 2 1. Introduction ... 5 2. Theoretical Foundation ... 7 2.1 Defining Emotions ... 7 2.2 Appraisal Theory ... 8 2.3 Affective antecedent ... 8 2.4 Affective responses ... 10 2.5 Contradicting cues ... 11 2.6 Behaviour ... 12 3. Methodology ... 13 3.1 Case description ... 13 3.2 Data collection ... 15 3.3 Data analysis... 16 4. Findings ... 17 4.1 First impression ... 184.2 Cues based upon the individual situation ... 19
4.2.1. Changing task(s) ... 19
4.2.2. Expectation(s) ... 20
4.3 Cues originating from the IT system ... 20
4.3.1 Performance... 20
4.3.2 Functionalities ... 21
4.3.3 Usability ... 22
4.4 Decision-making process... 23
4.5 Mechanisms that changed cues ... 25
4.5.1 External factors ... 25
4.5.2 Individual behaviour ... 26
4.6 Towards a conceptual model ... 29
4.7 How emotional cues influence use ... 32
6. Conclusion ... 36
6.1 Theoretical implications ... 36
6.2 Practical implications ... 36
6.3 Limitations and future research ... 36
References ... 38
Appendices ... 43
Appendix I – Overview of data... 43
Appendix II – Online questionnaire ... 46
Appendix III – Personal characteristics interviewees ... 49
Appendix IV – Interviewguide ... 50
Appendix V - Codebook ... 52
1. Introduction
Digital tools and technologies are changing the world around us, and the way business is being conducted today. A recent study under 941 executives in different sectors revealed that more than one-third of the respondents feared complete digital disruption in their industry within the next five years. In the same study, the results showed that 69% of the respondents think that changing the business model is necessary to respond to the changing environment (Wade, 2015). Therefore, many organizations exploit and integrate more and more technologies into their company and this has an impact on products, business processes, sales channels and supply chains (Matt, Hess & Benlian, 2015).
Since the impact of IT (information technology) projects is profound, most research focuses on the implementation of these large projects and try to identify critical factors that contribute to a successful implementation (e.g. Ehie & Madsen, 2005; Markus, 2004; Scott & Vessey, 2002) or on the initial use of an IT project (e.g. Davis, 1989; Delone & McLean, 2003). However, as argued by Orlikowski (2000), IT on its own will not decrease or increase the productivity of workers performance. In fact, the daily use of IT is the most important determining factor (Bagayogo, Lapointe & Basselier, 2014; Orlikowski, 2000). According to Jasperson, Carter & Zmud (2005), a major problem for companies is that they spend millions of dollars on IT solutions that underperform because the systems are underutilized. This underutilization is caused by suboptimal use of the system, such as low levels of feature use, narrow feature breadths and rarely initiate technology or task related extensions of the available features.
It is henceforth apparent that technology must be researched from more perspectives than just the material. Materiality exists independently of people but the affordances and constraints of the materiality do not (Leonardi, 2012). Leonardi (2012) argues that there is a recursive shaping of abstract social constructs (such as roles, hierarchy, relations) and technological infrastructure. Thus technology’s materiality and people’s localized responses are continually changing and reacting to each other’s changes. The consequence of this viewpoint is that behaviour defines the way a technological artefact is being used to support various tasks and/or task appointments (Leonardi, 2012).
From this it is inferred that there is a practical reason (underutilization of IT) as well as an abstract reason (relation between technical and social constructs) to shift the focus in research from IT adoption to the use of IT. However, this field is ‘‘extremely under researched’’ and the focus must not be on just using the system, but on ‘‘effectively using the system’’ (Burton-Jones & Grange, 2013). Moreover, effective use is part of efficient use and the latter contributes to a better utilization of the IT system. By zooming in on the user interaction (action and consequences), effective use can be achieved by undertaking several actions (learning and adaption), related to goals.
and users related factors play a role. However, both in researches behaviour that can contribute to better usage of a system is described and the respective authors argue that emotions may influence this behaviour.
The actions and decision-making and thought processes of humans are influenced by our emotions (Gratch & Marsella, 2004). Hence, the use of IT can also be driven by perceptions and associated emotions (Zuboff, 1988). Since there is a recursive shaping of abstract social constructs and technological infrastructure, and because emotions influence the behaviour of individuals, it is more than likely that emotions plays an ongoing role in the use of IT (Leonardi, 2012). In addition, Thompson (2012: 189) claimed that the role of emotions must be acknowledged in IT research because, as he puts it, there are ‘‘distinct dangers for IS [IT] research in assuming human beings to be more rational agents than in fact they are […]’’.
Research found that emotions were by interaction of different affective characteristics (hereinafter called: cues) (Stein, Newell, Wagner & Galliers, 2015). These cues were based on an IT stimulus event. Three of these cues, IT instrumentality, symbolism and identity work, play an important role in the response to an IT stimulus event. The other, less salient cues are interactions with others and involvement in an IT related change. Some of these cues summon uniform emotional responses, be they positive or negative, when encountered, whereas others causes an ambivalent or mixed emotional response when encountered, which eventually leads to different coping behaviours. However, it has not become quite clear how much influence the different cues play when ambivalent feelings are formed. Stein et al. (2015) state that role conflicts, contradictory goals, and multifaceted objects may play a role in causing ambivalent emotions. The ambivalent feelings of an individuals can also be influenced by a member of their group through a process called ‘‘emotional contagion’’ (Ashforth, Rogers, Pratt & Pradies, 2014). This means that contextual factors such as group norms, peer reactions, top management and organizational culture can influence the emotions of an individual (Beaudry & Pinsonneault, 2010).
question is: What are (and how do) emotional cues (that) influence the use of an IT system in the post-implementation period?
In the next section the concepts of emotions, the development of emotions and use of IT are discussed. This is followed by the methodological section which contains a case description, the method of data gathering and a description of the process of data analysis and after which the findings are presented. Finally, the results are discussed and are linked to the above included literature research and is also provided with theoretical and managerial implications as well as suggestions for future research.
2. Theoretical Foundation
2.1 Defining EmotionsEmotions are complicated and there still are many questions about their essential nature (Lawler, 1999). This makes it difficult to provide an adequate definition (see: Elfenbein, 2007). Bagozzi, Gopinath and Nyer (1999) describe emotions as a mental state of readiness for action that promotes behavioural activation. Emotions also help individuals prioritize and organize behaviours so that there is optimal adjustment to the demands of the environment. Lazarus (2000, p. 230) has put forth a more extensive definition. For him emotions are:
‘‘An organized psychophysical reaction to ongoing relationships with the environment, most often but not always, interpersonal or social. This reaction consists of responses from three levels of analysis, namely introspective response of subjective experience (often referred as an affect), overt actions or impulses to act and physiological changes that make the emotions organismic’’.
