RECURSOS NATURALES VEGETALES
1.3 ANALISIS DE ENTORNOS
1.3.2 ANALISIS INTERNO (Porter)
It was extremely difficult for me to gain an understanding of which areas (business units) had completed the implementation and what tasks were left to do in other areas, because nothing had been documented in a centralised or formalised manner to provide an update on the overall progress of the project. The project team met weekly and minutes were taken but, to obtain an overview of the entire project, I had to review the minutes of all the project team meetings and interview the project team members.
This project was more than simply the implementation of an electronic FCS – the project also required the incorporation of wider organisational changes, such as policy changes. Although the project had commenced in January 2009, the supporting work was still incomplete when I commenced this phase in April 2010: for example, the development of an organisation-wide policy (and related procedures) for electronic records management was still lacking. A review of the data collected in phase one of this study showed that the project was under-resourced and that project staff did not initially have the necessary skills to undertake such a substantial and organisation-wide change project.
Standard project management approaches which had been partially implemented to support the project included the following:
A project team was established and regular project meetings were held, but the task lists arising from these meetings (for follow-up actions) were neglected over time and were not updated nor discussed at the team meetings. Although minutes of the project team meetings were kept, they were a brief summary of what had occurred and did not include a list of outstanding actions to be undertaken. This resulted in tasks not being completed, such as the failure to develop a supporting policy and procedures for electronic records management;
A phased project plan was created at the start of the project, but this was not maintained over time during the project; and the phased roll-out was eventually dropped: an ad hoc approach seemed to be taken to the implementation of the new system. Project team members were going back and forth into various services areas implementing the project piece-meal, leading to less autonomous motivation on the part of both the project team and the end users in relation to the implementation and acceptance of the change; and
118
Inadequate systems to monitor the change: a series of audits had been introduced to ensure that each area was, in fact, continuing to implement the changes after the project team had completed training staff. However, audits were not scheduled regularly and were, quite often, not completed leading to less autonomous motivation to persist with the change.
It is important to note at this stage that the issue was not that traditional project management practices don’t work in non-profit organisations (NPOs) but, rather, there appeared to be a lack of professionalism in applying the project management practices appropriately as these related to the more intrinsically motivated staff within UC.
As outlined in Chapter 2. the implementation of New Public Management (NPM) practices to the government sector and outsourcing social services has shifted governmental accountability to NPOs. As a result, NPOs have had to become more institutionalised, professionalised and bureaucratic which is causing widespread changes. While not all business processes from the private or public sector are suitable for NPOs, project management practices tailored to this sector are suitable, though at times during the action research phases these appeared to be difficult to implement, as management holds a weaker authority bond over non- profit workers (see Chapter 2. for more detail). While NPOs do lag behind in the adoption of ICT as outlined in Chapter 2. because of a lack of resources in terms of both funding and skills, they are different to other organisations because of the participatory, inclusive, and accessible processes they use and it is these processes which are an important motivating factor for non-profit workers. It is these processes which will continue to be used in this action research study
Section 0 identified a number of key factors with the potential to affect staff motivation during the change process, which required further investigation in the next phase of action research. The minor key factors possibly affecting the motivation of staff included:
Other, concurrent changes within the organisation; and
Organisation-wide ICT systems, their ease of use and attitudes to ICT and the department in general. The key factors which appeared to play a major role in affecting staff motivation to accept the change were:
Leadership – style and role;
Project Management processes such as;
o Scope, Time, Quality – and how these affect staff motivation to persist with the change, o Human Resources – played a role in terms of staff competence, control and leadership,
Communication, which included;
o Information – access to information and its perceived quality and relevance; and o Participation and Consultation – how genuine is it perceived to be?
119
All these factors were used as the basis for data collection in phase two of the action research study. In order to analyse these data effectively using the MCT framework, it proved necessary to analyse each factor individually in terms of: how it affected (or did not affect) staff self-determination (perceived control), self- esteem (competency) and relatedness (recognition) – the intrinsic needs which drive motivation. The Change Factors and Motivation Crowding model presented in Figure 5.2 was used to structure and analyse data collection in the next phase of action research.Figure 5-2: Change factors and motivation crowding model
Using this model in the next phase of action research (Phase 2) I would be able to further isolate those factors which could crowd-out workers’ intrinsic motivation to accept the change and system being implemented and, thus, to formulate interventions which might reduce the likely crowding-out effects. Since each worker’s motivation to accept change plays an important role in implementing any change program, including an ICT- induced change, understanding how an individual’s motivation is likely to be affected during any change project is crucial to its success.
Acceptance of change is important generally within organisations – and motivation to accept an ICT system being implemented is specifically important within the IS field. By defining the types of motivation underlying acceptance more fully it may be possible, for example, to review and create a new technology acceptance model more inclusive of the types of motivation underlying acceptance. This has important implications for all ICT implementation projects, not just for projects within the non-profit sector, although it is particularly relevant for workers in the public service, education and medical sectors where employee motivation is also a critical factor.
120
5.7
Chapter Summary
In summarising this chapter, I have outlined and presented findings from phase one of an action research study. An overview of the pilot project to implement an electronic FCS was presented in Section 5.1 with the focus of the study being on the mutual interaction of the organisational change process and the motivation of the workforce. Following an action research approach the problem situation (the potential for the change process to crowd-out motivation) and the plan to address it was presented. The framework of MCT was used to guide data collection and analysis, and the Motivational Continuum (Table 5-1) was used to evaluate how, or if, the management of this change event affected worker motivation.
The data collection and analysis process was described using an open coding technique associated with grounded theory, where data was fractured and coded, and themes were developed. Drawing on the MCT framework I identified a number of factors (see Figure5-1) from the data which had the potential to crowd- out or affect staff motivation to accept the change and system being implemented. Based on the findings presented in this chapter, I created the Change Factors and Motivation Crowding Model to guide and structure data collection during the next phase of action research.