Title: The impact of employee attitudes on the implementation of expert system technology

Authors: Arun Rai, Sandra M. Grassman, Geoffry S. Howard

Addresses: Department of Management, College of Business Administration, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA. ' Department of Business, Notre Dame College, Cleveland, OH 44121, USA. ' Graduate School of Management, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA

Abstract: Guidelines for technology managers on how to introduce expert systems technology are provided by the results of this research. The study examines the relationship between perception of company plans toward expert systems technology (EST) and threat to job security as felt by the programmer/analyst (P/A). The moderating effects of knowledge of EST, usage of the technology, and attitudes are also examined. Both company plans and (P/A) attitudes were found to have significant main effects on perceived threat to job security. No interaction was found between attitudes and company plans. Knowledge and usage of EST were found to be low and were not correlated with attitudes toward EST. The results suggest that technical employees are likely to exhibit severe implementation resistance to expert systems technology unless managers (1) provide for training and education on EST, and (2) extensively involve traditional programmers and analysts in the technology planning process.

Keywords: expert systems; implementation resistance; programmer management; technology management; analyst management; employee attitudes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.1993.062622

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 1993 Vol.6 No.2/3, pp.147 - 154

Published online: 10 Jun 2014 *

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