When companies purchase computerized technologies, they anticipate substantial improvements in organizational performance. Some companies achieve these benefits, but others find the implementation of computerized technologies a struggle and the benefits of implementation elusive. There is little research or theory available to explain such differences in implementation effectiveness. The proposed study of the implementation of the same computerized manufacturing technology (manufacturing resource planning or MRPII) in 35 plants will begin to fill this gap. The research design holds the technology constant across plants, allowing a rigorous assessment of the impact of organizational characteristics and processes on the outcomes of technology implementation. These organizational characteristics and processes include climate for technology implementation, financial resource availability, and upward communication within in each plant. Implementation outcomes include employee use and acceptance of the technology and improvements in plant performance as a result of technology implementation. Survey data will be gathered from an average of 40 plant employees (plant management, implementation team members, and technology users) in each plant to test hypotheses regarding implementation effectiveness. The study includes a longitudinal component, with plant management assessing changes in plant performance as a result of technology implementation at two times, one year apart. //
