Reasons Behind User Resistance to Information Systems in Organizations

In different organizations, users have been resisting the information system implementation due to different reasons. This has contributed to the failure of new systems implementation in different organizations and hence needs to be understood and managed (Dwivedi et al., 2015). With the current changes within the organizational world, change is the key to the success of the organization as well as the main strategy to maintain the competitive advantage in a market. There are different causes of resistance to information systems in organizations, and most of these causes are covered in the paper. On the other hand, there are different factors that have influenced the success of information systems in organizations and will as well be covered in the study.

Causes of Resistance

The causes of resistance to information system are many and have been extensively debated. The primary causes of resistance include the following; Innate conservatism which is the reluctance to the status quo change by the organization's employees. Many people in different organization do not like to be disturbed from their normal routines and they prefer to work with the ways they are used to rather than venturing into new assignments or ways (Burke, 2017).

Another cause of resistance is the lack of felt need; the employees find it hard to accept the information systems since the organization's management does not take time to address the benefits behind these changes. Without this information, the users feel no need to embrace the changes hence leading to the resistance. In many organizations, they already have a working system which makes the users lack a need to embrace any change.

Uncertainty is another major reason behind resistance to change in organizations; it provokes fear in individuals. Employees in many cases see change as a threat and possess a fear of losing their jobs, being transferred to other places which may affect their personal life, the likelihood of them failing to acquire new skills as well (Cummings & Worley, 2014). All these create uncertainty which results in resistance to change within the organizations.

Lack of involvement in the changes by the organization's management leads to resistance to change by the employees. The employees feel the management has excluded them from the decision-making process associated with the change. In information systems, the involvement to the changes is into two different phases which are the involvement of the decision to change followed by the involvement in the information system development (Alasadi & Askary, 2014). Employees need to be involved in these phases so as to avoid any resistance from them. Most organizations fail in this part and this leads to the resistance of change.

Critical success factors in building a successful Information System in organizations

There are different factors that influence the success of information systems within organizations. For the information systems in organization to be successful organizational resistance should be handled and the management plays a great role in achieving this. The employees within the organization need to be enlightened on the need and the benefits of the system as well as be involved in the changes within the organization in connection to the information system.

Employees within an organization have an already laid down working system that they operate with hence the introduction of the information system in most of the organization. Employees seem to lack the need of the system. This is where the management comes in. Before the introduction of the system, the employees need to be involved in the decision-making process which leads to the integration of the information system (Alasadi & Askary, 2014). They are educated on the advantages of the new system as compared to the old system which softens their take on the new changes within the organization. In the process, this creates certainty that the system is not here to replace them. The implementation phase also needs the employees involved; this reduces the effort of understanding the new system since they are involved in its implementation.

Some of the main reasons for the success of information systems in organizations include; explicit information management and analysis. This information plays a huge role in the decision making of many of the organizations which have successfully implemented information systems. Decision making in the management of the organization is the key to the success of the organization (Lorenzi & Riley, 2013). The information system does data processing and analysis which is crucial in the organization's decision making; this makes the managerial decision-making process more accurate hence being one of the most critical factors that have contributed to the success of the information system in organizations.

References

Alasadi, R., & Askary, S. (2014). Employee involvement and the barriers to organizational change. International Journal of Information, Business and Management, 6(1), 29.

Burke, W. W. (2017). Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.

Dwivedi, Y. K., Wastell, D., Laumer, S., Henriksen, H. Z., Myers, M. D., Bunker, D., ... & Srivastava, S. C. (2015). Research on information systems failures and successes: Status update and future directions. Information Systems Frontiers, 17(1), 143-157.

Lorenzi, N. M., & Riley, R. T. (2013). Organizational aspects of health informatics: managing technological change. Springer Science & Business Media.