Consequentially, it can be concluded that emotions are formed as a reaction to triggers in our environment and that emotions influence the behaviour of people.
Another complicating characteristic of emotions is the fundamental disjunction between internal experience of emotions and external expression of emotion. The relationship between the two is problematic and the latter cannot be reduced to the simple and mere manifestation of the internal state (Bericat, 2016). Next to the emotion-expressive function that external manifestations have, the emotional expression also has a social communicative function (Bericat, 2016).
Another difficulty in researching emotions is the lack of clarity about the associated concepts (e.g. mood, emotions, temperament). While moods and emotions are sometimes used interchangeably, moods are low in intensity and exist without a specific reason and emotions have a relationship with the external environment (Robbins & Judge, 2008). Moreover, although mood and temperament are also concepts that reside within a person, they arise and change without a particular stimulus or are not caused by stimuli at all (Zhang, 2013). Therefore, the decision was made to not make these concepts a part of the focus in this research.
2.2 Appraisal Theory
For this current research, appraisal theory was chosen as the central approach to defining emotions and emotionality. As becomes apparent above, there are several theories that explain the causes of emotions. These focus on different aspects of emotionality such as (1) causal events, as in stimulus-response mechanism, (2) psychological processes, such as patterns of activity in the brain, (3) facial expressions or behaviour such as fight or flight, or (4) motivational processes such as a hungry feeling (Scherer, Schorr & Johnstone, 2001).
However, as is concluded in the earlier section, emotions have been shown to be formed as a reaction to triggers in our environment. In essence, appraisal theory claims that emotions are the result of an individual’s evaluation of certain events and situations (Scherer et al., 2001; Bericat. 2016). The appraisal theory is useful for this current research based on its explanations of how emotions are formed. Since there is no clear definition of “emotions”, there still were various difficulties in incorporating the appraisal theory and emotions in existing IT models (Zhang, 2013; Stein et al., 2015). To bridge this gap, the theory-as-is is modified by the inclusion of a contribution is made by Zhang (2013). Based on this modified appraisal theory, a distinction can be made between concepts that reside within a stimulus (affective antecedents) and reside between a person and a stimulus (affective responses).
2.3 Affective antecedent
The affective antecedent is also comprised of two constituent parts. It is firstly formed by the stimulus event. This is a psychological concept and it can be real, imagined, fictitious, remembered, in the future or anticipated. It is not necessarily an event that occurs but can also be a stable, salient feature of the environment (Elfenbein, 2007). Thus, the introduction or use of an IT system can be considered a stimulus event.
can also be a cognitive process strategy of the individual. The cues can stem directly from the IT system or can be related to the context of the IT use. A stimulus event and its context may both bring any number of cues or none (Zhang, 2013).
To date research has found five specific cues of an IT event: IT instrumentality, IT symbolism, identity work, interactions with others and involvement in the organizational change (Stein et al., 2015). The IT instrumentality cues are functional and design features that are perceived as helping or hindering the completion of a task. IT symbolism are characteristics of IT that the user associates with broader ideas and that take on several connotations. This can be for example standardization or a feeling of surveillance that is caused by the IT. This can be in conflict with the feeling of autonomy an individual has. Identity of work are characteristics that a user perceives as something that communicates something about the status and performance of the job. The interaction with others is defined as the way a user interacts with others about the IT system. The way things are said is also important. Lastly, the involvement in the change is also a cue. This means that the level of user involvement in the IT project must be taken into account. In practice, these cues may interact with each other.
Cues that are specifically related to technological artefacts can trigger emotions. These were based on three characteristics: instrumentally, symbolically, and aesthetically. Instrumental cues brought about by artefacts are due to the inference of an artefact as either helping or hindering in the completion of a task, symbolical cues are to do with an individual associating the artefact with broader ideas and aesthetic cues are to do with the design of the system (Rafaeli & Vilnai-Yavetz, 2004). Additionally, findings of Stein et al. (2015) confirmed the presence of the cues that were related to IT artefact instrumentality and IT artefact symbolism but found little evidence that supported the presence of the IT artefact’s aesthetic cue. Other research showed that the visual appeal of a system can trigger emotions. Indeed, there were found to be various relationships between design elements of a webpage, such as shape and colour, and emotions (Kim, Lee & Choi, 2003). The visual appeal of a website was also found to have a positive impact on perceived enjoyment (Parboteeah, Valacich & Wells, 2009). However, the studies of Parbooteeah et al. (2009) and Kim et al. (2003) have various limitations such as cultural preferences and the focus on design or the relation between emotion and a particular shopping goal.
a moral value or enhancement of one’s ego identity. The third and last aspect of the interpretation of cues by the individual are secondary appraisals. These also consist of three dimensions: blame or credit, coping potential and future expectations. Blame or credit depends on the presence of accountability or responsibility for the harm or benefits. It is also concerned with the question of perceived control of a situation. Hence, accountability or responsibility can be directed to oneself or to another person. Coping potential has to do with whether and in what way the relationship between an individual and the environment can be influenced. Lastly, future expectations are concerned with the expectation of things evolving in a favourable way or not.
In an IT context, the primary appraisal can be influenced by social and institutional factors. In this case the perceived usefulness and ease of use is influenced (Lewis, Agarwal & Sambamurty, 2003; Taylor & Todd, 1995). The secondary appraisal will be done based on the control over three aspects: work, self and technology (Shaw & Barrett-Power, 1997). Control over work is concerned with the amount of autonomy an individual has. Control over the self means an individual can adapt her- or himself. Finally, control over IT means that an individual has control over the functionalities of IT or its use (Beaudry & Pinsonneault, 2005).
Concluding, the cues of an IT event can be appraised based on the primary (opportunity or threat) and secondary appraisal (degree of control). Research found that during the IT implementation, primary (perceived opportunity or threat) and the secondary (perceived controllability) appraisal correlate in relation to several cues (Bala & Venkatesh, 2016). Psychological engagements (user involvement and management support) had an important moderating role and especially user participation had a strong effect on perceived opportunity for those employees who had a low user involvement. As suggested, management support helps to overcome the IT related change and helps to focus them on behavioural efforts such as user participation and training. It also showed that user participation and training effectiveness were the key predictors of the cognitive appraisals (i.e. perceived opportunity and perceived controllability). It also shows that the two appraisals work in a ‘‘tandem’’ and have a direct effect on the adaption process of using IT. However, the appraisal theory is subject of debate (see for example: Scherer et al., 2001). Other researchers for example have posited different dimensions on which an event can be appraised by an individual, such as novelty, valence (e.g. pleasantness), goals/needs, agency, norms/values (Ellsworth & Scherer, 2003), anticipated effort (active versus passive), or fairness (Elfenbein, 2007).
