ELSEVIER Information & Management 32 (1997) 255-266

Research

User information satisfaction, job satisfaction and computer background: An exploratory study

J. Ang , RH. Soh

Department of Decision Sciences, Faculty of Business Administration, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, National University of Singapore, Singapore 0511, Singapore

Received 10 March 1997; revised 10 March 1997; accepted 9 July 1997

Abstract

The relationships among user information satisfaction (UIS), job satisfaction and the users' computer background were examined. UIS was measured using a modified version of the short-form of UIS, while job satisfaction was measured using the short-form Minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (MSQ). We found that UIS provides a sound indication of job satisfaction. However, none of the user computer-background parameters has any significant effect on UIS and job satisfaction. Data for the study were collected from three large organizations which had similar organizational structure and comparable information systems maturity; people who used computer as part of their jobs were randomly selected to take part in the study. A study with more organizations would yield better results. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

Keywords: UIS; Job satisfaction; Computer background characteristics

1. Introduct ion

UIS I in a given computer-mediated environment refers to the 'extent to which users believe the IS available to them meets their ' information require- ments' [19]. Studies on UIS generally focus on factors influencing IS success [6, 25], the relationship of UIS with user involvement [22], and the theoretical under- pinning of the UIS construct and the validity of UIS measures [15, 21].

*Corresponding author. Fax: 65-7792621; e-mail: fbaangsk@- leonis.nus.sg.

1UIS has been widely used as a surrogate measure of information system (IS) success,

0378-7206/97/$17.00 © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved PH S-0378-7206(97)00030-X

It has been claimed that IS success improves orga- nizational productivity [28], enhance the quality of management decision [24], and improve the quality of life [30]. But these claims have not been empirically corroborated, though positive relationships between these benefits and job satisfaction have been reported in the organizational behavior literature.

The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between UIS and job satisfaction. If the relationship between UIS and job satisfaction holds, then we can focus our attention on developing IS that are perceived by their users to be 'good. ' This may in turn lead to higher productivity; this is in line with Liker et al.'s [23] suggestion after studying the use of computer-aided design (CAD) tools in both Japanese and American firms.

256 J. Ang, PH. Soh/Information & Management 32 (1997) 255-266

The second objective is to study how the computer background variables (frequency of use, user training, and computer literacy) affect UIS and job satisfaction in a computer-mediated environment where the use of computer is mandatory. Yaverbaum [31] tbund these variables to be positively correlated to UIS and job satisfaction. Her subjects were, however, from small firms where computerization was in the early stages and the use of computer was not manda- tory. Knowing which parameters affect UIS and job satisfaction in a computer-mediated environment permits us to develop better training programs for employees [7].

2.1. Hypotheses

HI: UIS is positively correlated with user job satis- faction.

Using Ostroff's [27] situational context (i.e., job satisfaction is influenced by contextual factors), we suggest that one of the most important contextual factors is organizational climate. In a computer-mediated work environment, we can expect UIS to influence organiza- tional climate, which, in turn, will influence job satisfac- tion. Past research suggests the possible association between the two constructs [5, 12, 13].

2. Framework and hypotheses H2a: Frequency of use accounts for significant differ- ences in job satisfaction and UIS.

The framework (Figure 1) focuses on the links among UIS, job satisfaction and users' computer background. Although demographic variables are included, they are not the main associations to be examined. Studies of the implications of demographic variables on job satisfaction [32, 33] and UIS [17] have been made. In this study, only the influence of organizational position was examined, because of its relative importance in organizational theory. Organi- zational positions are differentiated by the tasks assigned, and the nature of these tasks affects user satisfaction.

H2b: User training accounts for significant differ- ences in job satisfaction and UIS.

H2c: Computer literacy accounts for significant dif- ferences in job satisfaction and UIS.

The three computer background variables include the types of computer training, the number of training sessions attended per year, and computer experience, which involves the number of years that workers have used IS on their jobs. Recent research seems to suggest that these affect UIS [8, 14, 18] and job satisfaction.

