Measuring stages of concern of management academia about information technology based education.(Report)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Indian management education is amid major transition from its traditional classroom teaching methods to information technology-based education. Conventional classroom courses will be reshaped and restructured to a computer based format. According to the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM), the faculty will experience concerns during the process of adopting this innovation. Identification of these concerns can assist in selecting appropriate interventions strategies. In this paper an attempt has been made to identify stages of concern of Indian and Overseas management faculty toward the use of information technology based education.

This study is based on a model of 3 stages and 15 items, a modified version of the original Hall et al. 7 stages and 35 items model Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were employed in the data analysis. Results show faculty has high impact concern and results also demonstrate no significant difference between Indian and Overseas faculty.

Keywords: CBAM model, Management faculty, Information Technology, ANOVA, Manova etc

INTRODUCTION

Distinct teaching technologies are long felt need in management education to enhance its qualitative utilities. Moreover, the teaching process must incorporate technology to provide students with meaningful activities. The demand for information technology based learning environment is growing substantially over the years and it became one of the dimension of business education in 20th century. There is needed to develop an IT based content and delivery mechanism in management education.

The main purpose of this study is to assess the readiness of Indian management academia to change from traditional classroom delivery to computer-based delivery in comparison to overseas management academia. The first objective of this study is to identify the Stages of Concern of the Indian and Overseas management academia toward the use of information technology-based education by measuring faculty responses to the Stages of Concern (SoC) Questionnaire. The second was to compare stages of concern of Indian management faculty with their overseas counterpart. After identification of concerns of faculty then appropriate strategies would be recommended.

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

This study provides an understanding of how faculty concerns about use of Information technology affect change and innovation in management education. If the idea seems new to the user, it may be known as an innovation. Information Technology-based teaching courses are a new idea to the management academia and clearly fit this in definition of innovation.

This study provides comprehensive examination of faculty concerns about an innovation in management education. This study is significant because an assessment of innovation and change using the CBAM model has never been conducted to measure faculty concerns in Indian business schools.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Many studies are available that supported use of information technology in classroom. Electronic classroom innovations are preferred by students (Basile & D'aquila, 2002; Becker & Watts, 1998; Manning, 1996; Navarro & Shoemaker, 2000) and improve student performance (Hagen, Edwards & Brown, 1997; Hall, 1997; Karakaya, Ainscough & Chopoorian, 2001; Leuthold, 1998).

Some studies focused use of Information technology in specific subject area. Cudd, Lipscomb &Tanner (2003) focused the effectiveness of use of hardware and software in classroom in delivery of finance instruction. Likely, Hein and Stalcup (2001) emphasized on the use of Internet and other technology in teaching money and banking course.

Hundreds of studies are available that used concern theory in education problems. Frances Fuller, a clinical psychologist, conceptualized concern theory in education. Fuller (1969) originally developed a two-stage model which differentiated concerns about benefit to "self" and benefit to "pupils". "Self" concerns involve things like personal adequacy of controlling a class, knowledge of subject matter, and interaction with parents and principals. "Pupil" concerns focus on the learning and progress of the students (Alfieri, 1998 p 21).

Further, with more experience and data, Fuller, Parsons, and Watkins (1973) revised the two-stage model to a three-stage model, as follows:

1. Stage 1 : Self concerns (adequacy as a teacher)

2. Stage 2: Task concerns (teaching methods, teaching performance)

3. Stage 3: Impact concerns (pupil learning needs).

Fuller used this three-stage model to develop an individualized teacher education program. Based o[n Fuller's original research (1969) on the change process for teachers and change theories by Lewin (1951), Rogers and Shoemaker (1971), Lippitt, Watson, and Westley, (1959), and Havelock (1971), Hall et al. (1973) characterized the process known as the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM)(Alfieri, 1998).

CBAM evolved from Havelock's (1971) three perspectives on change (Merz, 1996). Havelock conceptualized the social interaction model; research, development and diffusion model and problem solving model. The Social Interaction Model explains innovation adoption in terms of group decisions within a social system, with the influence and assistance of a change agent. Havelock's Research, Development and Diffusion Model focuses on the rational development and dissemination of a solution to a technical problem, while his Problem Solving Model emphasizes the development of an organization's capability to solve its own problems. He used the linkage model to expand the capabilities of innovation adopters in an organization and to effectively use external resources and change agents for issue resolution (Hall and Hord, 1987).

CBAM influenced all of Havelock's models but seems most directly related to the Research, Development, and Diffusion perspective where the emphasis is on the institutionalization of an innovation, that is, the introduction, adoption, and ultimate integration of an innovation into an organization's culture and daily practice. CBAM stresses user collaboration with a resource system, with an important focus on the individual capabilities of each adopter (Hord, Rutherford, Huling- Austin, & Hall, 1987).

The CBAM model is composed of three parts: Stages of Concern, Levels of Use, and Innovation Configuration (Hall, Wallace, and Dossett, 1973). Stages of Concern deals with expressed adopter concerns and issues related to his or her experience with, or perception of, the innovation. The purpose of this part (i.e. stages of concern) is to analyze user feelings, observations, problems, successes, and failures while progressing through the change process of innovation adoption.

Many studies are available that applied CBAM framework. Cheung and Ng (2000), identified Stages Of Concern of teachers to the Target-Oriented Curriculum. In another study Alfieri (1998) used CBAM in measuring stage of concern of defense system management college faculty about technology-based education.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The Concern Based Adoption Model (CBAM) is based on concern-based theory. CBAM is based on the theory that change is a developmental progression of events, many of which may be predictable (Merz, 1996). According to Hord, Rutherford, Huling-Austin, and Hall (1987), "A central and major premise of CBAM is that the single most important factor in any change process is the people who will be most affected by the change (the user system).

Many researches have show that individual faculty has different kinds of concerns about their involvement with an innovation. Hall, George, and Rutherford (1977) defined concern as "the composite representation of the feelings, preoccupation, thought, and consideration given to a particular issue or task". They conceptualized seven sequential stages: (1) Awareness, (2) Informational, (3) Personal, (4) Management, (5) Consequence, (6) Collaboration, and (7) Refocusing.

According to Hall's model, faculty concerns about an innovation progress through these seven Stages of Concern (SoC). He/she can experience several SoC concurrently, but there are differential degrees of intensity. Hall et al. have proposed that the concerns of a faculty will shift from one stage to another in a systematic fashion as he/she moves from awareness of an innovation into beginning use, and then more highly sophisticated use.

Hall, George, and Rutherford (1977) developed a 35-item Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ) to measure the intensity of each SoC. However, faculty data was not fit into Hall et al model. By using confirmatory factor analysis, an alternative 3 stages and 15 items model has been developed. Salient feature of such modified version of Hall et al model are broadly summarized as follows:

Three stages and 15 items of Concern Based Innovation Adoption Model

Stage 1: Personal concern:--Little concern about innovation.

1. I don't even know about use of IT in teaching

2. I am not concerned about use of IT.

3. I would like to know what resources are available if we decide to adopt IT in teaching process

4. I would like to know how my teaching is supposed to change.

5. I would like to have more information on time and energy commitments required by IT use.

Stage 2: Task concern:--Faculty is worried about best use of information and resources, time and organization.

6. I am concerned about not having enough time to organize myself each day.

7. I am concerned about conflict between my interests and my responsibilities.

8. I am concerned about my inability to manage all the IT use requires.

9. I am concerned about the time spent working with non-academic problems related to IT use.

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