Title

Acceptance of New ERP System by large scale public sector

Employee
Introduction and Objective of Study
Public Sector Undertakings had been working upon the prevalent
legacy system of automation and was not doing bad during the
previous fiscals but the top level management envisioned the
need of integrating the various sites and departments through a
very efficient and innovative information technology system so
that the redundancies could be reduced in the processes,
communication could be improved and resource utilization could
be maximized. The introduction of SAP R/3 was thus, not an
instantaneous decision rather it was a well thought plan and a
highly visionary step towards increasing efficiency and ultimately
profits.
The employees of any organization (Public Sector large
organization in this case) are considered to be the internal
customers of the organization and therefore it becomes the
responsibility of the IT department to provide them a resourceful
intranet and information database in such a manner that they
could avail maximum benefits from them. The objective of this
research project is to,
a. To find out the awareness level of present automation level
and coming ERP(SAP) in large scale public sector companies
b. To check the feedback of services of IT department from the
employees of Large Public sector companies.

Problem Statement and Literature Review

Human Recourses are the most important unit of the

organizationas they uses the facilitation to maximize the use of
other resourses. Shrivastava et al. (2003) and Stone et al. (2006)
note that one of such changes is that the wide, contemporary use
of Information Technology (IT) in supporting various HR activities.
Moreover, the researchers expect that the increasing use of
Human Resource Information Technology (HRIT) can improve the
performance of HR professionals and makes them involved in the
company internal consulting activities (Albers et al. 1997). In
addition, Ulrich (1997) mentions that the use of HRIT provides
valueto the organization and raise HR professionals status in the
organization.
These phenomena have raised a attention to companies where IT
training is least and friction against change is high. Few questions
that arises about the interrelationship between the HR function
and the emerging Software system:
Does the HR Information Systems (HRIS) have the impact on the
changing HR function?
In which ways does HRIS support the changing role of HR
function?
How does HRIS influence the HR function transformation?

The HR professionals participate in transformative activities to

uphold the transformation (Appelbaum & Wohl, 2000), such as
redesigning the work processes and HRM system, restructuring
service delivery process, and managing cultural change. To be
competent for such challenging activities, they should improve
management skills to promote the transformation by appropriate
strategy (Svoboda & Schroder, 2001), develop leadership to
control it, and overcome any barriers to ensure right direction

(Knapp, 2004). Only then transformative activities can bring

positive effect and improve the performance of the organization.
Problem Statement:
1. Are employee (the end users) aware about the present HRIS
systems and the new HR soft wares?
2. Measuring the satisfaction level and recommendations about
services through IT department in public sector companies.
Research Questions:
Companies nowadays are thirsty for the IT to reduce cost,
improve service, and achieve effectiveness (Yeung, Brockband &
Ulrich, 1994). With appropriate information tools, managers,
employees and customers can quickly response to market
change, and control risk cost. To reveal the adding value of IT
application in HRM, it is necessary to clarify how IT can advocate
the HR function, for example, in strategic task or administrative
task, and how IT can advocate its transformation.
What is the current awareness level of employess about their
current IT system and upcoming changes and what the support
level of current IT department in that system.

Since the Role of HR function and the influence of HRIT on

this transformation are the focuses of this research, the
discussion points in this research paper are designed to gain
insight into their readiness in accepting new system and use of
older system. The check that we can have on these two problems
can be done with checking one question how efficiently they use
the current system.
Furthermore, a series of stepwise sub-questions are designed to
explore the main question from various aspects:

What are the complaint taking efficiencies?

IT department commitment about delivery
Role of external agencies?
Employees training modules efficiency level.

Methodology and References

The kind of research shall be used in preparing this report is the
qualitative research design wherein the natural setting of public
sector undertakings shall be used as the source of data. In this
research I shall attempt to observe, describe and interpret
settings as they were. Survey should conducted by us in order to
get the feedback for the services of the IT department and this
survey was conducted separately so as not to intermingle the
responses of the respondents.
Sample Description: I shall take sample of 200 respondent
mainly junior/middle level manager of the 5 PSU. The sample
would be find out by convenient sampling method and in few
cases with iceberg technique.
Data Collection: I shall have a questionnaire for respondents
with some question in Lichert scale and some open ended
questions, Can also have some inputs about their experiences on
HRIS by interview.
Plan of data analysis
Each and every question in the questionnaire has a definite
objective and the survey shall be done taking the executive level
and senior work group one at a time. This is the basic plan I were

following before survey. The plan of data analysis also includes as

to how the responses should be studied so that a definite
conclusion could be drawn and therefore I have decided to study
the responses on a pie chart so as to infer the results of the
survey.
Data Analysis: Question shall give some direct answer to
problems and hypothesis made by me. I Shall test few results on
z-test, and to find whether the data are generalized for Large
population we shall use Chi-Square test.

Three Stages of research

a. Understanding usage and efficiency of old system
b. Knowing the pros of upcoming system and interest in
training themselves for that
c. IT department support

There are several considerations when deciding to adopt a

qualitative research methodology. Qualitative methods can be
used to better understand any phenomenon about which little is
yet known. They can also be used to gain new perspectives on
things about which much is already known, or to gain more indepth information that may be difficult to convey quantitatively.
Thus, qualitative methods are appropriate in situations where one
needs to first identify the variables that might later be tested
quantitatively, or where the researcher has determined that
quantitative measures cannot adequately describe or interpret a
situation.
References

Appelbaum, S. H. & Wohl, L. (2000). Transformation or change:

some prescriptions for health care organizations. Managing
Service Quality, 10(5), 279-298
Australian Business Deans Council (2008). ABDC journal rating list
- Business and Management (Alpha). Retrieved October 12, 2008,
from http://www.abdc.edu.au/download.php?id=142376,171,1.
Beer, M. (1997). The transformation of the human resource
function: Resolving the tension between a traditional
administrative and a new strategic role. Human Resource
Management, 36(1), 49-56.
Bjorkman, I. & Soderberg, A. M. (2006). The HR function in largescale mergers and acquisitions: the case study of Nordea.
Personnel Review, 35(6), 654-670.
Brewster, C., Wood, G., Brookes, M., & Van Ommeren, J. (2006).
What determines the size of the HR function? A cross-national
analysis. Human Resource Management, 45(1), 3-21.
Knapp, D. (2004). If You're in HR, You're Likely in HR
Transformation. Employee Benefit Plan Review, 58(9), 9-13.
Ulrich, D. (1997). Human Resource Champions: The Next Agenda
for Adding Value and Delivery Results. Harvard Business School
Press. Ulrich, D. &. B. W. (2005). The HR value proposition. Boston:
Harvard Business School Press