An investigation into the effect of power distance as a factor that facilitates the implementation of a computerized hospital information system

Abstract

This study was initiated to investigate whether power distance facilitates the successful implementation of a hospital information system. A comparative study was done to evaluate the effect of culture on the same information system (CLINICOM), implemented at the same time, but at different locations. The overall objective of this study was to identify the importance of culture in the implementation of In formation systems and how output influences the success of a system. • The first objective was to assess the organizational culture in each hospital in terms of one of the dimensions of culture on Hofstede's check Iist, namely power distance. • The second objective was to determine whether the speed with which a HIS was implemented was a success at the two academic hospitals in the Western Cape using the reduction of the level of backlog (paper based patient registration records) as a measure of implementation progress. The literature was reviewed on what determines the success of an information system. The effects of culture were studied and in particular power distance on the implementation of an information system and how this factor affected the backlog of information entries. Questionnaires were administered to the clerical staff at the hospitals, as they were the high users of the information system. The study showed that both institutions had a high power distance score, but the one institution had a Power distance Index (POI) that was considerable higher than the other. PDr relates to the concentration of authority. This finding suggests that the managers were more autocratic at the one hospital than at the other. The study found that the higher the PDI, the faster the backlog was reduced at implementation. Thus the higher the por the greater the concentration of authority;