2.4 Affective responses
which emotions will occur, based up whether the primary appraisal results in the perception of a threat or an opportunity and if control is perceived over the expected consequences.
Figure 1: Framework for classifying emotions. Adapted from: Beaudry, A., & Pinsonneault, A. (2010). The other side of acceptance: studying the direct and indirect effects of emotions on information technology use. MIS quarterly, p. 694)
However, Zhang (2013) makes a distinction between two sorts of affective responses. Whereas emotions are temporally constrained, affective evaluations are not. This means that affective evaluations do not disappear when an event is ended. Thus, an individual can remember the emotion felt at one moment, without experiencing the actual emotion. Just as with emotions, the affective evaluation is based on the cues of an event. This evaluation can be oriented toward a behaviour (e.g. IT use) or an object (e.g. IT physical characteristics). Furthermore, it can also be outcome- or process-based. A stimulus such as visual appeal is outcome based: an individual perceives it in a split second. However, something like perceived enjoyment is not experienced in a split second. This happens during a process (Zhang, 2013). However, as both concepts are based on cues and prior research has rarely made a distinction between them, this research will use then terms emotion and affective response interchangeably (Stein et al., 2015).
2.5 Contradicting cues
can consist of cognitive elements or affective elements. It occurs when a cognitive element clashes with an affective element, two affective elements clash or two cognitive elements clash with each other. The forming of ambivalent feelings can happen consciously as well as non-consciously. Furthermore, ambivalence can be present at the individual level but also on the collective level. According to Ashforth et al. (2014), there are several triggers for ambivalence on the individual and the collective level. Examples are membership dualities (individual level), dilemmas, cultures (organizational) or role conflicts (both).
2.6 Behaviour
As mentioned, the behaviour of people is influenced by their emotions. Thus, since IT usage is a sort of behaviour emotions have some sort of influence on IT usage. However, as mentioned in the introduction, IT usage must not be seen as merely the interaction by an individual with the system. On the contrary, IT usage should be seen as a recursive shaping of abstract social constructs and a technical infrastructure (Leonardi, 2012). Thus, IT usage must be seen in a wider perspective.
Therefore, expanding the construct of ‘‘use’’ makes it possible to better explain the implementation and adoption outcomes of an IT system. A too narrow focus on the concept of individual use may result in a situation in which indirect effects of emotions on behaviour that is related to IT use are missed. Therefore, to fully capture the influence of emotions on the use of IT systems, it is necessary to define ‘‘use’’ as a construct in such a way that every aspect influencing the implementation and adoption outcomes is covered. Therefore, the individual use of IT will be defined in terms of the individual use-related activity (ISURA) (Barki, Titah & Boffo, 2007). ISURA not only includes the personal interaction with an IT system, but also the activities an individual undertakes to change, modify or adapt in the task-technology context. This means that three sorts of behaviour can be categorized. The first is technology interaction behaviour, which includes ‘‘the IT interactions undertaken with the purpose of accomplishing an individual or organizational task’’ (Barki et al., 2007, p. 176). This includes behaviour such as problem solving, exchanging with people, planning or following up or coordinating activities. The second behaviour is task technology adaption behaviour, such as improving functionalities, interfaces or tasks. This sort of behaviour can be distinguished twofold: adapting the technology or adapting the work. The third behaviour is individual adaption behaviour (i.e. learning). This means that an individual uses the technology with greater consideration for the activities surrounding IT use, such as reading manuals or learning from IT specialists. The more an individual engages in types of use, the more extensive the usage is (Barki et al., 2007). Also, because extensive usage means that adaptions are made, the system is gradually more effective in use and thus more organizational tasks are successfully accomplished. Thus, more extensive usage in terms of the ISURA construct means that underutilization, which is a challenge in many organizations, can be reduced.
appraised. As a result, one or multiple emotion(s) will occur, consequently influencing the behaviour, and thus the usage of an individual. This research will explore how the emotions in the post-implementation stage are formed, which cues play a role and how these interact. These cues can stem from the IT system or from the organizational context. It also studies the role and consequences of emotions in the post-implementation behaviour (Beaudry & Pinsonneault, 2010) This results in a better understanding and managers can therefore better manage the process and in less underutilization of an IT system. This should contribute to a better organizational performance.
3. Methodology
Emotions are always present in an individual and can be internally experienced or observed. Moreover, emotions can be formed consciously and unconsciously (Bericat, 2016). As only the expressions can be empirically observed, the relationship between the internal and external emotions can be problematic in research. Moreover, because the field of emotions and IT is relatively unexplored, the search for linearity in causality between the two concepts or a replicable reality is almost impossible. Therefore this research is approached from the philosophical perspective of constructivism. Constructivism is typified by the assumption that phenomena may be construed by numerous potential causalities (Mir & Watson, 2001). Thus, the constructivist approach allows the use of several ‘‘points of entry’’. This can provide, with its sensitivity to context, history and perspectives, insights in important causalities in the way IT influences emotions and vice versa (Mir & Watson, 2001; Klein & Myers, 1999).
3.1 Case description
Hence, this was only possible once the book was in its final stage of production. In their new strategy, they had to shift from producing folio content that was later used for digital products to producing content that can be used for digital and folio products at the same time (figure 3).
Therefore, in the beginning of 2015, Alpha made plans to combine several systems, including the (outdated) content management system (‘‘ISIS’’) and the asset system (‘‘Alfresco’’) into one platform that was called the Futureproof Publishing Platform (FPP). This system was supposed to support content production. However, due to unexpected circumstances the management decided at the end of 2015 to put the FPP project on hold and start with a derivative of this project. The decision was to make a new version of the ISIS-system, which was a new content management system called ICE. Thus, ICE was not a stand-alone system but was linked to several systems including Alfresco.
