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186 Mullany and Lay
User Resistance - IS Studies and E-Commerce
Only five studies of significance were found in the IS literature: those of Keen
(1981), Hirschheim and Newman (1988), Bruwer (1984), Markus (1983) and De
Brabander and Thiers (1984). The studies of both Keen and Hirschheim and
Newman are literature surveys. The former concludes that new systems that
represent radical change, as opposed to those that cause incremental or evolutionary
change, will be avoided or resisted. Also, since the redistribution of data caused
by a new information system is a political resource, the interests of certain groups
will be affected. In the latter, the authors define resistance as an adverse reaction
to a proposed change, which may be overt or covert. They suggest that the impact
of user resistance emerging during implementation may take any of the following
forms: low productivity, low effectiveness, high labour turn- over, disputes,
absenteeism, psychological withdrawal, aggression, sabotage of machinery, the
system being blamed for all difficulties experienced (including incorrect data
entries), and lack of management support for the system.
Bruwer (1984) studied resistance to computerization in a single organization,
where 140 computerized systems, used by about 1,200 clerical staff and 114
managers, were investigated. He claims that older managers with longer experiences
are more negative towards computerization than are younger ones.
Markus (1983) identified three general theories explaining user resistance
from the IS literature, which she then assessed in the light of a single case study. The
following were identified as causing resistance: internal individual or group factors,
such as a non-analytic cognitive style; factors inherent in the system under
implementation, such as technically deficient systems or systems which are not userfriendly;
and certain interactions between factors inherent in the user and others
intrinsic to the system. In the main, user resistance behaviors took the form of
complaints against the system that were considered unfair. This, it will be noted,
corroborated the behaviors identified by Hirschheim and Newman.
Finally, De Brabander and Thiers (1984) studied certain defective implementation
behaviors in the form of not adhering to plans, which resulted in reduced
efficiency of task-accomplishment amongst users. They concluded that the reason
that their users did not adhere to plans was that they were subject to the sanctioning
powers of the corresponding IS specialists. This effect, they noted, was enhanced
by the presence of a semantic gap that they define as the employment of differing
conceptual definitions for aspects of the same task.
As can be seen from the above, there has been little of a definitive nature in the
IS literature pertaining to user resistance. None of the work described above
attempted to associate user resistance with any aspects of cognitive style. This
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