---MIS2 Assignment # 3---

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan?

We are to interview IT personnel regarding their experienced or shall I say their most frequently experienced causes of frustration while working on IS plan. Basically many problems would arise in making plans; even a single and simple plan has a bit of frustration especially in implementing it. In a world of “professionals” they are expected to make or create projects which address to their client a perfect work, for what they are called a professional if their work is not excellent. Many frustrations would come to our way, if we all experience this scenario; even a big company like GSIS encounters a problem to their system which only sat that we cannot avoid such frustrations in dealing our own capacity to do so.

Before we would move on to the interview of on IT user or professional, let me first define what frustration is. According to wikipedia Frustration a common emotional response to opposition. Related to anger and disappointment, it arises from the perceived resistance to the fulfillment of individual will. The greater the obstruction, and the greater the will, the more the frustration is likely to be. Causes of frustration may be internal or external.

In people, internal frustration may arise from challenges in fulfilling personal goals and desires, instinctual drives and needs, or dealing with perceived deficiencies, such as a lack of confidence or fear of social situations. Conflict can also be an internal source of frustration; when one has competing goals that interfere with one another, it can create cognitive dissonance. External causes of frustration involve conditions outside an individual, such as a blocked road or a difficult task. While coping with frustration, some individuals may engage in passive-aggressive behavior, making it difficult to identify the original cause(s) of their frustration, as the responses are indirect. A more direct, and common response, is a propensity towards aggression

This would means that every man or women must posses frustration if they have this so called “will” in every action they are making. According to the personnel we Interview there are two frequently experienced causes of frustrations of IS professional and users while working on an IS plan.

1. User Error (user did something they shouldn't have.)
2. User Error (They did it again)

In today's economy, change is all-pervasive in organizations. It happens continuously, and often at rapid speed. Because change has become an everyday part of organizational dynamics, employees who resist change can actually cripple an organization.

Resistance is an inevitable response to any major change. Individuals naturally rush to defend the status quo if they feel their security or status are threatened.

If management does not understand, accept and make an effort to work with resistance, it can undermine even the most well-intentioned and well-conceived change efforts.

The Nature and Causes of Resistance

Symptoms are the specific behaviors individuals exhibit when they are resistant to change. According to Bhutan, it is important to distinguish between the symptoms of resistance to change, and the causes behind it. These behaviors fall into two categories -- active-resistance or passive-resistance. Symptoms of active-resistance include finding fault, ridiculing, appealing to fear, and manipulating. Passive-resistance symptoms include agreeing verbally but not following through, feigning ignorance and withholding information.

It is safe to assume that any attempts to cover all of them would produce volumes of literature. However, there are several that are quite common and prevalent, which help provide a solid basis to understanding the concept.

Employees resist change because they have to learn something new. In many case there is not a disagreement with the benefits of the new process, but rather a fear of the unknown future and about their ability to adapt to it.

Low tolerance for change is defined as the fear that one will not be able to develop new skills and behaviors that are required in a new work setting. According to Kotter & Schlesinger, if an employee has a low tolerance for change, the increased ambiguity that results as a result of having to perform their job differently would likely cause a resistance to the new way of doing things. An employee may understand that a change is needed, but may be emotionally unable to make the transition and resist for reasons they may not consciously understand.

Personal compacts are comprised of formal, psychological, and social dimensions. The formal dimension is the most familiar. It is the aspect of the relationship that addresses the basic tasks and performance requirements of the job, and is defined by job descriptions, employee contracts, and performance agreements. Management, in return, agrees to supply the employee the resources needed to perform their job. The psychological dimension address aspects of the employment relationship that incorporate the elements of mutual trust, loyalty and commitment. The social dimension of the personal compact deals with organizational culture, which encompasses, mission statement, values, ethics and business practices.

Competing commitments should not be viewed as a weakness, but as a version of self-protection. If these competing commitments are a form of self-protection, then what are employees protecting themselves from?

Positive Resistance

Managers often perceive resistance negatively, and employees who resist are viewed as disobedient and obstacles the organization must overcome in order to achieve the new goals. However in certain instances, employee resistance may play a positive and useful role in organizational change. Insightful and well-intended debate, criticism, or disagreement do not necessarily equate to negative resistance, but rather may be intended to produce better understanding as well as additional options and solutions.

What some managers may perceive as disrespectful or unfounded resistance to change might be motivated by an individual's ethical principles or by their desire to protect what they feel are the best interests of the organization. Employee resistance may force management to rethink or reevaluate a proposed change initiative. It also can act as a as a gateway or filter, which can help organizations select from all possible changes the one that is most appropriate to the current situation

Employee resistance to change is a complex issue facing management in the complex and ever-evolving organization of today. The process of change is ubiquitous, and employee resistance has been identified as a critically important contributor to the failure of many well-intend and well-conceived efforts to initiate change within the organization.

