Information technology (IT) acceptance research has yielded many competing models, each with different sets of acceptance determinants. In this paper, we (1) review user acceptance literature and discuss eight prominent models, (2) empirically compare the eight models and their extensions, (3) formulate a unified model that integrates elements across the eight models, and (4) empirically validate the unified model. The eight models reviewed are the theory of reasoned action, the technology acceptance model, the motivational model, the theory of planned behavior, a model combining the technology acceptance model and the theory of planned behavior, the model of PC utilization, the innovation diffusion theory, and the social cognitive theory. Using data from four organizations over a six-month period with three points of measurement, the eight models explained between 17 percent and 53 percent of the variance in user intentions to use information technology. Next, a unified model, called the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), was formulated, with four core determinants of intention and usage, and up to four moderators of key relationships. UTAUT was then tested using the original data and found to outperform the eight individual models (adjusted R2 of 69 percent). UTAUT was then confirmed with data from two new organizations with similar results (adjusted R2 of 70 percent). UTAUT thus provides a useful tool for managers needing to assess the likelihood of success for new technology introductions and helps them understand the drivers of acceptance in order to proactively design interventions (including training, marketing, etc.) targeted at populations of users that may be less inclined to adopt and use new systems. The paper also makes several recommendations for future research including developing a deeper understanding of the dynamic influences studied here, refining measurement of the core constructs used in UTAUT, and understanding the organizational outcomes associated with new technology use.

User acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view

The authors reviewed more than 70 studies concerning employees' general belief that their work organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being (perceived organizational support; POS). A meta-analysis indicated that 3 major categories of beneficial treatment received by employees (i.e., fairness, supervisor support, and organizational rewards and favorable job conditions) were associated with POS. POS, in turn, was related to outcomes favorable to employees (e.g., job satisfaction, positive mood) and the organization (e.g., affective commitment, performance, and lessened withdrawal behavior). These relationships depended on processes assumed by organizational support theory: employees' belief that the organization's actions were discretionary, feeling of obligation to aid the organization, fulfillment of socioemotional needs, and performance-reward expectancies.

/pdf/perceived-organizational-support-a-review-of-the-literature-44wwivd3l8.pdf

Perceived organizational support: A review of the literature.

Numerous studies show that happy individuals are successful across multiple life domains, including marriage, friendship, income, work performance, and health. The authors suggest a conceptual model to account for these findings, arguing that the happiness-success link exists not only because success makes people happy, but also because positive affect engenders success. Three classes of evidence--crosssectional, longitudinal, and experimental--are documented to test their model. Relevant studies are described and their effect sizes combined meta-analytically. The results reveal that happiness is associated with and precedes numerous successful outcomes, as well as behaviors paralleling success. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that positive affect--the hallmark of well-being--may be the cause of many of the desirable characteristics, resources, and successes correlated with happiness. Limitations, empirical issues, and important future research questions are discussed.

/pdf/the-benefits-of-frequent-positive-affect-does-happiness-lead-4k0h6bmoho.pdf

The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?

University of TorontoThe authors summarize 35 years of empirical research ongoal-setting theory. They describe the core ﬁndings of thetheory, the mechanisms by which goals operate, modera-tors of goal effects, the relation of goals and satisfaction,and the role of goals as mediators of incentives. Theexternal validity and practical signiﬁcance of goal-settingtheory are explained, and new directions in goal-settingresearch are discussed. The relationships of goal setting toother theories are described as are the theory’s limitations.

https://home.ubalt.edu/tmitch/642/articles syllabus/locke pract goal setting 2002 am psy.pdf

Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation

Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment as Predictors of Organizational Citizenship and In-Role Behaviors:

The construct of prosocial organizational behavior is defined and 13 specific forms are described. They vary according to whether they are functional or dysfunctional for organizational effectiveness, prescribed or not prescribed as part of one's organizational role, and directed toward an individual or organizational target. Potential predictors and determinants drawn from the social psychological literature suggest an agenda for research in organizational settings.

Prosocial Organizational Behaviors

This article distinguishes between task and contextual activities, and a taxonomy of contextual performance containing elements of organizational citizenship behavior and prosocial organizational behavior is offered. Evidence is presented demonstrating that supervisors weight roughly equally subordinate task and contextual performance when making overall judgments of their performance. This, along with data showing that personality successfully predicts contextual performance, provides an alternative explanation for recent meta-analytic findings that personality correlates moderately with overall performance. Personality may be predicting the contextual component of overall performance. Results from studies using the Hogan Personality Inventory confirm that correlations between personality and contextual criteria are higher than correlations between personality and overall performance. We argue that finding such links between predictors and individual criterion elements significantly advances the science ...

Task Performance and Contextual Performance: The Meaning for Personnel Selection Research

This study tests the merit of the distinction made by W. C. Borman and S. J. Motowidlo (1993) between task performance and contextual performance. Supervisors rated 421 U.S. Air Force mechanics on their task performance, contextual performance, and overall performance. Data on length of air force experience, ability, training performance, and personality were also available for many of these mechanics. Results showed that both task performance and contextual performance contribute independently to overall performance. Experience is more highly correlated with task performance than with contextual performance, and personality variables are more highly correlated with contextual performance than with task performance. These results support the distinction between task performance and contextual performance and confirm that performance, at least as judged by supervisors, is multidimensional

Evidence that task performance should be distinguished from contextual performance.

This article describes a theory of job performance that assumes that job performance is behavioral, episodic, evaluative, and multidimensional. It defines job performance as the aggregated value to the organization of the discrete behavioral episodes that an individual performs over a standard interval of time. It uses the distinction between task and contextual performance to begin to identify and define underlying dimen- sions of the behavioral episodes that make up the performance domain. The theory predicts that individual differences in personality and cognitive ability variables, in combination with learning experiences, lead to variability in knowledge, skills, and work habits that mediate effects of personality and cognitive ability on job perform- ance. An especially important aspect of this theory is that it predicts that the kinds of knowledge, skills, work habits, and traits that are associated with task performance are different from the kinds that are associated with contextual performance.

A Theory of Individual Differences in Task and Contextual Performance

This study attempts to refine the construct of contextual performance by dividing it into 2 narrower constructs, interpersonal facilitation and job dedication. Supervisors rated 975 U.S. Air Force mechanics on at least 1 of 4 aspects of job performance (different supervisors rated each aspect of performance), and 515 of these mechanics also completed self-report individual difference measures. Correlations between performance ratings and individual difference variables support distinguishing task performance from interpersonal facilitation but not from job dedication. Thus this study suggests the need to redefine task performance to include motivational elements of job dedication. Then task performance would include task proficiency and motivation to perform one's own tasks effectively, and contextual performance would include interpersonal skills, the motivation to maintain good working relationships and help others perform their tasks.

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/apl/81/5/525.pdf

Stephan J. Motowidlo

Papers

Prosocial Organizational Behaviors

Task Performance and Contextual Performance: The Meaning for Personnel Selection Research

Evidence that task performance should be distinguished from contextual performance.

A Theory of Individual Differences in Task and Contextual Performance

Interpersonal facilitation and job dedication as separate facets of contextual performance.