A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for Award of the Degree of Masters of Science in Human Resource Management of Mzumbe University
ABSTRACT
Traditionally, most of the human resource activities were carried out using paper based approach. Recently, with changes in technology, the human resource has adopted electronic technology to manage employees as a means of increasing productivity. However, there is lack of information regarding the use of electronic systems on human resource management (HRM) in public institutions. Such information is essential to planners in ensuring effective use of the resources.
This study, therefore, aimed to assess the use of electronic system in HRM in TPA. Exploratory research design was adopted and field work was done between April and May 2013. Random sampling of employee from the human register was done and a total of 96 respondents consisting of managers and employees were interviewed. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, Version 16).
The findings revealed that electronic human resource management (e-HRM) is effective in reducing administrative burden and produces increased accuracy of results and quality of human resource (HR) activities. Furthermore, e-HRM practices such as recruitment, employee performance assessment, compensation and training become more visible by different stakeholders at a time. Creation of centralized HR data base across all the port departments is one of the initiatives taken to overcome the gaps on employee skills. Involvement of the management in various decision levels has been incorporated as a means to ensure that decisions are made in a team.
A key implication from this study is that policymakers can opt from a set of scenarios, such as training employees so that they may have right skills on e-HRM, investing on the infrastructure and regular monitoring of the activities within TPA. Further studies can be done to assess the costs of installing and operating e-HRM in order to advice the government on the use of e-HRM.