A Close Look at Technology Acceptance: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to explore the phenomenon of public safety professionals using innovative technology in a public safety training context. A single question guided this research: What is the experience of public safety trainees who are required to use innovative or emerging technology in face-to-face training?

I employed a qualitative, hermeneutic phenomenological research approach to conduct this study. The approach included in-depth interviews with six public safety professionals to better understand their experience as they encountered innovative technology in training contexts. Participants were identified through purposeful sampling focusing on public safety professionals who attended training that incorporated innovative technology conducted in the United States. The primary data sources for this qualitative study were in-depth interviews with open-ended questions and supporting data from observation and documents to provide a contextual frame.

The findings of this study provided several implications to human resource development. For practitioners, the findings offer valuable information that will potentially enable effective integration of innovative technologies in training. The findings provide opportunities for researchers to explore the impact of different technologies used on trainees’ technology acceptance process. Finally, the findings provide a potential to develop new theories to explain how the acceptance of innovative technology occurs.