Contextual Resources and Digital Attitudes (CResDA) User Guide

a tool to assess and evaluate attitudes towards new technology and support for technology implementation in digital change

CResDA is a questionnaire tool designed to help organisations assess employee attitudes towards technology (Digital Attitudes) and their perceptions of multi-level support within the organisation (Contextual Resources) during digital change.

The CResDA User Guide:

• introduces digital attitudes and contextual resources

• presents how to use CResDA through best practice recommendations

• contains example scoring and feedback instructions

• presents recommendations for organisations based on distinct workforce profiles

• provides instructions for evaluating digital change before and after new technology implementation

Valuable resources are spent as part of digital change projects to implement new technologies, but the impact that introducing these technologies can have on their workforce is often underestimated. While employees who thrive with technology can see the change as beneficial for them and their organisation, other employees who fear or distrust the new technologies can resist using them which negatively impacts the digital change project. To help organisations understand how their workforce feels about digital change, CResDA assesses the digital attitudes of employees as well as their perceptions of contextual resources (the multi-level support that an organisation provides) which can influence the development of positive digital attitudes and impact the success of digital change. Organisations with such understanding of the contextual resources and digital attitudes within their workforce can develop actions, based on recommendations within the CResDA User Guide, for developing a context which welcomes the implementation of new technologies. This makes using CResDA an important first step towards fostering an organisational context which promotes responsible and sustainable digital change.

The CResDA tool was developed by:

• Dr Vladislav Grozev, Sheffield University Management School

• Professor Karina Nielsen, Sheffield University Management School

• Dr Hui Zhang, Sheffield University Management School

• Professor Carolyn Axtell, Sheffield University Management School

• Nathan Palmer, Affinity Health at Work

• Professor Jo Yarker, Affinity Health at Work

As part of the Materials Made Smarter Centre funded by the UKRI Made Smarter Innovation Challenge [Grant Reference: EP/V061798/1].