The Impacts of Social Networks on Individual Adaptation to Technochanges

Despite the growing attention to the effective utilization of ICT system in workplace, there is an accumulation of evidence from the literature indicating that organizations do not utilize newly introduced ICT systems to their full functional potential and an amount of new implementations continue to fail. We explore the reasons for the underutilization of new ICT by focusing on the individuals’ social networks. This paper investigates how the social networks influence individual adaptation to the new ICT and its related performance. Based on the coping theory, we establish a research model that explains the coping mechanism. Collected data are analyzed to test the proposed model and its hypotheses using PLS and UCINET. The results show that the coping effort mechanism of individuals can be explained in terms of their positions within social networks. We conclude the paper by discussing theoretical and practical implications for the research findings and by proposing future studies.