Computerizing personnel information systems : lessons from Kenya
By: PETERSON, Stephen
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Contributor(s): KINYEKI, Charles | MUTAI, Joseph | NDUNGU, Charles.
Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: New York : Marcel Dekker, 1997International Journal of Public Administration - IJPA 20, 10, p. 1865-1889Abstract: It is difficult to improve the management of complement information in developing bureaucracies because the data base is large and complicated to manage and the data are often tampered. Using the case of Kenya, this article tests a framework for understanding the constraints of implementing information technology in developing countries. Effective development of information systems requires progressive government officers (saints) who will shoulder the risk of the reform, it requires that the opponents (demons) of the reform be managed, it requires that the technical expertise (wizards) be appropriate and that the systems be kept simple. Information systems fail or under perform more often than they succeed in the public sector in Africa (and in other developing countries) because the saints are few, the demons are many, the wizards are inappropriate, the systems are complex and the organizations are weak.
It is difficult to improve the management of complement information in developing bureaucracies because the data base is large and complicated to manage and the data are often tampered. Using the case of Kenya, this article tests a framework for understanding the constraints of implementing information technology in developing countries. Effective development of information systems requires progressive government officers (saints) who will shoulder the risk of the reform, it requires that the opponents (demons) of the reform be managed, it requires that the technical expertise (wizards) be appropriate and that the systems be kept simple. Information systems fail or under perform more often than they succeed in the public sector in Africa (and in other developing countries) because the saints are few, the demons are many, the wizards are inappropriate, the systems are complex and the organizations are weak.
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