Demographic variables Sex A~e Educational level Years in present job Years in the company Organizational position

Computer background Frequency of use User training Computer literacy

:triIs acf°,io ": ti°n

ID Represents the main associations to be examined in the study

Fig. 1. The framework used in the study.

J. Ang, P.H. Soh/Information & Management 32 (1997) 255-266 257

H3: Significant differences in job satisfaction and UIS exist among users at different organizational posi- tions.

Organizational level was examined in this study, because of its relative importance, both in organiza- tion theory and the MIS domain. IS have impact on power relations, decision making processes, super- vision, and control structures of an organization [ 1,26]. Workers at different levels have been reported to have different job satisfaction because of various computer-impact factors, such as deskilling and upgrading of job, shifting of responsibilities, and span of control. However, research findings are far from conclusive.

H4: Significant differences in job satisfaction and UIS exist between management users and non-manage- ment users.

Cyert and March [9] argue that organizational environment continually imposes the need for infor- mation upon managers. These requirements of the managers directly affect the quality of the decision making process, and hence the effectiveness of the organization. The effectiveness of an organization is its ability to create acceptable outcomes by meeting the demands of groups and other organizations that are concerned with its activities. Since IS are designed to support management users for decision making, their success in meeting the information requirements will significantly impact management use.

Given that the organizational information require- ments are becoming more critical at the management level, there should be a significant difference in job satisfaction and UIS between management- and non-management users. In this study, management users consist of senior, middle, and junior manage- ment staff. Non-management users include profes- sionals (defined as junior staff without supervisory responsibility), professional assistants, and clerical workers.

3. Research method

The survey questionnaire consisted of three parts: A modified short-form of the UIS measure, the MSQ

[29] and a section on user background. Reliability and validity tests for the two instruments were carried out. Hypotheses of the model were tested using ANOVA and correlation analysis.

3.1. The sample

Table 1 (a) shows the profiles of the three companies which took part in the study. While Company A and Company B developed and maintained their IS locally, Company C customized systems that were developed in other regional offices in Asia. Many functions within these companies were computerized and they both had mainframes and a network of computers.

In order not to cause any organizational perturba- tions, a staff member from the human resource depart- ment of each company served as contact person. As the departments of Company A were dispersed geo- graphically in Singapore, questionnaires were mailed directly to their various heads of departments, who then redistributed them to their own staff members. For the other two companies, the human resource personnel were requested to select, at random, employees who used computers as part of their jobs and who also liasoned with the application systems analysts/programmers for requirement changes and upgrading.

A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed to subjects from different departments and at different organizational levels of each company. 133 question- naires were returned, representing a response rate of 44 percent. All returned questionnaires were combined in the data analysis, as these companies were conceptually similar and shared the same level of IS maturity. Table l(b) shows the subjects' responses on user characteristics and computer-related variables.

3.2. The questionnaire

3.2.1. The modified version of the short-form UIS measure

Baroudi and Orlikowski [4] tested the psychometric properties of the short-form measure of UIS (devel- oped by Ives et al.) using a sample of 385 employees from a variety of industries. They found the measure reasonably valid and reliable. Three factors were identified. They are:

258

Table 1

J. Ang, P.H. Soh/lnformation & Management 32 (1997) 255-266

Table l(a)

Company Business Total number Number of No. of users # Response rate of employees * IS staff *

A + Transportation 14,000 350(2.5%) B + Banking 3,000 250(8.3%) C Insurance 340 40(11.7%)

* Figures are approximate. # Number of computer users who took part in the survey. + Company A and B had a large number of staff whose job did not require the use of computers. The actual numbers were not revealed to us. Table l(b)

200 62(31%) 70 56(80%) 30 15(50%)

Sex

Male 57 Female 74 Missing observation 2

Age Below 26 24 26-30 32 31-35 33 36--40 26 41-45 14 46 and above 4

Years in company Less than 1 10 1-3 33 4-45 16 7-9 12 Over 9 62

Organizational position Senior management 10 Middle management 35 Junior management 51 Professionals + 6 Professional assistant 4 Clerical staff 27

* Certificate in computing and secretariat. + Professionals defined as junior staff without supervisory responsibility.

