StudyDaddy Business & Finance MBA Thesis The number of ECTS credit points for a Project Paper is thirty (30) and the length of the project ((20,000)) words as the attached link: drive.google.com/drive/folders/18J-MCB4MGUUiljZ9Oz

MBA Thesis The number of ECTS credit points for a Project Paper is thirty (30) and the length of the project ((20,000)) words as the attached link: drive.google.com/drive/folders/18J-MCB4MGUUiljZ9Oz

1 ` The impact of information technology on organizational performance (An applied study on Oil & Gas companies in Egypt) Doctor of Business Administration Thesis Submitted to the “Business Administration Department” Faculty of Commerce – Ain Shams University by Mohamed Mahmoud Abouelmagd Under Supervision Dr. Bassam El -Ahmady Dr. Rasha Ihab Cairo – Egypt (2016) جتلا ةيلكـ ةرا– عماجـ سمش نيع ة Faculty of Commerce – Ain Shams University ساردلا عاطقـ ايلعلا تا 2 Abstract Currently, Egypt is the largest oil producer in Africa outside of OPEC and the second largest natural gas producer. Egypt is looking to be energy hub and take a major role in international energy markets Information technology plays a vital role in the Oil & Gas business and improves the efficiency and effectiveness of companies’ business process. Research es from the last ten years have proved that , th ose companies that invest s in technology increase their market share, financial figures and overall competitiveness Hence , the research deals with the impact of information technology on the performance of oil & gas companies in the oil & gas sector in Egypt. This study aim s to identify the impact of Information Technology (IT) on organizational performance in oil & gas companies in Egypt. The researcher adopted the descriptive analytical method in addition to a questionnaire as a tool for co llecting data. The researcher distributed (384) questionnaires to 6 companies in the oil & gas companies in Egypt represent ing three levels of performance (high, medium and low), relying on the classification of the Accountability State Authority during t he period. This means that (128) questionnaires were directed to each group of workers in the companies representing the research sample . A total of (253) questionnaire was returned, (49) were excluded due to their invalidity for the analysis, and the rest (204) were valid for analysis. The statistical analysis was conducted through the (SPSS) program. 3 The researcher used many statistical methods in the research including the frequencies and percentages to describe the sample characteristics, the arithmetic mean and standard deviation to analyze the sample replies, the alpha Cronbach coefficient to measure the consistency of the questionnaire, the Pearson correlation coefficient to measure the validity of the internal consistency of the questionnaire and the Pearson correlation coefficient to measure the relationship between the study variables as well as testing the simple regression analysis to test the hypotheses. The study concluded the following results:  There is a significant impact of IT network infra structure on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt.  There is a significant impact of IT applications on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt.  There is a significant impact of IT personnel on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Eg ypt. Key words: IT Network Infrastructure, IT Applications, IT Personal, Organizational performance, Return on investment (ROI) 4 Acknowledgement First and most importantly, I would like to thank my dissertation Supervisor , Dr. Bassam El - Ahm ady who is not only served as my main supervisor but also encouraged and challenged me throughout my dissertation process . My greatest thanks go to M y Wife Asmaa , who has been my friend and supporter and sacrificed tremendously for me throughout my DBA program. I thank her for all of her love, help, and understanding . At the end, this dissertation could not have been written without M y Parents ’ Doaa Mohamed Abouelmagd [email protected] December 2016 5 Table of Contents List of Tables ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 7 List of Figures ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 10 Chapter (1): Study Framework ................................ ................................ ................................ . 11 Introduction ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............ 12 Research Problem ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 14 Previous studies ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 15 Research objectives ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ 21 Research Hypotheses ................................ ................................ ................................ .............................. 22 Research Variables ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 22 Research Methodology ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................... 23 Research Limitations ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................... 25 Chapter (2): Theoretical Framework ................................ ................................ ..................... 27 Introduction: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ........... 28 Historical Overview of IT: ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................ 29 Importance of ITs Definition Information Technologies (ITs): ................................ ................................ 31 Role of Information Technology: ................................ ................................ ................................ ............ 33 IT Factors: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 36 IT Infrastructure: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 38 Components of Information Technology: ................................ ................................ ............................... 39 Applications of IT: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 44 IT Personnel: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ........... 51 IT impacts organizational characteristics and outcomes: ................................ ................................ ....... 54 IT Characteristics: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .... 55 Advantages of Information Technology: ................................ ................................ ................................ . 56 Disadvantages of Information Technology: ................................ ................................ ............................ 58 Definition of Performance: ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 61 Performance as a Multi -Dimensional Concept: ................................ ................................ ...................... 62 Performance Measurement: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 62 Orga nizational Performance: ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 66 6 ROI as a measurement of Organizational Performance: ................................ ................................ ........ 66 IT and organizational performance: ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 70 The impact of using IT on the managerial and work concepts: ................................ .............................. 72 Oil & Gas sector in Egypt: ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................ 74 Egypt: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................... 78 Oil sector in Egypt: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 82 Chapter (3): Applied Framework ................................ ................................ ............................ 87 Preface ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .................... 88 First: Research Meth odology ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 88 Second: The Study Population and Sample: ................................ ................................ ........................... 89 Third: Research Tool: ................................ ................................ ................................ .............................. 91 Data Collection Instrument and Source: ................................ ................................ ................................ . 95 Statistical Methodology used in the research: ................................ ................................ ....................... 96 Statistical Processes used: ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................... 97 Verifying the tool Validity: ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................... 98 The Results of the internal consistency: ................................ ................................ ................................ . 98 Structural validity of the test Parts: ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 103 Reliability of the study tool: ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 104 Analysis of th e demographic characteristics of the study sample as follows: ................................ ...... 106 Distributive Statistics ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 115 Hypotheses Test ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .... 156 Chapter (4): Conclusions & Recommendations ................................ ............................. 165 Introduction ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 166 Theoretical Results: ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................... 166 Practical Results: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 167 Conclusi ons: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 169 Recommendations: ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................... 170 Appendices ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 172 APPENDIX (1) ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 173 APPENDIX (2) ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 175 APPENDIX (3) ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 177 7 List of Tables Table 1 : Important studies about IT and organizational ................................ .............................. 15 Table 2 : Definitions of Information Technology from the perspective of Management Information Science ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................... 31 Table 3 : ERP Solution Satisfaction/ Benefits Realization () ................................ ........................ 46 Table 4 : Questionnaires Distribution ................................ ................................ ........................... 90 Table 5 : IT Network Infrastructure questionnaire questions ................................ ....................... 91 Table 6 : IT Applications questionnaire questions ................................ ................................ ....... 92 Table 7 : IT Personnel questionnaire questions ................................ ................................ ............ 93 Table 8 : Performance questionnaire questions ................................ ................................ ............ 94 Table 9 : Shows Likert Scale ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 95 Table 10 : Distribution of Means according to the hierarchy used in the Research Tool ............. 96 Table 11 : Correlation coefficients betw een each statement of the first Part (IT Infrastructure) and the total score of Part ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 99 Table 12 : Correlation coefficients between each statement of the second Part (IT Applications) and the total score of Part ................................ ................................ ................................ ............ 100 Table 13 : Correlation coefficients be tween each statement of the third Part (IT Personnel) and the total score of Part ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 101 Table 14 : Correlation coefficients between each statement of the Forth Part (Performance) and the total score of Part ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 102 Table 15 : Calculating the correlation coefficient and significance level shows each of Parts with the total score of the questionnaire statements ................................ ................................ ........... 103 Table 16 : Reliability coefficients for Parts of study Cronbach's alpha coefficient Method ...... 104 Table 17 : Split -half Coefficient method ................................ ................................ .................... 105 Table 18 : The Gender Distribution of the sample ................................ ................................ ..... 106 Table 19 : The Age Distribution of the sample ................................ ................................ ........... 108 Table 20 : The Qualification Distribution of the sample ................................ ............................ 111 Table 21 : The Managerial Level Distri bution of the sample ................................ ..................... 113 Table 22 : Analyzing the statements of the IT Network Infrastructure ................................ ...... 115 8 Table 23 : Analyzing IT Network Infrastructure in Low Performance sample .......................... 116 Table 24 : Analyzing IT Network Infrastructure in Medium Performance Sample .................. 117 Table 25 : Analyzing IT Network Infrastructure in High Performance Sample ........................ 119 Table 26 : Analyzing IT Network Infrastructure in the Entire Sample ................................ ...... 121 Table 27 : IT Network infrastructure comparison in all performance categories ....................... 123 Table 28 : Analyzing the statements of the IT Applications ................................ ...................... 124 Table 29 : Analyzing IT Applications in Low Performance Sample ................................ .......... 125 Table 30 : Analyzing IT Applications in Medium Performance Sample ................................ ... 126 Table 31 : Analyzing IT Applications in High Performance Sample ................................ ......... 128 Table 32 : Analyzing IT Applications in Entire Sample ................................ ............................. 130 Table 33 : IT Applications comparison in all performance categories ................................ ....... 132 Table 34 : Analyzing the statements of the IT Personnel ................................ ........................... 133 Table 35 : Analyzing IT Personnel in Low Performance Sample ................................ .............. 134 Table 36 : Analyzing IT Personnel in Medium Performance Sample ................................ ........ 136 Table 37 : Analyzing IT Person nel in High Performance Sample ................................ .............. 137 Table 38 : Analyzing IT Personnel in the Entire Sample ................................ ........................... 139 Table 39 : IT Personnel comparison in all performance categories ................................ ............ 141 Table 40 : Analyzing the statements of the Organization Performance ................................ ..... 142 Table 41 : Analyzing the Performance in Low Performance Sample ................................ ........ 142 Table 42 : Analyzing the Performance in Medium Performance Companies ............................ 143 Table 43 : Analyzing the Performance in High Performance Companies ................................ .. 144 Table 44 : Analyzing The Performance in Entire Sample ................................ .......................... 146 Table 45 : Performance comparison in all companies’ performance categories ........................ 147 Table 46 : Comparison between all parts’ Mean in all companies categories ............................ 148 Table 47 : Correlation between IT Components & performance in high organizational performance ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ 149 Table 48 : Correlation between IT Components & performance in Medium organizational performance ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ 151 Table 49 : Correlation between IT Components & Performance in Low organizational performance ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ 153 Table 50 : Correlation between IT Components & organizational performance ........................ 155 9 Table 51 : Correlation between IT Network infrastracture and orgnizational performance ...... 156 Table 52 : ANOVA test for IT Network Infrastructure ................................ .............................. 157 Table 53 : Coefficients table for IT Network Infrastructure ................................ ....................... 158 Table 54 : Correlation between IT Applications and orgnizational performance ...................... 159 Table 55 : ANOVA test for IT Applications ................................ ................................ .............. 160 Table 56 : Coefficients table for IT Applications ................................ ................................ ....... 161 Table 57 : Correlation between IT Personnel and organizational performance ......................... 162 Table 58 : ANOVA Test for IT Personnel ................................ ................................ .................. 163 Table 59 : Coefficients table for IT Personnel ................................ ................................ ............ 164 10 List of F igures Figure 1 : Research Variables ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 22 Figure 2 : Oil & Gas Holding Companies in Egypt ................................ ................................ ...... 25 Figure 3 : Interdisciplinary nature of IT research () ................................ ................................ ...... 33 Figure 4 : A conceptual model of the relationship between information technology and organizational characteristics applied from Yap (1986 pp.67). ................................ .................... 37 Figure 5 : Connection between the organization, IT infrastructure, and business capabilities () .. 38 Figure 6 : The Framework of Information Technology Human Resources Plan () ........................ 48 Figure 7 : ROI ( Cost & Benefits) ................................ ................................ ................................ . 68 Figure 8 : IT ROI Categories ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 69 Figure 9 : Egyptian Petroleum Sector ................................ ................................ ........................... 81 Figure 10 : The Gender Distribution of the sample ................................ ................................ .... 106 Figure 11 : The Age Distribution of the samp le ................................ ................................ ......... 108 Figure 12 : The Qualification Distribution of the sample ................................ ........................... 111 Figure 13 : The Managerial Level Distribution of the sample ................................ .................... 113 Figure 14 : IT Network infrastructure comparison in all performance categories ..................... 123 Figure 15 : IT Applications comparison in all performance categories ................................ ...... 132 Figure 16 : IT Personnel comparison in all performance categories ................................ .......... 141 Figure 17 : Performance comparison in all companies’ performance categories ....................... 147 Figure 18 : Comparison between all parts’ Mean in all companies categories .......................... 148 11 Chapter ( 1 ): Study Framework 12 Introduction Information technology has become an essential part of any business and competitive advantage that can change the business structure. This observation was one of the motives for this study. The information has become as lifeblood for business and its decisions, and the organizations do their best to enhance the role of Information technology to increase its performance and to keep life among its competitors in the market. The objective of information technology in an organization is to provide the management, managers and stakeholders with information for more precise planning, foresting, monitoring and controlling of busine ss. More so, the use of powerful computer software and network information systems have helped organizations to become more flexible, removing layers of redundant management functions, separate work from location and also restraining work flows. The impact of information technology goes beyond a small service department in organization and becomes a part of the business chain.IT Management moves from back office to the front office and participate in the strategic planning for the organization. Moreover, In formation technology improves the relationship between vendors and customers and enables the delivery of services more directly, more rapidly, and electronically to customers. Information technology also provide important communications and collaboration tools, which support core organizational functions such as inventory control, purchasing, workflow management, human resource management, data management, and operations. New Information technology continues to improve communications, access to business i nformation, and our ability to analyze and use of business information. 13 Information technology is no longer a tool to support back office transactions but has begun to affect how businesses organize, do business and compete. The aim of this study is to declare the impact of information technology (IT) on Oil & Gas companies in Egypt. According to this aim, the research er review ed the related literature and after developing a research model and hypotheses, the researcher made numerous analyses. The data of this research obtained from a sample of six Oil & Gas Companies in Egypt selected depending on the performance according to (Accountability State Authority) concerning the ROIs for these companies from (2010 to 201 5) as the following :  Two high performance companies  Two medium performance companies  Two low performance companies . 14 Research Problem There is a debate in the role of information technology departments, Some companies deals with their information technology departments as a profit center whereas other companies deals with IT as a cost center . This debate in the perception of the role of information technology is shown clearly in Oil & Gas companies in Egypt, and may affect the investment in information technology. Several studies have examined the impact of IT, and their findings have been inconsistent. While Loveman (2001) found no evidence on performance increase from IT investments; Weill (1990) found that transactional IT investments had a positive impact on fir m performance but strategic IT or informational IT did not. Pourmirza (2006) found that IT labor produced substantial high returns in organizational performance but IT capital did not. This research seeks to investigate the true role of information techn ology and its impact on the Oil & Gas companies’ performance in Egypt. 15 Previous studies The most important recent studies on the impact of information technology (IT) on organizational performance are discussed in the following table: Table 1 : Important studies about IT and organizational Studies Sector Countries studied Sample Findings Daniel Kinuthia Wanjiru (2014) 1 Oil & Gas Kenya A sample size is a set of entities drawn from a population with the aim of estimating characteristics of the population (Kothari, 2004). The sample size for this study was 45 respondents which was equivalent to 15% staff working at Total Kenya limited. According to Mugenda & Mugenda, (2003), a representative sample is one that is at least 10% -20% of the total population An important research finding is that the impact of ICT adoption on procurement processes mainly refers to time reductions and quality improvements, rather than cost reductions. We found that company is likely to realize improvements in cycle time reductions and process quality. In terms of ICT adaptability, this study found that the company has not adopted more complicated e -business applications .From the study it is also clear that the adoption of ICT applicati ons is not exclusively a matter of resources. On the contrary, operational compatibility and the level of collaboration are two of the factors that play a determinant role in increased ICT adoption and impact (1 ) Daniel Kinuthia Wanjiru " Effects of Information Communication Technology Adoption on Procurement Process in Kenya’s Oil Industry: A Survey of Total Kenya Limited Mombasa County " Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya 16 Studies Sector Countries studied Sample Findings Dr. MINWER M. AL - ADWAN (2012) 1 Industrial companies Jordan The research population consists of the managers of the three levels in the companies in Jordan qualified industry zones (QIZ). A sample of ( 128 ) had been chosen randomly The sample of the study shows the importance of the use of information technology in business organizations and was effective more than efficiency for multiple benefits. The Infrastructure of applying Information Technology is available and it is sufficient for the use of information technology, and explains it to significantly increasing reliance on the use of modern techniques in all areas of work. YUCONG LIU (2012) 2 Industrial companies USA Data collected for 26 companies across 19 industries The results of this study clearly indicate that IT can both directly and indirectly contribute to firm performance. It is just a matter of how and where to use IT resources for business (1) Minwer M. Al -Adwan "Evaluation The Role Of Information Technology In Business Value Performance (Bvp) " King Abdul -Aziz University -College Of Business At Rabigh Cob P. O. Box 344, Rabigh, 21911,Saudi -Arabia (2) Yucong Liu " Business Value Of Information Technology In Network Environments" University Of Kansas 17 Studies Sector Countries studied Sample Findings Dr. Nathaniel C. Ozigbo (2012) 1 Oil & Gas Nigeria The sample size for the study was rounded to three hundred and eighty six respondents.

