A Social Cognitive View of Technical Support and its Influence on User Learning

Understanding how to develop users’ skills and abilities and how to best support users in their everyday use of technology remains a key managerial problem. This study uses Bandura’s social cognitive theory (1986) to focus on the everyday phenomenon of technical support as a mechanism of vicarious learning through which users learn about their technology. We argue that this conceptualization aids in understanding how and why users gain value from support. Focusing specifically on support provided through a technical help desk at a large, distributed financial services organization, this study randomly collected 100 audiotaped support calls and matched them with user evaluations of the support provided. By examining the behaviors that characterize the provision of support by IT professionals and linking these characteristics to users’ reactions including learning, this research will result in a more grounded model of support and its relationship to users’ development of self-efficacy, satisfaction, and knowledge about technology.

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