Theory of Reasoned Action
Introduction
Several theories help in understanding users’ behavior with regard to technology adoption and change management. These theories focus on the intentions of people to engage in a particular behavior such as adopting and using new technology once such changes are introduced in the organization. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) is among the prominent theories that have been employed for a long time in explaining technology adoption behaviors. The theory proposes that people’s behavior is determined by the intention to execute the behavior where the intention is influenced by their attitudes towards this behavior (Lai, 2017). Attitude emanates from an individual evaluation of a given object, say, new technology, and it creates a belief based on the evaluated attributes. Attitudes are based on the beliefs about the object or the subjective norms based on personal opinions. Scholars in the field of information management have compared the theory with other technology adoption theories and found that it is a strong theory that helps in technology adoption among users. Ajzen and Fishbein developed the theory after evaluating the discrepancy between user attitudes and behavior using Expectancy Value Models. The theory borrows from the fundamentals of social psychology that analyze why and how user’s attitudes affect their behavior and actions that, in turn, affect technology adoption. Attitude encompasses people’s behaviors and their cognition. Further, behavior and attitude have a positive correlation, and this explains why the Theory of Reasoned Action is useful in examining people’s behavior in terms of technology adoption and change management.
Theory of reasoned Action
The Theory of Reasoned Action was developed by Ajzen and Fishbein in 1975 to explain how attitudes influence behavior. Attitudes are formed from individual beliefs, and they play a major role in changing how people act. People’s attitudes and beliefs affect technology adoption and change management in organizations (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1980). The theory is constructed on three aspects that include behavioral intention, attitudes, and individual subjective norms that influence technology adoption among users. The theory has been widely used in many case studies and has shown that it is helpful in explaining if an individual behavior that induces technology adoption is influenced by behavioral intentions. Most studies in this area are based on Technology Adoption Models and TRA is mostly used to support other theories that include TAM. TRA utilizes three constructs that include behavioral intention. According to Ajzen and Fishbein (1980), individual behavior is influenced by their intention to implement the behavior. However, the intention comes a person’s attitude toward that behavior. The intention plays a huge part in dictating the outcome of the behavior. The intention provides a cognitive representation of the readiness of the person to execute the intended behavior. It is the instant indicator of the behavior. In the theory, behavioral intention establishes the relative strength of the chances of a person executing the intended behavior. It also includes other factors such as their attitudes and the motivation that makes a person perform the behavior.
Further, the theory also includes individual subjective norms that combine both the behavioral intentions and the perceived expectations of the behavior and how they wish to comply with the perceived expectations. The behavioral intention originates from personal attitude and their personal subjective norms that are useful in predicting actual behavior. The breakdown of TRA reveals that actual behavior is derived from behavioral intention that originates from attitudes and subjective norms. Attitude comes from behavioral beliefs and evaluating a behavioral object. On the other hand, subjective norms emanate from the motivation to comply and other normative beliefs. Thus, TRA is important in evaluation of the behavioral pattern and can be used to create a strategy to encourage technology adoption. It is also important in determining whether technology adoption is influenced by behavioral intentions. Behavioral intentions can be modified by encouraging the adoption of a certain behavior and behavior control. It is important to understand that attitude consists of attitude and cognition, it is positively correlated to behavior, and this makes TRA an ideal theory when examining technology adoption among users and change management (Yzer, 2017). The adoption of technology or accepting a change depends on the attitudes towards the technology or the change. Employees are likely to accept a change or a technology if they perceive such changes to be valuable to them. The Reasoned Action Theory provides a strong theoretical framework for understanding technology adoption and change management in organizations.
However, technology adoption entails changing users’ behavior and their perception to accept the changes. They must perceive the new technology as important to their welfare, and the change in perception facilitates technology adoption and change management. Therefore, organizations must employ multiple ways to reinforce the adoption of new changes. Organizations are required to enhance the credibility of the new technology or the changes. Employees must feel that the technology is credible because credibility gives rise to trust and makes the technology believable (Centola, & Lord, 2018). Organizations should also use strategic complementarity to increase the value of the technology in the eyes of the employees. They will view the technology as valuable to them, and this increases its adoption among them. The selected technology should be legitimate, and organizations should use well-known technologies because they have a good reputation in the eyes of the people. A well-known technology with many users appears credible, and this eases its adoption. Well-known technologies have an emotional contagion, and people get excited about adopting them because of social confirmation from multiple persons. The management should also encourage technology adoption using weak ties such as other employees because it helps in diffusing the adoption within the organization more quickly. All these contagions can be influenced to encourage technology adoption.
