Professionalism and Public Sector Adoption of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) In Nigeria

Research Proposal Presentation – 28/08/2015

BY

BYEGHAGHA WILSON NICHOLAS

Area of Study: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT/MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

“Professionalism is neither the job you do nor the skills you have, but how you do the job and how you apply these skills”

John W. Gardner (1912 - 2002), President of the Carnegie Corporation

OUTLINE• Introduction

Definition of Professionalism

Professionalism in HR management

HRIS as a HR management tool

Organizational Scope of HRIS

Organizational Adoption of Technology

Professionalism as An Evolving Theme In Technology Adoption

• Problem Statement

• Research Focus

• Methodology

• Conclusion

Definition of Professionalism• Professionalism entails high level managerial application

of personal expertise and judgment; to the achievement of the individual and/or organizational objectives.

- Charted Management Institute, UK (2002)

• Professionalism transcends character, attitude, and behavior as well as ethics.

• It has to do with the application and management of competency, knowledge, technical capacity, skills, expertise and resources for excellence.

INTRODUCTION

Professionalism in HR management• Human Resource (HR) management is about the procedures, functions and practices

that encompass the human resource aspect within an organization.- Dessler (2013)

• Such practices should be connected to the overall strategy of the organization.− Bratton et al. (2003)

• The key role of HR managers is to utilize these practices in meeting the goals and objectives of organizations of overall performance and efficient service delivery, through their employees.

• This means typifying professionalism in ensuring that organizations have; the right employees with the requisite competences at the right time in the right departments and empower them with the right skills and attitudes to do what they are expected

to do their jobs.

HRIS as a HR management tool• Human resource information

systems (HRIS) is the primary function processor that lies in the heart of the HR department of an organization.

– Grobler (2005)

• HRIS is a key and practical resource tool for ensuring organizational efficiency, through proper management of its key and vital resources; the employees.

• HRIS keys adequately into this reality and can be an effective tool for fast tracking professionalism in HR management.

HR Organizational Scope of HRIS• HRIS is usually part of an

organization’s larger Management Information System s(MIS)which would include the marketing, production, financial and accounting functions.

• The scope of HRIS is as wide as the need for data.• HRIS can extend from the first time of information (recruitment) to the last time (separation).

• Intervening personnel functions are also included (training, development, compensation, salary, etc.).• By facilitating access to data, HRIS can improve organizational efficiency. (Beadles et al., 2005; Dery et al., 2009; Wiblen et al., 2010)

Organizational Adoption of Technology

• One of the most established approaches in studying technology adoption entails identifying contingency factors that can affect adoption decisions, processes and outcome in organizations.

- Troshani et al. (2010)

• These factors are commonly classified into three broad categories; TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATION ENVIRONMENT

Technological Context

• Perceived benefits-cost trade-off of particular technological innovations can affect the “possible gains and costs” associated with their adoption. GAINS:- Service Quality, Efficiency and Reliability COSTS:- Administrative cost, Set-up cost, Operating cost, User

training cost, etc.

• Organizational fit has been defined as a congruence between the technological innovation and organization’s goals, values, practices, available technological infrastructure and legal system.

Organizational Context• Human Capacity refers to the extent to which technical skills and technological

know-how are available in an organization.

• Management commitment reflects top management support for technology adoption.

• Organization size (Flanagin, 2000) believe larger organizations should be more likely to adopt

technological innovations earlier than smaller organizations due to financial advantages.

(Hitt et al. ,1990) believe smaller organizations can be more agile in adopting technologies faster than larger organizations due to flexibility and adaptability factors.

• Degree of centralization Technology adoption is facilitated in organizations that exhibit high degree of

centralization because top management can make adoption decisions irrespective of resistance from lower level managers or employees (Shaukat and Zafar 2010; Williams 1994).

High degree of centralization can negatively impact the decision to adopt technologies that are more compatible with the interests of lower level employees than those of higher level employees (Yang et al. , 2007).

Environment Context• Regulation compliance refers to ways in which government can

influence the adoption of new technologies. TAX REGULATIONS AWARENESS TRAINING FUNDING

• Successful adoptions An environment with success stories and adopting champions can be

conducive in technology adoption (Gharavi et al. 2004). Every successful use of a technological innovation leads more users to

strongly consider it as an option for adoption (Liu et al. 2008).

