1. Review of the topic
6.2 Sample demographics
The respondents to the survey for this research consisted of a sample of 169 people whom have all been involved, in either way of eight different possible roles, in the implementation or execution of a large-scale ERP project at a corporate client in South Africa. All participants to the survey selected one of the eight project roles listed on the questionnaire, with no one selecting the option for other, thus making them all legitimate and valid participants in the research. The participants had a total of 11 different demographic questions to answer. This gave the researcher the ability to highlight any interesting demographic outcomes, but more importantly, it allowed for the research results to be tested against the sample demographics and ascertain if any difference in these categorical variables had a significant influence on the responses received, and thus affecting the research due to the existence of non-spurious variables that may distract from the cause and effect relationship between project governance and ERP project success (Van de Ven, 20017).
In order to test if these demographic variables do have an influence on the relevant construct score, it was first necessary to understand the fragments and proportions relating to the demographics of the sample. The sample consisted of 169 total respondents, with only a few participants leaving one of the eleven demographic options blank. The results indicated that there was a strong gender bias as 116 (over 70%) of the 165 usable respondents were male.
Therefore only 29% of the respondents identified as being female. Although this represents a large difference, it can be said to be a fair representation of the information technology industry with the World Economic Forum (2016) reporting that the industry was made up of roughly 21% of females. The difference between the WEF report and this research can be put down to the fact that this research did not only have IT industry professionals as survey participants, but also other project roles where that person may be a part of a different industry.
Work and industry experience of the sample was assessed in two ways. Firstly, respondents were asked how many years of working experience they had. The largest selections for this demographic were the 77% of respondents who selected 5 to 10 years or 10 to 20 years as their answer. This figure insists that the respondents were fairly experienced from an employment perspective. Similarly, the respondents were asked to indicate the years of experience on ERP projects. 126 (65%) of the participants responded that they had either 5 to 10 years or 10 to 20 years of ERP experience. Whilst this figure is considered encouraging by the researcher as most of the respondents have a sufficient amount of ERP experience and should therefore provide some valuable and accurate insight to this research, but it is also not expected as it is rare that an individual is placed on an ERP project within their first year of working, as a certain amount of training and experience is required first.
102 The next set of demographic questions were focused on attributes of the ERP project on which the participants were being surveyed. The two most common positions that participants held on the ERP projects in question were the roles of ERP professional or consultant (38,6%) and project manager (26,5%). This again shows that almost two thirds of the research participants had vast knowledge of ERP systems and projects, with the project managers most likely to be able to provide relevant insight regarding how the projects were governed as they are responsible for ensuring that the governance principles and methods, as required by the client, are implemented and adhered to.
There was a diverse mix of the different types of industries selected (11 different industries) by the respondents in terms of the industry in which the organisation that incurred the ERP project costs belongs to. Only 4 (2%) respondents selected the 12th industry option which was other. The four that account for most of the industries selected are financial services (20%), wholesale or retail trade (20%), ICT (16%), and manufacturing (15%). These demographics make logical sense due to a number of factors.
Firstly, in the original target population of 800 potential respondents to the survey, the researcher had access to individuals who were part of ERP projects at 2 large financial intuitions, and 3 large retail chains in South Africa. Secondly, the substantial size of the 5 leading financial institutions in South Africa, and the fact the World Economic Forum has consistently ranked South Africa’s financial system as one of the best in the world according to their global competitiveness index, has created a requirement for these organisations to run the top ERP systems in order to maintain these systems and tight controls. Thirdly, as mentioned in chapter 2, ERP systems were originally created for the Manufacturing and Retail sectors (Zhu et al., 2010). And lastly, an ERP system is an ICT product, and so it makes sense that organisations in the ICT sector would be running an advanced ERO system and ICT product in order to run their business and maintain a competitive edge.
The researcher had no reason to believe that the mixture and different weights of the industries represented within the sample of respondents would create any potential biases within the study. Accordingly, when analysis of variance tests were conducted for each construct and compared across the different industries in chapter 5, there was only one statistically significant difference that resulted from one of the industries, and is discussed later in this chapter.
Respondents indicated that 72% of the ERP projects in question were carried out in the City of Johannesburg. This is due to the research having lived and worked most of his life in Johannesburg, with his work contacts for the survey also being from Johannesburg, and the
103 ERP service providing firms that helped in creating the sample of respondents also residing in Johannesburg.
The next 2 demographic variables sought to measure the level of project urgency and complexity. The projects were generally of medium urgency, but a mixture of medium and high in complexity. This is somewhat expected as sophisticated ERP systems are generally complex in nature, and the processes required on the project in order to customise the software to each individual organisations differing needs in requirements and how the organisations are run further contribute to the complexity of the project (Zhu et al., 2010). The projects are of medium urgency as the organisations would not stop operating or cease to exist without the software, it is rather that the software should provide the organise with increased efficiency, controls, and a competitive edge.
The respondents indicated that the costs of completing the ERP projects in question varied based on the sections given to them in the survey with no cost range being selected a great deal more than any other cost range. However, based on the selections of this demographic, it can be confirmed that ERP projects are very expensive endeavours, and so the decision to embark on these projects must be taken seriously, and the successful outcome of the project must be pursued and prioritised (Ehie & Madsen, 2005).
The final categorical question was used to understand what type of organisational structure was adopted by the client at which the ERP project was executed. An organisation that is solely structured as projectized (organizations arrange their activities into programs or portfolios and implement them through projects) is by far the least prevalent at organisations that run ERP systems in South Africa. It is therefore felt by large South African organisations that either a functional / hierarchical structure of a mixture between a functional and projectized organisation is the most efficient and effective within the South African context.
Thus, the sample population for this research (which can be assumed to be a fair representation of the target population due to the use of a purposive sampling method and the size of the surveyed sample) can best be described as individuals as more male oriented, with enough level of ERP project experience.
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