How Information and Communications Technology Affects the Performance of Human Resources Management in the Higher Education?

Abstract

In today’s business, effective human resources management (HRM) plays an important role in organizations to cope with competition. Human capital plays a significant role in achieving competitive advantage. Hence, it is recommended for organizations to adapt HRM practices to reach the optimal level of employees’ performance. On the other hand, the information and communications technology (ICT) has become the backbone of numerous modern organizations in processing their business operations and activities. HRM has also been affected by the tremendous increase of ICT usage within the organization. The World Wide Web has transformed the human resources practices, for example, human resource planning, recruitment, selection, performance management, work flow, training, and compensation. This paper investigates the impact of ICT on HRM performance in the higher education sector in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). In doing so, an empirical study based on survey questionnaire is conducted to gain a clear overview of where the higher education institutions stand in KRI in terms of the usage of ICT in the HRM field. The overall finding is that ICT may havea positive impact on the performance level of HRM staff in the higher education institutions in KRI. Furthermore, the level of ICT usage in KRI is not in a level where the individuals of HRM are well aware of ICT developments and E-HRM as well as the usage of computerized HRM.