In many cases, vast amounts of resources are expended by organizations to adjust employees to a new way of achieving desired goals. The natural propensity for individuals to "defend the status quo" presents a set of challenges that management must overcome in order to bring about desired change. Management must also seriously take into account and consider the myriad of problems that may result if they are not responsive to issues of resistance in the workplace.

In order to facilitate a smooth transition fi7om the old to the new, organizations must be competent in effective change management. The process of change management consists of getting of those involved and affected to accept the introduced changes as well as manage any resistance to them.

This investigation stresses that change usually involves an individual's psyche, so there are no concrete textbook answers and solutions to the problem. Since each individual is different, their perceptions and reasons for resisting are also different. As a result, researchers and scholars can theorize on how to lessen or remove employee resistance to change, but in the final analysis the only way to do so effectively is to understand the unique circumstances within each individual that is causing their particular resistance.

Information systems (IS) planning is recognized as one of the dominated managerial issues of MIS. Based on prior studies in strategic and IS planning, this study integrates three domains to investigate the effects of organizational contexts and planning system dimensions on the effectiveness of IS planning from a contingency perspective. The model is supported by the empirical data, showing the importance of many contextual factors and planning system dimensions to attaining greater effectiveness of IS planning. In particular, the results demonstrate the pivotal role of an organization’s improved planning capability in mediating the effects of organization contexts and planning system dimensions on IS planning effectiveness. The implications and limitations of this study are also discussed.

To avoid this conflicts that causes frustration between IS professionals and user, they should know their own capability before making the entire plan…they should question their own selves if they can handle it together. The IS-professionals and users should have formal relationships to each other; there should be policies that give one group the ability to command actions during the development of the plan. If the user don’t know or doesn’t understand about the system the IS professional has a responsibility to share and to give the scope of the system and to explain it further. Typically, practical solutions to this problem have focused on specific problems in specific contexts and have ignored the group relationship itself. IS professionals especially, have tended to look at good individual and project relations, and then wondered why user’s attitudes were still so negative. I suggest that if the problem of poor user - IS relationships to be adequately addressed , it must be treated as a problem between organizational groups, since this relationship affects all other contexts in which users and IS people interact. In this solution problems may easily be fix because they will meet the problem as a whole not individually.

However, even if frustration would exist to everyone, this would not mean that we cannot avoid or block this existence. How to deal this issue?

1. Ask Yourself, “What Is Working in This Situation?”

Even if feels like nothing is working, look closely and you will probably find at least something that is going right. So, that’s good. You’ve found something that’s working. Now, how do you improve it? By asking this question, you’ve taken yourself out of the negative mindset of “it’s hopeless” and are back to focusing on the positive.

2. Keep an Accomplishments Log

Write down everything you accomplish in a log. If you do it in a monthly format you will be able to see all that you have accomplished in just one month. You may be surprised by how much you have done. If you realize there’s not much on the list, it may open your eyes to the fact that you may be procrastinating more than working or that you are using too much of your energy going in too many directions and that you need to focus more.

3. Multiple Solutions

You always have options. You just need to brainstorm and figure them out. Tell yourself you need to come up with 8 possible options to what you’re dealing with. Just knowing that you have lots of options will help to make you feel better. You won’t feel like you are trapped in one negative situation. From your list, figure out the best direction and go for it.

4. Stay Positive

Things are usually not as bad as they first appear. Sometimes, things seem much worse simply because we’re tired or mentally drained. Taking a break and remembering to keep your sense of humour can also help. This time of frustration will pass.

Effective communication with your clients

Nothing turns a person's perception of your web site, and therefore your company, suddenly sour than having first made the effort to contact your site and receiving no reply in return. This feeling is doubly so when the person is in contact with you regarding a problem they are experiencing.

This leaves your site user or client with the impression that your operation either does not value or even care about their opinion, or else it is totally inefficient and incompetent. If either of these feelings are experienced by a large enough amount of people in contact with your company and they are allowed to go unchecked, this negative feeling can spell disaster for the long-term stability of your Internet presence.

Feedback from your web site users in a personal format (e.g. e-mails, feedback forms etc.) is perhaps the single most important piece of data that you can be supplied with. As I have discussed elsewhere is detail, site statistics and survey results can be a valuable marketing tool, but if they have one flaw it is that they can not tell you how people feel about your product, site or general image.

To function effectively, professional IT practitioners need not only the appropriate technical knowledge, skills and experience, but also a broad understanding of the context in which they operate.
A good grounding in the relationship between technological change, society and the law, and the powerful role that computers and computer professionals play in a technological society, is essential.
Professional Issues in Information Technology aids IT professionals to be capable in their chosen professional areas, operate effectively in work and community situations and to be aware of their environments.

Sources:
http://www.newfoundations.com/OrgTheory/Bolognese721.html
http://www.akamarketing.com/communicating-with-clients.html
http://www.life-with-confidence.com/frustration.html