Organizational implementation of systems innovations : Case university in Kenya

Abstract

The Higher Education Sector in Kenya has taken efforts to adopt and use Information Communication Technologies (ICT) innovations to support its core functions, especially for the purposes of improving service delivery. The perception of Information Systems (IS) use in the higher education learning institutions as a way to ease decision-making and improve quality of services, especially to students, has led to increased experimentation with IS-based innovations. This has provided opportunities for IS researchers to examine the adoption, implementation and use of IS in these institutions. This research aims at contributing to the body of knowledge on organizational implementation of IS in higher education institutions by adopting an innovation-diffusion perspective to examine the implementation of IS. Using the innovation-diffusion perspective that recognizes the organizational context within which the implementation process occurs facilitates the illustration of factors in the context of implementation, thereby providing a relevant and interesting perspective to study the implementation process of IS. By adopting a hybrid theoretical framework that is process-oriented with an organizational learning view and incorporating critical factors in the implementation context that include change management approaches enables a total understanding of the implementation process of IS. The hybrid framework is then used as the theoretical lens to study the implementation of a student management system in a university setting. Using an in- depth case study approach, this thesis details how the interpretive qualitative case study was designed and conducted with the data collected presented as a descriptive case tracing the implementation process of a student information system from secondary adoption to organizational assimilation intertwined with organizational learning. The data collected is then used applied to the hybrid framework and analysed and interpreted using an interpretive approach. The analysis and interpretation approach that is used provides multiple levels of analysis-the unit levels and the organizational level, to make sense of the implementation process. The analysis of the data is then followed by the interpretation of the emerging observations achieved by analysing 111 relationships of the context and outcomes with the implementation process at unit and organizational levels. The factors perspective of the hybrid framework is largely used to interpret the contextual factors that are identified to have an impact on the implementation process. The factors either enabled or constrained the implementation process varyingly in the different units. The process perspective is used to explain the relationship between the consequences of the implementation process and the process of implementation, coupled with the intertwined organizational learning process. The analysis showed that the implementation process was both a managerial process that required continuous change management actions and interventions that were shaped by the organizational context whilst as the same time an organizational learning process. The results of the study offered insights on two key relationships, the context-process relationship and process-outcomes relationship. These insights include culture and power systems, leadership and organizational computing history as factors that influenced the implementation process, while the same context enabled and constrained managerial actions during the implementation process. Using consequences of the process as tools for motivating assimilation and organizational learning enhanced success of IS innovation implementations. The study revealed that both the presence of a favourable implementation context and appropriate managerial interventions are critical to organizational implementation of IS. This suggests that IS project plans must be aligned to the context and be realistic with the organization’s accumulating experience to inform future IS implementation projects. Keywords: Hybrid frameworks, IS innovations, organizational IS implementation, organization context, interpretive case study, Higher Education Institutions (HIEs)