Article citation: Martinsons, M.G. & Chong, P.K.C., 1999. The Influence of Human Factors and Specialist Involvement on Information Systems Success. Human Relations, 52(1), pp.123–152.
Your Summary of Content of Paper:
| “It is very difficult to overcome resistance to unwanted change simply through training or forced inducements” (Martinsons, Chong, 1999). This sentence represents very well the importance and the challenges of a well conducted Information Systems implementation. This is far away related to mere technological skills. Instead, success, or unsatisfactory results, are first of all related to human factors. |
A: Quality of the Research
| Item | Your Comments |
| 1. Is the research question or objective clearly stated? | The research objective is clearly stated and focuses on the importance of human factors in successful information systems implementations. The role of HR is the main focus. |
| 2. Is the research question interesting and important? | The question is very relevant as it helps to determine the actions leading to success and those leading to poor satisfaction. |
| 3. Is the work original? | The work provides a lot of references. This may lead to think that it represents a collection of ideas expressed by others. Nevertheless the references are supporting the authors concepts while the entire work is original. |
| 4. Is the background research clear and relevant? | The research identifies the necessity to introduce a new “approach” moving from a passive toward a pro-active role of HR. |
| 5. Are there any ethical problems? | The reasearch is based on the analyses of answers collected with anonymous questionnaires. It does suggest how the human factors are relevant in successful implementations and that the HR has an opportunity to prevent unsatisfactory deployments. |
B: The Research Method
| Item | Your Comments |
| Summarise the research method | The research method is based on a collection of evidences supporting the conclusions. A questionnaire was established in order to collect facts. Propositions were formulated in order to establish how was the “wished” and the actual involvement of HR in the IS implementation phases. |
| Does the research method seem appropriate for the research question? | The variety of characteristics (size and sector) shows that the authors wanted to avoid any “bias” which could be present in a specific organisation sector or size. The writer thinks that a wider geographical area may be interesting to verify whether differences in geographical areas may influence the results.Searching for facts is an appropriate method: “Almost two-thirds of those responding explicitly requested a copy of our study results. This level of interest suggests that the topic is important to both practitioners and the academic community”. |
| Are the methods adequately described? | The methods are carefully described. There is a clear reference to a literature in contrast with the authors theory: “In contrast to the suggestion made by Clegg and Kemp (1986), the size of the organization (which varied from 207 employees to over 3000 employees in our sample) was not found to significantly influence either the role or the impact of the HR specialists“ |
| Were the analyses done correctly? | Data provided in table VI shows negative correlation (b) which denotes transparency in the data analysis. This transparency is also supported by the sentence “The results do establish a causality between greater HR involvement and IS success”. |
| Are the conclusions supported by the data? | All presented data supports the conclusions. |
C: Quality of Presentation
| Item | Your Comments |
| Is the work well presented? | The presentation is in line with the target (conclusions). |
| Is the paper well structured? | The structure reflects the methodology. |
| Are symbols, terms, and concepts adequately defined? | |
| Would additional tables, figures help to clarify the work? | The research was performed in Asia. It would be interesting to include additional regions to verify whether the “cultural” differences do influence the results. |
D: Additional Notes
| Use this section to record additional notes on the paper. In particular you should identify any links to other topics and papers from the module | Changing the organisation is a very important factor for a succesfull IS implementation. Change does not occur without guided actions.According to (Dan Roberts, 2013): “Change leaders are the people who sponsor and validate the project that’s causing the change to occur. There are usually a number of individuals assigned to this role, and it’s important that they be placed broadly and deeply throughout the organization”. Roberts also refers to the components of changes and the interactions those components have: “commitment, community, and clarity”. According to (HAINES et al, 2008), “Organizations need strong HR administrative units to develop and deliver practices that foster knowledge sharing, growth and development, and commitment to the organization.” The writer has over two decades experience in the area of Sap consulting and thinks that knowledge sharing must also occur within development teams in order to ensure smooth applications maintenance and common levels of understandings. Due to the competition between consultants this is not always the case, even in “internal resources” teams. In this context the HR role can be passive or extremely proactive for example by ensuring, whenever possible, to hire “team-player” personalities. Relevant knowledge differences among team members where limiting factors for successful infra-team knowledge sharing , leading the senior developers to support the entire weight of projects implementation. This is a risky situation in case those resources leave the organization. |
References:
Roberts, Dan. , Unleashing the Power of IT : Bringing People, Business, and Technology Together, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013.
ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/salford/detail.action?docID=1520751.
Created from salford on 2019-10-07 10:09:04.
Haines, Victor Y. ; Lafleur, Geneviève Wooten, Lynn Perry, Human Resource Management,,Fall 2008, Vol. 47, No. 3, Pp. 525–540© 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/hrm.20230
Alessandro Filippi 