Measurement of work system flexibility as an outcome variable for studies of emerging technologies in MIS research

Abstract

It is proposed that researchers interested in assessing the effects of emerging information technology on organizations use local outcome variables to allow better testing of theory. The authors introduce such a variable, work system flexibility. Work system flexibility is defined in terms of links among system components-people, tools, and tasks. Flexible work systems are those that continue to function even when links among components are broken. The concept of work system flexibility is developed and related to ideas from MIS and other disciplines. An instrument to quantify the construct is presented. The instrument provided is in template form, allowing researchers to develop unique versions to fit their research contexts. The form of the instrument given, is oriented towards a research context in which a computer aided software engineering product is being introduced. >