There are several reasons for conducting this research at Alpha. First of all, ICE went live between the 3rd and 14th of April 2017 which means that the so called ‘‘conversion process’’ is finalized
and because the users have no other option than to work in the system, the ‘‘adoption’’ phase is finalized (Lauterbach & Mueller, 2014). Thus, the project can be considered in its ‘‘use process’’ and thus there is a case of ‘‘post-adoptive behaviour’’ among the users (Lauterbach & Mueller, 2014). Secondly, the process of using ICE affects multiple groups of users. This made observing a variety of emotions likely. Thirdly, it has been possible for the researcher to gain access to the organization. In fact, a workplace
Content is delivered by authors Publishers, projectleaders and editors produce a product (teaching method) Product is digitalized
Figure 2: production of a teaching method.
Content production Folio products Digital learning products (in PL platform)
was created, which means that it has been possible to arrange interviews and gain information about the context and history of the project by having informal conversations with users and by attending and observing meetings.
3.2 Data collection
Because the phenomenon has been researched within its real-life context and the boundaries between the context and the phenomenon were not evident, this research is considered as a case site (Myers, 1997). The data has been compiled in the period between September and December 2017. During this period, the researcher has spent three or four days per week at Alpha which has contributed to the principle of contextualization (Klein & Myers, 1999). The period the data covers, focusses on the initial phase (beginning of April 2017) till the end of December 2017.
In the beginning of this research, it was essential to get familiar with the ICE project and the organization and to build an egalitarian relationship between researcher and employees (Leitch, Hill & Harrison, 2010). In the first weeks of research, several informal meetings with stakeholders throughout the organization were conducted. During these meetings, personal experiences related to the implementation and use of ICE were shared. Four meetings between developers of a sub-supplier that developed a module in ICE and four temporary workers was also attended in light of this research. During these meetings, the temporary workers were interviewed about their experiences with ICE and observed in daily practices. Also, daily stand-up meetings, where the current situation was discussed with the project team, the management and the employees who were technically involved in the ICE project were attended. This allowed the detection of emergent issues (Leitch et al., 2010). These actions also ensured the principle of interaction between the researcher and the subjects (Klein & Myers, 1999). Consequently, the presence during the meetings made it possible to gather data by direct observation (Blumberg, Cooper & Schindler, 2014). During the observation of meetings and other social interactions, the researcher was keen on specific emotional expressions (e.g. ‘‘I was frustrated about …’’) and non-verbal behaviour. The observation of non-verbal behaviour can be used as a sign of emotional states (Blumberg et al., 2014). These meetings and observations were recorded by taking notes. Moreover, this also provided the researcher with several ‘‘points of entry’’ that could be used as preparation for the interviews (Mir & Watson, 2001). Also, the use of multiple sources of data ensured triangulation of the data and made it possible to better understand the relevant phenomena (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Charmaz, 2006). Appendix I contains a more detailed overview of methods used and the obtained information.
questionnaire (Appendix II). The questionnaire consists of five questions about personal characteristics and their relationship with ICE. The questions about personal characteristics were used as control variables (Appendix III). The other questions were asked to rate the system and how they experienced it. The answers were used as input for the interviews.
In the second phase of the research, fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with open-ended questions. An interview guide was developed to maintain focus during the interviews (Appendix IV). The semi-structured set-up of the interview allowed flexibility during the interviews (Aken, Berends, & Van der Bij, 2012). The interviews took place in November and lasted between forty-five and ninety minutes. To avoid misinterpretations, a test interview was held with an employee of Alpha. During the interviews, questions were asked about the period when people started working in ICE and about the current situation. Interviewees were also asked to explain the answers they gave in the online questionnaire. To avoid misunderstandings during analysis, the interviews were recorded and transcriptions were made afterward.
The principle of dialogical reasoning had two consequences for the method of data collection (Klein & Myers, 1999). Because there was a lot of frustration mentioned during the interviews, two questions were added after seven interviews about the concepts of ‘‘conflict’’ and ‘‘resistance’’. Conflict or resistance seemed logical inciter of frustration. Because content managers and publishers did not use ICE much, compared to the rest of the users, the decision was made that two interviews with projectleaders and publishers was sufficient. After revising the data, the theoretical saturation was not sufficient and consequently and two extra interviews with a publisher and a project leader were planned. All data was anonymously stored on a protected hard drive to ensure confidentially. The document with the participants was stored at another place in the cloud. The interviewees were also asked to sign an ‘‘informed consent form’’, meaning they give official permission to use the data for scientific purposes. Lastly, all the interviews were voluntary and the interviewees did not received any form of incentives.
3.3 Data analysis
are below expectations and that they are certain about what is happening. Therefore, as suggested by Saldaña (2009), emotions were simultaneously open coded with descriptive codes and versus coding. Descriptive coding, also called ‘‘topic coding’’, means that the subject of what is talked or written about is noted. Versus coding helps to identify conflict between for example individuals, processes, concepts, phenomena. Furthermore, where possible, the codes were also linked to a period of time. This can be the period when people started using ICE, the period around the deadline in August, a large update in October or during the interview. Also, if it was an ongoing emotional feeling, this was noted. This helped during analysing the data for changing patterns in cues. In the resulting analysis the codes which were related to individuals and the context and characteristics of the IT were the most interesting. A second analysis focussed on these aspects in relation to emotions. This analysis was ‘‘axial coding’’, in which codes are combined to form a high order construct (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). In the last phase, ‘‘selective coding’’, the constructs are presented in a coherent story to form a theory. These findings were compared with the notes that were taken during the research to find deviations or confirm the theory. Here, the focus was on trying to understand what emotional cues there were and how these changed over time. This also included the comparison of codes between the different groups of users. The codebook is to be found in Appendix V. To avoid suspicion and minimize the researcher bias and systematic distortion, the coding was done by a second researcher and the results were discussed (Klein & Myers, 1999).
4. Findings
4.1 First impression
In this research, the post-implementation phase of ICE is considered as an IT event. In the first weeks it became apparent that employees experienced a range of different emotions during the first months in which ICE was used. When the researcher introduced himself to the employees, many responded in a way that indicated the presence of strong (mostly negative) emotions, such as frustration, anger and disappointment. During the informal conversations with publishers, editors and members of the project team it became apparent that many emotions that were present in the post-implementation phase, originated in the development-process. The ICE project had various difficulties.
Figure 4: timeline with crucial events.
4.2 Cues based upon the individual situation
The data showed two sorts of cues that were related to the individual: changing tasks and the expectations of an individual. These will be explained in the following sections.
