The role of cultural fitness in user resistance to information technology tools

Human interactions with IT tools reproduce organizational cultural patterns in evolutionary terms which are similar to those seen in the evolution of human tools and language. This paper proposes that user adoption or rejection of new IT tools is derived from the cultural fitness of the tools in the organizational context rather than being close to the user's operational adaptation. The hypothesis proposed here requires an understanding of the correlation between language and tool use and an analysis of recent multi-disciplinary research in tool-mediated activity, language and cognition. Concepts of tool-mediated activity in a cultural context and their theoretical implications for HCI are examined by using the fields of anthropology, cognitive sciences and information technology. A comparative analysis of empirical data using cultural parameters is performed showing the effects of cultural fitness on the discretionary use of a new collaborative IT tool in an organizational context. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.