The Getrost Vergessen project was represented at the Congress of the German Psychological Society in Hildesheim from September 10-15, 2022. In the symposium "Intentional Forgetting, Change & Technology(Trust) in Teams and Individuals" organized by SPP 1921, Lea Müller presented the results of longitudinal observation of the implementation process of an information system in a university administration.

Information Systems in Public Administration: A Longitudinal Study on Trust and its Effects on Forgetting Irrelevant Work Processes

Müller, L., Nohe, C., Reiners, S., Becker, J., & Hertel, G.

Legal requirements and societal developments increasingly oblige public administrations to completely digitalize their work processes. The accompanying introduction of information systems leads to employees having to adapt their work processes by forgetting old habits and replacing them with new ones. A key prerequisite for such forgetting is that users trust the new system. Although trust has been defined theoretically as a dynamic construct, its development over time has received little longitudinal attention. This study evaluated the introduction of a new information system within a public administration and examined both the development of trust and its predictors and outcomes. Using a longitudinal design, we asked N = 313 employees of a larger public administration to evaluate a newly introduced electronic invoice processing information system over four time points (before use, after first use, after five months of use, and after ten months of use). The results showed that trust in the system developed in a positive, non-linear manner over time. In addition, trust predictors were shown to change over time. Trust disposition was associated with initial trust in the system, while system characteristics were positively related to later trust. In addition, trust in the system at different survey time points positively affected users' work outcomes by promoting forgetting of irrelevant work processes, increasing subjective work performance, and reducing feelings of stress. Our results highlight the central role of trust in successful implementation of information systems in public administration and offer concrete solutions for building and maintaining trust in such systems.