Also, the researcher adopted simple random technique where each member of the respondents had the same chance of selection. This study provided an empirical evidence that the adoption of ICTs in the management of Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry were very beneficial found that the staff of the industry needed additional training in information technology The study fou nd that technology acquisition mechanisms could best assist the Nigerian oil and gas industry to achieve sustained development Robert (2011) 2 Services Utility Kenya 60 staff (Human Resources Directorate NCWSC 2011) It was clear that majority agreed that IT has enhanced the company revenue. The observations showed that investments in IT substantially increased the average organizational performance of companies, since 2007 when NCWSC embarked on an IT development strategy various milestones have been achieved and the company Overall revenue improving. (1 ) Nathaniel C. Ozigbo "The Adoption of Information and Communication Technologies in the Management of Nigerian Oil and Gas Ind ustry” department of Business Administration University of Abuja Abuja, Nigeria. [email protected] (2) Robert Kibui Gakuo, "Impact of Information and Communication Technology Investment on Organizational Performance: A case study of Nairobi Water Company", Master thesis, Faculty of Information Technology, Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya, 2011. 18 Studies Sector Countries studied Sample Findings Yuan Niu (2010) 1 Industrial companies USA Data were collected using an online survey over a five - month period. The survey was distributed to supply chain professionals with the assistance of two supply chain professional associations – the Association for Operations Management (APICS) and the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) IT impacts firm and supply chain Perfor mance by enabling them to marshal other organizational resources. Taking a knowledge perspective, this dissertation shows that relational capability and knowledge management capability are critical for IT to bring performance gains to the supply chain Muhamma d Shaukat, et al., (2009) 2 Banking Pakistan surveys of 48 companies (24 manufacturing and 24 banking) IT has positive impact on organizational performance of all the organizations but the banking sector performance outstrips the performance of manufacturing sector. (1 ) Yuan Niu " The Impact Of Information Technology On Supply Chain Performance: A Knowle dge Management Perspective"University Of North Carolina At Charlotte In Partial Fulfillment Of The Requirements For The Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy In Information Technology (2)Muhammad Shaukat, Muhammad Zafarullah and Rana Abdul Wajid" Impact of Inform ation Technology on Organizational Performance: A Comparative Quantitative Analysis of Pakistan’s Banking and Manufacturing Sectors", European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences ISSN 1450 -2887 Issue 16 , 2009. 19 Studies Sector Countries studied Sample Findings Parham Jafari Moghadam Fard (2008) 1 Distribution Companies Iran Data gathering wa s performed in 135 distribution compa nies and their branches in Iran. Total number of distributed questionnaire was equal to 286 Outcomes of this research confirm the moderating impact of organizational infrastructures as information technology complementary in the association between IT and company performance Companies can benefit from better performance of IT solution by setting additional emphasis on their organizational infrastructure like training, authorizing, decentralization and applying novel technologies IT applications can be further effective if companies off er superior infrastructures for IT prior to implementation and prior to adoption of information technologies. (1) Parham Jafari Moghadam Fard " A Process -Oriented Perspective On Evaluation Of The Impact Of Information Technology On Distribution Company Performance In View Of Organizational Infrastructures" Luleå University Of Technology Department Of Business, Administration, Techno logy And Social Sciences 20 Based on this review and align with aforementioned views, term information technology will cover wide range of information processing and computer application in organizations. It will cover systems of information, Internet, information and communication related technologies, and their infrastructure including computer softwares, networks and hardwares, which processes or transmit informati on to enhance the effectiveness of individuals and organizations. However, term information technology also includes any computer application and required packages of hardwares, Computer Aided Manufacturing, Computer Aided Design, Electronic Data Interchan ge and Enterprise Resource planning that positively affects the productivity of cooperation. According to previous studies the most important components of information technology are the following:  IT Network Infrastructure (Network, Communication and Data Center)  IT Applications (HR System, Financial System, Petro -Technical Applications, SAP, Oracle Financial and any ERP)  IT Personnel (IT Managers, Helpdesk, Systems administrators, programmer and computers engineers) 21 Research objectives 1. The important objective is to answers the following research questions:  "What's the impact of IT Network infrastructure on organizational performance in Oil & Gas companies in Egypt?"  "What's the impact of IT Applications on organizational performance in Oil & Gas companies in Egypt?"  "What's the impact of IT Personnel on organizational performance in Oil & Gas companies in Egypt?" 2. The general objective of this study is to analyze the role of Information Technology in enhancing the performance of Oil & Gas co mpanies in Egypt. 3. Also the research aims to solve the conflict of the Information Technology perception in Oil & Gas companies in Egypt. 22 Research Hypotheses H01: There is no significant impact of IT Network infrastructure on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt H11: There is significant impact of IT Network infrastructure on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt H0 2: There is no significant impact of IT Applications on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt H1 2: There is significant impact of IT Applications on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt H0 3: There is no significant impact of IT Personnel on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt H1 3: There is significant impact of IT P ersonnel on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt Research Variables Dependent Variable: Organizational performance Independent variable: IT Network Infrastructure, IT Applications and IT Personnel Figure 1 : Research Variables IT Network Infrastructure IT Applications IT Personnel Organization Performance 23 Research Methodology Instruments Validated and reliable questionnaire used to measure the practical impact of IT Network infrastructure, IT Applications and IT Personnel on various oil & gas companies’ performance. The questionnaire contains 29 questions; every question must have a meaning related to this study. The questions are divided into 4 parts as the following:  7 questions to measure the IT Network Infrastructure  9 questions t o measure the IT Applications  9 questions to measure the IT Personnel  4 questions to measure the impact of information technology on companies’ performance The questionnaire is using with a 5 -point Likert scale as following: (1)Strongly Disagree (2) Dis agree (3) Neutral (4) Agree (5) Strongly Agree 24 Population and Sampling A stratified random sample had been considered for collecting the data. The study applied on Oil & Gas companies in Egypt. Three strata had been considered according to the level of the companies ’performance in Oil & Gas sector which are listed as high, medium and low performance according to (Accountability State Authority) concerning the ROIs for these companies from 2010 to 201 5 Data Collecti on Primary data had been collected through answering a questionnaire that will be spread among (6) Oil & Gas companies with different performance according to Accountability State Authority report concerning the ROIs for these companies from 2010 to 2015  (2) companies with high performance  (2) companies with medium performance  (2) companies with low performance The questionnaire had been answered by middle, senior and top managers in each of these companies in order to evaluate their organization's inform ation technology level The information technology staff was prohibited to participate in answering this questionnaire 25 Research Limitation s 1. The research applied for the companies which are owned by the following Oil & Gas Holding companies:  The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation “EGPC”  The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company “EGAS”  The Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company “ECHAM”  Ganoub El -Wadi Holding Company “GANOPE”  The Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority. “EMRA” Figur e 2 : Oil & Gas Holding Companies in Egypt Petroleum Minister EGPC ECHAM GANOPE EGAS EMRA 26 The selected companies are depending on the performance as following:  Two high performance companies  Two medium performance companies  Two low performance companies.  The research is not including the Oil & Gas Production companies. 2. Due to the data confidentiality in this sector the researcher faced a problem in data collection as the following:  Lack of accessibility to data because most of the data are confidential  Lack of cooperation from the company’s management and staff. However those limitations was overcame by creating an official letter from University to the ministry of petroleum to facilitate the data collection Also the researcher has 20 years’ experience in oil & gas companies, this experience facilitated the data collection process 3. Moreover, to avoid biased attention ; the information technology staff in the selected companies was prohibited to participate in answering the research questionnaire. 4. The research applied for the most important Information technology components as the following  IT Network Infrastructure  IT Applications  IT Personnel  The research is not including the other components of information technology. 27 Chapter (2 ): Theoretical Framework 28 Introduction: Information Technology deals with large collections of hardware and software solutions that enable organizations to gather, organize, and analyze data that helps them achieve their goals. It deals with how technology is used in th e workflow processes in organizations to deliver services that generate revenues. As the IT industry evolves to meet the technology demands of today’s workplace, different challenges are arising and IT professionals try to meet these challenges. Informati on technology is a nascent field that emerged by the end of the last century when our society experienced rapid changes from an industrial society to an “information society.” Since its inception, computing has become the defining technology of the age, ch anging how people live and work. Computers became part and parcel of modern culture and the primary force behind much of the world's economic and social change. Information technology has been evolving at an increasingly rapid rate as there are many rapid changes that took place in the businesses environment that led to the transition from the era of industrial revolution to the information age. This caused the businesses environment to face many laws of competition and the need to respond rapidly to the ch anges taking place in the market. While businesses continue to increase investment in information technologies (IT), it is becoming increasingly important to study the effect of technology on the labor market. Information technologies aims at reducing the number of middle class jobs and increasing those for highly skilled workers and this is why there is an increased need for highly skilled workers. So, every day work, communication, 29 information gathering, and decision making all rely on information techno logy (IT) (1). The common rule of thumb that expresses this rate of growth is known as Moore’s Law. Moore’s law states that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years (2). Recently, this is used to indicat e that the processing power of computers is doubling almost every two years. Therefore, businesses have begun to realize the tremendous impact information technologies can have on their operations. Historical Overview of IT : As businesses increase invest ment in Information Technology, it is becoming increasingly important to analyze the impact of IT investment on the labor market. Traditional areas of IT like television, radio, computers, and mobile devices have been a constant factor in the development o f theories on technological unemployment in the 21st century. However, emerging fields of IT like machine learning, artificial intelligence and the need to enjoy a great deal of knowledge about IT make people more concerned with the potential effect of tec hnology in the near future, especially in relation to their works (3). (1) Wil van der Aalst and Christian Stahi,"Modeling Business Processes: A Petri Net -Oriented Approach", The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England, 2011. P. 1. (2) Raul Rojas, "Gordon Moore and His Law: Numerical M ethods to the Rescue ", Documenta Mathematica. Extra Volume ISMP (2012) 401 –415, p. 401. (3) Davis Craig, "The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Employment, Wages, & Profits", Master Thesis, the College of New Jersey, 2015, p. 1. 30 Moore’s Law (1): By the late 1980’s desktop workstations and personal computers were used on a large scale in many organizations to carry out the computing operations (2). However, as the personal computer became more powerful and more connected, it became more complex to administer, and the demand for people who could “make things work” in a networked microcomputer environment escalated. This led to a revolution with the appearance of Web browsers and the resulting explosion of the World Wide Web. Computers became the usable communication device that connected the entire world, so, Web browsers necessitated for everyone in society to use it. As Web sites became more active and interact ive, the demand for application developers and especially database developers expanded as well. The field continues to evolve at an astonishing pace. The rapid evolution of the discipline has a profound effect on Information Technology in all its forms. Today, networking and the Web have become the underpinnings for much of our economy. They have become critical foundations of Information Technology.

Modern networking technology enhances everyone's ability to communicate and gives people throughout the wor ld unprecedented access to information. Much of the change that affects information technology comes from advances in technology. In the last decade there have been unprecedented innovations in technologies for communication, computation, interactivity, a nd (1) Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. "Race Against the Machine. Lexington, Massachusetts: Digital Frontier Press", 2012. (2) Paul Grefen "Advanced Information Technology in Office Environments A Contemporary Introduction to Office Automation", University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands, 2001 Edition, p. 13. 31 delivery of information. Over the last ten years the world has changed dramatically both in how people work and live. Importance of ITs Definition Information Technologies (ITs): Table 2 : Definitions of Information Technology from the perspective of Management Information Science Author Definition Davis (1991) (1) “The systems [Information Technology] is an integrated, user/machine system providing information and information processing to support the strategy, operations, management, analysis, and decision making functions in an organization.” Orlikowski (1992a) (2) "The structurational model of technology comprises the following components: (i) human agents−technology designers, user, and decision -makers, (ii) technology−materials artifacts mediating task execution in the workplace, and (iii) (iii) institutional properties of organizations, including organizational dimensions such as structural arrangements, business strategies, ideology, culture, c ontrol mechanisms, standards operating procedures, division of labor, expertise, communication patterns, as well as environmental pressures such as government regulation, competitive forces, vendor strategies, professional norms, state of knowledge about t echnology, and socio/economic conditions. Rodriguez & “The meaning of information technology is almost universally understood. It comprises all the technological (1) Donaldson, L., & Davis, J. H. 1991. Stewardship theory or agency theory: CEO governance and shareholder returns. Australian Journal of Management, 16(1): 49 -64. P. 7. (2) ORLIKOWSKI, W. J. The duality of technology: rethinking the concept of technology in organizations. Organization Science, v. 3, n. 3, p. 398 -427, 1992, p. 409. 32 Ferrante (1996) (1) factors for storage, manipulation, and retrieval of data, which are thus transformed into information which is useful to society.” Morath & Schmidt (1999) (2) IT includes hard components (for example, computers, fax machines, cellular phones), hard/soft components (for example, Internet, intranet, network and video - conferenci ng systems, virtual reality) and soft components (for example, group ware, EDI programs, learning management systems, groupware. Hellrigel, Dan & et. al.

