Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) Essay

adult male imagery cultivation Systems (HRIS) An Unrealised Potential* David Grant** diddle and Organisational Studies The Institute edifice (H03) The University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia Email d.grantecon.usyd.edu.au Tel +61 (0)2 9351 7871 Fax +61 (0)2 9351 5283Kristine Dery encounter and Organisational Studies The Institute Building (H03) The University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia Email k.deryecon.usyd.edu.au Tel +61 (0)2 9036 6410Richard H altogetherWork and Organisational Studies The Institute Building (H03) The University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia Email r.hallecon.usyd.edu.au Tel +61 (0)2 9351 5621Nick WailesWork and Organisational Studies The Institute Building (H03) The University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia Email n.wailesecon.usyd.edu.au Tel +61 (0)2 9351 7870Sharna WiblenWork and Organisational Studies The Institute Building (H03) The University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia Email s.wiblenecon.usyd.edu.au Tel +61 (0)2 9036 7603Abstract all over the last decade there has been a considerable increase in the number of organisations gathering, storing and analysing information regarding their serviceman choices through the habit of Human preference culture Systems (HRIS) softw atomic number 18 or separate types of softw ar which include HRIS righteousnessality (Ball, 2001 Barron, Chhabra, Hanscome, & Henson, 2004 Hussain, Wallace, & Cornelius, 2007 Ngai & Wat, 2006). The growing adoption of HRIS by organisations combined with the increasing sophistication of this software, presents the Human Resource function with the opportunity to enhance its contribution to organisation strategy. In this knowledge we examine the ways in which HRIS powerfulness be utilise in order to achieve this. Our synopsisof quadruple Australian case submit organisations befalls that the claimed emf of HRIS to contribute to logical argument strategy is contingent on its overcoming one or to a greater extent of deuce-ace advert challenges. * This resea rch is funded by an Australian inquiry Council Linkage Grant (LPLP0882247) in collaboration with the Australian Senior Human Resources Roundtable (ASHRR). ** Corresponding Author.Human Resource info Systems (HRIS) An Unrealised Potential The last decade has seen a momentous increase in the number of organisations gathering, storing and analysing human imaginativenesss data using Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) (Ball, 2001 Barron et al., 2004 Hussain et al., 2007 Ngai et al., 2006). In this paper we show that the accept of the impact of HRIS is of direct significance to the ongoing debate about the extent to which Human Resources (HR) can tamper a strategical role in the organisation (Becker, Huselid, & Ulrich, 2001 Hewitt Associates, 2007 Huselid, 1995 Lawler & Mohrman, 2003 Sheehan, Holland, & De Cieri, 2006). Specifically, we examine the argument that through its capacity to deliver accurate and timely metrics, HRIS has the potential to assist the HR function in d eveloping duty strategy and thereof enhancing organisation performance (Barney & Wright, 1998 Broderick & Boudreau, 1992 Gueutal, 2003 Lawler, Levenson, & Boudreau, 2004 Lengnick-Hall & Moritz, 2003). Our initial findings from the first of all phase of inter look ons with foursome organisations based in Australia, notify that the potential of HRIS to deliver the strategic competencies promised remains by and large unrealised and that instead HRIS is used to increase administrative efficiency and/or obtain compliance support. Specifically, we find that the implementation and use of HRIS is being hindered by three main challenges maintaining organisational attention, portion outing the interwovenities associated with people focus, and managing user credence of the change associated with the corpse. The paper comprises four main divides. In the first section we review the literature on HRIS paying particular attention to previous studies which recognise challenges associated with the selection and implementation of HRIS as well as the impressiveness of neighborly constructionism as a theoretical lens to analyse this topic. In the second section we discuss our case study methodology and profile our four case study organisations. In the leash section we discussour results by identifying and discussing the three challenges which we identify as crucial to the study of HRIS and HR. The final section summarises the findings and provides recommendations for way. belles-lettres Review and Theory The topical generation of HRIS automate and devolve routine administrative and compliance functions usageally performed by corporate HR departments and can lull the outsourcing of HR (Barron et al., 2004). In doing so, HRIS not moreover get down it possible for organisations to significantly reduce the costs associated with HR delivery, but besides to reassess the withdraw for retaining knowledgeable HR capabilities. However, HRIS also provide HR professi onals with opportunities to enhance their contribution to the strategic boot of the firm. First, by automating and devolving many