Behavioral Feasibility

People are inherently resistant to change, and computers have been known to facilitate change. An estimate should be made of how strong a reaction the user staff is likely to have toward the development of a computerized system. [t is common knowledge that computer installations have something to do with turnover, transfers, retraining, and changes in employee job status. Therefore, it is understandable that the introduction of a candidate system requires special effort to educate, sell, and train the staff on new ways of conducting business.

In our safe deposit example, three employees are more than 50 years old and have been with the bank over 14 years, four years of which have been in safe deposit. The remaining two employees are in their early thirties. They joined safe deposit about two years before the study. Based on data gathered from extensive interviews, the younger employees want the programmable aspects of safe deposit (essentially billing) put on a computer. Two of the three older employees have voiced resistance to the idea. Their view is that billing is no problem. The main emphasis is customer service-personal contacts with customers. The decision in this case was to go ahead and pursue the project.