(2001) (3) It may be also defined as "the tools, procedures, methods, techniques, machinery, machines used to convert the organization inputs (materials, information, and ideas) into outputs (goods and services) Since information technology (IT) influences many areas, many scientific disciplines study issues related to IT, and therefore many researches were carried out on such a discipline and each of these areas defined it from its own perspective, focusing upon certain features relevant to them. Figure (1) illustrates some disciplines that conduct IT research. (1) Rodriguez, M.V.R., & Ferrante, A.J. (1996). Information technology for the 21st century: managing the change. Sou thampton, UK: Computational Mechanics. P. 3. (2) Morath, F., & Schmidt; A., (1999). Management of Knowledge as Interface Management - From exo - words to endo -worlds. In Jacksson P. (Ed.). Virtual Working Social and Organizational dynamics, Vol. 12. pp 193 –205. (3) Hellrigel, Dan & Slocum, J.W.& Woodman, R., "Organization Behavior",9 th ed., South Western College Publishing, 2001, p. 393 . 33 Figure 3 : Interdisciplinary nature of IT research (1) Thus, it can be said that IT research combine theories or methods from other disciplines. Role of Information Technology: Information technology (IT) has become a vital and integral part of every business plan from multi -national corporations that have mainframe systems and databases to small businesses that have a single computer. IT has dramatically changed the lives of th e individuals and organizations. Currently online shopping, digital marketing, social networking, digital communication and cloud computing etc. are the best examples of change which came through the wave of information (1) Raquel Flodstr m, "A Framework for the Strategic Management of Information Technology", Swedish Research School of Management and Information Technology (MIT), 2006, p. 63. Computer Science IT research 34 technology. Now accurate business pl anning, effective marketing, global sales, systematic management, real time monitoring, instant customer support and long term business growth cannot be achieved at the optimum level without IT (1). Information technology plays a vital role in different pha ses of business including the decision making, marketing, customer support and satisfaction, resource management and globalization. 1- Decision Making: Every successful organization has to do a comprehensive market research process which enables its manag ement to make the right decision. This market research can be done by gathering and analyzing information utilizing the tools of IT such as online surveys, forums, blogs, group discussions using the internet and the traditional means as in -person intervie ws as well. Currently Big data, Google Analytics and Microsoft CRM Dynamics are also great tools to extract useful information which can impact on decision making. These online tools not only provide real time responses from the potential audience but also ensure the accuracy of data by minimizing the risk of human errors (2). 2- Marketing and Business Growth: Any business success lies in its marketing as the management has to identify its target audience first and then observe their trends and needs to be a ble to handle the transaction well. The overall marketing covers public relation, advertising, promotion and sales which subsequently impact on business growth. Many types of marketing can help you reach your potential customers especially the digital Mark eting that promotes products or services all over the world. Currently web (1) https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/role -information -technology -business -success -abid -afza l-butt . (2) Hsinchun Chen & Roger H. L. Chiang & Veda C. Storey, "Business Intelligence and Analytics: from Big Data to Big Impact", MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 4, pp. 1165 -1188/December 2012. P. 1167. 35 market is booming at a very fast pace because most of the entrepreneurs have understood that the long term success in business is not possible without digital presence on the intern et. Millions of new marketing websites are being added on the internet yearly (1). 3- Customer Support and Satisfaction : Higher level of customer satisfaction is the key to success, so business success depends on knowing its customers' needs, trends, behaviors and satisfaction level. Effective communication is the best tool to understand the customer demands, problems and their solutions. This is achieved by the Internet Technology that has enabled communicating with millions of potential or existing customer in the real time. Innovative organizations use customer relationship management systems (CRM) to hold valuable data for understanding customer behaviors and future needs. 4- Resource Management and Globalization: Resource management plays a crucial role in business success. Information technology has played a vital role in automating the organizational resources complex problems by introducing user friendly solutions. A decade ago, most of the resource management solutions were desktop based, but th e internet and cloud technology enabled software engineers to introduce cloud based ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions. Now, the managers can manage or monitor their organizational resources virtually anywhere in the world by using their personal computer, laptops, tablets or Smartphone. This concept has introduced the idea of globalization. Most of multinational companies (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, (1) Ibid. P. 1169. 36 McDonalds etc) in the world use these cloud based solutions to manage their virtual or physical of fices and staff worldwide (1). IT Factors: There are many factors affecting the use of IT in organizations. These factors can be found in the internal and external environment of organizations.

Factors from the internal environment are divided into 2 groups : characteristics of managers and their attitudes towards adoption of IT, IT knowledge and innovation as well as the organizational characteristics such as business size, organizational structure and organizational culture. General factors from the externa l environment are political, economic, social, and infrastructure. Each of these will be dealt with in the following. Yap (1986) (2) explains that it is difficult to establish the true relationship between information technology and organizations. T he following Figure (2) illustrated that the organizational factors may determine the use of information technology or the use of information technology may influence the organization, or some combination of both. Knowledge of the underlying organizational factors affecting the use of information and the impact of information technology on organizations identifies the way in which organizations benefit from information technology (3). (1) http://smallbusiness.chron.com/information -technology -its -role -modern -organization -1800.html . (2) Yap, C.S. (1986). Information Technology in Organizations in the service sector. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge. (3) Chieochan O., Lindley D. and Dunn T., " Factors Affecting the Use of Information Technology in Thai Agricultural Cooperatives : A Work in Progress", The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, EJISDC (2000) 2, 1, 1 -15, p. 3. 37 Figure 4 : A conceptual model of the relationship between information technology and organizational characteristics applied from Yap (1986 pp.67). There are many theories and models used to explain the inter -relationship between the information technology and organizations. Some of these included the models set by Robey & Zmud (1992) (1) and these can be seen as follows: 1) The political conflict model, which introduces the concept of multiple objectives, held by differen t interes t group s or stakeholders. 2) Th e organizationa l ecolog y model , whic h view s organizationa l for m as a resul t of externa l control s rathe r tha n p roceedin g fro m th e decision s or preference s of organizationa l members. 3) Th e manageria l innovatio n model , whic h argu e tha t th e adoptio n of ne w technology depend s on awarenes s of problem s an d organizationa l cultur e tha t encourag e risk -taking. 4) Th e diffusio n of innovation s model , whic h argue s tha t th e sprea d of ne w technology depend s on thei r applicatio n to th e wit h wor k context. (1) Robey, D & Zmud, R. (1992). Research on the Organization of End -User Computing: Theoretical Perspectives from Organization Science, Information Technology & People, 6, 1, 11 -27. Information Technology Organizations Affect the use of Impacts upon 38 IT Infrastructure: IT infrastructure refers to the composite hardware, software, network resources and services required for the existence, operation and management of an enterprise IT environment. It allows an organization to deliver IT solutions and services to its employees, partners and/or customers and is usually internal to an organization and deployed within owned facilities. Therefore, IT infrastructure consists of all components that somehow play a role in overall IT and IT -enabled operations. It can be used for internal business operations or developing customer IT or business solutions (1). Figure 5 : Connection between the organization, IT infrastructure, and business capabilities (2) (1) Efrain Turban, "Information Technology Infrastructure, part II, 2015, P.134. (2) Ib id, P.134. Customer Services Supplier Services IT Services and Infrastructur e Information Technology IT Strategy Business Strategy 39 Components of Information Technology: The information technology is defined as the broad umbrella that includes information technology, data processing, communication systems and other. The following is an explanation of the components of the information and communic ation technology: 1- Hardware: Hardware is defined as the physical part of the information technology of computers and devices attached to it to perform the required tasks. a. PC’s A personal computer (PC ) is a general -purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sale price make it useful for individuals, and is intended to be operated directly by an end -user . Within a few years, the personal computer became an integral part of every office. Networked with the organization's mainframes and departmental computers, it became part of the technology infrastructure of every company. Eventua lly, the personal computer became a part and parcel appliance in nearly every home in the developed world. b. Servers A server is a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called " clients ". Servers can prov ide various functionalities, often called "services", such as sharing data or resources among multiple clients, or performing computation for a client. A single server can s erve multiple clients, and a single client can use multiple servers. A client process may run on the same device or may connect over a network to a server on a different 40 device (1). Typical servers are database servers , file servers , mail servers , print servers , web servers , game servers , and application servers (2). 2- Network: A computer network is a group of computer systems and other computing hardware devices connected together through com munication channels to facilitate communication and resource -sharing among a wide range of users. Networks are commonly categorized based on their characteristics (3). LAN (Local Area Network) - a small network that physically connects nearby computers (computers within the firm, organization, or a household).

Devices interconnected within an area of 1000m2, which is the generally accepted maximum size for a LAN, are considered to be in a local area network (LAN) (4). Low latency and high bandwidth are typically properties which describe a local area Network (5). Local area network technologies include for example Ethernet and the newly emerging Gigabit Ethernet. In addition, there is also the Wi reless local area network (WLAN) technologies in addition to some new technologies that will (1) Windows Server Administration Fundamentals. Microsoft Official Academic Course. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030: John Wiley & Sons . 2011. pp. 2–3. ISBN 97 8-0-470 -90182 -3. (2) Comer, Douglas E.; Stevens, David L. (1993). Vol III: Client -Server Programming and Applications. Internetworking with TCP/IP. Department of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 479: Prentice Hall . pp. 11d. ISBN 0-13 -474222 -2. (3) Stig Jarle Fjeldbo, "Administration of Remote Computer Networks", Master thesis, OSLO University College, Department of Computer Science, May 23, 2005. (4)Kevin Hamilton Ken nedy Clark. Cisco LAN Switching (CCIE Professional Development). Cisco Press, 1999. (5) Annabel Z. Dodd. The Essential Guide to Telecommunications, Second Edition. Prentice Hall PTR, 1999. 41 provide a wider range, higher bandwidth, increased security and quality of service (1). WAN (Wide Area Network) - a larger network that covers a city or a region. It is a computer network covering a wide geographical area, and are used to connect local area networks together. They can be built to connect several private local area networks in an organization, or built by Internet service providers to provide an orga nization access to the Internet (2). Wide area networks are typically built of leased lines, where a router connects the local area network to the private wide area network (3). An alternative is to use the Internet, which provides a shared infrastructure an d a high speed wide area network. Virtual private networks (VPNs) can use encryption and other techniques to make the connection secure and private (4). 3- Internet: The Federal Networking Council (FNC) defined the "Internet" as the global information system that is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol or its subsequent extensions. It is able to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its su bsequent extensions. In addition, it provides uses or high - (1) Sergio Verd . Wireless bandwidth in the making. IEEE, 2000.. (2) Andrew S. Tanenbaum. Computer Networks, Fourth Edition. Prentice Hall, 2003. - Annabel Z. Dodd., Op. cit., 1999. (3) Gene Spafford Simson Gar_nkel, Alan Schwartz. Practical Unix & Internet Security, 3rd Edition.