Educational level

Pre-university and below 47 Diploma 17 Degree 66 Others * 2 Missing observation 1

Years in present job Less than 1 22 1-3 46 4-6 22 7-9 11 Over 9 32

Frequency of use by organizational position (Two missing observations)

< 4/month Once a week Once a day Several/day Whole day

Sr mgmt 4 5 1 Mid mgmt 3 4 8 17 2 Jr mgmt 1 6 8 32 4 Professional 5 1 Prof. assts. 2 2 Clerical 1 1 7 15 2 Total 5 11 29 76 10

(continued)

J. Ang, P.H. Soh/Information & Management 32 (1997) 255-266

Table 1 (Continued) Average number of training sessions per year by organizational position

259

No training 1-2 3-4 No Response Total

Senior management 3 4 1 2 10 Middle management 12 21 1 1 35 Junior management 18 24 1 8 51 Professionals 2 3 0 1 6 Professional assistant 1 1 1 1 4 Clerical 11 14 0 2 27 Total 47 67 4 15 133

Types of training conducted for users (Of the 133 users, 86 (64.7%) had received formal computer training in their present jobs. 75 of them had attended at least one of the types of training as mentioned above. 11 gave no indication. They probably had either no idea or forgotten by whom and where the training was conducted)

a. In-house by IS staff

b. In-house by consultants or vendors c. External training Number of users who attended the following combinations of training (a,b,c) 4 (a,c) 9 (b,c) 1 (a) 42 (b) 2 (c) 17 Total: 75

Years of experience by organizational position (Years of experience refers to the number of years respondents had been using computer at work)

Less than 1 year 1-3 years 4-6 years 7-9 years Over 9 years

Senior management 2 4 2 2 0 Middle management 0 9 16 7 3 Junior management 5 16 10 12 8 Professionals 0 2 1 1 2 Professional assistant 0 2 1 1 0 Clerical 1 9 7 6 4 Total 8(6%) 42(31.6%) 37(27.8%) 29(21.8%) 17(12.8%)

Information product: The respondents' self- reported assessment of the quality of output delivered by the IS.

EDP staff and services: The respondents' self- reported assessment of the attitude and responsive- ness, as well as the quality of their relationship with the EDP staff.

Knowledge and involvement: The respondents' self- reported assessment of the quality of training pro- vided, their understanding of the system, and their participation in its development.

The 13 items were examined for similarity of meaning and two were eliminated. They are 'precision

of output information' and 'relationship with the EDP staff.' We consulted our IS faculty members on the remaining 11 items. Acting on their advice, three items from the original UIS [2] instrument, and five of the six items from Davis' [10] perceived usefulness measure were included. The original UIS items added are: 'timeliness of output information,' 'currency (up- to-dateness) of output information' and 'usefulness of documentation.' The rationale for doing so was that the participant companies relied heavily on the time- liness and currency of output information for decision making, and documentation was one of the main services provided by their IS departments.

260 J. Ang, P.H. Soh/lnformation & Management 32 (1997) 255-266

Davis stated that perceived usefulness depends on the extent to which an application contributes to the enhancement of the user's job performance. It is, therefore, conceptually possible that the usefulness of an IS has implication on user job satisfaction. The five Davis items are speed, job performance, produc- tivity, easiness and usefulness. The item dropped is 'using computer would enhance user job effective- ness' as the IS faculty members felt that the definition of job effectiveness overlaps those of productivity and performance.

3.2.2. Minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (MSQ) The MSQ measures the degree of job satisfaction.

The short form, which consists of 20 items, was used in this study. Each of the 20 items represents a feature in the work environment.

Three job satisfaction indices were used: Intrinsic, extrinsic, and overall job satisfaction. Intrinsic satis- faction refers to satisfaction derived from the work itself, such as feelings of accomplishment and perso- nal growth, while extrinsic satisfaction refers to the benefits associated with doing the job rather than the work itself. Examples of extrinsic satisfaction are pay, promotion and work conditions. Herzberg's [16] two factor theory provides the underlying explanation for intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. The indices for these can be calculated by averaging the scores of the respective component items, whereas the overall job satisfaction index was calculated by averaging all the 20 items.

