Mandatory Usage of Mobile IS by Unsophisticated Users: Welfare and Compatibility with Work

This study investigates the factors that influence the user’s (postal workers’) welfare in using personal digital assistants (PDAs) that were implemented by mandate in the Korea Postal Services (KPS). The authors propose to expand our perspective towards users’ welfare that becomes vulnerable when information systems (IS) are implemented by mandate, and suggest user satisfaction with IS as the appropriate measure of success. The authors are especially interested in the mandatory introduction and implementation of IS in organizations where users of such information systems are unsophisticated with limited educational background or IS experience, and whose job is relatively simple and labor-intensive. They hypothesized that information quality, system quality, and perceived usefulness are important factors for user satisfaction with mandatory IS. They also found that compatibility with work is a critical mediator through which the independent variables make significant influence on user satisfaction.