O'Reilly, 2003. (4) Ibid. 42 level services layered on the communications and related infrastructure, either publicly or privately (1). It consists of a world network of connected computers, connected through WAN and LAN. 4- Voice Telecommunication Telecommunications is the science of communicating over a long distance using telephone or radio technology. This involves using microelectronics, computer, and PC technologies to transmit, receive, and switch voice, data, and vid eo communications over different transmission media (2). 5- Data centers They consist of tens of thousands of servers that perform and process many Internet business applications. They use virtualization to simplify management and use server resources in a better way. Internet and business applications are increasingly being m oved to large data centers that hold massive server and storage clusters. Current data centers can contain tens or hundreds of thousands of servers, and plans are already being made for data centers holding over a million servers (3). Some data centers are built to run (1) Oliver M. Heckmann, "The Competitive Internet Service Provider: Network Architecture, Interconnection, Traffic Engineering and Network Design", John Wiley & Sons, Let,ISBN:0470012935, 2006, p. 47. (2) http://docplayer.net/1810741 -Telecommunications -evolution -and -fut ure.html (3) Timothy Wood, "Improving Data Center Resource Management, Deployment, and Availability With Virtualization" Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation, Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2011, p.1. 43 applications for a single company, such as the search engine clusters run by Google. Other data centers are operated by service providers that are able to rent storage and computation resources to other customers at very low cost due to their large scale. Cloud computing, which refers to hosting platforms that rent data center resources to customers, is becoming increasingly popular for running Internet websites or business applications. virtualization allows for new and better solutions to exi sting data center problems by allowing for rapid, flexible resource provisioning (1). 6- Security Security is the greatest concern for many companies and they rely on their IT staff to prevent or stop these system breaches. It can be defined as the “freedom from risk or danger; safety”. (The American Heritage Dictionary) (2). However, when dealing with the computer and networking security, this definition implies a degree of protection that is difficult to provide in the modern connectivity -oriented computi ng environment. Therefore, a more relevant definition specific to computer science is that security: is “The level to which a program or device is safe from unauthorized use”. The more accessible the data is, the less secure it is. So, any security plan ai ms at balancing between the two and this is why security professionals have a language of their own and understanding their concepts requires learning their jargon. (1) Ibid. (2) Debra Littlejohn Shinder and Michael Cross " Scene of the Cybercrime", Syngress Publishing Inc. 2008, p. 507. 44 Therefore, computer security aims at achieving many objectives as follows (1):  Controlling the physical accessibility to computer(s) and/or networks.  Preventing accidental erasure, modification or compromise of data.  Detecting and preventing intentional internal security breaches.  Detecting and preventing unauthorized hacking. Network securi ty solutions are loosely divided into three categories: hardware, software and human. Computer security involves many aspects, from protection of the physical equipment to protection of the electronic bits and bytes that make up the information that reside s on the network. However, despite such a focus on security, many organizations still implement security measures haphazardly, with no well -thought -out plan for making all the parts fit together. Applications of IT: Information Technology is being appli ed to facilitate developing various aspects of society as it is a major force in facilitating the public and private sector activities, improving the citizens' quality of life, sharing knowledge and improving access to information. 1- Database: A database is an organized collection of data (2).It is the collection of schemas, tables , queries , reports, views and other objects. The data are typically organized to model aspects of reality in a way that supports processes requiring information. (1) Tom Shinder's, "ISA Server 2006 Migration Guide", Syngress Publishing Inc. 2011, p.2. (2) "Database - Definition of database by Merriam -Webster" .merriam -webster.com. 45 The purpose of a database is to help people keep track of things. It does this by storing data in tables, where each table has rows and columns like those in a spreadsheet. A database usually has multiple tables. and each table contains data about a different type of thing. Databases store not only rows of data, but also relationships among the rows of data. Data are recorded €acts or figures. Information is knowledge derived from data. Or, using another common definition, information is data presented in a meaningful context. Databases store data in tables, and they represent the relationships among the rows of th ose tables. They do so in a way that facilitates the production of information. There are larger database applications such as those in the CRM. Customer Resource Management (CRM) is an information system that manages customer contacts from initial solicit ation through acceptance, purchase, continuing purchase, support, and so forth. CRM systems are used by salespeople, sales managers, customer service and support staff. and other personnel, A CRM database in a larger company might have 500 users and 10 mil lion or moreover, in perhaps 50 or more tables. According to Microsoft. In 2004 Verizon had a SQL Server customer database that contained more than 15 terabytes of data. If that data were published in books, a bookshelf 450 miles long would be required to hold them (1). 2- ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an information system that can be in every organization. It includes sales, inventory, production planning, purchasing, and other business functions (2). (1) http://www2.hawaii.edu/~donnab/lis670/Kroenke_ch1_2006_databases.pdf . (2) Rouse, Margaret. "ERP (enterprise resource planning)" . Tech Target. Retr ieved July 14, 2015. 46 ERP system is an integrated information system to support the business within different organizational parts of an enterprise. The leading global providers are SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. ERP packages are designed to be customizable to concrete needs of an organization and to its legacy systems. Table 3 : ERP Solution Satisfaction/ Benefits Realization (1) Tier I and tier II ERP Solutions SAP Oracle Tier II Industry Average Benefits Factor 72.2% 58.0% 68.6% 65.3% Executive Satisfaction 76.4% 75.9% 67.7% 70.7% Employee Satisfaction 73.6% 60.3% 76.5% 67.4% Business Risk factor 50.0% 56.9% 61.8% 54.0% There is a reason why these company’s declare themselves rivals. SAP has been developing ERP systems since its creation while Oracle has been expanding into the ERP market. SAP is show to have more experience with ERP along with a bigger clientele in the E RP market since it stands in the market the longest out of the two. Oracle on the other hand has multiple partners thanks to its many ventures such as middleware. The biggest difference between the two is the need of the specified company hiring. SAP creat es a standard with its many modules and can be bought in pieces based on need but at the cost of submitting to the standards.

(1) Panorama's 2010 ERP Report. - Available at http://panorama -consulting.com/2008ERP Report.html 47 While Oracle is customizable and largely less expensive to integrate and deploy but lacks in scalability for smaller to midsize co mpanies which is a very large market. It shows that even long standing systems have their drawbacks along with their strengths. 3- HR Systems: Organizations nowadays realize the power of information technology (IT) tools for reaching their business targe ts, fulfill defined organizational goals and optimize the work processes as well. The IT tools contributed to the Human Resources (HR) area by accomplishing their assigned tasks by using the source of IT capabilities in measuring and tracking the human cap ital as well as using the HR information system generally. Human Resources play an important role in all strategic decisions of the organization. Human Resources Managers aspire to occupy more strategic position within the organization to get to the essenc e of the problem how to manage, to motivate and to increase the performance of organization. Human Resources Management (HRM) must aim at achieving the competitiveness of the organization in the field of HR by means of providing constant educational and training programs for personal development of employees. It has been scientology proven that one of the supporting pillars which can contribute to the fulfillment of the personal policy is the usage of IT technologies in HR (1). Human resource processes shou ld be focused on the strategic objectives. These strategies are led to prepare an IT strategic plan that in turn translates into an (1) Seyni Mamoudou & G.P Joshi, "Impact of Information Technology in Human Resources Management", Global Journal of Business Management and Information Technology. ISSN 2278 - 3679 Volume 4, Number 1 (2014), pp. 33 -41. P. 34. 48 appropriate human resource strategic plan in the field of IT as the Figure 1 depicts (1). Figure 6 : The Framework of Information Technology Human Resources Plan (2) (1) Sameni, M.K., Khoshalhan, F. Analysis of Human Resource Development for Information Technology and E -Commerce in Iran. IT Department, Faculty of Industrial Engineering, K.N.Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. 2006. (2) Ibid, p.1190. Corporate strategy IT strategy HR Strategy (Emphasis on IT ) Short and Middle term strategies Long term strategies 49 4- Financial Systems: Information technologies are being used to enhance money market mutual funds, operated by investment companies and securities broker/dealers, permit shareholders to redeem shares by writing the equivalent of a check (1). Observers pointed out that technology as a key factor responsible for the rapidity and magnitude of change in the financial service industry. Banks, depending heavily on information processing and communication technologies, are beginning to offer securities through discount brokerage subsidiaries. Ba nks, credit unions, and savings and loan associations join networks of automated teller machines that enable account holders to obtain cash 24 hours a day from machines that are available nationwide. Both securities dealers and banks have developed systems that allow account holders with personal computers to transfer funds between accounts, pay bills, and order the purchase and sale of securities (2). 5- Petroleum Applications: Despite increasing attention to alternative energy sources, the world can’t forget about oil and gas as it struggles to meet ever -rising demand for clean and affordable energy. Technology is the most important force to increase the supply of more challenging oil and gas, and mitigate the environmental impact of energy production a nd consumption (3). Companies need to develop, deploy and integrate (1) John H. Gibbons, "Effects of information technology on f inancial services systems, DIANE Publishing, 1984, p. 3. (2) Ibid. (3) Steve Edwards, Omar Ishaq and ivind Johnsen, " Oil and Gas 2030", IBM Institute for Business Value, IBM Global Business Services Executive Report, p.1. 50 strategic production and information technologies to enable key success factors such as performance management, enterprise risk management, operational excellence, people management and ada ptive business models. Improving Production and information technologies: New technologies are vital to efficient exploration, improved recovery and operating within acceptable health, safety and environmental requirements. The future technology progress h elp the operations in petroleum sector in four ways – the first three relate to production technologies and the fourth is about how to apply information technologies: 1. Improve exploration of new oil and gas resources 2. Enhance recovery from existing fields in production and operation of more challenging conventional and unconventional sources 3. Reduce the environmental footprint and risks of different types of oil and gas production activities Enhance recovery from existing fields and tap challenging sources Technological progress and the expectation of persistent rising energy prices have made unconventional oil and gas sources more attractive and viable. Much of the supply increase in the recent decade has resulted from improving recovery from existing larg e fields thanks to the technology of Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) that enabled access to dispersed trapped oil and residual low mobile oil. Thus, it can be said that the use of integrated information technology and advanced IOR techniques will enable more e fficient production and prolong the life of existing fields (1). (1) Mari Nichols -Haining and Christine Rueter, "Research Portfolio Report Small Producers: Operations/Improved Recovery", 2015. 51 IT Personnel : Information Technology (IT) is a broad term that includes all aspects of managing and processing information and related technologies. Information technology professionals are responsible for designing, developing, supporting and managing computer hardware, computer software, and information networks, including the Internet (1). IT workers are highly specialized in their field. They like what they do and understand it inside and out. There are two of the most essential skills needed from IT professionals are teamwork and communication skills. Systems are complex and people are nee ded to help translate that task. Therefore, IT professionals are the ones responsible for helping others get their work done efficiently without the complex jargon of the technology world. If a company relies on phones and emails, chances are that there’s an IT professional behind it all making sure the cogs in the machine function properly. Here are some of the most popular positions for people interested in Information Technology: 1- IT Management: Information technology managers need a technical background as well as excellent managerial skills. Because they direct the work of other employees, these individuals require strong interpersonal and communication abilities. Analytical thinking also is v ery important as this position often involves problem resolution and process development. In addition, a strong customer -service orientation is a (1) Dominic Magut , "Smart Study and Career Selection Hand book" Kenya, ISBN: 978 -1-300 -32882 -7, 2012. 52 must. IT manager should hold a bachelor’s degree in an IT -related field plus experience with the specific typ es of business systems, hardware and networking services utilized by the firm. Demonstrated leadership also is required (1). 2- Systems Administrator (2): An IT Network Systems Administrator works in small or large organizations in the commercial and public sectors, offering a wide range of IT services which are critical for the operation of daily business. IT Network Systems Administrator is responsible for working professionally and interactively with users to meet their needs and ensure continuance of the systems and service levels they require to perform their roles effectively. With the rapid change of IT systems , these IT Network Systems administrators face rapidly expanding opportunities and challenges. For the talented IT Network Systems Administrator there are many commercial, public sector and international opportunities; however, these carry with them the need to understand and work with diverse cultures, and to keep up to date with fast changing industry developments. The diversity of skills associ ated with IT network systems administration is therefore likely to expand. 3- Programmers (3): Employees in this job function as information technology professionals, participating in or overseeing a variety of analytical and programming assignments (1) Glossary of Job Descriptions for Information Technology, Robert Half Technology 2016 Salary Guide. P. 23. (2) Ibid. P. 26. (3) Glossary of Job Descriptions for Information Technology, Robert Half Technology 2 016 Salary Guide. P. 23. 53 that pr ovide for the development, enhancement, and maintenance of automated data, voice, or video application programs, application systems, and operating systems software within mainframe, network, and client server environments. 4- Helpdesk (1): All help desk personnel need excellent problem -solving, communication and interpersonal skills, along with patience, a positive, customer -friendly attitude and the ability to work in a team environment. In addition, they should have a strong technical understanding of t he various hardware, software and networking systems being supported. Employer requirements depend on the help desk position level.

Tier 1, an entry -level position, normally requires less than two years of work experience and may require an associate’s deg ree or completion of coursework at a technical school. Tier 2 positions typically require two to four years of work experience and may require a bachelor’s degree, or a two -year degree and additional, equivalent work experience in a help desk setting. Tier 3 positions often require four or more years of help desk experience, a bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field, and/or professional certification, such as the Help Desk Institute’s Customer Support Specialist (CSS) or Help Desk Analyst (HDA), A+ certification or the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) designation. (1) Ibid. p. p. 33 -34. 54 IT impacts organizational characteristics and outcomes: IT plays a significant role in moderating the relationship between organizational characteristics including s tructure, size, learning and Culture Information technologies encompass a broad array of communication media and devices which link information systems and people (1). IT promotes collaboration and information sharing both inside and across org anizational boundaries . Huber's ( 1990) (2) suggested that IT is a variable that can be used to enhance the quality and timeliness of organizational intelligence and decision making, thus promoting organizational performance. Huber's theory treats several organizational characteristics as dependent variables with IT positioned as the independent variable. In order to offer a more encompassing view of IT and organizational functioning. we examine IT as a moderator of the relationship between organizational characteristics and several organizational outcomes. (1) Tarabour. R. M., "Building standards -based unified messaging systems Computer Technology Review 19 (5), 27.56. 1999.. (2) Huber, G. P., "A theory of the effects of advanced informati on technologies, on organizational design, intelligence and decision making. Academy of Management Review, 15 (1), 47 -71 , 1990. . 55 IT Characteristics: IT has some distinct characteristic and the most important of these are as follows: (1) Saves Time: it make all places – contiguous electronically. (2) Save Area: by using the storage means which accommodate huge amount of saving information which can be accessed easily and smoothly. (3) Intellectual tasks sharing with the machine: as a result of in teraction and dialogue between the researcher and the system of artificial intelligence, which makes information technology contributes to the development of knowledge and strengthen the composition of the users opportunities for inclusiveness and control in the production process. (4) The formation of networks as it unites the technological tools in order to form communication networks, and this increases the flow of information between users and industrialists, as well as machinery producers. This allows the exchange of information with the rest of the other activities. (5) Interactivity: the user of this technology should be a recipient and sender at the same time. Participants in the communication process can exchange roles, which allows the creation of a kind o f interaction between the activities. (6) Timeliness: means the possibility of receiving the message at any time convenient to the user as users are not required to use the system at the same time. (7) Decentralization: enables the independence of information and communication technology. The Internet, for example can be used in all conditions as it can't cease working at the level of the whole world at the same time. (8) Connectivity: means the possibility of linking the various communication devices, i.e., regardle ss of the company or the country of origin. 56 (9) Mobility: as the user can benefit from its services during his/her travels anywhere by many means of communication via the computer, mobile phone etc... (10 ) Convertibility: the possibility of transferring informatio n from one medium to another, such as transforming audio message to a printed or readable message. (11 ) Demassification : means the possibility of communicating the message to a single individual or a particular group, rather than the huge audiences. (12 ) Circulatio n and Dissemination : It is the ability of the network to expand to include more unlimited space of the world to gain its strength from this systematic flexible pattern of dissemination. Advantages of Information Technology: Information technology has helped in shaping both the business world and our society in general. Many fields have been impacted by information technology and these include; education , health , entertainment , communication just to mention but a few. The impacts of information technology are profound. As the world develops, more technology will emerge and this technology will have both positive and negative impacts. Some of the following p oints show how information technology has impacted men's lives. Globalization: IT has not only brought the world closer together, but it has allowed the world's economy to become a single interdependent system. This means that we can not only share inform ation quickly and efficiently, but we can also bring down barriers of linguistic and geographic boundaries. The world has developed into a global village due to the help of information technology allowing countries like 57 Chile and Japan who are not only sep arated by distance but also by language to shares ideas and information with each other. Communication: With the help of information technology, communication has also become cheaper, quicker, and more efficient. We can now communicate with anyone around the globe by simply text messaging them or sending them an email for an almost instantaneous response. The internet has also opened up face to face direct communication from different parts of the world thanks to the helps of video conferencing. With the help of communication technology tools like phones, video conferencing , electronic mail, databases just to mention but a few. Movement of information within an organization or business has become easy and first.

