The Role of Operational Interdependence and Supervisory Experience on Management Assessments of Resource Planning Systems

Greater interdependence among workers and activities not only increases the need for internal communication, but it also imposes complications and barriers to effective information exchange. Intraorganizational communication capabilities of certain information systems can help overcome these barriers. However, the extent to which certain systems are promoted as communication tools depends largely on management's interpretation of their usefulness, which in turn may be largely dependent on operational context and managerial experience. We use a controlled experimental approach to study how these issues interact to impact managerial assessments of resource planning systems. Results show that managers value the communication capabilities of resource planning systems more so in highly task-interdependent contexts and that these assessments are still more positive among managers with greater supervisory experience. As a result, these findings pose direct implications regarding the management support of technology use.