3.3. Validating the instruments

For factor analysis, the principal component method with varimax rotation and eigenvalue greater than 1 was used. Four factors (Table 2) were generated for the modified version of the UIS measure, the additional factors being the usefulness construct of Davis. Two of the four factors, usefulness and product informatiOn, have all the relevant items loaded on them. However, three items loaded differently from those reported by Ives et al. and Baroudi and Orli- kowski. 'User involvement' and 'understanding of system' loaded high on EDP staff and services instead of user knowledge, and 'processing of requests for changes' loaded high on user knowledge instead of EDP staff and services. 'Processing of requests for changes' was found to have similar loading under both EDP staff and services and user knowledge in the study by Baroudi and Orlikowski. Extension of a well- established instrument may result in slightly different factor loading, but this does not affect the stability of the factor structure of the 'modified' UIS measure.

Two factors were generated for MSQ (Table 3). They are intrinsic satisfaction and extrinsic satisfac- tion. As expected, all 20 items loaded on their respec- tive factors. Reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha (Table 4).

4. Results of data analysis

ANOVA and correlation analysis were performed to test the six hypotheses. The statistical package SPSS release 4.0 for Macintosh was used for the data analysis.

Although both instruments are reasonably reliable and valid, the psychometric characteristics of the modified version of the UIS and the MSQ measures were tested, since new items were included in the former.

Construct validity was tested using item-total correlation and factor analysis on both instruments, even though MSQ is well established. The item- total correlations of both instruments are all positive and significant at the 0.001 level. The 19 UIS correlations range from 0.39 to 0.64 with seven of them at levels below 0.50. The 20 MSQ correlations range from 0.31 to 0.70 with nine of them below 0.50.

4.1. Statistical results

Each UIS item was measured by a pair of semantic differentials (adjective pairs) scored from 1 to 7. A five-point Likert scale from 1 (dissatisfied) to 5 (satis- fied) was used to measure each MSQ item. Table 5 shows the means of overall UIS, overall job satisfac- tion, and their respective factors.

4.1.1. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) ANOVA was performed to test the differences in the

UIS index and job satisfaction indices by frequency of use, number of training, and computer literacy. Table 6 shows only the ANOVA results for organiza-

J. Ang, P.H. Soh/lnformation & Management 32 (1997) 255-266 261

Table 2

Factor analysis of UIS

Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 Items Information product Usefulness EDP staff and services User knowledge

Information product 9. Accuracy of output information 0.84

8. Completeness of output information 0.83

7. Timeliness of output information 0.82

6. Reliability of output information 0.73 11. Currency of output information 0.71 10. Relevance of output information 0.70

0.18 0.15 0.18

0.12 0.20 0.22

-0.1 0.13 0.13

0.22 0.11 0.03 0.26 0.20 0.07

0.23 0.21 0.05

Usefulness 1. Productivity 0.19 0.82 0.18 0.11

3. Usefulness of system 0.01 0.80 0.20 0.07

2. Job performance 0.21 0.77 0.14 -0.05

4. Speed to accomplish the tasks 0.28 0.68 0.13 0.08 5. Doing my job with the system 0.26 0.56 0.04 0.49

EDP staff and services 12. Communication with the IS staff 0.19

15. Attitude of the IS staff 0.21

13. User involvement a 0.06

14. Understanding of the system a 0.34 19. Elapsed time for system development 0.14

0.14 0.82 0.18

0.10 0.77 0.19

0.19 0.76 a 0.21

0.22 0.68 a 0.02 0.07 0.40 0.28

User knowledge 17. Computer training 0.04 0.00 0.17 0.81 18. User manual 0.21 0.01 0.25 0.77

16. Processing of requests for changes a 0.13 0.19 0.25 0.75 a

a Items 13 and 14 were listed under Factor 4 in Ives et al. (1983) and Baroudi and Orlikowski (1988), while item 16 was found to have similar factor loading under both Factors 3 and 4 in Baroudi and Orlikowski.

tional positions and managerial/non-managerial posi- tions. No significant difference was found in the UIS index. There is also no significant difference in all the three job satisfaction indices and the UIS index for the computer background variables. As such, H2a, H2b, H2c, and the part of H3 and H4 on the relationships between UIS and organizational positions and man- agerial/non-managerial users can be rejected.

