Professionals tend to strongly resist breaking from their professions’ core cultural tenets and it is unclear how some may voluntarily break from deeply ingrained views. Through our study of French anesthesiologists who practice hypnosis, we aim to better understand this little-explored phenomenon. Adopting hypnosis, a technique that many anesthesiologists consider subjective, contradicted a core tenet of their profession: the need to only use techniques validated by rigorous scientific-based research. Drawing on interviews and observations, we analyze how these anesthesiologists were able to change their views and reinvent their work. We find that turning inward to oneself (focusing on their own direct experiences of clients) and turning outward to clients (relying on relations with clients) played critical roles in anesthesiologists’ ability to shift their views and adopt hypnosis. Through this process, these anesthesiologists embarked on a voluntary internal transformation, or reboot, whereby they profoundly reassessed their work, onboarded people in adjacent professions to accept their own reinvention, and countered isolation from their peers.

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Our research investigates how management interventions can facilitate user adaptation to new information technology across implementation stages and usage contexts. Drawing on the Coping Model of User Adaptation, we propose a 2×2 coping framework, showing that tailored interventions—such as training, user participation, feedback handling, and change fairness—differently shape users’ beliefs (perceived usefulness and ease of use) and coping mechanisms. Empirical studies in both mandatory (police officers) and voluntary (university students) settings confirm that communal coping dominates in mandatory contexts while individual coping prevails in voluntary ones. Pre-implementation beliefs strongly influence post-implementation perceptions, and deep usage significantly enhances user performance and satisfaction. The study offers theoretical insights into adaptive processes and practical guidance for managers aiming to improve IT implementation success.
YU Nadia-Yin - NEOMA Business School |
- Research
- Digital Transformation, Information Systems, Management of Social and Solidarity Organizations