A65. Rice,
R. E., Collins-Jarvis, L. & Zydney-Walker, S. (1999). Individual
and
structural influences on information technology helping relationships.
Journal
of Applied Communication Research, 27(4), 285-303.
Getting help in understanding how to use and
interpret a new
information
system is a crucial organizational and individual resource. Indeed,
both
informal and formal sources of information technology help are
expensive
and necessary, but largely unidentified, unmanaged, and
underresearched.
This study proposes that two types of factors influence the formation
of
information technology helping relationships: individual and
structural.
Based on a survey of employees in an organization implementing a new
workstation-based
customer database system, the study compares influences on being sought
as an informal source of IT help, and on types of help (individual or
positional)
that one seeks. One individual factor (some forms of computer
expertise)
and most structural factors (especially measures of employees’
perceived
socialization, task interdependence, and communication networks)
exerted
weak but significant influences on employees’ IT helping relationships.
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