When implementing new information systems, organizations often face resistance behavior from employees who avoid or underutilize the system. We analyze the extent to which such user resistance behavior is explained by users’ perceptions of the technology compared with their perceptions of work routines. We developed a research model based on work system theory and evaluated it using a study (N=106) of a human resources information system implementation in one organization. The results show that work routines are an object of resistance during IS implementations. We identify perceived usefulness and perceived ease of executing work routines as perceptions of work routines during an IS implementation that have a strong influence on user resistance behavior. In addition, our results show that the perceived ease of executing the work routines mediates the impact of perceived ease of use on user resistance behavior. In practice, our findings imply that interventions during IT implementations should focus on both the new technology and changing work routines.

As the number of messages and social relationships embedded in social networking sites (SNS) increases, the amount of social information demanding a reaction from individuals increases as well. We observe that, as a consequence, SNS users feel they are giving too much social support to other SNS users. Drawing on social support theory (SST), we call this negative association with SNS usage ‘social overload’ and develop a latent variable to measure it. We then identify the theoretical antecedents and consequences of social overload and evaluate the social overload model empirically using interviews with 12 and a survey of 571 Facebook users. The results show that extent of usage, number of friends, subjective social support norms, and type of relationship (online-only vs offline friends) are factors that directly contribute to social overload while age has only an indirect effect. The psychological and behavioral consequences of social overload include feelings of SNS exhaustion by users, low levels of user satisfaction, and a high intention to reduce or even stop using SNS. The resulting theoretical implications for SST and SNS acceptance research are discussed and practical implications for organizations, SNS providers, and SNS users are drawn.