Professionalism as An Evolving Theme in Technology Adoption• As specific TOE factors vary across different application domains

and Clime, researchers in the field (Troshani et al., 2010), have suggested that additional research is required to investigate new and evolving contextual themes in the TOE model of technology adoption, as the current model may always be inadequate.

• In the current TOE model, human capacity which is the extent to which technical skills and technological know-how are available in an organization equates professionalism which entails the managerial application of expertise, competency, knowledge, skills and judgment; to the achievement of the objectives of an organization. Professionalism includes management skills, technical knowledge, and

top level confidence required in operating innovation-related applications successfully.

It affects innovation acceptance because it ensures technology utility aligns with human capacity which in turn determines the speed and the coverage of the adoption of new technologies in an organizations.

Professionalism as An Evolving Theme in Technology Adoption (continues)

• Evidence in literature suggests that organizations that exhibit competent management and application of new technology are more apt to successfully adopt new technologies than those who just have the talent pool to assimilate the technology.

- Zhu and Kraemer (2005)

• Building the Conceptual framework; Incorporating professionalism into a modified TOE model of technology adoption. By employing the modified TOE model as an analytical tool,

professionalism as a contextual factor in the HRIS adoption can be isolated and investigated.

The impact of the contextual factors are weighted with signs to indicates the direction of influence on adoption decisions, namely, Enabling (+) Inhibiting (-) Most commonly enabling although occasionally inhibiting (+/-)

Professionalism as An Evolving Theme in Technology Adoption (continues)

PROBLEM STATEMENT • It is an established fact that there exists a death of research in

organizational adoption of HRIS.- Troshani et al. (2010)

• More so, HRIS adoption remains under-researched in the public sector .- (Henriksen and Mahnke 2005 ; Blount and Castleman 2009)

- • In fact HR studies in the African public sector (APS-HRMnet, 2013) have focused solely on

administrative reforms of human resource management; and in so doing they neglect the adoption of HRIS.

• As such, there is no known study that has been carried to evaluate the role played by professionalism in HRIS adoption in the Nigerian public sector.

• Similarly, the current TOE model on technology adoption is inadequate as it does not key in the importance of professionalism in innovation adoption decision making, process and output.

• Therefore, addressing the foregoing can provide a valuable contribution to both research and practice on HRIS.

RESEARCH FOCUS• Aim; to evaluate professionalism as an important factor in the adoption of

HRIS in the Nigerian public sector.

• Objectives; the objective of this study is four-pronged. Examine the importance of professionalism to organizational adoption of

technology . This would entail a general overview of literature and supporting concepts which set to guide this study towards attaining the consequent objectives.

Determine if professionalism has a significant impact on HRIS adoption in the Lagos State Civil Service. This would be achieved using the Chi-Square statistical test.

Investiate how effective professionalism has being in the HRIS adoption process of the Lagos State Civil Service in specific HR functions. This would basically involve exploratory/qualitative analysis of data generated from interviews and questionnaire

Develop an adequate conceptual framework. This would entail theoretically evaluating the current model with the aim of highlighting perceived weaknesses in addressing evolving themes such as professionalism.

METHODOLOGY• This research would however utilize a cross sectional survey type

involving the collection of data from a sample population, the Lagos Civil Service Commission; and use this to describe the entire Nigerian public sector. The choice of the Lagos State Civil Service is hinged on the fact that, it

has highly developed computer based human resource management system, with a sole directorate dedicated to HRIS.

• The population of this study is the staff of 5 directorates of the commission that can provide answers that will enable the study attain its aim and objectives, namely; Human resource administration, Recruitment and appointment, Career management, Discipline and exit Human resource management information system

• Data would be sourced primarily using questionnaires, face-to-face interviews.

• Data would be analysed using descriptive, qualitative and exploratory techniques.

METHODOLOGY (continues)• Findings may be limited due to the sample size

Resource constraints and the share size of the Nigerian public sector would not permit the study of more than one public organization at a time

CONCLUSION• Study hopes to be a contribution to two key areas of the literature;

Limited but growing body of knowledge on HRIS adoption in the public sector

Dynamic theory on technology adoption

• Outcome of this research should;

Generate greater awareness among public organizations on HRIS adoption

Institution of professionalism in the adoption process