4.1.2. Correlation analysis Table 7 shows the Spearman and Pearson correla-

tion coefficients between the UIS index and the job satisfaction index, and user characteristics and com- puter background. None of the coefficients is signifi- cant for user computer background, lending further support for the rejection of H2. 'Organizational posi- tion' is negatively correlated with job satisfaction and

this significant relationship suggests that the part of H3 dealing with job satisfaction and organizational positions cannot be rejected. A negative correlation is obtained because 'senior management' is coded 1, 'middle management' 2, and so on. 'Age' is the only user characteristic that is positively correlated with both UIS and job satisfaction at significant level 0.1 and 0.05, respectively. 'Educational level' and 'num- ber of years in company' are correlated with UIS at the significant level of 0.05. No significant correlation is found in 'sex' and 'number of years in the present job.'

Table 8 shows the correlation coefficients between the UIS index and the UIS factor indices, and the three job satisfaction indices. The UIS index is positively correlated with job satisfaction, intrinsic, and extrinsic satisfaction at the 0.05 level or better. Hence, H 1 cannot be rejected.

262

Table 3 Factor analysis of job satisfaction

J. Ang, P..H. Soh/lnformation & Management 32 (1997) 255-266

Items Factor 1 Factor 2 Intrinsic satisfaction Extrinsic satisfaction

Intrinsic satisfaction 2. The chance to do different things from time to time to time 15. The freedom to use my own judgement 9. The chance to be 'somebody' in the community 8. The chance to do things for other people 10. The chance to tell people what to do 20. The feeling of accomplishment I get from the job 6. Being able to do things that don't go against my conscience 11. The chance to do something that makes use of my abilities 7. The way my job provides for steady employment 16. The chance to try my own methods of doing the job 1. The chance to work alone on the job 18. The way my co-workers get along with each other 3. Being able to keep busy all the time

Extrinsic satisfaction 4. The way my boss handles his/her workers 19. The praise I get for doing a good job 17, The working conditions 14. The chances for advancement on this job 12. The way company policies are put into practice 5. The competence of my supervisor in making decisions 13. My pay and the amount of work I do

0.75 0.16 0.69 0.42 0.64 0.35 0.63 -0.08 0.63 0.22 0.57 0.24 0.57 0.22 0.56 0.46 0.53 -0.0 0.52 0.46 0.46 0.09 0.39 0.27 0.27 0.21

-0.12 0.80 0.24 0.67 0.22 0.65 0.27 0.64 0.21 0.62 0.18 0.59 0.18 0.58

Table 4 Reliability alpha for UIS and MSQ factors

Factors Cronbach alpha

UIS Usefulness 0.83 Information 0.89 EDP staff and services 0.80 User knowledge 0.78

MSQ Intrinsic 0.86 Extrinsic 0.81

4.2. Discussion

W e found no e v i d e n c e tha t c o m p u t e r b a c k g r o u n d

va r i ab les have any s igni f icant r e l a t ionsh ips w i th j o b

sa t i s fac t ion or UIS. O n e poss ib l e e x p l a n a t i o n is tha t

the o rgan i za t i ons u n d e r s tudy h a d a c h i e v e d a subs tan-

t ial leve l o f IS ma tu r i t y and tha t the use o f IS was

manda to ry . Hence , the e f fec t o f these va r i ab les was

m i n i m a l . However , age was f o u n d to be r e l a t ed sig-

n i f icant ly w i th j o b sa t i s fac t ion and UIS, w i th o lde r

e m p l o y e e s r epor t ing h i g h e r levels o f UIS and o f j o b

sa t i s fac t ion. T h e pos i t ive r e l a t i onsh ip b e t w e e n age and

Table 5 Means of UIS and UIS factors

Overall satisfaction Usefulness of system Information product EDP staff and services User knowledge

