Personal Achievement Goals, Learning Strategies, and Perceived IT Affordances

Abstract

What people perceive when they interact with technologies are not the features and functionalities of the technology but rather the behaviors it affords them. Affordance perception determines how organizational information technology (IT) is used by employees and the benefits they provide to organizations and their members. In this article, we explain how employees who pursue different personal goals and use various learning strategies come to perceive different IT affordances. We identify three distinct pathways: (1) performance-avoidance goals are positively associated with surface processing, which leads to perceptions of common in-role IT affordances; (2) performance-approach goals are positively associated with surface processing and effort regulation and these learning strategies lead to perceptions of common and specialized in-role IT affordances; and (3) mastery goals are associated with deep processing, effort regulation, and peer learning, which are positively associated with perceptions of specialized in-role and extra-role IT affordances. By identifying the different pathways to perceived affordances, the article identifies potential interventions that can help managers steer employees toward certain affordances and away from other, less desirable affordances.