Abstract:

The study was aimed at establishing the factors affecting performance of the Management
Information System at National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), Uganda.
Specifically, the study purposed to examine the effect of organizational, employee and technical
related factors on the performance of management information systems of NARO. A sample of
75 respondents was used to provide the relevant data with 6 key staffs purposively selected as
key informants and 69 relevant staff randomly selected from the different NARO institutes. The
study had a very high response rate with 95.7% (n=66) responding to all questions and only
4.3% (n=9) lacking responses for certain questions. Qualitative and quantitative data were
collected through face-to-face interviews and self-administered questionnaire surveys as well as
document reviews. Measurements and conclusions on the variables were based on the Likert
Scale of 1 - 5 (Strongly disagree to strongly agree). Statistical analyses were performed using
SPSS Version 12 for windows by which means (m) of the responses and the Pearson Chi-square
(r2) were calculated. On the basis of the average mean values, employee related factors take the
lead among the factors that affect the performance of Management Information System at NARO
where four of the eleven items yielded m=4 and above. Organizational related factors come
second with four of the eleven items yielding m=3.5 and above. The technical related factors
ranked lowest with only three of the eleven items yielding m=3.5 and above. On the other hand,
the Pearson Chi-square tests and corresponding p values revealed that organizational related
factors (?'2=31.932, 72=0.01) had the statistically most significant influence on performance of
MIS at NARO than the employee and technical related factors. The study recommends creation
of favorable operating environment to improve all the factors affecting performance of MIS with
emphasis on constructive organizational leadership style and culture, employee motivation and
regular updating of software and hardware facilities.
It was concluded that in practical terms, organizational related factors have a bigger share of
influence on the performance of any intervention including the MIS. This is because the
organization has the capacity to determine the nature and mandate of the employees it engages in
its operations and the nature of technology it acquires for its operations.