Predicting groupware usage

As organizations are adopting new structures, groupware is increasingly being used as a way of implementing these new organizational forms. Although user acceptance of groupware technology by the intended users is a prerequisite for realizing its full potential in organizations, there is no clear understanding about why people accept or reject groupware technology. Davis's (1986, 1989) technology acceptance model (TAM) provides a useful basis in answering this question. With traditional end-user computing tools, behavioral intention measured shortly after brief training with the software can reasonably predict the usage behavior measured later in the system deployment process. Given the unique characteristics of groupware technology, however, it is not clear whether traditional TAM can be still used to predict groupware acceptance. In a longitudinal study with senior executives, intentions to use a specific groupware system, measured two weeks after the initial introduction of the technology, were found not to be correlated with system use eight weeks later. Perceived usefulness and ease of use were strongly correlated with contemporaneously measured behavioral intention and system use. These results suggest a possible existence of a social influence process in the groupware technology acceptance process. Managers need to be careful in trying to predict user acceptance using behavioral intention measured shortly after a short training or introduction of the technology to the intended users. Instead, managers may need to pay much closer attention to the social process of the groupware acceptance process in the workplace.