EXPLORING USERS DESIRE TO BE INVOLVED IN COMPUTER-SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT- AN EXPLORATORY-STUDY

Previous research on user involvement during computer systems developm ent has focused almost exclusively on the impact of user involvement o n user satisfaction and system success. To the extent that user involv ement has been found to be beneficial to the process, there is a need to study the management of the involvement process. Managing the invol vement process requires (among other things) ascertaining whether the users are ready to be involved. This paper examines the antecedents of user desire to be involved in systems development. I am interested in knowing what motivates a worker to desire involvement in systems deve lopment projects. Based on the results of an empirical survey, I concl ude that a user's overall satisfaction with the computer information s ystem (CIS) function within the organization significantly affects his /her desire to be involved in system development. It is also observed that, although a user's attitude toward the CIS staff might be positiv ely correlated with his/her desire to be involved, it is less powerful in predicting desired involvement when the user is generally satisfie d with the CIS function. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd