Graduation Year

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Granting Department

Mass Communications

Major Professor

Kenneth Killebrew, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Larry Leslie, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Randy Miller, Ph.D.

Keywords

Institutional transformation, Communicate change, Effective change execution, New technology training

Abstract

This study examined how employees at a Florida medical facility felt regarding the upcoming change to a paperless system and whether a training program administered by the organization was effective in reducing anxiety, increasing understanding of the need for the change, increasing employee confidence using the new computer system, changing employee perceptions of the new system, and helping employees view the change as an organizational improvement. The results indicated that the training program marginally reduced anxiety, but did not significantly increase user confidence or understanding of the need for the change. While participants viewed the change as an organizational improvement, this view was only superficial. When means were examined by occupation, age group and gender, pre-training results indicated that the medical staff and older participants exhibited the most anxiety, understood the reason for the change the least and had the lowest confidence in their ability to use the practice management system. These same participants appeared to benefit the most from the training program. They reported reduced anxiety and increased confidence using the innovation. Post-training, younger participants and those who identified their occupation as "other" indicated increased anxiety levels and slight reductions in their confidence using the practice management system. The medical staff and older participants appeared to benefit the most from the training program.

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