Employees can easily move information acro ss departments without having any interruptions. Tools like electronic mail , e -fax, mobile phones and text messaging enhance the movement of information among employees, customers and business partners or suppliers. 1- Cost Effectiveness and productivity : It increases production and saves time because of tasks automation. This in turn increases productivity which ultimately gives rise to profits that means better pay and less strenuous working conditions. 2- Bridging the cultural gap: Information technology has helped to bridge the cultural gap by helping people from different cultures to communicate with one another, and allow for the exchange of views and ideas, thus increasing awareness and reducing prejudice. 3- More time: 58 IT has made it possible for busin esses to be open 24 x7 all over the globe. This means that a business can be open anytime anywhere, making purchases from different countries easier and more convenient. It also means that you can have your goods delivered right to your doorstep with havin g to move a single muscle. 4- Provide New Job Opportunities: Probably the best advantage of information technology is the creation of new and interesting jobs such as computer programmers, Systems analyzers, Hardware and Software developers and Web designer s that constitute some of the many new employment opportunities created with the help of IT. Disadvantages of Information Technology: Although the benefits of information technology make it seem ideal, there are also some disadvantages of information tech that are listed below . 1- Expense of Implementation and Maintenance: Setup costs for implementing an information technology system within a home or business can be very costly. Software can training can also take another big bite out of the budget. In formation technology systems, just like any other equipment, need to be maintained and repaired from time to time. But there are also updating and upgrading costs associated with IT systems. Small businesses fail to afford this expensive technology so they end up losing their clients to a business which has improved its technology and provides a better service or product. 2- Unemployment 59 While information technology may have streamlined the business process it has also created job redundancies, downsizing a nd outsourcing. This means that a lot of lower and middle level jobs have been done away with causing more people to become unemployed. By implementing IT systems into a company, tasks take less time and therefore, employees have more time throughout the day. Paperwork is processed and filed immediately, reports are generated with the touch of a button and financial statements are generated automatically. Companies are finding that they can combine jobs and need a smaller staff to operate fully. 3- Privacy : Though information technology may have made communication quicker, easier and more convenient, it has also bought along privacy issues. From cell phone signal interceptions to email hacking, people are now worried about their once private information be coming public knowledge. When information is stored electronically, there are more chances of having security breaches. Hackers are evolving along with technology and they are never up to any good. Security systems that were state -of -the -art last year are now out -of -date and in desperate need of upgrading. To protect company data, a security specialist should be kept on staff. While information technology is quickly becoming something that we cannot live without, there are many aspects that keep us on our toes. Trying to stay current on the changes and be able to afford the upgrades can make a person feel helpless and confused. But when we understand the different aspects of information technology, then we can accomplish so much more than without it. 4- Lac k of job security: 60 Industry experts believe that the internet has made job security a big issue as since technology keeps on changing with each day. This means that one has to be in a constant learning mode, if he or she wishes for their job to be secure. 5- Dominant culture: While information technology may have made the world a global village, it has also contributed to one culture dominating another weaker one. For example it is now argued that US influences how most young teenagers all over the world now act, dress and behave. Languages too have become overshadowed, with English becoming the primary mode of communication for business and everything else. Thus, it can be said that the Information technology plays vital role in the world. Many changes have been occurring in society with the IT. There are several things discuses to consider when information technology starts; this present paper makes an attempt to: deals with the advantages and disadvantages of information technology and the essential ro les that are being followed in present scenario in information technology. 61 Definition of Performance: The accomplishment of a given task measured against preset known standards of accuracy , completeness, cost , and speed. In a contract , performance is deemed to be the fulfillment of an obligation , in a manner that releases the performer from all liabilities under the contract (1). Performance comprises both a behavioral and an outcome aspect. It is a multi -dimensional and dynamic concept. When conceptualizing performance, one has to differentiate between an action (i.e., behavioral) aspect and an outcome aspect of performance (2) (Campbell, 1990; Campbell, McCloy, Oppler, & Sager, 1993; Kanfer, 1990; Roe, 1999). The behavioral aspect refers to what an individual does in the work situat ion. Not every behavior is subsumed under the performance concept, but only behavior which is relevant for the organizational goals: “Performance is what the organization hires one to do, and do well” (Campbell et al., 1993, p. 40). Thus, performance is no t defined by the action itself but by judgmental and evaluative processes (cf. Ilgen & Schneider, 1991; Motowidlo, Borman, & Schmit, 1997). The outcome aspect refers to the consequence or result of the individual’s behavior. Outcome aspects of performance depend also on factors other than the individual’s behavior. In practice, it might be difficult to describe the action aspect of performance without any reference to the outcome aspect. (1) http://www.businessd ictionary (2) Ibid, p.3. 62 Performance as a Multi -Dimensional Concept: Performance is a multi -dimensional concept. So, there are two types of performance, the task and contextual performance (1) (Borman and Motowidlo (1993)). Task performance refers to an individual’s proficiency with which he or she performs activities which contribute to the organi zation’s ‘technical core’. This contribution can be both direct (e.g., in the case of production workers), or indirect (e.g., in the case of managers or staff personnel). Contextual performance refers to activities which do not contribute to the technical core but which support the organizational, social, and psychological environment in which organizational goals are pursued. Contextual performance includes not only behaviors such as helping coworkers or being a reliable member of the organization, but als o making suggestions about how to improve work procedures. There are three main differences between task and contextual performance (2) (Motowidlo & Schmit, 1999): (1) Activities relevant for task performance vary between jobs whereas contextual performance a ctivities are relatively similar across jobs (2) Task performance is related to ability, whereas contextual performance is related to personality and motivation; (3) Task performance is more prescribed and constitutes in -role behavior, whereas contextual performa nce is more discretionary and extra -role. Performance Measurement: Performance measurement is the ongoing monitoring and reporting of program achievements, particularly the progress towards pre -determined goals. It (1) Ibid, p.3. (2) Ibid, p.3. 63 is conducted by a program or agency man agement to address the type or level of program activities conducted (process), the direct products and services delivered by a program (outputs), and/or the results of those products and services (outcomes). A “program” may be any activity, project, funct ion, or policy with a certain purpose or set of objectives. One of the newer approaches refer on measuring performances of organizations via KPI. KPI are financial and non - financial measures that organizations use to reveal how successful they were in ac complishing long lasting goals. In order to constitute effective system of performance measurement it is very important to have defined and standardized all processes within the organization. Significance of process approach could be seen through the fact that it is a base of two nowadays management systems: strategic management, via BSC, and technical standardization, via QMS. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the backbone of business. They are the used to help the organizations understand whether thei r business is on the right track for success, and, if it’s not, more easily identify where to make improvements and focus more attention. They confirm the standards that organizations need to meet to gain budgets because the aim of a KPI is to bring about improvement. Therefore, the amount of data that businesses and organizations generate necessitate choosing the right measures and indicators. With that in mind, KPIs must be aligned with the overall organizational strategy and objectives. KPIs give executi ves the chance to communicate the mission and focus of the organization to investors, team members, and other stakeholders. As KPIs filter through the organization, they must grab employees’ attention to make sure that everyone is moving together in the ri ght direction and delivering value to the 64 business. Furthermore, visualizing KPIs through business dashboards makes it easier to quickly get a sense of how well the organization is meeting its KPI goals. Departments, and even individuals within an organiza tion, may have their own KPIs. But it is important that they understand the context of what they are being measured against and how it fits within the broader business strategy and goals. The KPIs that a company or organization measures will vary depending on the type of business and industry, its customers, and its staff. However, they are likely to include some of the following:  Net profit  Net Promoter Score  Customer engagement  Customer complaints  Market share  Share of voice  Carbon footprint  Supply chain miles  Waste recycling rate  Employee satisfaction  Staff churn  Return on investment (ROI) Once defining the organizational goals and strategy, identifying and aligning the KPIs for the organization will be much simpler. This requires sound Performance Manage ment. As for Performance Management, it is a process for setting goals and regularly checking progress toward achieving those goals. It includes activities that ensure organizational goals are consistently met in an effective and efficient manner. The ove rall goal of performance management is to ensure that an 65 organization and its subsystems (processes, departments, teams, etc.), are optimally working together to achieve the results desired by the organization. Therefore, an organization can achieve the o verall goal of effective performance management by continuously engaging in the following activities:  Identifying and prioritizing desired results  Establishing means to measure progress toward those results  Setting standards for assessing how well result s are achieved  Tracking and measuring progress toward results  Exchanging ongoing feedback among those individuals working to achieve results  Periodically reviewing progress  Reinforcing activities that achieve results  Intervening to improve progress where needed. 66 Organizational Performance: Organizational performance is one of the most important constructs in management research. It explains the success of an organization and how it performed over a period of time. Finding measures of the organiza tional performance explains, an organization can compare its performance across different periods of times and consequently performance of different organizations can also be compared to each other. Among the different measures of performance is a general category of financial and non -financial. Financial measures rely on economic aspect of efficiency. They explain how the extent of organizational efficiency that is one of the organizational objectives. Organizations attempt to achieve efficiency, which is closely related to cost reduction. They are concerned with the efficiency as well as the effectiveness (1). While the emphasis of efficiency - seeking enterprises is on cost, effective -seeking enterprises focus on increasing customer value. In other words, th ey focus on producing more reliable products and higher quality (2). Therefore non -financial measures would be more appropriate in measuring organizational performance with regard to effectiveness. ROI as a measurement of Organizational Performance: Organiz ational performance consists of the actual output or results of an organization as measured against its intended outputs (or goals and objectives). According to Richard et al. (2009) (3) organizational performance encompasses three specific areas of firm outcomes: (a) financial performance (profit s, return on (1) Hunt, S. D. & Duhan, D. F. (2001). Competition in the third millennium: efficiency or effectiveness?" Elsevier Science Inc. (2) Ibid. (3) Richard et al. (2009): Measuring Organizational Performance: Towards Methodological Best Practice. Journal of Management. 67 assets, return on investment, etc.); (b) product market performance (sales, market share, etc.); and (c) shareholder return (total shareholder return, economic value added, etc.) (1). These elements should go hand in hand to achieve the organizational effectiveness (2). The ROI is originally an accounting term that is defined by Flamholtz (1985) (3) as a financial ratio that expresses pro fit in direct relation to investment. So, the ROI is simply the net profits (or savings) expected from a given investment. When organizations want to maximize their ROI, they generally would set a minimum ROI for any new products, services, or cost -saving programs (4). Some of these traditional accounting methods in determining ROI have generated doubts about its accuracy and predictive power since other nonfinancial performance indicators have been excluded in the profitability equation (5). As a consequenc e, more organizations are adopting a value -based approach to measure returns by combining both financial and nonfinancial data in the ROI calculation.

Some common examples would be the application of economic equations of shareholder value analysis, econom ic value added, and market value added (6). (1) Ibid. (2) padhaya, B., Munir, R., & Blount, Y. (2014). Association between Performance Measurement Systems and Organisational Effectiveness. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 34(7), 2 -2.. (3) Flamholtz EG, Das TK, Tsui AS (1985) Toward an integrative framework of organizational control.

