Professor Susan Newell
Professor of Information Systems and Head of the Department of Business and Management Susan Newell has won the CIONET European Research Paper of the Year award for collaborative research into the effect of users' emotions on the adoption of IT systems.
The authors of the winning paper, titled 'Coping with information technology: mixed emotions, vacillation and non-confirming use patterns', conducted a field study in two North American universities to explore how the emotions of users influenced specifc patterns of IT use over time.
The study confirmed that users respond emotionally to new IT systems introduced in the workplace and that these emotional responses influence how individuals actually use the IT system. If an individual reacts negatively to the new technology - for example. feeling angry because they think the IT makes their work more difficult - then they are likely to engage in resistance practices, i.e. avoiding use of the technology.
These emotional reactions were triggered by different cues arising from either the IT system itself or its manner of implementation. Importantly, the introduction of new IT systems often triggered more than one cue, leading to a mixed emotional response.
This could include some positive emotions - satisfaction because they were asked to be involved in the IT implementation project - as well as negative emotions, which could be frustration because the IT system was difficult to learn.
Interestingly, the authors discovered that the siutations in which mixed emotions were triggered were the most likely to encourage users to find ways to enable the IT to work in practice, leading to active user engagement and positive implications for organisations.
Originally published in the information systems journal MIS Quarterly in March 2015, the paper was co-authored by Professor Newell with Mari-Klara Stein (Copenhagen Business School), Erica L. Wagner (Portland State University) and Robert D. Galliers (Bentley University).
Watch a video of Mari-Klara Stein accepting the award at CIONET's CIOCITY event in Amsterdam: