User Resistance in Implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

By

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to communicate my sincere gratitude for all those who played vital role in the completion of my research including my supervisor, peers, fellow classmates as well as interview participants. I am thankful to my family whose support has been a source of constant motivation and guidance throughout the completion of this research project.

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study is to highlight the reasons behind the resisting behaviour of the end users to the implementation of ERP applications and modules in an organisation. The researcher used secondary qualitative research approach. The most prominent factors behind resisting behaviour are resistance in the end users for being hesitant to accept change, change in job content, expectation of users regarding the new technological system, lack of user training, education regarding ERP system, resistance to accept technological change, communication gap between top management/end users and these issues can be mitigated by focusing on the CSFs of the ERP system.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTI

ABSTRACTII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

1.1.Background of the study1

1.2.Problem statement1

1.3.Scope of the study2

1.4.Aim and objectives2

1.5.Research question3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW4

ERP System4

Modules of ERP system5

Benefits of an ERP System6

Costs of an ERP System8

Challenges in ERP Implementation9

Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of ERP Implementation10

Factors behind Resisting Behaviour of End Users11

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY14

3.1Research Method14

3.2Research Design14

3.3Attributes of Qualitative Research Method15

3.4Literature Search15

3.5Limitation of Secondary Data16

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS17

Research question 1:17

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS26

5.1. Conclusion26

5.2. Recommendation27

REFERENCES28

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the crucial technologies that are aimed to support inert as well as intra business processes. However, it should be taken into account that the “user resistance” is one of the most prominent hurdles in the efficacious implementation of ERP. According to Beheshti (2006, p. 184), ERP system embraces a complete set of business applications as well as modules that are essential to facilitate direct links between different units of an organisation including finance department, human resource management, marketing, manufacturing and other business units. However, Ifinedo (2007, p. 272) claims that implementation of ERP in an organisation requires changes in the entire business process including changes in technological as well as operational processes. However, it should be noticed that the implementation of ERP requires changes in managerial and strategic level as well. Problem statement

It is observed that a variety of risk in terms of high rate of failure is always attached to the ERP implementation. It should be taken account into account that the failure rate of ERP implementation is comparatively high in developing countries as compared to America and Europe. However, in case of UK, many organisations had witnessed failure in terms of ERP implementation. However, it is observed that the major hurdle behind the failure of ERP implementation is user resistance. According to Aladwani (2001, p. 266), despite of its benefits, ERP still face resistance as well as failure in most of the cases due to high rate of resistance at ender user level. All these facts induce the need of understanding the factors that stimulate resistance in end user to adopt ...