4.2.1. Changing task(s)
For all respondents, tasks and responsibilities were changed due to ICE. Because the temporary workers were hired to work with the system, their function was completely new and tasks and responsibilities were constantly changing in the post-implementation phase. For example, additional tasks were positively received as TW2 mentioned. She appraised the constant change as an opportunity and the possibility of having more control. On the other hand, the editors experienced the changes due to ICE in their tasks as negative. Instead of working on editing products, they were busy with inputting content and this was not what an ‘‘editor is supposed to do’’. Moreover, because the system was facing a number of growing pains, they felt like ‘‘guinea pigs1’’. Apart from that, the editors had to manage a group of temporary workers. Consequently, they were busy with training and arranging practical things for them. Because of this, the changing tasks were appraised as a threat for their own goals: their original tasks. The result were feelings of ‘‘sadness’’ and ‘‘frustration’’. The cue of changing tasks was also negatively appraised in terms of control by the editors. In the new situation, the editors experienced less control in completing their tasks than they were used to. Often, they had to wait. This resulted in feeling of irritation:
ED3: ‘‘[…] because you had to wait till someone had time to do it, and then you were put in a queue. You cannot continue.2’’
1 ED2, P11: “proefkonijnen”
2 ED3, P6: ‘‘[…] dan moest je wachten tot iemand tijd had om het te doen, en dan werd je in de wachtrij gezet. Je
kon niet door.’’ INITIATION OF FUTURE
PROOF PUBLISHING PLATFORM (FPP)
PROJECT MANAGER OF FPP LEFT AND A NEW
ONE IS APPOINTED START OF ICE PROJECT DELIVERY OF FIRST VERSION OF ICE DELIVERY OF THE SECOND VERSION OF ICE DELIVERY OF THE THIRD VERSION OF ICE
FIRST TEST OF ICE IS EXECUTED
THE SECOND PROJECT MANAGER LEFT, A NEW
ONE IS APPOINTED DELIVERY OF A FOURTH VERSION ICE IS USED FIRST CHAPTERS ONLINE
THE THIRD PROJECT MANAGER LEFT
LARGE UPDATE
4.2.2. Expectation(s)
Another cue which influenced the forming of emotions, were the expectations of an individual. Because the temporary workers were not involved in the development of ICE, they did not have expectations specifically related to ICE or FPP. Thus, expectations were also related to the function of an individual. However, as mentioned by one interviewee, it was obvious that she felt that a system ‘‘should work’’. On the other hand, the publishers’ and editors’ expectations were formed during the entire process of development and use. Before the advent of ICE, the FPP project was presented to the Business as a solution for ‘‘everything’’. The effects of these uncashed expectations became visible once they were confronted with the actual situation. Feelings of hope, suddenly changed into disappointment by the time ICE was released, as a publisher explained:
PP3: ‘‘[…] and then there was a huge disappointment when in April, we received something that was totally unusable. First of all, this was in terms of performance unusable, but it also did not do what we were hoping for.3’’
The publishers and editors were hoping for a tool that supported content creation and for a system that changed their way of working. Moreover, they believed that it would provide them new opportunities to make new products. However, the actual situation was appraised as a threat for the goals people had in mind and thus resulted in negative emotions. Moreover, these were reinforced, because all employees believed that it could have been so great and they were positive about the raison d´être of ICE. People realized that this project was relevant and important for the company.
4.3 Cues originating from the IT system
In the beginning of October, the researcher was invited to join a session between the developers of a word processor which was integrated in ICE, and employees of Alpha. During the session, three temporary workers and one editor were interviewed and observed while executing their tasks. The goal was to provide the developers with input to improve the functionalities of their tool and improve the user interface. During these sessions, three cues became prevalent: performance, functionalities and usability. These will be discussed in the next section.
4.3.1 Performance
Performance is concerned with the speed and stability of the system. The performance of ICE was seen as huge issue by the time ICE was released and was thus an important cue. The respondents mentioned that they had to wait fifteen or twenty minutes before an action was saved. Because ICE was the only system they could use to do their work, they appraised the situation as important. Thus, the
3 PP3, P1: ‘‘[…] en toen was de teleurstelling natuurlijk heel groot toen we in april iets kregen wat absoluut
temporary workers were frustrated and felt anger because the waiting times meant that they perceived to have less control over consequences and were unable to complete their daily tasks. One temporary worker mentioned the following:
TW3: “You assume that you can work. But if at some point the system is not working, you are disadvantaged. Well, then there is a bit of anger.4”
For the publishers and editors the situation were different. They spend less time working in ICE but were ‘‘frustrated’’ and ‘‘angry’’ because ICE was dictating what a working day was going to look like. Contrary to the temporary workers, publishers and editors had other tasks, next to ICE. Consequentially, they had to plan activities ‘‘around ICE’’, meaning a working day would become ‘‘fragmented’’ and they experienced it as having less control over their routines. Hence, this resulted in feelings of frustration. But not just the fragmentation of work was a problem. Performance was also considered crucial. During an observation, one participant mentioned that he did not experiment with the system, because the system was not stable enough and he did not want to run the risk of losing his work. Moreover one projectleader saw performance as essential for an IT system and thus appraised it as something with a high goal relevance:
PP2: ‘‘[…] if you do not have a certain function in the agenda, you think: well, apparently that is not possible. But if the website is not loading at all, or you wait for ten minutes or whatsoever… That makes you more angrier than if your Gmail agenda is not synchronized’’5
4.3.2 Functionalities
Functionalities are concerned with the range of functions the system has to offer. These resulted in mixed emotions. Negative emotions, such as frustration were mentioned by a temporary workers, because ICE allowed certain actions that were eventually not possible:
TW1: ‘‘The functionality is present in the system but is not working. You have different options that can be used but most of them are just not working. And that is annoying, because why is there a button anyway?!’’ 6
4 TW3, P2: “Je gaat ervan uit dat je gewoon kon werken. Dus dan kom je op een punt omdat het systeem niet
werkt, je zelf benadeeld wordt. Maar dan komt er een klein beetje boosheid bij kijken.”
5 PP2, P4: ‘‘Als je niet op een bepaalde manier een bepaalde functie hebt in die agenda, dan denk je: dat zal dan
wel niet kunnen. Maar als de website überhaupt niet laadt, of dat je 10 minuten zit te wachten of wat dan ook, dan wordt je daar veel op die manier veel bozer over dan dat het kennelijk niet met je Gmail agenda is gesynchroniseerd ofzo.’’
