Rogers' stages of adoption of the Dvorak keyboard in Fortune 500 companies as reported by their training directors and word processing manager

The purpose of this study was to determine in which of Rogers' five Stages of Adoption Theory for the innovation Dvorak keyboarding were Fortune 500 Companies as reported by their Training Directors and Word Processing Managers. A second research question of this study was to determine if there was a difference in personal characteristics of adopters and rejectors for Dvorak keyboarding.;The standard keyboard used today is the Qwerty keyboard designed in 1868 for two-finger typing. Speed and accuracy were never considered in the design of the Qwerty keyboard. The Dvorak keyboard had been accepted by the American National Standards Institute in 1982 as a recognized alternative to Qwerty. The Dvorak keyboard was ergonomically designed with the most frequently used keys place under the strongest fingers. Small industry segments had begun using the Dvorak keyboard, but its use by leaders in the business community, namely, Fortune 500 Companies was unknown.;To complete the study, telephone contact was made to each Fortune 500 Company to obtain the names of their Training Director and Word Processing Manager. This process resulted in obtaining the names of 424 Training Directors and 340 Word Processing Managers. A mailed questionnaire was used to collect the data. Respondents could record their answers on the instrument. These data were then transferred to a computer data file for statistical analysis using SPSSX. Two mailings resulted in 85 (20%) Training Directors and 87 (25%) Word Processing Managers responding.;Results indicated that respondents were in the first two Stages of Rogers' Adoption Process, the Knowledge and Persuasion Stages. No respondent indicated any Dvorak keyboard training occurring either in their department or other branch offices in their organizations. However, Training Directors and Word Processing Managers indicated that they would consider using the Dvorak keyboard in their organizations; would provide training on it; would consider changing to the Dvorak keyboard; would consider hiring Dvorak typists; and would consider training themselves on the Dvorak keyboard.;Of the five personal characteristics--age, sex, years in the organization, years in present position and education--used to determine adoption or rejection of the Dvorak keyboard, only sex of respondent had a relationship. Adopters of Dvorak keyboarding were male.