The terms user participation and user involvement have been used interchangeably in the IS literature. However, in other disciplines, the concepts are accorded separate and distinct. In order to address this anomaly, Researchers argue that the term user participation be utilized to refer to development-related activities and behaviors of users and their representatives during the development process, and that user involvement be used to refer to the subjective psychological state that reflects the level of importance and personal relevance of the information system to users. These researchers also argue that user participation is one of the more important antecedents, or causes, of user involvement—contingent on a number of factors which are said to influence the strength of the relationship.
Implicit in this conceptualization is the notion that users who do not participate either directly or indirectly in the development process, but whose views are represented by individuals or groups of other users, who do participate, are in fact involved in the development process. The nature and circumstances of such involvement may prompt users to influence the trajectory of the development process and its outcomes, either by influencing their peers or by political action within the organization.
A high degree of direct and indirect user participation did not guarantee the successful implementation and use of information systems in the organization studied. Such participatory development practices did, however, result in the development of systems that adequately captured user requirements and hence satisfied user informational needs.
The central conclusion is that user dissatisfaction with developed systems centered on the poor management of change in the organization.
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