6 TW1, P3: ‘‘De functionaliteit zit wel in het programma maar het werkt gewoon niet. Je hebt allemaal opties die
As a result, it was appraised as a threat for their goals because they were not able to fulfil their job in way they wanted to do. However, there was an upside to all this. Because some functionalities were missing, some temporary workers also experienced ambivalent emotions. As their task changed in a perceived positive way, positive emotions were formed. They gain more autonomy and were challenged to find a creative solution in converting assignments in the folio-content into digital content. TW3 found the combination of cues for example ‘‘funny’’ and TW2 mentioned the challenging aspect:
TW2: “Because of the frustration. Yes, well it is also a sort of challenge so to say. Right now, that makes my work fun.7”
For the editors, the lack of functionalities was experienced as a burden. There was not any goal congruence and ICE made him feel “restricted” and did not allowed him to make a ‘‘nice product’’. These feelings were also present among the publishers. They considered their job as something that needs a certain degree of creativity and they were afraid that ICE would result in a one-size-fits-all policy. They felt their goals were being at stake which resulted in feelings of frustration. For example, one interviewee mentioned that he felt frustrated because he could only use five style elements and thus feared for the standardization of their product.
Another cue that can be linked to the expectations of the individuals was the absence of the two important functions of Personalized Learning: ‘‘adaptivity’’ and ‘‘study advice’’. These functions were supported by the PL platform and were completely new in the market and would thus deliver a competitive advantage. They were appraised as very relevant but ICE did not supported these functions and it was therefore impossible to release products in the PL platform with these functions. Consequently, the editors and publishers were disappointed.
4.3.3 Usability
The last cue originating from ICE is usability. Usability is concerned with a user-friendly design and the way it supports efficient and effective use. This cue triggered, especially in the first months, negative emotions among temporary workers and editors. This cue was especially negatively appraised in relation the perceived control. A temporary worker, stated that:
TW3: ‘‘Working with ICE is characterized by knowing the different exceptions. 8’’
The temporary workers worked ‘‘blind’’ in the system. This means that the system did not allow them to see the result of the work. The content that was entered was only visible in the PL platform and
7 TW2, P4: “Dus die frustratie. Ja, het is ook wel weer een uitdaging zeg maar, dat maakt mijn werk nu wel leuk.” 8 TW3, Questionnaire, answer on question 10: ‘‘Het werken in ICE wordt gekenmerkt door het dienen te kennen
the temporary workers did not have access to that system. The result was feelings of insecurity and negative feelings about the future expectations of their work. As a consequence, to get familiar with the system, users first had to learn the way the system was designed and had to know the different exceptions. This was also experienced as frustrating.
The editors also found ICE a ‘‘complex’’ system without a user-friendly interface. The result was that they experienced it as a disappointment because instead of a user friendly system they had hoped for, the system was more technical ‘‘than ever’’. Indeed, the word “hoped” indicates that this cue was also related to the expectations of an individual. Because the publishers had rather simple tasks in ICE, they did not explicitly mention any positive or negative aspects related to the usability.
4.4 Decision-making process
Cues can also stem from the context of IT system usage. During the interviews it became apparent that not only ICE or the individual situation contained cues. ICE was developed according the Agile principles (see: Agile Alliance, 2001), which means that after the implementation, updates (these were often, but not always improvements) were released in ‘‘sprints’’. Consequentially, it was necessary to prioritise the issues and address them. The higher priority an issue received, the sooner it would be solved. Thus, it was crucial for users to get involved in the process of determining and prioritizing issues. This is considered in the decision-making process. The project team (and thus Operations) and the various product owners of the systems in the chain were responsible for these updates. However, the Business and Operations did not cooperate during the project. In fact, during a ‘‘retrospective’’ in October, where representatives from Operations were present, the attendees acknowledged that a major problem was the insufficient representation. By the time ICE was presented, an interviewee mentioned he experienced it as ‘‘fait accompli’’ and publishers and editors were feeling ‘‘sad’’ and ‘‘angry’’ that the development of ICE was kept within one department. In fact, they had the feeling because their wishes were ignored. As one publisher mentioned:
PP3: […] ‘‘I have the feeling that people are not listening to the way activities are performed by authors. People too easily ignore aspects such as creativity during the process of writing. […] And that sort of issues are ignored.9’’
However, the publishers, projectleaders and editors were aware that they should cooperate. Therefore, with the deadline in mind, the management installed a “taskforce” with representatives from the senior management, the project team and publishers. The goal was to centralize the decision-making that was
9 PP3, P7: ‘‘Ik heb het gevoel heb dat men niet goed luistert naar hoe de werkzaamheden door auteurs echt verricht
concerned with improving the system. By doing so, the management tried to meet the deadline during the summer. However, as mentioned by members of the project team and publishers, there was a lot of assigning blame and the situation was being downplayed. Furthermore, the taskforce was more interested in plans and forecasts than in actual actions. Inevitably, publishers felt it was impossible to exert any control over the process. Because they were still responsible for their customers and the products, they experienced negative emotions. In fact, one interviewee mentioned that he experienced it as ‘‘stalemate’’. Some publishers and editors expressed these feelings towards the project team or the management. However, this was often downplayed by the management. Consequently, publishers and editors had the feeling they were unable to exert any control over the decision-making process:
PP3: ‘‘[Alpha] is really good in making one step ahead and saying: no, but we’ve made one more step. It is going great! While making one step does not mean it is good. You must take the total number of steps into account! And that is very difficult for us. And that is what we want to hide.10’’
The product owner acknowledged the feelings from his colleagues and agreed on the fact that the communication in the decision-making process was insufficient. He argued that some things were just too complex to communicate:
PW1: “Incomprehension is often caused by a lack of information. So there are certain things, which are just too complex.11”
Also the temporary experienced it was impossible to get involved in the decision-making process especially in the first months. In fact, most of their feedback was ignored by the project team:
TW1: ‘‘They say it is work in progress, but for months you don’t hear anything. And then you ask yourself, will this ever be fixed? So that is frustrating.12’’
In fact, when the communication was present, they perceived it as ‘‘top-down’’ or, as illustrated in the citation, even absent. For example, several respondents mentioned that updates were not communicated in the first months of the post-implementation phase.
10 PP3, P5: “[Alpha] is heel goed om op het moment dat je wel voortgang boekt dat [men] dan zegt: nee, maar we
hebben weer een stap gezet. Het gaat goed. Terwijl, we hebben weer een stap gezet, betekent niet dat het goed gaat. Je moet wel kijken, hebben we wel genoeg stappen gezet om ons einddoel te halen. En daar doen we heel moeilijk over. Want dat verbloemen we dan liever met z’n allen.”
