Internal Structure of the Organization as a Determinant of Adoption of HRIS in the Operations of Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in Kenya

Human Resources (HR) and information technology are the two elements that many firms are learning to use as strategic weapons to compete. The vision 2030 economic reform progress initiated by the government of Kenya is aimed at turning Kenya into a middle level income country. It incorporates ICT as a social economic force under the economic pillar for driving development among other sectors. The government’s key objective is to turn Kenya into a global ICT hub and a premier location for business process outsourcing (BPO). To capitalize on the synergy between these two assets, human resource information systems (HRIS) is an emerging area that may lead human resource management into a new era. Technological developments and particularly those based on advancing IT, are essential for organizational effectiveness and are powerful drivers of organizational change. The TSC has grown tremendously since its creation through an act of parliament cap 212 in 1967 in terms of the teacher population it serves, as well as its secretariat staff. Recently it was made a constitutional office through an act of parliament 237(1) of 2012. It is therefore expected to improve service delivery to its customers. Being the biggest employer in eastern and central Africa means it manages a massive payroll. The HR issues it has to manage lead to a lot of correspondences in a day. The introduction of HRIS in the organization can improve efficiency and in consequence reduce the amount of correspondences and clients visiting the commission at any given time. The study therefore sought to investigate whether internal structure of an organization has effect on adoption of HRIS in its operations. The independent variable was internal structure of the organization with a moderating variable; effect of external environment. The study investigated how each variable influences the level of adoption of Human Resource Information Systems at the TSC in Kenya. The study employed descriptive research design and the study population was the staff of the TSC in Kenya. Purposive stratified sampling was used to select the sample for the study. Data was collected using a self administered questionnaire. It was analyzed using multiple regression and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to come up with some useful conclusions and recommendations. From the analysis above it was concluded that the null hypothesis be rejected and the alternative be accepted; there is a significant relationship between internal structure of the organization and adoption of HRIS. According to (Ivancevich et al 2006), an organization’s structure is considered to be the “anatomy of the organization, providing a foundation within which the organization functions. This underscores the importance of internal structure of an organization in adoption of new technology and for this case HRIS.