ABSTRACT: In an empirical study, perceptions of work and the workplace are compared with information systems (IS) support for those values. It is proposed that the congruence between the work values held by an individual and the perception of support for those values by an information system will affect the decision to use the system. Using a modified version of Elizur's Work Value Questionnaire, the work values and perceptions of IS support for those values are examined. Three factors that relate to the subjects' orientation to the world--societal, organizational, and individual--are isolated. The organizational orientation is found to be the most influential of the three in determining voluntary user participation, explaining 47 percent of the variation among subjects' usage patterns of a bulletin board system. These findings support the contention that when users became convinced of the efficacy of using an IS in mediating organizationally bestowed values, and when they perceive value in these organizational relationships, the system is used.
Key words and phrases: adoption of technology, information technology use, technology assimilation, work values, workplace vision