Account Org Soc 10:35 –50. (4) Weitz, B.A., Castleberry, S.B. and Tanner, J.F. Jr (2009), Selling: Building Partnerships, 7th ed., McGraw -Hill/Irwin, New York, NY, pp. 250 -74 . (5) Laitinen, E.K. (2003), “Future -based management accounting: a new approach with survey evidence”, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 293 -323. (6) Ehrbar, A. (1999) , “Using EVA to measure performance and assess strategy”, Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 20 -4. 68 These approaches calculate ROI from the perspective of overall value, where value is defined in terms of both financial and nonfinancial indicators. The ROI refers to the return for money the organization asked t o spend 'invest' and its actual worth. Despite the difficulty faced in defining the term accurately, a common accounting or finance definition is that it is "A measure of the net income a firm is able to earn with the its total assets. Return on investment is calculated by dividing net profits after taxes by total assets (1)". Figure 7 : ROI ( Cost & Benefits) Sources: http://www.rms.net/lc_faq_other_roi.htm . Available at: 2/5/2016. (1) http://www.rms.net/lc_faq_other_roi.htm . Available at: 2/5/2016. ROI (Worth) What We Give (Investment) What We Get (Return) Benefits Costs 69 Business Benefits - The "Returns" Decision -Makers Need To Know: Traditionally, when IT professionals and top -management discuss the ROI of an IT investment, they were mostly thinking of “financial” benefits. Today, business leaders and technologists also consider the “non -financial” benefits of IT investments (1). Figure 8 : IT ROI Categories Sources: http://www.rms.net/lc_faq_other_roi.htm . Available at: 2/5/2016. Financial Benefits include impacts on the organization's budget and finances, e.g., cost reductions or revenue increases. Non -Financial Benefits include impacts on operations or mission performance and results, e.g., improved customer satisfaction, better information, shorter cycle -time (2). (1) Matthew Cho, "Mixing Technology and Business: The Roles and Responsibilities of the Chief Information Security Officer", Research on Topics in Information Security, SANS Institute 2003, p. 9.. (2) Lekha Menon, Bhawna Rehani and Sudharshan Gund, Business Intelligence on the Cl oud Overview, Use Cases and RoI", National Conference on Communication Technologies & its impact on Next Generation Computing CTNGC 2012, p. 26. Beneficial Returns Financial Non -Financial IT ROI Categories 70 IT and organizational performance: Information Technology has been defined in various ways by different authors. Frenzel (1999) (1) for example defines IT as “Information Technology is the term that describes the organization’s computing and communications, infrastructure, including computer systems, telecommunication networks, and multimedia (combined audio, text, and video) hardware and software”. Information Technology is now also being used in all government organizations. This technology really has drastically changed the working of today’s organizations and is being used both by developed and developing countries for performance improvements. The goal of every information systems, based in any organization is to improve performance on the job and this performance efficiency is only achieved when IT is accepted and used warmly by the concern employees in organizations (2). In their quest for development, many developing countries put great hope in use of IT. Information Technology now is the most preferred choice of all developing and developed countries to upgrade their economies and become competitive in the global market place. Information Technology is now also being used in all government organizations. IT has become a catalyst for changes in the organizational and operational structure and management. The results from its ability to improve productivity, reduce costs, improve decision -making as well as strengthening the relationships (1) Frenzel Carroll W.(1999), “Management Of Information Technology”, 3rd edition. pp 10, 23,132. (2) Venkat esh, V., & Davis F.D. (2000), “A theoretical extension of the Technology Acceptance Model,” Journal of Management Sciences Vol. 2, pp. 186 -204.. 71 with customers and developing new strategies to improve organizational performance applications (1). The need for information technology and computer use appears clearly in better performance of wo rk as it helps workers to achieve higher levels of performance and enables managers to make more improvements in the organizational operations by providing the information necessary to make effective decisions in support of the achievements the organizatio nal performance (2). IT enhances achieving the goals of the organization and the individual (3) as well as their efficiency and effectiveness of performance. The organizations today must possess information technology so that they can achieve higher perform ance through their products and advanced services as well as improving production processes, marketing, reducing costs and improving quality in an environment of increasing global competition. The role of technology information is to update and develop th e performance of organizations as leading to the creation of new types of jobs and work areas and a variety of activities in the working environments. These can be seen in the following: 1. Provide actual work force within the organization 2. Increase communica tion channels between the various administrative departments (1) Turban , E., et al., Op. cit., 1999, p.3. (2) Turban , E., et al., Op. cit., 1999, p.198. (3) Kotler, P., " Marketing Management " , New Jersey : PrenticeHall , 2000, p. 74. 72 3. Achieve effective control of the operational processes and reduce the extent of administrative regulations 4. Save time for the senior management and full -time for more important business. It also improves productivity and motivate employees and managers to make intense intellectual efforts to raise and efficiency in performance as well as supporting and promoting the necessary activities and knowledge management - for making administrative decision s. 5. Enhance the discovery and knowledge analysis through the use of search engines and databases to find appropriate means to set goals and put the technology in place (1). It should be noted that the use of technology incorrectly may hamper the work of the organization and lead them to failure and deterioration rather than achieving the competitive advantage. The impact of using IT on the managerial and work concepts:  Change the working methods as the use of modern technology allows remote working and guid ance which is reflected on the elements of time and cost .  Speed of circulating information within the organization and thus help making sound decisions.  Change the skills, the availability of huge amount of information - that is difficult to deal with easily - requires special skills.  Change of plans.  Free the human element of the routine work restrictions thus leading to the creative and intelligent work. (1) Turban , E., et al., Op. cit., 1999, p.340. 73  Increase the importance of information confidentiality and reliability. Therefore, the organizational structures should be modified to cope with the advanced working methods: Organizations use many types of technology in transforming inputs into outputs. It is found that there is a strong relationship between the size of the production proce sses and the organizational structure. It is also found that the efficiency and effectiveness depends greatly on the extent of proportionality between the technology used in the organization and the organizational structure of the organization. Thus, the m ost fundamental changes required in the organizational structures can be summarized as follows:  Providing an organizational unit of information technology within each institution or firm.  Re -considering the organizational structure to maintain it capable of operating within a competitive environment.  Establishing new units focused on marketing, sales and strategic planning as well as customer orientation.  Providing organizational structures in line with the technological progress to contribute to the great advantage of the new applications, fit with modern working methods as well as the expansion of participation in decision - making. 74 Oil & Gas sector in Egypt: Information Technology (IT) is widely acknowledged to be crucial for efficient operation and man agement of all industrial systems. The demand for IT services has increased substantially over the years. Oil and gas companies are under pressure to achieve higher returns on their capital assets in a safe and sustainable manner. They need to drive highe r asset reliability, productivity and performance while managing growing demands as well as competition for oil reserve access (1). The Information Technology Applications in Petroleum Sector deal with three major sectors such as upstream, midstream and dow nstream (2): "Upstream" and "downstream" are business terms applicable to the production processes that exist within several industries. Industries that commonly use this terminology include the metals industry, oil, gas, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Upstream, downstream and midstream make up the stages of the production process for these and other industries (3). Definition of Upstream (4): The upstream stage of the production process involves searching for and extracting raw materials. The upstream part of the production process does not do (1) M. Chiranjeevi , "Information Technology (IT) Applications in Petroleum Sector", Recent Advances in Information Technology (RAIT), 2012 1st International Conference on , I EEE, 651 – 657, 15 -17 March 2012. (2) Ibid. (3) H vard Devold, "Oil and gas production handbook An introduction to oil and gas production, transport, refining and petrochemical industry", ISBN 978 -82 -997886 -3-2, 2013, p. 40. (4) Tom Moore, "Defining the Upstream Oil and Gas Sector: Exploration, Production, and Natural Gas Gathering and Processing", Western Climate Initiative – Oil & Gas Collaborative Santa Fe, NM, November 19, 2009. 75 anything with the material itself, such as processing the material. This part of the process simply fi nds and extracts the raw material. Thus, any industry that relies on the extraction of raw materials commonly has an upstream stage in its production process. In a more general sense, "upstream" can also refer to any part of the production process relating to the extraction stages. Examples of Upstream Processes: In the petroleum industry, locating underground or underwater oil reserves characterizes the upstream process. Additionally, the upstream process in this industry involves bringing oil and gas to the surface. Extraction wells represent an example of a structure operating in this stage in the process. The upstream stage in the production process may also manifest itself as a supplier providing raw materials to manufacturers or other businesses that ultimately process the materials. Definition of Downstream (1): The downstream stage in the production process involves processing the materials collected during the upstream stage into a finished product. The downstream stage further includes the actual sale of that product to other businesses, governments or private individuals. The type of end user will vary depending on the finished product. Regardless of the industry involved, the downstream process has direct contact with customers through the finish ed product. (1) Brian Bass, The Definitions of “Upstream” and “Downstream” in th e Production Process, HOUS. CHRON. (last visited May, 4, 2016), archived at http://perma.cc/XU4K - 6G7L (“The upstream stage in the production process may also manifest itself as a supplier providing raw materials to manufacturers or other businesses that u ltimately process the materials.”). 76 Examples of Downstream Processes: In the oil and gas industry, the downstream process consists of converting crude oil into other products and then selling those products to customers. Thus, oil refineries represent structures that operate with in the downstream process. However, any kind of plant that processes raw materials may qualify as operating within the downstream stage of production. A company that combines both upstream and downstream processes is an integrated company. Midstream operat ions link the upstream and downstream entities. Midstream operations mostly include resource transportation and storage, such as pipelines and gathering systems. The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, tra nsporting, and marketing petroleum products. The oil and gas industry has altered immensely over recent decades as technology has opened up new possibilities along the energy chain. Upstream, oil firms are exploring and exploiting deep -sea reservoirs that were once technologically out of reach or simply unknown. Downstream, state -of -the -art IT systems have pushed the boundaries of efficiency and productivity. As well as bumping up sales and production, technology has helped in other ways. The use of horizon tal drilling techniques, for instance, has played a key role in reducing the industry’s environmental footprint. Although oil companies have perhaps not committed the same level of IT funding witnessed in some sectors, such as financial services, there is a growing awareness of its role in the industry. The concept of the intelligent oilfield – remotely capturing and using real -time data from smart wells, and using complex IT systems to interpret and make timely and meaningful decisions – is already here. “ There is a demand for exploration intelligence and oilfield connectivity to increase production, reduce finding and 77 lifting costs as well as help to better define reserves and their replacements,” says Marisé Mikulis, worldwide oil and gas industry manager for Microsoft. “This is critical because petroleum reserves and the ability to optimise their exploration and replacement are the fundamental values of the upstream sector.” One of the most striking developments in the IT industry which has helped informa tion dissemination in the oil and gas industry was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) about a decade ago. This technology known as XML (Extensible Markup Language) uses tags and unstructured patterns in developing requisite data (referred to as well -formed and valid data) for information dissemination. The most wonderful thing with XML is that it is structured in such a way that the information would be readable by both machines and humans. Other technologies such as SGML and HTML for transfer ring data were also developed by the W3C; however XML is the most beneficial of them all in information dissemination. Therefore, it can be said that in a global petroleum industry that is more information -dependent than ever, success is in the hands of th ose that best understand how to deploy effective, proved, available and future -proof information technology solutions. Too much IT can lead to an overly complex work environment that stifles creativity and innovation. In addition, in order to maximise the benefits of IT, there must be some attempt to set common standards to confront the vast swathe of information facing exploration managers. This will require significant industry co - operation, both within the oil and gas sector and in the IT world. Without cooperation, the industry will struggle with complexity and find it difficult to innovate to meet future challenges (1). (1) http://www.world -petroleum.org/docs/docs/18th/18WPC%20News%20Day%201.pdf 78 Egypt: Egypt is currently the largest oil producer in Africa outside of OPEC and the second largest natural gas producer after Algeria. Egypt, having already taken on a major role in international energy markets is now seeking to get its downstream industry back on track. Egypt has great potential when it comes to refining and petrochemicals. It is an important transit route, offe ring great potential to become a hub for petroleum products. Egypt has a lot of attractive points for investors. In the oil and gas industry, Egypt has a lot of potential resources, a lot of uncharted territory with the potential for discoveries and a hug e domestic market. It can absorb production and as far as human resources, you can find very skilled people. That will reduce the costs of any IOC that has to bring expats into the country. The infrastructure in the oil and gas business is also great. Egyp t has changed a lot in the past few decades and is trying to improve the investment environment every year to accommodate oil investors’ desires and requests. All investors are free to exchange and repatriate their revenues to their countries. There are no restrictions as there are in other countries. We have huge resources potential, human resources, the investment environment and the infrastructure in Egypt. Another attraction point is that concession agreements are issued by law and cannot be changed unl ess it goes back to parliament. That is a protection for the investors. Egypt has a track record in helping companies with their concession agreements. They have tried to solve their issues with the partners on win -win bases. Of course, there is the issue of deferred payments. I believe this is just a temporary 79 issue because of what has happened in the past few years. I’ve heard from some of the companies that their receivables have been reduced to zero. There are problems regarding payments, which are in p artly Egyptian pounds and partly in dollars, but at least they are trying to solve this issue as soon as they can. This issue, for sure, has some impact on the business (1). Additionally, Egypt is now a net importer of oil and gas. The demand is very high, so whatever you discover will be sold immediately. You are not going to have trouble finding a buyer. The fiscal terms, of course, are very attractive. The PSA is very attractive because it’s based on competitive bids, but still the companies are making mo ney. There are companies that have been working here for 40 -50 years. There must be something good about it. Egypt plays a vital role in international energy markets through the operation of the Suez Canal and Suez -Mediterranean (SUMED) Pipeline. The SUMED Pipeline is the only alternative route nearby to transport crude oil from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea if ships were unable to navigate through the Suez Canal.

Fees collected from the operation of these two transit points are significant sources of revenue for the Egyptian government. In Africa, Egypt has the third -largest population, after Nigeria and Ethiopia, and the second -highest gross national income (GN I), after Nigeria, according to the World Bank. Egypt’s economy suffered during and after the 2011 revolution as the country experienced a sharp decline in tourism revenue and foreign direct investment, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A nnual gross domestic product (GDP) growth in Egypt dropped from 5.1% in 2010 to 1.8% in 2011 and still remains below the pre -revolution level, averaging 2.1% in 2015 (2). According to the IMF, financial support, particularly in the form of oil and LNG (1) http://www.theoilandgasyear.com/interviews/upst ream -opportunity -in-egypt/ (2) World Bank database, accessed May 2016. 80 shipm ents, from some Persian Gulf countries has helped Egypt to meet its domestic energy demand (1). Egypt’s economy has not fully recovered since the 2011 revolution. The government continues to fund energy subsidies, which cost the government $26 billion in 2015, and this has contributed to the country’s high budget deficit and the inability of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), the country’s national oil company, to pay off its debt to foreign operators. EGPC owes foreign oil and gas operator s billions of dollars, which has led foreign operators to delay their investments in existing and new oil and natural gas projects. EGPC accumulated $6.3 billion in outstanding arrears to foreign oil and gas companies, of which $1.5 billion was paid back i n December 2013. The debt has since increased back to $7.5 billion as of June 2014 and continues to grow (2). (1) International Monetary Fund, "Arab Countries in Transition: An Update on Economic Outlook and Key Challenges," (April 9, 2014), page 10. (2) Middle East Economic Survey (MEES), "Egypt Outlines 2015 -16 Budget Guidelines," (March 27, 2015), volume 58, issue 13. 81 The petroleum sector now consists of five strong entities cooperating and integrating to make the best use of petroleum and mineral resources w ealth (1). They are:  The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation “EGPC”  The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company “EGAS”  The Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company “ECHAM”  Ganoub El -Wadi Holding Company “GANOPE”  The Egyptian Mineral Resources Autho rity. “EMRA” Figure 9 : Egyptian Petroleum Sector (1) Ehab Mohamed Farouk Abd El Aziz, "An Assessment for Technical, Economic, and Environmental Challenges Facing Renewable Energy Strategy in Egypt", Faculty of Engineering, Kassel University Kassel, Germany, 2011, p.6. 82 Oil sector in Egypt: Egypt’s oil sector witnessed a stark change beginning in the early 2000s. The country drifted away from being an oil exporter to a net oil importer, as domestic supplies have fallen short of demand. This was mainly due to different factors including: the enormous rise in population; growing economic development mainly in projects generated by fuel; and a drop in new investments in the oil sec tor (most likely as a repercussion of the energy subsidy system along with the political instability since 2011). This led to an increase in oil consumption in parallel with stagnation in production. Egypt’s oil consumption has clearly outpaced production since 2010. One major challenge in Egypt’s oil sector is how to maintain a minimum level of oil exports in order to maximize foreign exchange revenue. It has been known that any barrel consumed domestically — especially when consumption outpaced production — is a barrel not exported, depriving Egypt of foreign exchange. Like many other developing nations, Egypt is seeking to strike a balance between crude oil production, domestic consumption, and export revenue, while seeking to maintain internal political harm ony. Despite declining production and becoming a net oil importer, Egypt’s crude oil exports have remained virtually flat over the past few years, mainly to secure a share in foreign currency. As a result, there is a lower volume of domestic crude oil avai lable for domestic refineries, and Egypt must then compensate the difference by importing petroleum products and/or crude oil. Controlling domestic oil consumption has become a ‘thorny’ issue for many countries, sharpening the trade -off between consumer de mands and export earnings. This trade -off is hindered by a subsidy system of governmentally controlled domestic energy price supports. In the light of the above mentioned 83 subsidy reforms, and faced with the high rates of growth in consumption, the governme nt has recently raised domestic prices in an attempt to curb this explosive growth and reallocate resources more effectively. In general, Egypt lacks giant oil fields; most of the country’s production comes from relatively small fields. However, Egypt has the largest oil refinery capacity in Africa, though it operates below capacity. Egypt’s oil refinery capacity is around 700,000 bbl/d, while the country’s refined petroleum output is around 450,000 bbl/d. The refinery output declined from 2009 -2013 by almo st 28%, as some reports attribute this decline to Egypt’s policy that permits foreign oil companies to export crude oil as a repayment for the country’s financial debt.

