The Contribution of Organizational, Technological and Individual Factors on Information Systems Success in the Malaysian Public Sector

Information System success has been widely discussed in the past two decades. As systems and technologies are being improved and developed, discussions on their effectiveness and evaluation on their success have been continuously debated by researchers, scholars and practitioners throughout the years. Consequently, factors affecting success of such systems are equally important. Based on the up-stream portion of the DeLone & McLean IS success model, the study investigates the antecedent factors and their combined effect on IS success. Using perceptual measures, survey questionnaires were gathered from 201 users from four central Malaysian government agencies located at the central administration complex in Putrajaya. The study examined three important antecedent factors of IS success. These were organizational, technological and individual factors. Consequently, the study identified systems quality, information quality, perceived usefulness, and user satisfaction as the IS success dimensions of the study. The study identified seven organizational factors, which are decision-making structure, managerial IT knowledge, top management support, resources, budgeting method, goal alignment and management style. The study also identified IS facilities, IS integration, IS competency, IS structure and user support as technological factors to influencing IS success. Hypotheses were formulated based on the research framework developed in the study. The study found that system quality, information quality and perceived usefulness as significant predictors of user satisfaction. Perceived usefulness was identified as the principal predictor of user satisfaction. The study also found that users from all levels of the Malaysian public sector are satisfied with the systems they are using in their work. All the organizational and technological factors identified, correlated significantly to the IS success dimensions. Further analyses using multiple regression analysis found goal alignment, centralized decision-making structure and management style as the significant organizational factors to influence IS success; whilst IS facilities, IS competency and IS integration as the significant technological factors were to influence IS success. Also, the findings show attitude towards IS, frequency of IS use and IS training as significant individual factors to influence IS success. Using stepwise multiple regression analyses, the study found that attitude towards computer is the main predictor of IS success from the individual factor. The other two higher predictors of IS success came from goal alignment from the organizational factor and IS facilities from the technological factor. Hence the study evidently supports the hypothesis of the joint impact of the three antecedent factors on IS success and this consequently conclude the three antecedents, the individual, the organizational and the technological factors collectively had an influence on IS success. Based on the research findings, several implications for the IS success and public management theory and practice and future research are stated and proposed.