Use of Information Technology in Human Resource Planning - Essay Example

? Use of Information Technology in Human Resource Planning Table of Contents Introduction 3 LITERATURE REVIEW 3 Research Philosophy, Approach and Strategy 4 Access and Ethical Measure. 5 Research Methodology. 6 Questionnaire: 6 Data Analysis and Findings 8 CONCLUSION 11 References 13 Appendix 1 15 Questionnaire: 15 Appendix 2 17 Questionnaire 17 Introduction Research Question: How beneficial is Information Technology in organizational human resource planning? Research Objective: The objective of this research paper is to provide an overview of the importance of incorporating information technology in human resource planning of an organization, looking at the constraints involved in its introduction and the milestones to be achieved upon introduction of the system. LITERATURE REVIEW Jacoby, Nason and Saguchi (77) argued that Information Technology is widely used in various departments of an organization in the United States and Japan. They insisted that IT plays a major role in the departments of human resources, aiding in the managerial processes of recruitment of workers and making of job schedules. Another group of researchers; SchoI?nberger and Lazer (221) proposed that the introduction of IT related operations in an organization, especially in the HR planning promotes efficient management and allocation of duties to employees and identification of nonperforming employees as every employee’s tasks are known. The major department of an organization is the HR department argued Haines and Lafleur (525) and incorporation of IT or digitizing the department will increase productivity of the organization by a significant margin. In the Journal of Knowledge Management, Klaila (138) claims that transformation of the information system from manual to digital in the HR department can reduce the bulk of the paper work involved in carrying out different tasks in the department. IT makes it easier to store employee information as it provides secure databases that are only accessible to the authorized parties. As IT has progressed from the old and slow mainframes to much quicker LANs (local area networks), WANs (wide area networks) and the World Wide Web, the business world follows suit in moving from the manual operations to computerized platforms (Ashbaugh and Miranda 144). Planning involves laying down strategies of an organization that are to be followed regarding performing various tasks. The HR department can work in conjunction with other departments in carrying these tasks, for instance, staff training and recruitment and job allocation among others. In order to plan adequately for a foreseeable progress of an organization, good strategies have to be laid down to avoid the failure of an organization. First is finding literature about HR tasks and functions, HR without IT and its implications. Investigate on the transformation process from HR without IT to HR with IT, and finally, how the computerized HR department will affect the planning process of human resources. Research Philosophy, Approach and Strategy The research is based on phenomenological philosophy describing a number of individual experiences about a phenomenon. In this research, positivism philosophy has been adopted as it provides the researchers with a clear view of the current system in comparison to the old system. It focuses around the actual facts that exist in the IT introduction from the researcher’s point of view, coming up with related conclusions on what should and should not be done to ensure a successful IT incorporation in the planning process of the human resources. This philosophy allows the researcher to provide their own views about how IT is beneficial to human resource planning, while directly correlating their views to the current deliverables of the system. The research also takes a deductive approach since it works from a proven theory that IT helps in human resource planning, sampling different rules and already proven facts about our theory through collection of data on these facts, then use these data to back up the existing theory. Inductively, the research works in a bottom-up manner, where we compare two cases: human resource planning without IT, and with IT, we identify the major differences in the procedures and the deliverables mainly through observations and interviews, establish a pattern in the activities and draw viable conclusions that prove that our theory that IT is important in HR planning is true. Finally, qualitative research was to be incorporated in the research as a lot of data was collected about the effects the system had on the organization, including the employees and the managers, how it affected the production rate and other major areas of interest. These data was analyzed systematically, grouping the facts in accordance to their preference formulating related concepts which were used to create the theory that IT benefits the HR department in planning of human resources. It involves critical analysis of raw data to draw suitable conclusions that are similar so as to prove a given concept/theory. Access and Ethical Measure. Across the research, it is found that this topic is widely discussed or rather researched on more than many other areas for it is the core of business success. This topic is ethically accepted and it hugely benefits the public, the employees and the organizations in general. The approval of this by the project manager implies that the topic is of no disadvantage to any individual nor an organization, for it points out the value of IT in HR planning. Research Methodology. Questionnaire: Please take some time off your busy schedule to answer the following questionnaire by checking in the appropriate field. PLEASE CHECK THE APPROPRIATE ANSWER (?). Designation: ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­___________________________ a) How is the operation of the current system (digital) as compared to the old manual system? Strongly agreed Agreed Do not know b) How good are the changes brought about by the new system? Very positive changes Positive changes Do not know c) Is the system effective in terms of employee recruitment? Very effective Effective Do not know d) What effect has the IT involvement in the HR planning had on the employee morale? Very high morale High morale No effect e) Would you like the new system to stay in place? New system Old system Any This topic is quite wide and new to most of the people in the business world. To come up with relevant information about a given scenario, both primary and secondary sources of data collection had to be used. The main source of primary data was the use of questionnaires, comprising both open-ended and close-ended questions. The questionnaire has five questions, three closed ended questions and two open ended questions. Another source of primary data was conducting interviews in different organizations regarding the changes exhibited through the introduction of IT in the HR department and how this impacted HR planning. The data collection did not just stop at that, the research went forward to look at other secondary sources including journals on past researches and books on impacts of IT in effective planning of HR activities. Data Analysis and Findings Data collected from the interviews was more direct as the interviewees responses to the questions asked were quite impressive. The interviewers had five questions to ask the employees from different organizations. For the first question, 90% of the employees agreed that the introduction of IT system in planning is cost-effective, saves time and thus there is increased productivity. 