Subsequently, the supply of crude oil available for domestic refineries has declined, a nd Egypt started importing petroleum products In recent years, there were plans to expand the country’s refining capacity through building more refineries in partnership with foreign companies, though they have not been realized yet. The petroleum industry is a key component of Egypt’s economic performance, thus the decline of oil exports in the last few years had a significant impact on the country’s economic development. Some reports give indications that Egypt will see an ‘upswing’ in investment in the o il sector in the coming years. With the political situation now looking more stable than at any time in the past three years, oil investment has started picking up.

This foreseen improvement in oil investment in Egypt relies mainly on the hydrocarbon poten tial of certain underexplored areas. In particular, the Western Desert has shown very significant and promising hydrocarbon potential, given that it has been underexplored and offers comparatively low -cost onshore development opportunities. 84 In addition, so me new oil discoveries have boosted Egypt’s reserve estimate over the past few years. Egypt has maintained a sustainable level of exploration, with a number of oil discoveries made every year. However, it is expected that Egypt will struggle to increase cr ude oil output due to limited overall oil potential. The majority of Egypt's below -ground hydrocarbon potential has proven to be gas, thus what new liquid product develops is likely to come from gas condensates and not traditional oil. Natural Gas in Egypt : Since the early 2000s, Egypt has emerged as an important producer and exporter of natural gas. Egypt started turning to gas to replace oil in the domestic market, most importantly for fuelling heavy industries and electric power plants in order to save m ore crude oil for exports. Until 2011 about 18% of gas production was exported. Around 80% of Egypt’s natural gas reserves are in the Mediterranean and the Nile Delta, followed by smaller amounts in the Western Desert and the Gulf of Suez. Egypt’s domestic gas crisis is as much the consequence of historical ‘mal - planning’ as it is the short term consequence of the country’s past three years of political turmoil. Since 2011 Egypt’s natural gas production has declined sharply and a stalled power sector starte d to become apparent. The decline was by an annual average of 3% from 2009 -2013; meanwhile, Egypt’s total gas exports have declined substantially by an annual average of 30% from 2010 -2013. This is ascribed not only to the decline of production, but also t o the enormous rise in domestic demand, particularly in the power sector. Starting from the 1990s the government encouraged households, businesses and the industrial sector to 85 consider natural gas as substitute for petroleum products. Therefore, the consum ption increased by an annual average of 7%, and as a result Egypt started importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) to satisfy its consumption. Many argue that Egypt’s gas production decline was by no means inevitable. Egypt faces rapid depletion rates in many of its existing reservoirs, rendering consistent investment in new reserves essential to maintaining and expanding gas production. Many of these new reserves are in higher risk, higher -cost areas, particularly the offshore Nile Delta, where access to more sophisticated technology and foreign capital are key factors in determining the pace by which new resources could enter the Egyptian gas market. The political turmoil following Egypt’s 2011 revolution has considerably hindered these offshore developments, directly through temporary shut -downs in production, but more structurally by depriving the Egyptian government of essential fiscal resources to meet various contract commitments towards international companies. Egypt owed foreign operators substantial de bt of approximately $7.5bn by June 2014. Some of these operators have reduced their exploratory activities and delayed project investment. In a broader sense, however, Egypt’s post -revolutionary turmoil merely accelerated the severity of existing long -term deficiencies in Egypt’s energy sector that have existed for at least a decade. Successive governments have inherited a gas sector hampered by the conflicting requirements of Egypt’s rising domestic energy demand and already existing export contracts with Egyptian gas customers. Moreover, one additional factor that contributed in hindering natural gas production was the low price the government used to pay foreign operators. It presented a major obstacle for operators interested in investing in Egypt’s ener gy sector, as these price conditions rendered such projects economically unviable for many. Hence, substantial gas discoveries in the deep offshore Mediterranean and 86 other areas remained undeveloped. A history of exceptionally low domestic energy prices — ma ny multiples below international prices and increasingly below the long -run marginal cost of production for more gas production projects — has systematically distorted Egypt’s domestic energy market. This leads to extremely low levels of industrial energy ef ficiency and subsequently wasteful energy consumption, both by energy -intensive industries and high -end energy users. Surging domestic energy consumption forced the government to divert a growing share of its natural gas production to the domestic market, where low domestic prices are paid instead of high international prices.35 Nevertheless, after the last presidential elections in 2014 Egypt started witnessing remarkable progress on the level of political stability and economic development. Fundamental st eps have been carried out by the current government to foster the energy sector and boost the economy including, as mentioned: paying down arrears to international oil and gas companies; accelerating existing gas field development; encouraging new explorat ion; securing LNG import contracts until 2020, particularly regarding five LNG shipments from Algeria that are expected to cover consumption until September 2015; signing a 5 -year regasification unit contract; and mitigating the impact of subsidy removals, within the overall subsidy reforms strategy, through a range of measures including the acceleration of residential connections to natural gas and allocating savings to boost social spending. For example, and in a reflection of what could be considered a v ote of confidence in Egypt’s investment climate and economic potentials, in March 2015 BP finalized agreements for a $12 billion project to produce offshore natural gas. 87 Chapter (3 ): Applied Framework 88 Preface This chapter of the study deals with the research methodology, its parts, the tool used and how it is constructed and developed. It also addressed the procedures of verifying the validity and reliability of the tool in addition to the statistical approache s used to analyze the data and draw conclusions. These procedures are as follows: First: Research Methodology The researcher used in the present study the descriptive analytical approach to reflect the phenomenon under investigation quantitatively and qu alitatively. It describes and analyses the phenomenon. In addition, it reveals the relationships between its various dimensions to interpret and access general conclusions that may contribute, improve and develop the reality. The researcher used in studyin g "The Impact of information technology on organizational performance : an applied study on Oil & Gas companies in Egypt" Two major sources of information that can be classified as follows: - 1) The secondary sources: The researcher used in dealing with the theoretical framework the secondary sources of information as the books, relevant references, periodicals, reports, articles, previous researches and studies that dealt with the study subject. In addition, the researcher searched the various internet sites. 2) Primary sources: In order to deal with the analytical aspects of the research, the researcher used the primary sources as the questionnaire as the main tool of research that is prepared spe cifically for this reason. The questionnaire forms 89 were distributed to highlight The Impact of information technology on organizational performance in Oil & Gas companies in Egypt. Second: The Study Population and Sample: 1. The Study Population: The rese arch dealt with The Impact of information technology on organizational performance in Oil & Gas companies in Egypt. Oil & Gas companies in Egypt (Excluding the Foreign companies & Joint ventures) had been classified according to their performance presente d by their ROI's records from the years 2010 till 2014 according to the formal information the researcher got from the Accountability state Authority into 3 categories: a. High Performance companies (ROI greater than 10%) b. Medium performance companies (ROI is between 5% & 10%) c. Low performance companies (ROI is between negative records up to 5%). 2. Pilot Sample : The researcher chose a random sample of 30 employees in oil & gas companies in Egypt with different company's performance (ROI) and distributed the questionnaire after taking the opinion and consent of the study supervisors. It aimed at verifying the validity of the questionnaire to be applied to the study sample by calculating its validity and reliability by the appropriate statistical means. 90 3. Th e Study Sample: It aimed at verifying the hypothesis of the study and answers its questions that were selected randomly. It consisted of ( 384 ) employees of oil & gas sector companies in Egypt, taking into account that the choice should represent the three levels of performance (Low, medium, High) according to their ROI. Two companies under every category were selected. The researcher distributed ( 64 ) forms on eac h company, and thus ( 384 ) forms were distributed. Some ( 253 ) forms were returned and thereby the return of forms ratio is 66 %, which proves the interest of respondents and their seriousness in the factor of research. Some ( 49 ) forms were excluded as they were unfit for analysis. Thus, the number of forms to be analyzed is (204) forms. This can be seen in the following table: Table 4 : Questionnaires Distribution Performance Company Sample Returned Return Ratio Invalid for Statistical Analysis Valid for Statistical Analysis Low 128 82 64% 20 62 Medium 128 75 59% 15 60 High 128 96 75% 14 82 Total 384 253 66% 49 204 91 Third: Research Tool: The questionnaire was divided into four parts as follows: Part 1: This Part discusses the IT Network Infrastructure; It consists of (7) statements as follows: Table 5 : IT Network Infrastructure questionnaire questions IT Infrastructure:  Computer Network  Voice Communication  E-Mail Service  Security N. Statement 1 IT provides the company employees with the latest technology in computers 2 The Company computer Networks are always available and reliable 3 The voice communication with all company’ sites are always available and reliable = Q= The b JMail Service is always available and reliable = R= The internet connection is always available and reliable with high performance = S= The level of information Security is high = T= The data storage capacity is sufficient = 92 Part 2: This Part discusses the IT Applications ; It consists of (9) statements as follows: Table 6 : IT Applications questionnaire questions IT Applications:  Financial Application  HR Application  Purchasing Application  Operation Application  Project Application N. Statement 8 The company uses modern IT Applications 9 The information provided by the IT Applications of the company is reliable 10 The information provided by the IT Applications of the company is accurate 11 IT Applications of the company provide users the complete information that is needed 12 Employe es have sufficient understanding of IT Applications 13 IT Applications are well integrated 14 IT Applications of the company facilitate user friendly interface 15 IT Applications of the company are aligned with company processes and objectives 16 IT Applications of the company have increased the performance of employees 93 Part 3: This Part discusses the IT Personnel ; it consists of (9) statements as follows: Table 7 : IT Personnel questionnaire questions IT Personnel:  IT Managers  Helpdesk  Systems Engineers  Programmer  Database Administrators N. Statement 17 IT Division have deployed sufficient Personnel to provide IT services 18 IT Personnel solve the problem in the first instance 19 IT Personnel keep users well informed about the progress of users complaint/s 20 IT Personnel handle users complaints/queries seriously 21 IT Personnel inform users exactly when maintenances will be performed 22 The behavior of IT Personnel gives confidence to users 23 IT Personnel are friendly and polite with users 24 IT Personnel are knowledgeable enough to perform their job 25 IT Personnel are continuously in touch with the users 94 Part 4: This Part discusses the Performance ; it consists of (4) statements as follows: Table 8 : Performance questionnaire questions N. Statement 26 IT has improved the productivity 27 IT contributed to increase the profit 28 IT has improved the internal controls in the company 29 IT has improved the overall performance of the company 95 Data Collection Instrument and Source: First: Descriptive research is used to portray characteristics of a population. Descriptive statistics offer frequency distributions and use measures of central tendency and other measures to describe a sample or population. Second: The used questionnaire consi sts of (29) statements, mainly close - ended questions, scaled on a 5 -point Likert scale, ranging from (1)Strongly Disagree (2) Disagree (3) Neutral (4) Agree (5) Strongly Agree Likert scale was used to evaluate the questionnaire as shown in the following Table: Table 9 : Shows Likert Scale Reply Strong Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strong Agree Degree 1 2 3 4 5 These answers were classified into five equal -range levels by the following equation: Category Length = (the largest value – the lowest value) ÷ number of measure alternatives = (5 -1) ÷ 5 = 0.80 To get the following value of weighted Means of each description or alternative: 96 Table 10 : Distribution of Means according to the hierarchy used in the Research Tool Description weighted mean value Strong Agree from 4.2 to 5 Agree from 3.4 to less than 4.2 Neutral from 2.6 to less than 3.4 Disagree from 1.8 to less than 2.6 Strong Disagree from 1 to less than 1.8 Statistical Methodology used in the research: After the tabulation of respondents' replies, these replies were coded and data entered using a computer. Then, the data were processed statistically using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). In order to achieve the study objectives and ana lysis of the data collected, various statistical methods were used as follows: 97 Statistical Processes used:  Frequencies and percentages to describe the characteristics of respondents.  Mathematical "Mean" to find out how high or low the study population responded to the study and their replies on the paragraphs of the questionnaire factors.  Standard Deviation to know the extent of deviation of the study sample responses on each paragraph of the questionnaire factors. It is noted that the standard deviati on shows the dispersion in the study sample responses on each adequacy. Whenever its value becomes closer to zero, responses become concentrated and their dispersion decrease in the scale.  "Pearson" coefficient to measure the Validity of the questionnaire in addition to the direction & strength of the correlation between various factors  "Cronbach Alpha" coefficient and the Spearman Brown Split -Half methodology to determine the reliability of the questionnaire.  Simple liner regression test to test the hypoth esis of the thesis  ANOVA test to test the significance of the full simple regression model. 98 Verifying the tool Validity: The researcher conducted Validity steps on the survey sample in two ways as follows: First: The internal consistency : The internal consistency meant the consistency of each Statement of the questionnaire with the factor to which it belongs. The researcher calculated the internal consistency of the questionnaire through calculating the correlation coefficients between each Sta tement of the factor of the questionnaire and the total score for the same factor. Second: structural validity: Structural validity is one of the standards of the tool validity which measures the extent of achieving the objectives that the tool wants to a ccess. It shows the relevance of each factor of study to the total score of the Statements of questionnaire. The Results of the internal consistency: The next tables show the correlation coefficient between each Statement of the total score of the facto r. It shows that the correlation coefficient is significant at the level of significance α = 0.05 and so the factor is valid for what it aimed to measure. 99 Table 11 : Correlation coefficients between each statement of the first Par t (IT Infrastructure) and the total score of Part No Statements Correlation coefficients Level of significance 1 IT provides the company employees with the latest technology in computers 0.764** 0.000 2 The Company computer Networks are always available and reliable 0.595** 0.000 3 The voice communication with all company’ sites are always available and reliable = 0.655*G = 0.00M = Q= The b JMail Service is always available and= reliable = 0.751*G = 0.00M = R= The internet connection is always available and reliable =with high performance = 0.696*G = 0.00M = S= The level of information Security is high = 0.729*G = 0.00M = T= The data storage capacity is sufficient = 0.634*G = 0.00M = The previous table shows the correlation coefficients between each Statement of the first Part (IT Network Infrastructure) and the total score of the Part .