routine HR tasks to line palmment, HRIS provide HR professionals with the time needed to direct their attention towards more business critical and strategic level tasks, such as leadership development and talent management (Lawler et al., 2003). Second HRIS provides an opportunity for HR to play a more strategic role, through their ability to generate real time reports on HR telephone numbers, including mold force planning and skills profiles, which can be used to support strategic decision making (Hendrickson, 2003 Lawler et al., 2004 Lengnick-Hall et al., 2003). The existing literature on HRIS suggests that they film different impacts on HR crosswise organisations, but provides little explanation for this variation. Early surveys suggested that HRIS were used predominantly to automate routine tasks and to re turn out filing cabinets (Martinsons, 19 94). Ball (2001) reported similar results for wee and medium sized enterprises in the UK and concluded that HR had missed the strategic opportunity provided by HRIS. More recent research shows greater use of HRIS in support of strategic decision making by HR (Hussain et al., 2007). However, the extent to which HRIS is used in a strategic fashion differs across organisations, with the vast volume of organisations continuing to use HRIS simply to re vagabond manual touch on and to reduce costs (Bee & Bee, 2002 Brown, 2002). Recent debates about engineering and organisation have highlighted the sizeableness of social stage setting and sought to develop frameworks which acknowledge both the material and social character of technologies including HRIS (Dery, Hall, & Wailes, 2006). Accordingly,theories which can be considered as social constructivist can play an important role in the study oftechnology as they explicitly recognise that technologies, such as HRIS, can not be evaluated and analysed without having an explicit netherstanding of the context of individuals and groups which consequently comprehend, interpret, use and engage with the technology (Grint & Woolgar, 1997 Orlikowski & Barley, 2001 Williams & Edge, 1996). Social constructionist views offer insights into the implementation and use of HRIS in a number of ways. In this study we draw on the social construction of technology and technologiesin- trust literature. The social construction of technology (SCOT) approach challenges the idea that technologies and proficient artefacts have a pre-given and fixed meaning and in its place argues that the process, design and selection of technologies are open and can be subjected to contestation (Pinch & Bijker, 1984). Thus a technology is seen to be characterised by interpretative flexibility and non-homogeneous relevant social groups who articulate and promote particular interpretations of it. This meaning, over time tends to become accepted and the inte rpretation of the technology stabilised (Dery et al., 2006). In similar tradition to SCOT approaches, the technologies-in-practice approach endeavours to recognise the inability to separate the technology from surrounding social relations. Orlikowski (2000) conceives of technologies-in-practice as the twist that is enacted by users of a technology as they use the technology in recurrent ways. The important implications of this idea for the purposes of this research is the realisation that it is only when individuals use the HRIS that the associated social practices will frame and determine the value that they attribute to it. therefore the process of using a technology involves users interacting with facilities (such as the properties of the technology artefact), norms (such as the protocols of using the technology), and interpretative schemes (such as the skills, knowledge and the assumptions about the technology as might be positioned by the user) (Dery et al., 2006). Both of th ese approaches are important and useful as they recognise that when considering relationships and experiences with technology, it is essential that social factors and previous experiences be considered. Therefore the opinions of respondents can only be understood inthecontext of individuals and groups comprehending, interpreting, using and engaging with the technologies (Dery et al., 2006). The study discussed in this paper was initiated after a preliminary survey of the use of HRIS in 138 Australian Listed companies (Grant, Dery, Hall, & Wailes, 2007). The survey found that although 50% (n=69) of the participant organisations were found to have an HRIS, the extent to which they were being used in a strategic manner alter and for the well-nigh part the claimed potential of the information clays was not being realised. For example, while 91% of organisations with an HRIS used the governing bodys in order to process and record leave, only 34% used them in relation to staff plannin g. In order to gain further insights into these results, the present study explores the impact of HRIS on the HR function in detail over a three year period at four large Australian organisations using a multiple case study approach (Yin, 2003). Specifically, the juttingion examines whether HRIS enhances the strategic contribution of HR by exploring the ways in which HR professionals might make more effective use of these transcriptions. The project is informed by four research questions 1. Is there evidence to suggest that HR is using opportunities provided by the HRIS to enhance its contribution to firm strategic direction? 