The relationship of organizational subcultures to DSS user satisfaction

Issue title: Decision Support Systems

Guest editors: Efraim Turban and Paul R. Watkins

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Kendall, Kenneth E.^a | Buffington, James R.^b | Kendall, Julie E.^a

Affiliations: [a] Dept. of Decision Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA | [b] Dept. of Systems and Decision Sciences, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN 47809, USA

Abstract: First and foremost, decision support systems must be accepted by their users if the systems are to be used. Recently, user satisfaction with DSS has been studied in several different ways. This paper explores the relationship between organizational subcultures and users of DSS, in order to discover how subcultures can be useful in explaining user satisfaction with decision support systems. Active DSS users from three functional areas of a large midwestern financial institution participated in the study. The existence of organizational subcultures was determined through multiple methods and questionnaires were used to determine user satisfaction for the same population of DSS users. The three subcultures were more successful than demographic variables in explaining variation. Implications of this study include utilizing information about subcultures to design decision support systems acceptable to the various subcultures.

Keywords: DSS, user satisfaction, organizational subcultures

DOI: 10.3233/HSM-1987-7105

Journal: Human Systems Management, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 31-39, 1987