Antecedentes de Investigación Nacionales

In this chapter, the tasks performed by CHWs are described as monitoring, promotion, and referral. Four CHW task characteristics are specified as relevant to their critical job demands. CHWs are required to deliver patient care timeously, operate with co-workers, manoeuvre from one location to another, and access information at the point-of-service (Balasubramanian et al., 2002; Junglas and Watson, 2003; Ballard and Siebold, 2004; Gebauer, Shaw and Gribbins, 2005; Junglas et al., 2008; Lin and Huang, 2008;

Gebauer, Shaw and Gribbins, 2010; Yuan et al., 2010). These behavioural demands translate into the task characteristics of time criticality, interdependence, mobility, and information dependency.

First, time criticality is the need of the task performer to urgently perform the task (Gebauer and Tang, 2007). This characteristic has been adapted in prior works to evaluate tasks performed using mobile technologies. For example, Siao, Lim and Shen (2001), Yuan and Zhang (2003), and Liang and Wei (2004), observed that task performers could be required to support emergency services. This underscores the time critical nature of the tasks being performed. Time criticality may be a greater characteristic for CHW tasks such as patient referral to clinics for emergency treatment (Liu et al., 2011), but perhaps less so for those such as the promotion of immunization (Haines et al., 2007).

Second, interdependence is the need of the task performer to co-operate with others in preforming the task (Gebauer et al., 2010). In certain workplace settings such as Research and Development (R & D) laboratories for co-ordinated software projects (Andres and Zmud, 2002), task interdependence may be greater than in others such as goal-oriented supervised information processing within dissimilar work units (Tushman, 1979). In the

35 Please refer Section 4.6.1 of Chapter 4.

health care setting, the need for care-givers such as nurses to co-operate in the sharing of medical data with one another to solve pending medical problems, increases the task interdependence of their work (Hsiao and Chen, 2012). For CHWs, task interdependence is high if there is a need to ordinate through information-sharing, such as when co-operating with local community health supervisors during real-time disease surveillance household exercises (Braun et al., 2013).

Third, mobility is the need of the task performer for manoeuvrability in performing the task (Gebauer et al., 2010). This characteristic is a location-sensitive (geographical) component of the activity of the task performer (Junglas et al., 2008), and has been assessed in various studies on mobile technologies. For example, in their study on mobile work, Yuan, Archer, Connelly, and Zheng (2010) argued that compared to their hospital-based counterparts, home-visiting nurses needed greater support for task mobility. CHW task mobility is high if there is a need to collect health data from patients in remote locations when they routinely visit households to deliver patient care (DeRenzi et al., 2012).

Fourth, information dependency is the need of the performer to access data in performing the task at the point-of-service (Yuan et al., 2010). This characteristic is related to the concept of location-dependency, described as the extent to which dynamic location-based information is required to perform a particular task (p. 126). This location-sensitive (information) task component has been assessed in a number of studies on mobile technology adoption. For example, Junglas, Abraham, and Watson (2008) observed that in performing their tasks, mobile workers use data specific to their locations of service.

CHW task information dependency is high if there is a need for data on household locations for monitoring when conducting disease surveillance (Earth Institute, 2010).

5.2.3 Technology Characteristics

In the TTF IS domain, technology has often been characterized as system or tool features that represent the applications, infrastructure, or services that support the execution of tasks (Tariq and Akter, 2011). This is irrespective of whether the technology used represents a system or systems, policies, or services (Cane and McCarthy, 2009). TTF researchers have begun to examine the technology construct and more specifically,

technology characteristics in the context of supporting task performance. Technologies have been described as system attributes, and tool functions or functional support (Dishaw and Strong, 1998b; Tariq and Akter, 2011; D’Ambra et al., 2013). Technology characteristics are considered to be reflective of support functions (Dishaw and Strong, 2003), functionality (Gebauer, Shaw and Gribbins, 2010), or attributes (D’Ambra and Rice, 2001). A broad range of technology characteristics have been evaluated in past studies. For example, Teo and Men (2008) evaluated the Knowledge Management (KM) - portal technology characteristics of output quality and compatibility (p. 561). Elsewhere, Dishaw and Strong (1998b) evaluated the software maintenance technology characteristics of analysis, representation, transformation, co-operation, and control (p.

110). These and various other technology characteristics specified in past TTF research are captured in Table 5.2.

Table 5.2. Technology Characteristics in Task-Technology Fit (TTF) Research

Construct Dimension(s) Context Source

Technology Characteristics  Access Web Usage for Travel D’Ambra and

Wilson (2004a)

Technology Characteristics  Output Quality

 Compatibility

Use of Knowledge Management Technologies in Consulting Firms

Teo and Men (2008)

m-NIS Characteristics  Degree of Integration

 Service Support

Use of Mobile Technologies for Healthcare.

Hsiao and Chen (2012)

Technology Characteristics  Combined Locatability and Mobility

Use of Mobile Locatable Information Systems

Use of Mobile Work Technologies Yuan et al (2010)

Mobile IT  User Interface characteristics such as location tracking, navigation, notification, real-time job dispatching, user interface, and adaptability (Junglas et al., 2008; Gebauer et al., 2010;

Yuan et al., 2010). In TTF research, mobile technology characteristics have been described as work support functions (Zheng, 2007, p. 17; Yuan et al., 2010, p. 126; Hsiao and Chen, 2012, p. 266). For instance, Liang and Wei (2004) characterized mobile

technology into the categories of time-critical services, aware and location-sensitive services, identity-enacted services, ubiquitous communications and content delivery services, business process streamlining, and mobile offices. Elsewhere, Balasubramanian, Peterson and Jarvenpaa (2002) categorized mobile technology along three dimensions described as the extent to which the tool or system used is (1) location sensitive, (2) time-critical, and (3) controlled by the information receiver or provider. Per TTF theory, technology functions must support user needs. Moreover, the technology will only be used if tool or system functions rendered support user activities (Vessey and Galleta, 1991; Goodhue, 1998; Dishaw and Strong, 1998b; Dishaw and Strong, 1999;

Hollingsworth, 2015). Of note, functional support can be understood in terms of functional and non-functional requirements. Functional requirements are described as

‘specific behaviours’ of a system that are inherent in the functions that ‘it can perform’.

These requirements determine what the system ‘can do’ and the extent to which user tasks can be supported. Non-functional requirements are functions that relate to the

‘operation of the system’. These requirements determine what the system ‘should be’

(Gebauer, Tang and Baimai, 2007).

In the present study, the focus is more on mHealth technology design than hardware specifications. However, mHealth tools can be understood to incorporate both functional and non-functional characteristics. In line with TTF theory, the design of technology for task requirements is important to the technology user, who will have expectations of the functional support of the tool for their needs, and not necessarily its underlying architecture. In essence, the present study is restrictive to features designed to support CHW needs. In Section 5.2.3, four mHealth technology user needs are identified as relevant to the critical behavioural job demands of CHWs. These were the task characteristics of time criticality, interdependence, mobility, and information dependency.

Therefore functional support of the mHealth tool for CHW tasks is needed. Drawing on the above, characteristics most relevant to the mHealth technology used³⁶ by CHWs are defined next.

36Please refer Section 4.6.2 of Chapter 4.