2. Do HRISs which are a module of enterprise resource planning (ERP) dodgings have different impacts on the HR function than standalone HRISs? 3. How do different organisational characteristics travel the ability of HR to use the opportunities provided by HRIS to act as strategic partners? 4. What strategies can HR professionals adopt to en legitimate that the use of HRIS in their organisations supports the strategic contribution of HR? Methodology and Background The four case study organisations severally volunteered to participate in this study which is funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage grant. Each organisation is a member of the Australian Senior Human Resources Round-table (ASHRR) the main indus reach partner in the project. Each of the case studies has both a standalone HRIS (e.g. CHRIS) or an enterpriseresource planning (ERP) outline module of HRIS (e.g. chump) in place and all are in the process of either substitute or upgrading their existing scheme.Each company views the HRIS replacement or salary increase as a commitment to further extending the strategic contribution of the system. This provides us with a unique opportunity to gather rich empirical data related to our key research questions. The nature of the research questions needful that the plans and activities of each case study be studied through the gathering of an array of data (table 1). This enabled the researchers to develop greater levels of understanding about the management of HRIS in each organisation and across organisations (Yin, 2003). display board 1 Data gathering across the case studies Case Study TechOrg Interviews 4 Additional Data Organisational information available in the domain domain, press articles Annual reports, Previous organisational presentations. OHS staff brochures and posters, Annual reports and promotional material Press clippings, web spots, office observations Observation of System in Use No observation of the system due to interviewee time constraintsBuildOrg10ManuOrg8Observation of HRIS in use within HR area observation of OHS system in use Observation of HRIS in use with differing users. No observation of the system in use due to the sensitivity of dataGovtOrg4Over a 16 month period initiated early 2008, interview data was combined with other empirical evidence gathered throu gh access to secondary sources and during site visits. The interview data comprised semi-structured interviews conducted with decision makers across a cooking stove of roles in the organisationsincluding HR, IT, and Operations. Each interview was between one to two hours, and was conducted by two investigators, recorded and transcribed. Interviewees were selected on the basis of their involvement in the decision to implement or bring up the HRIS at their organisation, or their high levels of use of the HRIS. In addition, and where possible, the researchers observed the HRIS at each organisation in use, so as to understand how the system was searched, reports were run, and the availability of data.The Case Studies Each of the four case studies discussed in this paper have been allocated an presume name. Details concerning size of the organization, its current HRIS system and whether this was being re impudentlyed or upgraded and the reasons for the re stark nakedal or upgrade are summarized in table 2. TechOrg is a surreptitious organisation involved in the Information, Communications and technology industry. Over the last three years, TechOrg has undertaken to upgrade its SAP HRIS module as part of its overall ERP upgrade and system development. BuildOrg is a large construction company which is also privately owned. Their workforce comprises both permanent and contract employees. Theorganisation was previously run a HRIS that was considered as outdated and sought to upgrade their existing system to primarily manage past and current employees. ManuOrg manufactures building products and metals and has a food processing division. The current HRIS was implemented 21 years ago with an increasingly modified CHRIS system that is currently in the process of being replaced with SAP. Lastly, GovtOrg is a public organisation responsible for(p) for security management. The organisation first implemented a proprietary HRIS in 1998 and had undertaken an upgrade in 2 000 before initiating the current move to SAP in 2008. Table 2 Summary of Case Studies Case Current system employees TechOrg 350 SAPBuildOrgUp to 1400 (varies)Tailored Preceda 9.1 by CHRIS, Mercury for payroll. CHRISManuOrg7000+Upgrading / replacing Replace with lighter interpretation of SAP with more local functionality Upgrade to CHRIS Preceda 11 Mercury to remain SAPReason(s) for change Change in self-possession of organisation and wantment to spartan links with previous owner and associated legacy systems. Increased requirement to meet compliance standards and to minimize risk of litigation.GovtOrg5500Proprietary systemSAPHR handler retiring with knowledge of the proprietary system. Need for a system