Mean scores 5.30 5.59 5.67 5.2 4.21 Means of job satisfaction and job satisfaction factors

Overall satisfaction Intrinsic satisfaction Extrinsic satisfaction Mean scores 3.67 3.85 3.31

J. Ang, P.H. Soh/lnformation & Management 32 (1997) 255-266

Table 6 ANOVA results for organizational positions, and managerial and non-managerial positions

263

Satisfaction variable Computer background and Degree of freedom F-value Prob>F organizational positions

UIS Index ~ Job satisfaction Organizational position 5 2.65 0.03

Managerial & non-managerial position 1 7.10 0.01 Intrinsic satisfaction Managerial & non-managerial position 1 3.58 0.06 Extrinsic satisfaction organizational position 5 1.90 0. l0

Managerial and non-managerial position 1 3.18 0.08

a No significant findings. Note: The ANOVA results for frequency of use, user training, and computer literacy are not shown because they are not significant.

Table 7 Correlation among UIS index, bob satisfaction (JS) index, user characteristics and computer background

UIS index JS index

Spearman Pearson Spearman Pearson

User characteristics Sex -0.01 -0.01 -0.08 -0.07 Age 0.16 ~ 0.10 0.20 b 0.21 b Educational level -0.21 b -0.13 -0.00 0.02 No. of years in company 0.19 b 0.17 ~ 0.06 0.11 No. of years in the present job 0.08 0.03 0.04 0.03 Organizational position 0.00 0.01 -0.28 b -0.27 b

Computer background Computer experience 0.04 0.03 0.03 -0.00 Frequency of use -0.03 -0.00 -0.05 -0.06 Type of computer training -0.06 -0.04 -0.03 -0.5 No. of training attended 0.14 0.17 0.06 0.11

Two-tailed significance. Significant at P < 0.1.

b Significant at P < .05.

Table 8

JS index

Spearman

UIS index 0.40 ¢ UIS factor 1 (Information product) 0.09 UIS factor 2 (Usefulness) 0.17 a UIS factor 3 (EDP staff and services) 0.24 b UIS factor 4 (User knowledge) 0.26 b

JS factor 1 intrinsic satisfaction JS factor 2 extrinsic satisfaction

Pearson Spearman Pearson Spearman Pearson

0.44 ¢ 0.20 b 0.25 b 0.33 c 0.37 °

0.17 a 0.02 0.05 0.11 0.18 a 0.15 0.12 0.09 0.05 0.12 0.27 b 0.26 b 0.30 b 0.09 0.08 0.29 b 0.3 0.4 0.33 c 0.36 ¢

Two-tailed significance. a Significant at P < 0.1. b Significant at P < 0.05.

Significant at P < 0.001.

264 z Ang, P.H. Soh/lnformation & Management 32 (1997) 255-266

job satisfaction is consistent with Judge and Watana- be's [20] finding that job satisfaction and life satisfac- tion are significantly as well as reciprocally related. Life satisfaction, according to Diener [11], increases with age. A probable reason for the positive relation- ship between age and UIS is that the older employees in this study were those between 31 and 45 years of age (only three were aged 46 and above), an age group whose growth need strength is high. Besides task variety and increased responsibility (which are asso- ciated with higher organizational positions), compu- ters, since their use was mandatory, probably provided them with a means to enhance their growth need strength.

Job satisfaction (both intrinsic and extrinsic) was found to be positively related to organizational posi- tions and managerial/non-managerial users. Each organizational level has a different set of immediate task activities and it is these activities that link the individual to the organization. Task activities asso- ciated with higher level positions tend to be high in variety, a feature that is intrinsic satisfying. The level also determines the type of rewards (an important extrinsic satisfaction item) available to the job holder as well as the degree of job satisfaction. The same reasoning also applies to managerial/non-managerial users. One possible reason why UIS is not significantly related to organizational position and manage- rial/non-managerial position is that computer usage in different functions affect different groups quite differently, independently of their organizational sta- tus. For example, computer usage in research-related functions (where task variety is high), just like the design engineers in Liker et al's study, could result in a higher level of UIS compared to computer usage in administrative functions (where task variety is more orderly), regardless of the workers' organizational status.

