suggests switching to a different technology, which will finally dominate? Can we explain such choices when con- ditions in the workplace vary so widely across persons, settings, and times? To answer such crucial questions, even preliminarily, and to attempt to explain how and why people use certain technologies, the present research employed the qualita- tive technique of ethnographic interviews. This methodol- ogy was able to probe more deeply into motives and explanations of behavior and individual decisions on tech- nology adoption. It also allowed us to corroborate or con- fute the Technology-to-Performance Chain model, and, possibly, infer if and where the model might be incom- plete. Furthermore, analysis of the interviews could pro- vide a rich picture of the impacts of an Integrated Informa- tion Center (IIC). Interview Participants Interviews with selected faculty were conducted at two points during the period in which the IIC was being initi- ated and deployed in the organization. These interviews captured detailed descriptions of particular academic tasks, the use of technology for those tasks, the fit of technology, and the possible influence of that fit, or lack of fit, on technology choice. Two waves of interviews were conducted, with some participating in both sets of interviews. The first wave occurred in the early stages of the implementation of the IIC; the second wave occurred after the IIC had been in operation over a year. In the first wave of interviews, a categorization process advanced by Eisenhardt (1989) was used instead of a random selection process. Interviewees were chosen to maximize differences so that the extremes would be cov- Impacts of an Integrated Information Center on Faculty End-Users: A Qualitative Assessment Diane Lending School of Management, University of Michigan – Dearborn, Dearborn, MI 48128. E-mail: dlending@fob-f1.umd.umich.edu Detmar W. Straub Computer Information Systems, College of Business Administration, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302. E-mail: dstraub@gsu.edu This article describes an ethnographic study of a se- lected group of faculty end-users; the purpose of this qualitative assessment was to triangulate on several phenomena under investigation to better understand the impacts of the Integrated Information Center ( IIC ) on end-user work behaviors. If managers wish to control, guide, and encourage the use of new information technologies (IT), they need to understand the decision-making processes of their em- ployees—the individual knowledge workers who have a high information content in their work inputs and outputs (Davis, Collins, Eierman, & Nance, 1993). Specifically, they are going to need insight about why and how knowl- edge workers choose to use, or not to use, various technol- ogies. Only by coming to an awareness of this individual adoption process can managers plan training and orienta- tion programs and personally direct the exploitation of these expensive and sophisticated tools. The Technology-to-Performance Chain model ( see Goodhue, 1997) provided the underlying theoretical model for the research reported herein. This model pro- poses that when an individual decides to use a technology on a task, he or she first recognizes a fit between the technology, individual, and the task. The model also pre- dicts that social norms, habit, and facilitating conditions influence the decision to use technology. As informative as it is, the model leaves unanswered the question of when each of these factors comes into play. In other words, how can we explain when one of these conditions supersedes the others in the adoption decision of end-users? If habitual use inclines an individ- ual to continue using a given technology, but fit-to-task  1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE. 48(5):466–471, 1997 CCC 0002-8231/97 / 050466-06 / 8n1a$$1033 04-04-97 16:29:25 jasba W: JASIS