consistent with the rest of the IT platform. Desire for IT rather than HR to manage HRIS. Moving to SAP so as to integrate with the organisations SAP ERP system and other govt. departmentsResults The initial research findings support the results of studies by those such as Tow ers Perrin (2008) and Bussler and Davis (2001). Despite all four case studies stating that the implementation or upgrade of their HRIS has been undertaken with the aim of utilising functions that are of a strategic nature thereby enhancing the strategic contribution of the HR function (Beatty, 2001 LengnickHall et al., 2003 Ulrich, 1997 Walker, 2001), the data suggests that progress towards making these changes is being hindered by a range of technological, managerial and organisational challenges. While some of these challenges could be attributed to the management of cutting technologies in general, our findings turn up thatseveral are in fact specific to HR and reflect the complex nature of the management of people, the role of HR in the organisation, the allocation of resources to the HRIS, and technological bribes related to the management of HR practice. It was never the intention of the project to select organisations that were undergoing major organisational change, rath er we sought to gain access to organisations that were endeavouring to implement or upgrade their HRIS. The associated organisational changes which are discussed in this paper added to the complexness of the stories and experiences that these organisations have been able to share. The data across all the cases indicated the following three challenges for the organisations and each of these is discussed in the following section using cross-case analysis (Yin, 2003 Youndt, Snell, Dean, & Lepak, 1996). The challenges were An inconsistency in the importance attributed to HRIS resulting in difficulties in sustaining management commitment to the project and in obtaining the resources necessary to fully develop the bare-assed or upgraded HRIS. A tendency to underestimate the complexity of the HRIS and its impact on the behaviour and processes of the organisation. The barriers to user acceptance of the HRIS and the consequent underestimation of the importance of change management. repug nant Salience Attributed to the Organisations HRIS Project The case study organisations have variously experience significant changes in structure, size, ownership and government (summarised table 3). This has resulted in a shift of cured management attention away from development of the HRIS to more immediately pressing organisational issues. One consequence of this is the allocation of insufficient resources to the HRIS and, in some cases, the increased delegation of responsibilities to vendors and consultants. Table 3 Changes in Case Studies Case Study Organisational Change Process TechOrg Acquired by local company and required to adopt more localised processes BuildOrg Large growth in infrastructure projectsImplication for the Business Reassessment and realignment of business processes Requirement to manage large contracted workforce. Significant increase in compliance requirements Need to align systems across range of standalone businessesImplication for the HRIS Enforced sel ection of more localised platform which aims to address more direct organisational involve Upgrade required for existing Preceda systemManuOrgGovtOrgKnowledge Management and establishment of sustainability practices Change of government resulting in increased demands and complexity of role. Desire for efficiencies in work practices.Migration to SAP and restructuring of the management of the HRIS away from HR and under IT Increased requirements Move to SAP platform to for reporting and comply with other valued IT government departmentsTechOrg, a company based in the ICT sector, is a company that has constantly faced issues in maintaining the momentum and commitment of expanding their existing SAP system. Such challenges regarding salience have continued for the past three years as financial and engineering management systems upgrades have engulfed continual attempts to progress and recognise the desired upgrade. The project, run and owned by the Human Resource department, is inter nally recognised as having low organisational priority However the core will evermore be financial management systems and the things that allow our engineers and our program managers to run the calls, take the customer complaints, send them to the technician. We will certainly come a distant third to that So if we come thirdthen we will do something, but we dont know whether were coming third yet do we? (Director of People and Culture, TechOrg). The desire for the HRIS upgrade was later impeded in 2008 because the organisation was acquired by a domestic company and consequently all existing business processes needed to be changed to ensure separation from the previous owners. As a result the project (now) has been stopped pretty much (Director of People andCulture, TechOrg). The experiences of this organisation demonstrates that patronage the best of intentions of HR, such projects as this, which are deemed as HR centric, can lose momentum as a result of factors beyond its control . BuildOrg