ABSTRACT
Dairy societies in Kenya, like many Africa countries is carried out by small-scale dairy farmers located in rural areas, often with low levels of literacy and very few technological skills. For dairy cooperatives to survive they have to streamline their operations and improve their management processes if they want to have a positive balance sheet and some surplus money to pay dividends to their members, therefore, the study assessed the effect of information communication and technology adoption on performance of dairy societies in Uasin Gishu County. The study specifically determined the effect of financial information system technologies adoption on organization performance of dairy societies, established the effect of Information communication technologies adoption on organization performance of dairy societies, ascertained the effect of human resource information system on organization performance of dairy societies and determined the effect of Product Processing technologies on organization performance of dairy societies. The study was informed by Diffusion of Innovation theory (DOI) and Theory of Constraints (TOC). The study adopted the explanatory research design which shows the causal effect of technology adoption and organization performance. A census of all the dairy cooperative societies in Uasin Gishu County was done, where there are a total of 20 dairy societies. The primary data for the study was obtained using questionnaires. Pretest on two dairy societies was done to test for reliability. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested using Cronbach Alpha coefficient. Quantitative data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques which are frequencies, means, and standard deviation. Inferential statistics such as Pearson moment correlations was used to establish the effects on the variables. Multiple regression was used to establish the cause effect of the variables. The findings of the study indicated that financial information system technologies adoption, information communication technology adoption and Product Processing technologies adoption had significant and positive effect on performance of dairy societies. The results showed that all the four predictors explained 65.7% of organizational performance. However, the study revealed that human resource information system had no significant effect on performance of dairy societies. The study concludes that financial information system technologies adoption, information communication technology adoption and Product Processing technologies adoption are significantly related to organizational performance of dairy societies. The study recommends that policies on financial information system technologies, Human Resources information system, ICT and product processing technologies should be adopted to boost organizational performance and enable them to have a competitive edge.
CHAPTER ONE
Background to the Study
Dairy farmer co-operative societies have played an important role in the adoption of market-oriented dairying by smallholder farmers (Hopcraft & Ruigu, 2006). This indicates that dairy cooperative also play a pivotal role in social and economic empowerment of their members as compared to non-members. However, Rathod et al., (2012 b) and Biradar (2009) pointed out the constraints related to financial, human resources, policies and administrative aspects hamper the organization performance of dairy cooperatives.
In Europe, the need to effectively coordinate the activities of individual, organizational sub units is vastly greater in 2015 than even a few years ago. It is driven by an increasingly competitive world. According to Studies in United States of America and United Kingdom, technology is likely to increase the efficiency, outreach and sustainability of cooperative societies.
The technology adoption decision within organizations in Malaysian and Turkey is usually authorized by a group of senior managers (Peansupap & Walker, 2005), therefore a key question of information technology adoption in construction firms should be how to ensure that users accept and utilize information technology in their work processes. However, studies in China indicate that the rate of unsuccessful information technology implementation is growing and further, the adoption rate is very slow (Acar et al., 2005; Mole et al., 2004; Shin, 2006). According to Gambatese and Hallowell’s (2011) it is important to identify the characteristics of technology-customer linkage (Dabholkar & Bagozzi 2002; Meuter et al., 2000), whereas the technology-employee interface is primarily aimed at internal operations, as opposed to frontline support technologies in boundary-spanning processes (Parasuraman & Grewal, 2000).
In this endeavor, information and communication technology plays an increasingly important role in facilitating the introduction of new products or services, in improving operational processes, and in guiding managerial decision making. The impact of globalization has compelled dairy societies to adopt ICT, to enable dairy societies to survive and compete with large companies. Dairy societies would greatly benefit by ICT adoption in their business processes (Maguire et al., 2007). However, as dairy societies continue contributing to the economy, they are faced with many challenges which inhibit them not to compete with large enterprises. One of the major constraints is lack of ICT adoption in their business processes. It is commonly accepted that ICTs provide many potential benefits to organizations so as to make them more efficient, effective and competitive (Fink & Disterer, 2006).
ICT has changed the way finance officers work. Technological advances in hardware and software have taken users of accounting information systems from the mainframe environment to mini and desktop computers and have become critical and integrated part of modern financial management system (Mensah & Marfo, 2009). With the technological system of every organization being a reflection of its structure and needs, ICT-enabled financial management system is sometimes said to be a model of that organization (Winchara, 2010).
A steady increase of dairy cattle population in Africa and India therefore has not been reflected in the economic growth in the dairy industry as production per cow continued to decline to about 500 kilograms of Milk per cow per annum.(FAO, 2010).In Kenya the Dairy industry accounted for 4.1% of Gross Domestic Product with Small holder dairy production accounting for over 70% of the total milk production and has always received a lot of attention from the government since independence (National Livestock Policy, 2008)
Dairy production in Kenya, as in many developing countries, is carried out by small-scale dairy farmers located in rural areas, often with very few technology skills. For most Kenyan dairy farmers, their only source of income comes from selling milk. But over the years, many small-scale producers have pooled their resources and built up strong cooperative societies that collect the milk and then sell it on to bulk processors. Some cooperatives belong to an even bigger union that also processes milk from its members before selling the final product in retail markets. Empirical studies on the effect of technologies adoptions and organization performance were scanty.
The adoption of information technology across many service industries is rapidly changing the nature of the service delivery process, necessitating employees and encouraging customers to interact with technology (Parasuraman, 2000). It has been argued that the use of IT enhances the performance of service employees, both in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, by enabling customization and flexibility in their encounters with customers (Bitner et al., 2000).
Organizational performance is a measure of how well an organization achieves appropriate objectives or how efficient and effective an organization is (Stoner, J. 2002).The expected outcomes of organizational performance are quality of service delivery, increase in members, accurate reports, product competitiveness, good customer relations and increase in volume of milk. Measuring performance has been part and parcel of any successful business entity.it is strategic because the long run survival of any organization depends on its performance.
For more Business Administration Projects Click here
===================================================================
Item Type: Kenyan Topic | Size: 71 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
===================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.