Educational level was negatively correlated with UIS, while the number of years in company was positively correlated with UIS. A plausible explana- tion for the negative correlation between UIS and educational level is that local institutions of higher learning in Singapore (e.g., polytechnics, universities) place greater emphasis on computer skills by includ- ing them in the academic curricula. Employees who have been equipped with such skills (from the institu- tions) would have higher expectations (demands) for

good computer systems, especially if computer use is essential for accomplishing their duties. Hence, they are likely to be less tolerant of systems that are not useful or if the MIS department has poor services or uncooperative staff. Since computer use was manda- tory in the organization under study, it is likely that employees who had been with the company for a long time would be more comfortable with the computer- mediated work environment. This could explain the positive correlation between UIS and the number of years in company.

The study indicated that job satisfaction and UIS were highly correlated. In other words, the general user perception of information satisfaction and ser- vices does reflect job attitudes and vice versa. There- fore, in attempting to improve the job satisfaction of end-user employees, an additional focus would be on improving the level of their UIS (i.e., factors such as user knowledge of IS, quality of service provided by the MIS staff, and quality of output delivered by the IS). Similarly, organizations wanting to increase the UIS level should not overlook the importance of job satisfaction factors, such as pay, working conditions, feeling of accomplishment etc. Since it is easier for management to implement schemes to increase extrin- sic rather than intrinsic satisfaction, management should look at ways to reward employees, create better working conditions, etc. For example, users who are more knowledgeable about systems (the UIS factor which correlates significantly with job satisfaction) tend to be in greater control of their job situation, especially in a computer-mediated environment. This sense of control could be indirectly translated into higher confidence in their job advancement prospects, or, at least, greater satisfaction with the working environment in which the computer is perceived as a valuable tool. In the case of MIS staff and services, higher service quality level provided by the MIS department may influence the perceptions of the end-users' working conditions.

If UIS and job satisfaction are highly correlated, then we can explore new ways of work redesign. Instead of trying to reconfigure existing work pro- cesses, we can focus our attention on developing a computer-mediated environment with IS that are per- ceived by their users to be 'good.' In order to achieve this, management has to get users actively involved in the analysis, design and implementation of the IS.

J. Ang, PH. Soh/lnformation & Management 32 (19971 255-266 265

Invo lvemen t must be more than jus t symbol ic ; it must

be active, wi th the users p rov id ing useful inputs at

each stage o f the systems deve lopmen t process. User

invo lvement is important because it restores and

enhances pe rce ived control on the part o f end users

[3]. This sense o f control tends to reduce the threaten-

ing quali ty o f the sys tem's implementa t ion experi-

ence, thus leading to higher levels of UIS and job

satisfaction.

5. Limitations

Many crit ical factors that have direct inf luence on or

in tervening effect be tween UIS and j o b sat isfact ion

were omit ted to keep the f ramework simple. By

inc luding such factors as organizat ional c l imate, cog-

ni t ive di f ferences and nature of tasks, a deeper insight

can be gained into relat ionship be tween the two con-

structs. The significant correlat ions be tween UIS and

job sat isfact ion and certain demograph ic variables

(e.g., age, educat ional level) indicate that these vari-

ables could be important in tervening variables. Our

explora tory f ramework only factored in the users '

compute r background and their organizat ional posi-

tions. An extens ion o f this study would be a more

comprehens ive one, where these other variables are

included.

Owing to the diff iculty o f get t ing companies to

part icipate in this project , the study has to be restr icted

to three organizat ions that have comparab le organiza-

tional structure and IS maturity. A more comprehen-

sive f ramework that includes other influential factors

coupled with more sample points would yield more

insightful results.

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