started to investigate HRIS more than 10 years ago. The introduction of a new senior manager with existing ERP and HRIS knowledge combined with the perceived need to replace an outdated system instigated the desire to upgrade their original Mercury system, based on Lotus Notes. During these initial stages, several HRIS were considered, however, the project was abandoned when the costs associated with any new HRIS were deemed prohibitive. The project and operational requirements of the organisation were re-examined in 2005 and the organisation again considered implementing a new payroll system, but IT did not find any of the systems that they viewed appropriate for the organisational needs. The lack of executive support also played a significant role during this time. So we sort of parked it at that stage. Because the other thing was, I think in an organisational sense with a new CEO, that wasnt in truth a priority for us. (General Manager HR, Safety and Corporate Relatio ns). Finally in 2007 the latest attempt gained bobby pin with senior management and the approval was given for an upgrade. Nevertheless the current progress on this project for BuildOrg has been met with caution. Because theres been an awful lot of water under the bridge to get to this point. Weve had this is the third go at actually having a crack at getting Preceda as the HR system and getting the organisational structure in. Now there was one completely failed attempt. One almost got there but then failed and now this is the (final) go at it. (Applications Services Manager, IT).ManuOrg representd its first HRIS in the 1970s. Since then the organisation has undertaken a number of upgrades driven largely by organisational change which has required an expansion of the existing systems. Progressive changes and add-ons to the legacy system, has created for ManuOrg a HRIS that is complex and inconsistent. Although the HRIS has been accorded salience and sufficient resources over the past 30 years, the HR manager acknowledged that the rationale for change and selection of the replacement HRIS has tended to emphasise financial, rather than strategic human resource issues. The retirement of the HR Director, who has been central to developing thecurrent HRIS, together with the need to standardise IT systems across all the operating companies has resulted in a call for migration to SAP and the re-positioning of HRIS management under the IT department. GovtOrg has been using PeopleSoft as the vendor for their HRIS since 1998, with an upgrade which introduced web based self service in 2000. With the aims of establishing a undivided source of truth, creating uniformity, gaining efficiencies and enabling data transfer and integration with other government organisations, GovtOrg has firm to replace PeopleSoft with SAP. Despite resounding confidence in the HRIS project, GovtOrg still believes that the project can be delayed by other organisational activities which are deemed more essential to the business and its performance. Probably the only issue is that will be a timing issue, as we and were still debating with our plan get a live date for SAPs views in October. So although it looks, at this point in time, care it may be delayed. If it gets delayed, itll actually push spikelet into about March next year, because weve got some other peak periods in respect to processing and so forth. (National Manager of Infrastructure). The experiences of the four case study organisations suggests that their HRIS projects tend to face a number of challenges in the allocation of resources and the securing of ongoing support from senior management. a good deal finance, marketing and other operational functions are being given greater priority. In sum, based on the empirical research to date, it could be argued that all of the organisations, and specifically the HR function within them, have faced challenges regarding their ability to maintain momentum towa rds the selection and implementation of an upgraded HRIS.The Complexity of HRIS Underestimated The complexity of HRIS and its associated functionality appears to have been underestimated at the four case studies (Hannon, Jelf, & Brandes, 1996) and can be attributed to both technological and managerial factors. The challenge for HR management is how to manage the tension between the need to adapt practice to meet the needs of the HRIS versus customizing the technology to fit existing practices and the unpredictability involved in the management of people. Associated with this challenge is the decision of where to locate the management of the HRIS i.e. within Information Technology or as an HR technology group within HR.Our case organisations have varied responses to this dilemma, but all suggest that management of the system has significant implications for knowledge transfer between IT and HR and thus the ability to realise value from the HRIS . Previous studies have reiterated the claims made by HRIS vendors that there are two compelling benefits arising from the implementation or upgrading of HRIS (Hendrickson, 2003 Kavanagh, Gueutal, & Tannenbaum, 1990 Kovach & Cathcart, 1999). One is an increase in efficiencies through reduced costs and increased data accuracy, and the other