The acceptance of technological change in the hospitality industry from the perspective of front-line employees

Whereas past research has been valuable in explaining how “perceived usefulness” (PU) and “perceived ease of use” (PEU) constructs lead to technology acceptance and refusal behaviors in organizations, it has not explored the antecedents of these two factors. The purpose of this paper is to propose an interpretive approach to the study of front-line employees’ sense making of technological change as well as the understanding of behavioral and psychological origins of PU and PEU.

This study analyses a major transition in work mode induced by an IT innovation implemented within a leading French hospitality company. A qualitative method was employed to answer the research questions. The data were collected using 22 in-depth semi-structured interviews from front-line employees and their line managers in five 4-star hotels in Paris. The participants were asked how they made sense of the technological change and what they consider when they judge the usefulness and the ease of use during the implementation of change.

The analysis revealed that employees’ acceptance of technological change is paradoxical and shaped by a continuous process of sense making when using the IT innovation. The findings also suggest that PU can be explained by factors like job relevance, PEU and output quality. Anxiety, playfulness, perceived enjoyment, objective usability and facilitating conditions were identified as antecedents of PEU.

The paper reports the effect of perceptions of social influence, system characteristics, individual differences and facilitating conditions on PU and PEU constructs in IT adoption process. It is among the first to examine the antecedents of such beliefs in the hospitality industry through the use of a qualitative method. It also shows that that three variables – result demonstrability, computer self-efficacy and social influence process described by subjective norm and image – did not play a significant role in influencing the intensions of using the system through PU and PEU.

Understanding the antecedents of the two key predictors in technology acceptance models allows managers to implement efficient adjustments and interventions in order to positively influence employees’ IT innovation acceptance and use.

This qualitative study contributes to open the black boxes concerning the conceptualizations of PU and PEU. It advances the understanding of the employees’ acceptance of IT innovation.