Using Qualitative Analysis for Deriving Evidence Based Construct Definition: A Case Narrative of ‘User Empowerment’

For organisations to realise the potential from Enterprise Systems (ES), users must play an active role in adapting to processes and technology. To adapt to new processes and technologies, users must be empowered. Empowerment has been studied for over two decades across various disciplines and applied in practice. However, a review of the empowerment concept relating to the Information Systems (IS) and ES literature suggests that the concept is often misunderstood i.e. a single common conception of empowerment is appropriate (i) across all disciplines and (ii) across all contexts. This paper describes the application of qualitative analysis method to derive a definition for user-empowerment in the ES context.