A comparative study: End-user training in public and private organizations.

摘要

The purpose of this dissertation is to study end-user training in the public and private sectors. Two case studies, an IS manager survey and an end-user survey, were employed to examine the different levels of end-user training in the two sectors. In addition, various training methods, the role of leadership in end-user training, and user computing skills were explored, resulting in the directions for future research.; The study found that private organizations invest more resources in information technology than public organizations, but failed to accept that private organizations view information systems as being more important to their success than do public organizations. The study also found that private organizations devote more resources to end-user training than public organizations, but failed to accept that private organizations view training for use of information technology as more important than public organizations. Finally, the study failed to accept that private organizations employ a wider variety of training methods. This means that although the private business organizations provide more end-user training to their users, the number of training methods did not vary significantly between the two sectors.; The focus of the current study is also placed on the training methods themselves: what training methods are being utilized most frequently and what training methods are considered by the users as most effective.; The current study found that CEOs in both sectors, as perceived by their IS managers, attached the same level of importance to IT and end-user training. In terms of training methods, informal and self training has been widely used by users and considered as the most effective training method. While its definition and perceived effectiveness are subject to further research, it is a very important finding of the current research. Finally, there are no systematic differences found in computing skills between the two sectors, and the finding holds true when a number of factors (e.g., users' job category, education level, gender and age) are controlled. However, the most striking finding is that the overall computing skills in both sectors are very low, indicating an immediate need for more and better end-user training.