A Preliminary Model of End-User Information Processing in the Software Exception Context

Exception management is a critical design function of organizational information systems (IS) whose effectiveness relies, in large part, on end-user decision-making about how to proceed. Because IS increasingly support the underlying business processes of the company, careless mismanagement of IS exceptions pose substantial risks to corporate information and operations. As a step toward better understanding this area of end-user computing, our study develops a theoretical model of end-user decision-making when faced with IS exceptions. Specifically, we apply heuristic-systematic processing theory to identify salient individual-, task-, and exception- related factors that predict when end-users will engage in effortful, more-thorough information processing when encountering an IS exception. The results can aid both managers and system designers in the development of interventions aimed at improving end-user management of IS exceptions