The nature of the organization and its leadership also plays a major role in changing the attitudes of its employees towards technology, and this influences technology adoption. In low bureaucracies, employees have low motivation to change, and they are likely to resist adopting technology (Van der Voet, 2014). However, their supervisors can influence their attitudes towards change and can positively influence them to adopt the technology. On the other hand, in high bureaucracies, employees are more willing to change and can easily adopt new technology. Employees in this environment positively respond to change and are more willing to adopt the technology. Organizations should employ TRA to control and influence the perceptions of employees towards technology to encourage its adoption.
TRA plays an important role in technology adoption and change management, and it can be employed to improve technology adoption. Organizations should work on improving performance expectancy and effort expectancy to shape the attitudes of their employees to induce behavior intention that influences technology adoption. Performance expectancy refers to the level that an employee believes that the new technology will be of value to them in relation to improving their performance. Effort expectancy refers to the level to which the employee believes that the new technology will ease their work (Dwivedi et al., 2019). When an employee has positive performance and effort expectancy, they change their attitudes towards the new technology because of its potential benefits, and this makes them adopt the technology. In addition, they should use the theory to induce social influence and have the necessary facilitators to create behavioral intention to adopt the new technology. Social influence refers to the level at which an employee views that other important people think that they should adopt the technology. The organization should have the required conditions that make the employees view that the organization has the necessary infrastructure that supports the adoption of the technology (Ammenwerth, 2019). The constructions can be influenced to increase the level at which the employees perceive the new technology as important to them, and this will influence their behavioral intentions and will lead to the actual adoption of technology. Thus, the theory provides an important theoretical model necessary for studying technology adoption and change management.
Conclusion
The Theory of Reasoned Action is useful in understanding the factors that influence the adoption of technology. The world is gravitating fast towards technological advancements where new innovations are being introduced at a rapid pace. It is therefore important to understand employees’ behavior and attitudes to understand the factors that promote or hinder technology adoption. Theory of Reasoned Action provides an important framework for understanding the behavior that shapes technology adoption. The theory focuses on attitudes that shape technology adoption. The theory asserts that people engage in certain behavior because of their attitudes that are shaped by their perceptions and subjective norms about the behavior. Attitudes and subjective norms shape the behavioral intention that influences whether the employees adopt a given technology. Employees should seek to influence the perceptions and subjective norms to encourage technology in their organizations. They should seek to increase the perceived usefulness of the new technology because employees will perceive that the new technology will boost their job performance, and they should improve the perception that the new technology will ease their efforts during the execution of their tasks. On the part of the subjective norms, organizations should improve the attitudes of the employees towards using the new technology. The attitudes can be improved by using social constricts, boosting the legitimacy of the technology, and make it appear as good, beneficial, and pleasant to use. They should also influence their behavior to increase their willingness to adopt the technology. Organizations are also encouraged to adopt appropriate leadership models that encourage employees to accept changes. The theory helps in understanding behavior and attitudes that promote the adoption of technology.
Areas for Further Research
The theory has some weaknesses because it is primarily concerned with ease of perceptions that relates to usefulness of the technology and its ease of use as the main determinants of technology adoption. However, it does not consider other factors that plays an important role in influencing change that determines technology adoption. Thus, it is important to examine other areas such the nature of organization and leadership style with regard to accepting changes, the role of facilitating conditions, social influence. Gender, age, expertise, and willingness to accept change because they affect technology adoption.
References
Ammenwerth, E. (2019). Technology Acceptance Models in Health Informatics: TAM and UTAUT. Studies in health technology and informatics, 263, 64-71.
Centola, D., & Lord, T. (2018). The truth about behavioral change. MIT Sloan Management Review.
Dwivedi, Y. K., Rana, N. P., Jeyaraj, A., Clement, M., & Williams, M. D. (2019). Re-examining the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT): Towards a revised theoretical model. Information Systems Frontiers, 21(3), 719-734.
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior.
Lai, P. C. (2017). The literature review of technology adoption models and theories for the novelty technology. JISTEM-Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management, 14(1), 21-38.
Van der Voet, J. (2014). The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure. European Management Journal, 32(3), 373-382.
Yzer, M. (2017). Theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior. The International Encyclopedia of Media Effects, 1-7.