Facilitating and Hindering Factors in Implementing Managerial Technology: A Socio-Technical System Process
In recent years scientists, researchers and practitioners have focused on the application and theory of managerial technologies in developing countries. Evidence suggests that the implementation of these technologies is widely sought in these countries, but that they suffer from several limitations. Among these are: (a) lack of environmental compatibility in the societies and cultures in which attempts are made to apply such organizational theories and practices; (b) differences between economic systems of developing nations and industrialized nations (c) differences in political history, values and practices and (d) differences in organizational functioning and behavior as a result of these three conditions. Employing a socio-technical system conceptual framework, the present study was designed to discover, through examination of decision-making processes of managers, what are the macro-environment and organizational factors that either facilitate or hinder the implementation of human resources management technologies commonly found in advanced industrial nations (e.g., in training, organizational development and performance measurement programs) by companies residing in a less industrially developed country. Initially, in the planning and design stage, 29 interviews were conducted with managers from 18 companies in Peru. These were content analyzed to: (1) uncover problems, issues and procedures involved in human resources management in that country, (2) identify factors helping and hindering implementation of human resources technologies, and (3) design realistic scenarios, given certain environmental and organizational conditions, policy-capturing analysis of managers' decisions. Then, a comprehensive survey containing socio-technical analysis measures, 15 scenarios, and personal as well as organizational characteristic items were presented to 125 upper-level managers from 85 multinational and locally owned organizations. Results identified the political, economic and sociocultural factors that have a strong effect on managers when making decisions about implementing human resources technologies. Specifically, quality of management and of blue-collar employees, availability of local resources to support the technologies, top-management commitment to human resources development, employees' commitment to organization, budget provisions for human resources development, inflation, financial solvency of the company and specific laws were found to be major determinants of their decision whether or not to implement a managerial technology. The theoretical, methodological practical and sociocultural implications, as well as cross-cultural management issues are discussed.
Human capital, Technological innovations, System process, Industrial and Organizational Psychology
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