Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) adoption and its effect on organizational performance – a survey of listed firms on the Nairobi securities exchange

Abstract

The need for strong IT governance has been recognized since the advent of IT itself. Methods and frameworks to support this have existed for decades, albeit never really attracting global following or mass media interest. This situation however changed in the late 1990's and the early years of the twenty-first century. Enterprises were sacrificing money, productivity and competitive advantage by not implementing effective IT governance. This has since changed with the introduction of frameworks such as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a globally recognized collection of best practices for Information Technology (IT) Service Management. ITIL provides a framework for the governance of Information Technology (IT) and focuses on the continual measurement and improvement of the quality of IT service delivered, from both a business and a customer perspective. This focus is a major factor in ITIL’s worldwide success and has contributed to its prolific usage and to the key benefits obtained by those organizations deploying the techniques and processes throughout their organizations. The objectives of this study was to establish the extent to which ITIL has been adopted by organizations listed on the NSE and its effect on organizational performance. The study adopted the descriptive survey method as its research design. The population of the study was the 60 firms listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and a census of the entire population was conducted. The study used primary data and the primary data was collected via a structured questionnaire. There have been no local studies on this and this study seeks to determine the extent of ITIL adoption in Kenya and its effect on organizational performance. The findings indicated that majority of the sampled organizations were still in the adoption phase while only two had fully completed its implementation. Some of the challenges faced in adoption of ITIL from the study were the legal environment, lack of worker involvement, lack of teamwork, improper channels of communication and lack of management support affected the implementation of ITIL to a great extent.