The effect of training on auditors' acceptance of an electronic work system

Abstract

This article investigates the effect of training on user acceptance of an electronic audit–workpaper system. Electronic work systems are implemented by organizations to reduce storage costs, facilitate communication, and improve efficiency and effectiveness. However, these goals may not be achieved because users who resist the system may try to duplicate tasks using paper methods, bypass the system, etc. Because training is an intervention under the control of management, study of factors that affect the success of training in improving knowledge workers' acceptance of new work systems is clearly important. The purpose of this article is to study the role of users' perceptions of their task and computer self-efficacy on their perceptions of system quality and their intention to use the system as intended by developers and to investigate whether training-related shifts in self-perceptions are associated with improvement in system acceptance. We investigate these issues using data on 289 senior/staff auditors (workpaper preparers) and 142 manager/partner auditors (workpaper reviewers) who undertook intensive system-specific firm-sponsored training. We find that training is associated with shifts in preparers' perceptions of their task and computer self-efficacy, but that reviewers' self-perceptions did not change on average. For both groups, increases in computer self-efficacy are positively associated with shifts in system ease of use perceptions, and increases in preparers' task self-efficacy are also positively associated with shifts in their ease of use perceptions. These results imply that an important mechanism through which training improves system acceptance is through its effect on users' views of both their task and computer self-efficacy.