1. Professionalism and Public Sector Adoption of
Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS)
In Nigeria
Research Proposal Presentation – 28/08/2015
BY
BY
EGHAGHA WILSON NICHOLAS
Area of Study: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT/MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

2. “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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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)

8. 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

9.  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.

10.  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).

11.  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).

12. 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.

13. 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 (+/-)

14. Professionalism as An Evolving Theme in
Technology Adoption (continues)

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 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