is the improvements in the locomote at which information can be produced. Such improvements in business processes have not yet been fully realised in our case study organisations as the implementation and functionality of the HRIS has proven to be more complex than anticipated. ManuOrg has maintained a number of legacy add-ons and proprietary upgrades to their CHRIS system. The current project is attempting to simplify and standardise systems into a standard IT platform that can be more easily supported but is finding it difficult to align the needs associated with its range of operating companies within one HRIS. The organisation realises that with its selection of a new and alternat ive HRIS vendor (SAP), there will be considerable compatibility issues with data migration. Accordingly, the transactional and menial activities for HR will increase prior to implementation, as existing data and codes are modified, and therefore the time required for data migration is expected to be significant. The complexity associated with the new system has compelled the organisation to implement it in a big bang manner. There are toomany interdependent processes and that we really have to make the entire change of payroll for Australia and New Zealand at the one time (Manager HR and Payroll Services). The complexity of the new system will also affect the value that the organisation can extract from the HRIS in the short term. Although the organisation has the explicit desire to establish a single source of truth via its new HRIS, it is recognised that such goals and aspirations will take second place, at least in the short-term, to the more urgent need to address issues surroun ding change management and acceptance. The project based nature of the work that BuildOrg undertakes adds complications to the selection, use and implementation of any vanillaHRIS. As the organisational structure is based more on projects and individuals rather than positions (typical of most organisations), particular reporting functionalities associated with HRIS may be deemed less germane or even superfluous for the organisation. In addition, similar to ManuOrg, this organisation is faced with the difficulty of severe to establish one central system which can be considered as a single source of truth from legacy systems which currently do not interface well. This has resulted in significant challenges around the compatibility and integration of data. BuildOrg has also experienced challenges with some of the functionality within the new system, particularly in relation to online leave applications. The issue of leave has proven to be problematic throughout the upgrade process, to the extent that the organisation has decided not to utilize this function initially, which is probably why weve decided to not go forrader with the (leave submissions) online thats a little bit in the too hard basket at the moment as to how its going to work (Corporate HR Advisor). Furthermore, a number of other functionalities of the HRIS have needed to be adjusted in order to meet the organisational requirements before the system goes live You need a lot of tweaking at that point and we wont be spot-on when we get it there itll be close. That tweaking will take a while itll take months and months (Payroll Manager). This is a process that has consumed unexpected additional time and resources.Similar levels of complexity are associated with the implementation of a new system at TechOrg. This complexity can however be attributed to the changes in ownership that the organisation has experienced over the past 2 years. The new system and its implementation has experienced additional t echnical difficulties which have largely been driven by established business processes that could manage differences in European and Australian legislation. Being a publically owned organisation presents its own range of issues for GovtOrg regarding the use and implementation of a HRIS. Comprising a highly structured workforce, GovtOrg faces challenges with the management of rosters, schedules and allowances. In contrast to ManuOrg and TechOrg, GovtOrg needs an HRIS overt of processing, administering and managing a variety of employee rosters and allowances. More specifically,for this particular organisation, the activities of workforce planning, the management of staff hours, associated policy issues and ensuring that its operations are conducted in accordance with the relevant collective agreements, results in additional complexity and has led to demands for additional functionality from the HRIS. Furthermore, the National Manager of Infrastructure recognised that existing contr actual arrangements with their HRIS vendor has exposed the organisation to possible potential risks that may lead to delays. Such potential risks and possible delays are believed to stem from concerns that the vendor may be unable to address the added demands for additional functionality that GovtOrg has put forward under present contractual arrangements. These contractual concerns along with workforce planning issues, have added to the complexity of the selection, implementation and use of GovtOrgs HRIS. Barriers to Acceptance of New or Upgraded HRIS and the Importance of