Marching in-step: Facilitating technological transitions through climate consensus

This study explored the benefits of strong and positive climate attitudes throughout the implementation of new workplace information technology (IT). Unit-level climate attitudes, perceived work stress, and training completion were measured in a field-setting over a 6-year period. Trends and moderating influences of climate consensus were estimated from data collected from several sources (employees, managers, supervisors, and technical coordinators) using multiple methods (archival records, interviews, and surveys). As expected, climate consensus weakened over time, and interacted with climate for innovation to predict training completion with varying effects that depended upon implementation period and training type (Internet versus general technology). More training completion occurred when climate consensus was strong prior to implementation and weak during and after implementation indicating that the merits of strong and positive climate attitudes may be specific to early implementation stages. Less attitudinal agreement may be more beneficial to units once implementation is underway.