11 PW1, P6: “Onbegrip komt vaak ook door een gebrek aan informatie. Dus er zijn ook bepaalde zaken, die zijn
[sic] gewoon heel complex in elkaar.”
12 TW1, P2: ‘‘En dan wordt er gezegd, er wordt aan gewerkt of zo, maar vervolgens hoor je maandenlang niks. En
4.5 Mechanisms that changed cues
The data showed that the cues that stem from ICE, the individual or the change process were dynamic and that the perception of these cues changed over time. In fact, mechanisms caused changes in the features, properties or natures of the cues. These are considered mechanisms because they changed the nature of the different cues and made them more or less salient. This change in the cues had two causes. The first one has to do with external factors. There are two sorts of external factors: the organizational culture and the updates of the IT system. The cues related IT system were influenced by updates of the system. The cues related to the decision-making process and the individual were influenced by the organizational culture. These factors are considered external because they are not directly influenced by the individual. The other factor is the individual behaviour. In the following section, these changes will be discussed.
4.5.1 External factors
Two external factors are shaping the cues of IT system. The organizational culture and updates of the IT system. These are described in the following section.
First of all, the culture of Alpha influenced the decision-making process. Interviewees mentioned that the culture of Alpha was hierarchical and a culture of dialogue was not present. As mentioned by two publishers, many decisions were postponed or referred to a higher level in the hierarchy. Also the importance of the planning was also extensively emphasized. In fact, one interviewee mentioned that the first criteria that will be sacrificed is ‘‘money’’ and the second is “quality”. Concessions related to the “planning” however will only be done when there are no other options left in terms of money or quality. Consequently, the planning aspect takes a central role in the decision-making process. It thus became especially prevalent during the summer, when the deadline had to be met. Every decision was based on the (expected) impact on the planning. The performance issue of ICE was perceived as the largest threat for the planning and this had to be solved. Other issues such as missing functionalities were considered less important. The IT manager remembered that the focus on planning made it so that there was no time for consultation. The only goal was to meet the deadline in the summer:
IM1: “It was only go, go, go. And my own boss, I report to the CIO of [owner of Alpha], he said… well… It was the same: when is it finished? They don’t care about the why… That is not important. 13”
The organizational culture also influenced the cues that stem from the individual. Because the planning was emphasized, people had the feeling that there was no time to learn how they should
13 IM1, P7: ‘‘Het was alleen maar doorgaan, doorgaan, doorgaan. En mijn eigen baas, ik rapporteer aan de CIO
accomplish their changed tasks. Interviewees also mentioned that, due to the “silos” in the organization, involvement in the development process was inhibited and it was thus difficult to adjust their expectations. Moreover, expectations were made because the project team was constantly asked to provide lists of plans, deadlines and forecasts about the progress and new developments by the Business. However, the development and the updating of ICE was a process that was difficult to plan and characterized by adaptive planning and continuous improvement. Consequently, expectations that were made based on the plans, were often not realized because of the sometimes unmanageable reality.
The other mechanism are the updates of the IT system. As mentioned, updates were released in “sprints”. In the first months of the post-implementation phase, updates were mainly focussed on improving the performance (speed and stability). By the time it was October, a large update contained several new functions. One interviewee mentioned she and her colleagues were very happy because they work with language-content and the new update made it possible to emphasize words in texts and figures. Consequently, the updates allowed users to better execute their tasks. Also the performance was updated in October and this had a positive effect on the emotions.
4.5.2 Individual behaviour
The second mechanism that influenced the different cues is individual behaviour. The data showed that respondents not only engaged in “active” behaviour, such as the ISURA construct mentioned in Chapter 2. Instead, the data showed similarities with the concepts of problem focused coping and emotion focused coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Problem focused coping is when individuals are actively trying to change the situation, for example by getting involved in the decision-making process, by adapting their tasks or by modifying the IT. As a result, the cues are not changing due to a different perception, but because the characteristics of the cues are actually changed. It follows that this has consequences for the appraisal of the cues by an individual. Emotion-focused coping is when the perception of the cues and the appraisal are changed by an individual, but the situation remains the same (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). This behaviour leads to passive acceptance of the situation and is oriented towards oneself. These will be discussed in the following section.
had the opportunity to play around with the system before it was released. This emphasized the importance of learning when using an IT system. Consequently, learning resulted in more positive emotions. However, when learning was prevented, this resulted in negative feelings. The user manual for example, the point of which was to teach users how the system works, was not ‘‘user-friendly’’. This resulted in more questions than answers and feelings of frustration. These questions were then asked to members of the project team, which in return, also resulted in feelings of frustration among the members of the project team because they ‘‘should know how it works’’.
Another form of changed behaviour is the active involvement of the temporary workers in the decision-making process. Because the performance was stable enough after a few months, it became possible to improve functionalities and usability. As a result, the project team introduced a ‘‘wish list’’ and demonstrations for the temporary workers. This active involvement allowed temporary workers to give feedback about the system in different ways. As one temporary worker mentioned, this resulted in more positive feelings because they were able to change their appraisal:
TW4: “And I hope, and this was also being said, that they want to involve us more in the upcoming period. And I hope this will happen because I noticed among the rest… It gives you a different perspective on the situation.14”
Another temporary worker (TW1) was becoming more positive as well, because, as he stated: ‘‘at least they’re listening to me.15’’ It shows that the involvement in the decision-making process resulted in a
feeling of control and they were able to readjust their future expectations.
However, involvement does not automatically lead to more positive emotions. For example, TW4 describes that she was involved in the new update and the new functionalities were announced by the projectteam in a presentation and during stand-ups. As a result she had ambitious, future expectations. The update contained a ‘‘content reviewer’’, which made the employee able to check the entered content by him- or herself and correct any mistakes, instead of receiving feedback on the entered content when it had gone through near enough the entire production chain. The latter was a time-consuming and frustrating activity, because it would happen multiple times. Thus, it was appraised as very relevant. However, the newly released ‘‘content reviewer’’ was not working properly and showed incorrect information. As a result, the update did not support her in her tasks. Hence, despite her being involved this time, the update did not match her expectations and she was feeling ‘‘disappointed’’ about the update, because it was not what he hoped for. Hence, this example also shows the importance of the cue related to the expectations of an individual. Another example that shows the link with expectations, was a situation described by a temporary worker. He was asked for input for the updates. It gave him the feeling that ‘‘they’’ (i.e. the project team) were investigating the sources of his frustration and were
14 TW4, P9: ‘‘En ik hoop, en dat werd ook wel gezegd, dat willen we ook steeds meer de komende tijd. En ik hoop
dat dat ook gaat gebeuren, want ik merk dat het bij ons... Dat je er dan ook anders naar gaat kijken.’’
trying to improve the situation. The reason why the involvement had a positive effect on emotions, is because people got the feeling that they had some control over the updates related to the performance, functionalities and usability. Together with positive expectations, this resulted in more positive feelings.