Change Management The third challenge which has hindered the ability of our case study organisations to realise the potential of their HRIS arises from barriers associated with the acceptance of the new or upgraded HRIS among key end-users of the system and the importance attached to managing the change processes associated with its implementation and introduction. Further, obtaining organisational buy-in regardin g the strategic contribution of the HRIS has, in some cases, been hindered byscepticism, a lack of understanding, insufficient management commitment, and fears that existing modes of work will be changed and result in, for example, job loss or altered leave entitlements and shift arrangements (Kavanagh et al., 1990 Kinnie & Arthurs, 1996 Tansley & Watson, 2000). The lack of organisation and management buy-in has also been a significant challenge for ManuOrg. Despite the HRIS project acquiring renewed salience and again being placed on the organisations strategic agenda, the Manager of HR and Payroll Services recognised that the system and its importance for the organisation was yet to be acknowledged and wholly accepted Im not sure that its got the necessary buy-in from the business leaders that were going to need to have. This problem was reinforced later in the same interview from talking with the business heads, concept-wise, no one is saying this is a load of rubbish, but I dont think theyve quite got theirheads into the space and are saying, Yes, were century% behind that To try and counter this lack of buy-in, the HR department is working on an ongoing basis to promote the HRIS promise. ManuOrg, acknowledges that the upgrade of the existing system, that has been in place for 21 years will generate significant change for the way that information is managed. As the Manager of HR and Payroll Services observed The biggest issue I believe is going to be the change management Most ManuOrg employees are going to notice that and more than notice. Theyre going to see a significant change in the way that they supply information, get information, gain approvals. Its a big challenge for us at the moment to try and get people in the business into this online environment. Some people really love it, other people really hate it. Theres like that sort of and theres nothing really in between at the moment lack of understanding of the change needed but also an explicit concern for the need to manage change. Discussions about this challenge and concerns about the required change management process have been extensive and the wider acceptance of the system and its changes are seen to differ between those that are associated with the project, versus existing employees who are comfortable with the organisations current policy and procedures, or alternatively fearful of technology. For me it works well, but Im very adaptable to change. So being able to move to a system where we can have everything in the one place I think is going to be a much better thing for us. (HR Manager of Corporate and Shared Services).The challenges for GovtOrg in managing change are centred on the need to re-focus expectations. With the explicit desire to establish a single source of truth, the organisation has commissioned the HRIS project The ability for the organisation to achieve this relies on the ability to manage expectations But weve also got to manage the expectation that this is not the silver bullet to everything. This is simply a system. A system, in and of itself, doesnt actually resolve issues or processes or anything else. (National Director of People and Place) This same manager further believed this process and challenge would greatly impact the overall acceptance of the system and thus was focussed on the implementation process. If this process experiences issues and additional complications, or just goes wrong then you can almost smell the end of SAP or its user acceptancewithin customers. Without an effective implementation process the ability of the organisation to gain potential strategic potential from their HRIS would be significantly compromised. Barriers to acceptance, ownership and maintenance have plagued BuildOrgs past, current and planned HRIS. The resources allocated to the maintenance of the HRIS system have waned throughout the life of the existing system and overall ownership of the system has largely been transferred ba ck and forth from IT, HR and Payroll Weve had a lot of problems actually trying to get people to take ownership of the systems and maintain them which has resulted in the existing system and the information that it generates being inaccurate and outdated. Past experiences of systems with confine use, combined with an appreciation of the needs of the current workforce has ensured that the organisation has delayed the implementation of the new updated system in an attempt to ensure that all problems and barriers have been addressed before the system goes live. According to the Corporate Human Resources Manager, training and education is essential and needs to be timely Its about educating and marketing, I think at the induction piece, the new joiners they get some sort of training on how to use it and then when we roll out self service and I was