Communication skills importance and proficiency: perception differences between IS staff and IS users
Introduction
Experts claim that the greatest threat to the success of any information system (IS) project is a failure to communicate (Cronan & Means, 1984; Lee, Trauth, & Farwell, 1995; Schwalbe, 2000). System implementation outcomes can be largely determined by the degree of how well IS staff and IS users work together (Barki & Hartwick, 1994; Jiang, Klein, & Balloun, 1997). The relationship between the IS staff and IS users could translate directly into the success or failure of major IS development projects (Ives & Olson, 1984) and indirectly into the IS staff member's job-related performance evaluation (Jiang, Sobol, & Klein, 2000). Effective communication between IS staff and IS users, thus, are critical to the successful development of an IS (Klein & Jiang, 2001).
User involvement and user participation in the design and operation of IS have several positive results (Ives & Olson, 1984). Incorporating the user's knowledge and expertise leads to better solutions; however, IS users often take a very narrow and limited view of the problem to be solved and overlook the innovative ways to apply information technology. On the other hand, IS professionals often have a highly technical orientation to problem solving and overlook the human information needs (Jiang, Klein, & Means, 1999). The outcome would most likely be inferior if the IS staff tried to design systems entirely on its own (Markus & Keil, 1994). Unfortunately, communication between users and IS staff is hindered because the two groups tend to have different backgrounds, interests, expectations, and priorities (Jiang et al., 2000).
The IS literature has recognized these differences, which are referred to as the “user-designer communication gap” (Laudon & Laudon, 1996). This communication gap can be a tremendous barrier to achieving a final system that meets the needs of an organization. This barrier presents a problem as researchers have shown that a difference in skill importance between users and IS professionals can lead to the failure of a system under development (Ginzberg, 1981; Linberg, 1999). So it is important to know if IS staff and IS users are in agreement on the essential written and oral communication skills for IS staff members. If they are not, the gap between the two can be very costly in terms of system failure (Klein & Jiang, 2001). When the IS staff begins to align with the expectations of the users, the consonance necessary for success is more likely achieved. Such a consonance will be reflected in the similar perception of the importance of various skills (Lee et al., 1995); so the questions become, what are the communications skill requirements as perceived by both IS users and IS staff, do the IS staff meet the expectations of the IS users, and do the IS users converge on their perceptions of required communication skills? These are examined by constructing hypotheses using group type as independent variables and the importance and perception of skill levels as the dependent variables. Exploration of the data will serve to examine specific group differences.
Communication effectiveness is not only affected by the choice of communication methods among the participants but also their proficiency levels. Researchers have identified some factors (e.g., work settings) that may influence the choice of communication methods, but how IS professionals have demonstrated their communication skill proficiency as perceived by IS users is not reported in the literature (Belanger, 1999). A perceived proficiency gap between IS professionals and IS users indicates a problem of communication. In fact, a communication gap between IS users and IS professionals has been identified as a factor in system failure—leading to misunderstanding user requirements and lower levels of user satisfaction (Cronan & Means, 1984; Lee et al., 1995). Additionally, false impressions of self-performance may lead to career derailment on the part of the IS professional (London & Smith, 1995). Thus, a performance gap has detrimental implications to the system, the user, and the IS professional.
Although, communication skill importance has long been recognized in the IS literature, the differences between IS staff and IS users perceptions of the proficiency and importance of various communication skills has never been examined. The purpose of this study is to explore the differences in perception, if they exist, by examining the written and oral communication skill importance and proficiency as evaluated separately by the IS staff and IS users in an IS project. IS staff in this study are limited to the non-managerial IS employees working on a development project, most often various rank of analyst. IS users are those involved in the development, but do not have a managerial role. Locating areas of differences between these groups will serve to identify weaknesses to address. Thus, we seek to form a picture of the congruency of communication between IS staff and IS users.
Section snippets
Hypotheses development
Researchers and business professionals have long realized the importance of communication skills to system success. Communication research found that the greatest discrepancy between communication expectations and communication skill performance occurred when writing (Junge, Daniels, & Karmos, 1984). Likewise, oral communication skills continue to rank as a serious need of IS staff members (Buckley, Peach, & Weitzel, 1989). These findings indicate that oral communication skills have become more
Subjects
Perception gaps between IS staff and IS users on communication importance and performance during project development was the focus of this study. Therefore, for each observation, two people who had worked on a system development project together (a member of the IS staff and a matched user) were asked to complete the survey instruments. This pairing within projects will serve to control differences that might have existed due to system or organizational factors. Initial contact with
Results
The mean responses to the instrument are presented in Table 3. All skill levels are rated highly ranging from a low of 3.19 for psychological writing by the IS Staff to a high of 4.34 for oral communication by the IS staff. The proficiency of the IS staff is rated relatively high by both groups. To determine if any of the demographics for the groups led to the differences experienced, a regression was conducted for each of the five communication skill areas. The regressions used the skill
Conclusions
The more the agreement on matters of importance to various stakeholders, the greater the success measures for the delivered IS project. Unfortunately, recent studies (Jiang et al., 2000; Klein & Jiang, 2001) indicate that many differences between IS users and IS staff exist. Communication skills are no exception, yet they are critical to reaching understanding and agreement on specifications critical to the delivery of any system project. According to communication theory and social perception
Houn-Gee Chen is a professor of Technology Management at National Tsing-Hua University (Taiwan). He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1988. Prior to joining the Tsing Hua University, he was a faculty member at University of Notre Dame (USA) and National Chung-Cheng University (Taiwan). His research interests include e-commerce, management information systems, information technology, project management, and software quality.
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Houn-Gee Chen is a professor of Technology Management at National Tsing-Hua University (Taiwan). He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1988. Prior to joining the Tsing Hua University, he was a faculty member at University of Notre Dame (USA) and National Chung-Cheng University (Taiwan). His research interests include e-commerce, management information systems, information technology, project management, and software quality.
Ruth A. Miller is an assistant professor of computer information systems at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and is the Kitty DeGree Endowed Professor in Computer Information Systems. She holds the Doctor of Business Administration from Louisiana Tech University. She teaches networking, e-commerce, and principles of management information systems. Her research interests include knowledge and skill requirements of information systems professionals, networking, e-commerce in small and medium-size businesses, and technology implementation in education.
James Jiang is Professor of Management Information Systems at the University of Central Florida. He also holds the Jin-Din Professor at the National Central University (Taiwan). He obtained his Ph.D. in Information Systems at the University of Cincinnati. His research interests include IS project management, IS professional management, and IS service quality management.
Gary Klein is the Couger Professor of Information Systems at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. He obtained his Ph.D. in Management Science from Purdue University. Before that time, he served with the company now known as Accenture in Kansas City and was director of the Information Systems Department for a regional financial institution. His research interests include project management, system development, technology transfer, and mathematical modeling. He teaches programming, project management, quantitative methods, and knowledge management courses. In addition to being an active participant in international conferences, he has made professional presentations on Decision Support Systems in the US and Japan where he once served as a guest professor to Kwansei Gakuin University. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery, the Decision Science Institute, and the Project Management Institute.