User Satisfaction in the Internet-Anchored Workplace: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT Empirical research on the impact of the Internet on work life is in its infancy. We report the results of an empirical study of the relationships among user satisfaction, job satisfaction changes, user's behavior (training, experience, and system usage) and demographics (age, gender, and organizational position) in the Internet-anchored workplace. Respondents who report higher levels of user satisfaction with the Internet also report that the Internet has increased their satisfaction with their jobs. Those who report more training, experience and usage and are younger also report higher levels of user satisfaction. Interestingly, there are no differences in user satisfaction reported by men and women. Respondents report more positive changes in job satisfaction with higher levels of Internet experience and time of use. Based on the results recommendations are made for managers and suggestions for future research are given. INTRODUCTION During the last two decades, user satisfaction has been an important construct in Information Systems (IS) behavioral research (DeLone and McLean 1992; Galletta and Lederer 1989; Ives, Olson, and Baroudi 1983). The continuing interest in user satisfaction can be linked to the development and central role of end-user computing (EUC). One of the most significant phenomenon to occur in the information systems industry in the 1980's and early 1990's EUC moved information systems from back office mainframes to front office microcomputers as end users used application software as well as the outputs of computer technology. With the growing importance of EUC, researchers focused on the antecedents and evaluation of the success of information systems through the lenses of the end user (DeLone and McLean 1992; Doll and Torkzadeh 1988). For the most part, research on user satisfaction focused on satisfaction of the end user with information products such as decision support, databases, exception reporting, monitoring and word processing, and the IS staff and service (Doll and Torkzadeh 1988; Galletta and Lederer 1989; Igbaria and Nachman 1990; Kettinger and Lee 1994; Ang and Soh 1997). Little research has focused on end user satisfaction with the Internet. The reach and responsibility of the end user has moved into another phase as organizations integrate the Internet into all aspects of the business (Hamm, Welch, Zellner, Keenan, Engardio 2001). The Internet grew slowly as an electronic forum for academic and scientific researchers in the 1970s. Vast quantities of information were scattered about the network, primarily in a text-based format, but finding this information was difficult. The development that made the Internet a "twenty-five year overnight success" was the creation of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and the server/browser software to view the interconnected documents that became the World-Wide-Web or the Web. It is this layer of the Internet architecture, the Web, which has become synonymous with the Internet, with the two terms, Internet and Web, often being used interchangeably, a convention that we follow in this work. The rapid development and pervasiveness of the Internet raises the question of the applicability and generalizability of previous research on the antecedents and relationships of user satisfaction in the microcomputer-anchored workplace vis-A-vis user satisfaction in the Internet-anchored workplace. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore how individuals have adjusted to the introduction of the Internet into their workplaces by examining user satisfaction with the Internet, its antecedents and its relationship with changes in job satisfaction. Specifically we are interested in discovering if there are differences in user satisfaction with the Internet based on workplace behavioral experiences with the Internet and whether user satisfaction is associated with Internet induced changes in overall satisfaction with the job. …