talking to Manager X about this the other day and said anything we do it has to have areally good marketing push so that people take notice and then quickly follow it up with the training. This organisation and its current project manager also realises that the training needs to be hands on in order to generate an acceptance and use of the system and avoid the work-arounds that have compromised the lastingness of the system in the past. Acceptance of the HRIS has also presented problems for TechOrg however user resistance has not been as significant as evidenced in the other cases. Employees largely work in distributed teams located in client organisations for the duration of their projects. They are working in a hightech environment and thus are comfortable with a more virtual relationship with the organisation and use the HRIS to manage their information and for most of their HR requirements. Despite the HR department struggling to ensure that the new HRIS project retains salience in the organisation, the lack of organisational buy-in tends to surround specific functions rather than the system as a whole. TheDirector of People and capital punishment spoke of limited success with functionality associated with time sheeting and the need to incorporate additional flexibility to meet the increasingly complex customer requirements which have implications for their employees in different work sites. Change is a constant in this organisation so together with the technical requirements of the job, this seems to create a more accepting environment for new systems. However, in spite of this environment, recent changes around pay cycles generated significant resistance that was unanticipated by management signalling that changes to the HRIS that directly impact employees such as pay may require significant more attention to change management than TechCo has traditionally been used to. Discussion and Conclusions Initial findings from our four case studies suggest that although new or upgraded HRIS systems are being used to automate and devolve routine administrative and compliance functions traditionally performed by the HR function, the potential for this technology to be used in ways that contribute to the strategic direction of the organisation is not being realised. More specifically, our results suggest that the opportunity to enhance HRs role as strategic partner as a result of the use of HRIS is beinghindered by three main challenges. The first challenge relates to the ability to maintain the levels of senior management commitment and resources needed to implement and manage new or upgraded HRIS. The second concerns managing the complexity of the HRIS and its associated functionality. The third challenge stems from barriers associated with the acceptance of HRIS among key managers and employees along with the importance attached to managing the change processes associated with the implementation and introduction of the new or upgraded systems. These challenges demonstrate that the material, functional characteristics of technologies such as HRIS are complex and make them dif ficult to introduce and operate. At the same time, and in line with a social constructionist approach to the study of technology each of the challenges illustrates that how and when a technology is used is also determine by the agency of its users and the social context within which it is adopted (Orlikowski et al., 2001). In sum, only through an appreciation of both the material and the social can a more informedunderstanding of the problems that surround HRIS implementation and operation be obtained. In this respect, our findings are in contrast to the more technological deterministic view of earlier studies of HRIS that suggest that it is simply the technology itself which has implications for the changing role of HR. It can be seen then that the social context of HRIS plays an important role in cause user perceptions and behaviour (Orlikowski, 2000). From a technologies-in-practice perspective (Dery et al, 2006) user interactions with the facilities, norms, and interpretative schemes associated with HRIS are affected not only by its technological complexity, but also by problems concerning the management of, and commitment to, its implementation. These socio-contextual factors are compounded by the fact that each case study organisation has experienced significant change, for example in ownership and structure. Underlying the three challenges is the issue of how various social groups, or key actors involved in the implementation and use of HRIS bring to bear their own interests and thus interpretations of the system and what it does. As a result of this process, the design, selection and use of HRIS are shown in this study to be subject to contestation as a range of meanings areattached to the technology that either undermine or highlight its perceived value and significance and which impact on the extent to which it is to be used in a strategic or more administrative fashion. Significantly, the study suggests that interpretations which run counter to HR IS being used in ways that realise its strategic potential are currently winning the day. 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