THE IMPACT OF ICT ON THE JOB PERFORMANCE OF WORKERS IN SELECTED TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
It is observed that more and more organizations in Nigeria are shifting towards ICT driven systems to enhance its effectiveness and competitiveness, such as computer education. Computers are device capable for data storage and processing. Computer technology are being used for financial, sending and receiving, emailing etc; however, almost every management activity in our tertiary institutions requires computer technology, that is why computer education becomes imperative in workers in in tertiary institutions. Ogunkola, (2008) opined that without computer education one cannot be able to make progress as far as his career options are concerned except it is matched with knowledge of computer technology. He further noted that ICT tool to be used in management and administration of institutions is the computer, together with basic software packages like MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or the equivalent open source packages, and access to email and the internet. Computer has been described as an automatic electronic machine that performs calculation. It is capable of accepting data, and performing operation according to instruction (programme), and providing result of the operation with great speed and accuracy.
Management is the effective allocation and utilization of scarce resources to achieve predetermined results, the scarce resources include people, money, materials and time. Adejumo, (2000) described management as involving planning and innovation, coordination and supervision as well as undertaking risks and handling uncertainty. He argued that management is the activity of working with people in organizations in accomplishing results.
Therefore, workers in in tertiary institutions entails ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in the use of the available human, physical and financial resources together with the ability to combat any constraints that might hamper the achievement of the objectives in which computer education can aid in achieving the goal of institutional management.
Tertiary institutions are also known as higher education, in Nigeria it is that level of educational institution that provides education to individuals after post secondary education. National policy on education (2004) defines tertiary institution as the education given after secondary education in universities, colleges of education, polytechnics, and Mono techniques including those institutions offering correspondence courses. Tertiary institutions have been described as parastatals which award professional and non-professional certificates. They are involved in providing higher education opportunities.
Following series of complaints because of highly populated institutions with limited admission opportunities, in this present dispensation, individuals and organizations have been given the go-ahead to establish private tertiary institutions provided they comply with the standards. One is, therefore, not surprised that tertiary institutions have proliferated the country with 117 universities, 64 colleges of education and 43 Polytechnics as at 2011. The increase number of staff and students in our tertiary institutions in Nigeria calls for the provision of ICT facilities for record purposes. Okoli (2007, p. 524) classifies university records into two broad categories, namely management and administrative records. Management records are generated at the top management level (vice chancellor, deputies, bursar, librarian, and registrar) in the form of meeting records, procedures, decisions and resolutions. On the other hand, administrative records take the form of admission records, personnel records (employment, leave and duty records), and physical resource records. Note that the growing complexities of universities in Nigeria and the challenges pose to management affirmed the application of Hi-Tech information technology’s crucial for quality assurance (Okorie, Agabi & Uche, 2005).
Various studies revealed that using ICT will promote issues on students‟ admission, planning and computation of students‟ results, staff development, record keeping, communication, quality assurance and staffing, financial management and information dissemination will increase the efficiency of tertiary institutions if Information Communication and Technology facilities are adequately and properly utilized, Lawsent and Vincent-Loncrin (1995); Foray (2004); Omirin, (2007). Thus, in developing countries including Nigeria, the argument is no longer whether or not tertiary institutions should invest in ICT (OECD,2005).
Going by the institutional objectives, with man power shortage to properly handle students records and ICT facilities in Nigeria tertiary institutions, it is therefore paramount to assess the impact of ICT in the tertiary institutions in the area of data management and information dissemination.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
There is increase in student’s population in higher institutions which accelerated the need for ICTs to process, store and retrieve data in a fast, systemic and accurate fashion. The importance of e-administration in higher education is on the increase due to efficient electronic administration and handling of existing resources economically. The introduction of ICT in our educational sector aims at simplification of a lot of diversified management and administrative tasks. According to Sanat (2006), the use of ICT in higher educational institutions starts with the stages of receiving e-notifications regarding admission, course schedules, and billing procedures and continues till the end of the course including online publication of results. The Action Plan for reforms in the field of higher education revealed that the potential of Information Communication Technology (ICT) should be fully utilized (UNESCO 1998).
The main functional areas of e-administration in tertiary institutions are; Management Information System (MIS) which is a necessity in university administration, since it is required for need assessment, logistics and planning, resources utilization, operational control and management or evaluation of results, the second is financial management.
Therefore, ICT is supposed to be an integral part of the management process and its potential capacity in university administration will go a long way in ensuring institutional effectiveness. Computer-based MIS in the universities is