Internet and Workplace

Employee Resistance to Digital Information and Information Technology Change in a Social Service Agency

By Kathryn R. Stam, Jeffrey M. Stanton and Indira R. Guzman

The study is conducted on social services agency workers who resisted the use of lap tops during their field visits. The research was conducted to determine the reason for their resistance considering in mind that for social service workers, the most important factor of their job is the service , they provide to their clients.

The study adopted 3 theories to develop their results. Data Gathering methodology was in depth Interviewing of Social Service workers.

The routine of workers was that they had to go from door to door to their clients and fill up forms for them so that they can apply for social service. The huge amount of paper work was creating in efficiencies for the agency and clients had to wait a long time before they received some form of service. The company decided to use Lap tops so that Data is directly entered into soft ware. In this way the processing time would be reduced and it was a cost effective method. But to their surprise most of the social service workers resisted using Laptops.

Following were the major reasons that Social Service workers resisted the use of Laptops during their visits. The results have been compiled from interviews

1. They were offended by organization’s treatment of them especially because of the cell phone restriction. They felt that they were being controlled.

2. They felt that their clients will not feel comfortable because of new technology

3. Learning how to use lap tops was hard

4. Carrying Lap tops in the field would be in convenient

5. They had fear of theft / burglary of Lap tops.

6. Lap tops would slow their work down and an intrusive Lap top will hamper their personal relationships with their clients because they will look rude sitting in front of a Laptop instead of having eye to eye contact with their clients.

7. The clients