Lastly, although ICE may seem a technical system and its complexity can be a cue for negative emotions such as frustration, it can also be seen as a challenge. Some mentioned that they found various workarounds to work faster in the system. One editor mentioned that he engaged in “task technology adaption behaviour” and he tried to challenge the system. By doing so, he taught himself new ways to use the system and even create functionalities or execute certain processes faster. However, it seems that this depends on individual personalities or the performance of the system. As mentioned, if the performance was considered unstable, people might not engage in task technology adaption, because of the risk of losing their work. Instead, they choose for safety.
The second behaviour showed is emotion focussed coping. The first months ICE was used, the emotions among the employees and the temporary workers were mostly negative. Frustration, anger and sadness were most prevalent among them. Hence, since cues can be imagined or fictitious, changing the way cues are perceived had consequences for the appraisal and thus the emotions. This way of coping with the situation was most prevalent among the editors and publishers. One publisher mentioned that this was a sort of self-protecting mechanism. She explained it as follows:
PP3: “Because I think, whether I use it or don’t use it, it’s not going well anyway, so I’ll leave it. At least I won’t be affected then.16’’
Also another project leader mentioned that, after everything that had happened and at some point, people just give up:
PP2: ‘‘[…] But at some point, people just give up. Then, well. It makes you feel acquiescence.17’’
There were two reasons. First of all, the editors and publishers had the feeling that they did not have any control over the situation. The management was absent, was misinformed about the situation or downplayed the situation. The project team was also busier with improving ICE. Secondly, the publishers and the editors also had their own work and, because of the deadline, this was very demanding. As is illustrated by the following citation, the effort that was expected was too far from reality:
16 PP3, P10: ‘‘Omdat ik denk, ja of ik het nou wel of niet doe, het gaat sowieso niet goed dus laat maar even. Dan
heb ik er zelf even geen last van.’’
17 PP2, P13: ‘‘[…] Maar op een gegeven moment geeft dat men dat gewoon op. Dan nouja… Dan wordt je daar
ED2: ‘‘But, if the effort is too far from reality, then you’re like: well, it doesn’t matter. And then you hear people sigh and feel a sort of acquiescence.18’’
Thus, the situation was appraised as one without any control and without any positive expectations. Consequently, they showed in emotions focussed coping behaviour.
4.6 Towards a conceptual model
The data indicates that the cues that influence the subsequent appraisal, the following emotions and the various mechanisms, relate in a dynamic way where all elements influence each other. This process is visualized in figure 5 (see next page).
The emotion(s) of an individual are influenced by appraisals of cues that are extracted from three categories. This is represented with an arrow in figure 5. The first category exists of cues that are related to the changing tasks and the expectations of an individual. Together, in theory, the cues can be formed based on one-way interaction with the environment without engaging in an interaction with another person and are based upon the individual situation of an individual. Thus, they form the individual category. Cues can also stem from the IT system and are related to the functionalities, performance and usability. These cues influence each other (i.e. without performance, there are no functionalities available) and they form the IT category. Lastly, cues are extracted from the decision-making process. These cues are about the process of the identification of issues and process of determining the content of the updates. Together, these different cues influence the appraisal process of an individual. The cues are appraised by an individual, based on a primary (goal relevance, goal congruence and goal content) and secondary appraisal (blame or credit, coping potential and future expectations (Lazarus, 1991a). As the data showed, emotions can be based on multiple cues.
18 ED2, P4: ‘‘[…] Maar als je een inspanning hebt, die zover van de werkelijkheid af ligt, dan denk je: ja, dit heeft
Primary appraisal
Secondary appraisal
Individual emotion(s)
Cues related to the IT system Functionalities Performance Usability Updates Organizational culture Cue related to decision making process Process of updating
Cues based upon the individual situation Expectation(s) Changing task(s) Individual behaviour Problem focussed coping Emotion focussed coping
Figure 5: the appraisal process of different cues related to IT
The emotion(s) then influences certain behaviour. Two categories of individual behaviour were observed. The first is emotion-focused coping, where the perception of the cues and the appraisal are changed by an individual, but the situation remains the same (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). This behaviour leads to passive acceptance of the situation and is oriented towards oneself. The other behaviour is problem-focused coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Individuals are actively trying to change the situation, for example by getting involved in the decision-making process, by adapting their tasks or modifying the IT. As a result, cues are not changing due to a different perception, but because the characteristics of the cues are actually changed. It follows that this has consequences for the appraisal of the cues by an individual.
categories of cues: cues that originate from the individual and cues that originate from the decision-making process.
Culture can be considered as ‘‘patterns of behaviour that form a durable template by which ideas and images can be transferred from one generation to another, or from one group to another’’ (Haggett, 1975, p. 238), or simply ‘‘how things are done’’ (Drennan, 1992, p. 3). The culture of Alpha is characterized by its emphasis on planning, autonomous teams that work in silo’s and delegates of authorities within this defined structure. Thus, it can be defined as a “role culture”. These cultures are characterized by the importance of hierarchical positions, security, procedures and rules. Furthermore, any unforeseen events are referred to the next layer in the hierarchy (Handy, 1986). These facets of the culture formed the way cues related to the decision-making process were interpreted. The development and improvement of ICE needed a decentralized decision-making process, because the information to develop and improve ICE had to come from the users (i.e. in a decentralized way). This was a continuous and evolutionary process. Because of its complexity, it was almost impossible to make realistic and detailed plans beforehand. However, plans and forecasts were demanded because this was the “way things are done” at Alpha (i.e. the culture). The management expected these because they wanted to know the expected impact in terms of money and timeliness and the publishers needed it to be able to relate it back to customers. Furthermore, due to the culture, employees were used to work in a functional hierarchy. This hindered cross-sectional communication about updates. Also the project team experienced the result: it was harder to receive feedback. In fact, for organizations with a role culture it is difficult to adopt decentralized and participative procedures (Burnes, 1996). The result was friction between the organizational culture and cues in the updating process. This friction resulted, as mentioned, in negative emotions.
