An investigation on the relationship between Information technology and productivity – a Case study of national oil corporation of Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between information technology and productivity. Specifically, the objectives were three, firstly to establish the status of ICT investment at NOCK, secondly, to establish the benefits and challenges of ICT and lastly to establish the relationship between ICT and productivity at NOCK. Data was obtained using case study to analyze the relationship between ICT and productivity. A total of 53 respondents were received. Generally the study found that the major challenges facing ICT usage were having a poor ICT implementation strategy and inadequate user training which affected ICT diffusion and therefore the benefits that the organization would have derived from the use of ICT. Decisions to adopt ICT were dominantly affected by the customers, suppliers and competition, perhaps because they perceive that ICT will enhance an organizations service delivery. Employees who had used ICT for long 11-15years, demonstrated that they felt that ICT had an impact. ICT does not seem to have a measurable impact on productivity until it reached a critical mass of diffusion and experience. Productivity gains from ICT investments materialise only after time. On productivity it was noted that generally ICT has had a positive impact on the organization on the delivery of services, quality of services and also impacted the morale of the employees. The study recommends that for ICT to impact an organization, management support is critical from the inception of ICT initiatives to the time the initiatives are implemented in the organization. Training is also a very important element both to build capacity. Its quality, content and continuity have to be included at all times for sustainability. Training needs should be focused on the available facilities and employees sensitized on their importance. Having ICT facilities that users are not well trained on will have minimum impact on the organization. Prior to implementation of ICT initiatives, ICT Benefits need to be agreed upon prior to ICT investments and also prioritized for an organization to be able to measure the impact of ICT. The impact of ICT can be maximized when other areas of the organization are considered together rather than in isolation such as human resources, organization structure and business processes alignment.