7% were of the view that it made no change while the remaining 3% thought that the old system was better. Most of the employees agreed that the introduction of the system has changed the way in which processes are run, there is less paper work involved and data integrity is relatively high (Hempel 170). The diagram below represents the data that 85% of the employees who strongly agree that IT has had some adverse changes in the organizations, while 14% are still doubtful of the system and the rest 1% were simply not conversant with the IT; thus, it made no significant difference to them. Eighty five percent of the employees dating three years from the time of the research applied their jobs online. This shows that the system is beneficial to the organizations. The other 14% were aware of the online application but due to the requirement of their physical presence, they had to present themselves. The rest 1% had no idea of what online registration was all about (Hussain, Wallace and Cornelius 74). 80% of the employees agreed that the system boosted their morale as they have access to a lot of information to work around with mainly from the internet, and the effectiveness of the system made them want to work more (Gardner, Lepak and Bartol 179). 13% were of the view that it did but not much, for they believe that unexpected system failures lower their morale at work while 7% were comfortable with any system. Ninety five percent of them were for the new system, 4% were for the old system and 1% had seen no significant change. CONCLUSION The findings should be able to apply to all organizations without any failure or bias. On the other hand, the findings and conclusions should be able to apply to the population at large. This is referred to as external validity. Reliability of this project can be assured because the research will bear the same fruits on numerous but different applications. From the study it is clear to note that many organizations would benefit from the introduction of IT systems in their day-to-day planning of their HR functions. It is evident that this program will be of great benefit to the public, employees and the organization both in the short run and long run. Managers should also ensure that all employees go through a program that will enlighten them of the system functionalities and management of minor system problems; hence the principal research question of whether the use of Information Technology in Human Resource Planning benefits an organization is answered quite well. The recommendation is that organizations should adopt IT in planning of their human resources, to improve effectiveness and efficiency of their services and enhance communication patterns within the organization, to ensure the success of their organizations at minimal costs. References Jacoby, S.M., Nason, E.M. and Saguchi K. The Role of the Senior HR Executive in Japan and the United States: Employment Relations, 2005. SchoI?nberger, V. and Lazer D. Governance and information technology: from electronic government to information government. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2007. Print. Haines, V.Y. and Lafleur G. Information technology usage and human resource roles and effectiveness. Human Resource Management, 2008. Print. Kraut, A.I., Pedigo, P.R., McKenna, D.D., and Dunnette, M.D. The role of the manager: What's really important in different management jobs. Academy of Management Executive, 2005. Print. Som, A. Redesigning the human resources function at Lafarge. Human Resource Management, 2003. Print. Strohmeier, S. Research in e-HRM: Review and implications. Human Resource Management Review, 2007. Print. Klaila, D. Knowledge as a transformation agent. Journal of Knowledge Management, 2000. Hempel, P.S. Preparing the HR profession for technology and information work. Human Resource Management, 2004. Print. Hussain, Z., Wallace, J. and Cornelius N.E. The use and impact of human resource information systems on human resource management professionals. Information and Management, 2007. Print. Gardner, S.D., Lepak, D.P. and Bartol K.M. Virtual HR: The impact of information technology on the human resource professional. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 2003. Florkowski, G.W. and Olivas-Lujan, M.R. The diffusion of human-resource information-technology innovations in US and non-US firms. Personnel Review, 2006. Ashbaugh, S. and Miranda R. Technology for human sources management: Seven questions and answers. Public Personnel Management, 2002. Appendix 1 Questionnaire: Please take some time off your busy schedule to answer the following questionnaire by checking in the appropriate field. PLEASE CHECK THE APPROPRIATE ANSWER (?). Designation: ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­___________________________ b) How is the operation of the current system (digital) as compared to the old manual system? Strongly agreed Agreed Do not know b) How good are the changes brought about by the new system? Very positive changes Positive changes Do not know c) Is the system effective in terms of employee recruitment? Very effective Effective Do not know d) What effect has the IT involvement in the HR planning had on the employee morale? Very high morale High morale No effect e) Would you like the new system to stay in place? New system Old system Any Semi-structured Interview Questions: The interviewer had the following list of questions to ask the employees. a) What made the organization change from manual to digital systems? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ b) How did the other departments in the organization react to the change? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ c) What are the deliverables of the change? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ d) How did the organization take the cost of implementation? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ e) What are the shortcomings of the change? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Appendix 2 The raw data from the questionnaire and the interview include: Questionnaire Please take some time off your busy schedule to answer the following questionnaire by checking in the appropriate field. PLEASE CHECK THE APPROPRIATE ANSWER (?). Designation: ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­___________________________ a) How is the operation of the current system as compared to the old manual system? Strongly agreed Agreed Do not know ? b) How good are the changes brought about by the new system? Very positive changes Positive changes Do not know ? c) Is the system effective in terms of employee recruitment? Very effective Effective Do not know ? d) What effect has the IT involvement in the HR planning had on the employee morale? Very high morale High morale No effect ? e) Would you like the new system to stay in place? New system Old system Any ? The results from the interview include: a) What made the organization change from manual to digital systems? The organization was facing stiff competition from other organizations in terms of quality service. When we found out that the IT section of their human resource department was behind that, we also tried to bring in the system and it has really worked well. b) How did the other departments in the organization react to the change? Departments most notably the finance department to be precise really welcomed the idea for they were already improving on their status in terms of IT. I believe other departments are working towards our direction. c) What are the deliverables of the change? The integration of the system has seen us enter a new level of competitiveness in the global market and our employees are working hard to learn the system by undertaking computer classes offered by the organization. d) How did the organization take the cost of implementation? For sure, the cost was quite high but looking at the long run benefits, the organization did not see any benefit in not taking the course. e) What are the shortcomings of the change? So far, we have not experienced any major shortcomings apart from the unexpected system failures, but the system is working according to plan. and Presentation Planningogy Read More