Module 3 Managing People Topic 1: Managing Individuals in Organizations

Why human factor? The human factor remains as a critical factor affecting information systems success and failure. Business processes and technologies change faster than people. Changing people is more difficult than changing business processes or changing technologies

Individual Performance The goal is to maximize individual performance. Three factors affecting individual performance – Personal attributes: capacity to perform – Effort: willingness to perform – Organizational support: opportunity to perform

Personal Attributes Attributes must match task requirements to facilitate job performance. Three factors constitute personal attributes – Demographic characteristics – Competency characteristics – Personality characteristics

Work Effort Willingness to work Having only appropriate attributes is not sufficient. High performance workers need to be willing to work as well.

Organizational Support Lack of support or Situational constraints – Lack of time – Inadequate budgets – Inadequate tools, equipment or supplies – Unclear instructions or information – Unrealistic due date – Unfair levels of expected performance – Lack of job-related authority – Lack of support from coworkers – Inflexibility of procedures

Motivation Content approaches - What motivates people? Process approaches - How are they motivates? Reinforcement approaches - Why do they stay that way?

Reinforcement Approaches The law of effect Stimulus (S)  Response (R)  Consequence (C)  Four types of reinforcement - positive - negative - punishment - extinction

Reinforcement and Rewards Intrinsic rewards = come from inside an individual (e.g., feeling of accomplishment) Extrinsic rewards = given to an individual by some other person in the work setting (e.g., paycheck, timeoff, a vacation package, etc) Reinforcement is related to extrinsic rewards (I.e., awarded by other people)

Employee Resistance Lack of awareness Relegation Lack of familiarity Rejection of the solution Fear of the consequences The means Lack of interest

Dealing with employee resistance Take a holistic view Top management support Encourage participation Forster open communication Reward contributors

Management challenges Recruiting and retaining employees Take an action plan