It shows that the correlation coefficients indicated rang between (0.595) and (0.764) and significant at the level of (0.0 0), and thus the Statements of the first Part are valid for what they aimed to measure. 100 Table 12 : Correlation coefficients between each statement of the second Part (IT Applications) and the total score of Part No Statements Correlation coefficients Level of significance 8 The company uses modern IT Applications 0.791** 0.000 9 The information provided by the IT Applications of the company is reliable 0.712** 0.000 10 The information provided by the IT Applications of the company is accurate 0.654** 0.000 11 IT Applications of the company provide users the complete information that is needed 0.739** 0.000 12 Employees have sufficient understanding of IT Applications 0.632** 0.000 13 IT Applications are well integrated 0.815** 0.000 14 IT Applications of the company facilitate user friendly interface 0.744** 0.000 15 IT Applications of the company are aligned with company processes and objectives 0.467** 0.009 16 IT Applications of the company have increased the performance of employees 0.725** 0.000 The previous table shows the correlation coefficients between each Statement of the second Part (IT Applications) and the total score of the Part. It shows that the correlation coefficients indicated rang between (0.467) and (0.815) and significant at th e level of (0.01), and thus the Statements of the sixth Part are valid for what they aimed to measure. 101 Table 13 : Correlation coefficients between each statement of the third Part (IT Personnel) and the total score of Part No Statements Correlation coefficients Level of significance 17 IT Division have deployed sufficient Personnel to provide IT services 0.636** 0.000 18 IT Personnel solve the problem in the first instance 0.791** 0.000 19 IT Personnel keep users well informed about the progress of users complaint/s 0.666** 0.000 20 IT Personnel handle users complaints/queries seriously 0.821** 0.000 21 IT Personnel inform users exactly when maintenances will be performed 0.715** 0.000 22 The behavior of IT Personnel gives confidence to users 0.636** 0.000 23 IT Personnel are friendly and polite with users 0.508** 0.004 24 IT Personnel are knowledgeable enough to perform their job 0.634** 0.000 25 IT Personnel are continuously in touch with the users 0.806** 0.000 The previous table shows the correlation coefficients between each Statement of the third Part (IT Personnel) and the total score of the Part. It shows that the correlation coefficients indicated rang between (0.508) and (0.806) and significant at the l evel of (0.01), and thus the Statements of the sixth Part are valid for what they aimed to measure. 102 Table 14 : Correlation coefficients between each statement of the Forth Part (Performance) and the total score of Part No Statements Correlation coefficients Level of significance 26 IT has improved the productivity 0.646** 0.000 27 IT contributed to increase the profit 0.784** 0.000 28 IT has improved the internal controls in the company 0.869** 0.000 29 IT has improved the overall performance of the company 0.888** 0.000 The previous table shows the correlation coefficients between each Statement of the first Part (Performance) and the total score of the Part. It shows that the correlation coefficients indicated rang between (0.526) and (0.734) and significant at the level of (0.0 0), and thus the Statements of the first Part are valid for what they aimed to measure. 103 Structural validity of the test Parts: Table 15 : Calculating the correlation coefficient and significance level shows each of Parts with the total score of the questionnaire statements Part Content of the Part correlation coefficient level of significance First IT Network Infrastructure 0.730** .000 Second IT Applications 0.709** .000 Third IT Personnel 0.778** .000 Forth Performance 0.762** .000 The previous table shows the correlation coefficients between the value of each Part and the overall value of the Parts of the questionnaire. It shows that the correlation coefficients that ranged between (0.709) and (0.778) shown is significant at the level of significance of (α = 0.0 0) which demonstrates the validity of the statements of the questionnaire to measure the objective for which they were put. 104 Reliability of the study tool: The researcher conducted Reliability steps on the survey sample in First way “Cronbach’s alpha coefficient method ” Table 16 : Reliability coefficients for Parts of study Cronbach's alpha coefficient Method Part Content of the Part Number of statements Cronbach alpha coefficient First IT Network Infrastructure 7 0.816 Second IT Applications 9 0.869 Third IT Personnel 9 0.860 Forth Performance 4 0.806 Total 29 0.908 The Previous table shows that reliability coefficients (Cronbach alpha coefficient) are > 0.8 for all parts , which indicates a high level of internal consistency for our scale with this specific sample. 105 Second way: "Split -half Coefficient method" Spearman correlation coefficient Value has been found between the rate of odd and even check phrases for each of factors of the questionnaire and value of coefficients has been corrected by using Spearman Brown c oefficient for correction according to the following equation: Spearman -Brown Coefficient Table 17 : Split -half Coefficient method Factor Content of the factor Number of statements Correlation coefficient The corrected correlation coefficient First IT Network Infrastructure 7 0.667 0.800 Second IT Applications 9 0.677 0.807 Third IT Personnel 9 0.738 0.850 Fourth Performance 4 0.690 0.816 Total 29 0.436 0.607 The previous table shows that reliability coefficients are relatively high. r r 1 2 106 Analysis of the demographic characteristics of the study sample as follows: 1- The Gender : Table 18 : The Gender Distribution of the sample Gender Performance Total Low Medium High Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Male 37 59.7% 40 66.7% 61 74.4% 138 67.7% Female 25 40.3% 20 33.3% 21 25.6% 66 32.4% Total 62 100% 60 100% 82 100% 204 100% Source: SPSS Data Analysis Below figure shows graphical illustration for the gender distribution of the sample Figure 10 : The Gender Distribution of the sample 37 40 61 138 25 20 21 66 62 60 82 204 0 50 100 150 200 250 Low Medium High Total Male Famle Total 107 From Table (16) and figure (1), it is clear that the number of males (n=37) represents (59.7) % of the total sample of low performance companies. The number of females (n= 25) represents (40.3) % of the total sample of low performance companies. In addit ion, it is clear that the number of males (n=40) represents (66.7) % of the total sample of medium performance companies. The number of females (n= 20) represents (33.3) % of the total sample of medium performance companies. Moreover, it is clear that th e number of males (n=61) represents (74.4) % of the total sample of high performance companies. The number of females (n= 21) represents (25.6) % of the total sample of high performance companies. Furthermore, it is clear that the number of males (n=138) represents (67.6) % of the total sample. The number of females (n= 66) represents (32.4) % of the total sample. 108 2- The Age : Table 19 : The Age Distribution of the sample Age Performance Total Low Medium High Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent 20 : 30 11 17.7% 13 21.7% 11 13.4% 35 17.2% 30 : 40 37 59.7% 33 55.0% 54 65.9% 124 60.8% 40 : 50 12 19.4% 12 20.0 % 13 15.9% 37 18.1% 50 : 60 2 3.2% 2 3.3% 4 4.9% 8 3.9% Total 62 100% 60 100% 82 100% 204 100% Source: SPSS Data Analysis Below figure shows graphical illustration for the age distribution of the sample Figure 11 : The Age Distribution of the sample 11 13 11 35 37 33 54 124 12 12 13 37 2 2 4 8 62 60 82 204 0 50 100 150 200 250 Low Medium High Total 20:30 30:40:00 40:50:00 50 : 60 Total 109 From Table (17) and figure (2), it is clear that age group (from 20 to 30 years) (n=11) represents (17.7) % of the total sample of low performance companies. Age group (from 30 to 40 years) (n= 37) represents (59.7) % of the total sample of low performanc e companies. Age group (from 40 to 50 years) (n= 12) represents (19.4) % of the total sample of low performance companies. Age group (from 50 to 60 years) (n= 2) represents (3.2) % of the total sample of low performance companies. In addition, it is cle ar that age group (from 20 to 30 years) (n=13) represents (21.7) % of the total sample of medium performance companies. Age group (from 30 to 40 years) (n= 33) represents (55) % of the total sample of medium performance companies. Age group (from 40 to 50 years) (n= 12) represents (20) % of the total sample of medium performance companies. Age group (from 50 to 60 years) (n= 2) represents (3.3) % of the total sample of medium performance companies. Moreover, it is clear that age group (from 20 to 30 yea rs) (n=11) represents (13.4) % of the total sample of high performance companies. Age group (from 30 to 40 years) (n= 54) represents (65.9) % of the total sample of high performance companies. Age group (from 40 to 50 years) (n= 13) represents (15.9) % of the total sample of high performance companies. 110 Age group (from 50 to 60 years) (n= 4) represents (4.9) % of the total sample of high performance companies. Furthermore, it is clear that age group (from 20 to 30 years) (n=35) represents (17.2) % of the total sample. Age group (from 30 to 40 years) (n= 124) represents (60.8) % of the total sample. Age group (from 40 to 50 years) (n= 37) represents (18.1) % of the total sample. Age group (from 50 to 60 years) (n= 8) represents (3.9) % of the total sam ple. 111 3-The Qualification : Table 20 : The Qualification Distribution of the sample Qualification Performance Total Low Medium High Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent High School 8 12.9% 0 0% 1 1.2% 9 4.4% College Graduate 49 79.0% 52 86.7% 73 89% 174 85.3% Post Graduate 5 8.1% 8 13.3% 8 9.8% 21 10.3% Total 62 100% 60 100% 82 100% 204 100% Source: SPSS Data Analysis Below figure shows graphical illustration for the age distribution of the sample Figure 12 : The Qualification Distribution of the sample 8 0 1 9 49 52 73 174 5 8 8 21 62 60 82 204 0 50 100 150 200 250 Low Meduim High Total High School College Graduate Post Graduate Total 112 From Table (18) and figure (3), it is clear that the number of high school (n=8) represents (12.9) % of the total sample of low performance companies. The numbe r of College Graduate (n= 49) represents (79) % of the total sample of low performance companies. The number of Post Graduate (n= 5) represents (8.1) % of the total sample of low performance companies. In addition, it is clear that the number of high scho ol (n=0) represents (0) % of the total sample of medium performance companies. The number of College Graduate (n= 52) represents (86.7) % of the total sample of medium performance companies. The number of Post Graduate (n= 8) represents (13.3) % of the t otal sample of medium performance companies. Moreover, it is clear that the number of high school (n=1) represents (1.2) % of the total sample of high performance companies. The number of College Graduate (n= 73) represents (89) % of the total sample of h igh performance companies. The number of Post Graduate (n= 8) represents (9.8) % of the total sample of high performance companies. Furthermore, it is clear that the number of high school (n=9) represents (4.4) % of the total sample. The number of Colleg e Graduate (n= 174) represents (85.3) % of the total sample. The number of Post Graduate (n= 21) represents (10.3) % of the total sample. 113 4- The Managerial Level : Table 21 : The Managerial Level Distribution of the sample Performance Total Low Medium High Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent 1st line 12 19.4% 18 30.0% 16 19.5% 46 22.5% Middle 42 67.7% 33 55.0% 60 73.2% 135 66.2% Top 8 12.9% 9 15.0% 6 7.3% 23 11.3% Total 62 100% 60 100% 82 100% 204 100% Source: SPSS Data Analysis Below figure shows graphical illustration for the managerial level distribution of the sample Figure 13 : The Managerial Level Distribution of the sample 12 18 16 46 42 33 60 135 8 9 6 23 62 60 82 204 0 50 100 150 200 250 Low Medium High Total 1st line Middle Top Total 114 From Table (20) and figure (5), it is clear that the number of 1 st line managerial level (n=12) represents (19.4) % of the total sample of low performance companies. The number of middle managerial level (n= 42) represents (67.7) % of the total sample of low performance comp anies. The number of top managerial level (n= 8) represents (12.9) % of the total sample of low performance companies. In addition, it is clear that the number of 1 st line managerial level (n=18) represents (30) % of the total sample of medium performance companies. The number of middle managerial level (n= 33) represents (55) % of the total sample of medium performance companies. The number of top managerial level (n= 9) represents (15) % of the total sample of medium performance companies. Moreover, it is clear that the number of high 1 st line managerial level (n=16) represents (19.5) % of the total sample of high performance companies. The number of middle managerial level (n= 60) represents (73.2) % of the total sample of high performance companies. The number of top managerial level (n= 6) represents (7.3) % of the total sample of high performance companies. Furthermore, it is clear that the number of 1 st line managerial level (n=46) represents (22.5) % of the total sample. The number of middle man agerial level (n= 135) represents (66.2) % of the total sample. The number of top managerial level (n= 23) represents (11.3) % of the total sample. 115 Distributive Statistics First: Analyzing the statements of the IT Network Infrastructure Table 22 : Analyzing the statements of the IT Network Infrastructure Statements Abbreviation IT provides the company employees with the latest technology in computers Infrastructure1 The Company computer Networks are always available and reliable Infrastructure2 The voice communication with all company’ sites are always available and reliable Infrastructure3 The E -Mail Service is always available and reliable Infrastructure4 The internet connection is always available and reliable with high performance Infrastructure5 The level of information Security is high Infrastructure6 The data storage capacity is sufficient Infrastructure7 116 1.1 . Analyzing IT Network Infrastructure in Low Performance sample Table 23 : Analyzing IT Network Infrastructure in Low Performance sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Infrastructure1 62 1.00 5.00 2.4355 1.22302 Infrastructure2 62 1.00 5.00 2.8387 1.21727 Infrastructure3 62 1.00 5.00 3.2258 1.13685 Infrastructure4 62 1.00 5.00 2.9194 1.34650 Infrastructure5 62 1.00 5.00 2.3871 1.28490 Infrastructure6 62 1.00 5.00 2.7258 1.18970 Infrastructure7 62 1.00 5.00 3.0323 1.14473 IT Infrastructure 62 1.00 4.70 2.7919 .95046 Table ( 23 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the IT Network Infrastructure in Low Performance sample . In the first rank, came the statement Infrastructure3 "The voice communication with all co mpany’ sites are always available and reliable " with a mean of = 3.2258 and a standard deviation of = 1.13685 . 117 In the last rank, came the statement Infrastructure5 “The internet connection is always available and reliable with high performance ” with a mean of = 2.3871 and a standard deviation of = 1.28490. In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to IT Infrastructure in Low performance sample is 2.7919 and a standard deviation of 0.95046, which shows the degree of Neutral of the research sample answers to these statements. 1.2 . Analyzing IT Network Infrastructure in Medium Performance Sample Table 24 : Analyzing IT Network Infrastructure in Medium Performance Sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Infrastructure1 60 1.00 5.00 2.9667 1.24828 Infrastructure2 60 1.00 5.00 3.3500 1.07080 Infrastructure3 60 1.00 5.00 3.0167 1.18596 Infrastructure4 60 1.00 5.00 3.2167 1.41531 Infrastructure5 60 1.00 5.00 3.0833 1.27946 Infrastructure6 60 1.00 5.00 3.1833 1.08130 Infrastructure7 60 1.00 5.00 3.4167 1.09377 IT Infrastructure 60 1.60 4.90 3.1750 .84785 118 Table ( 24 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the IT Network Infrastructure in Medium Performance Sample . In the first rank, came the statement Infrastructure7 “The data storage capacity is sufficient ” with a mean of = 3.4167 and a standard deviation of =1.09377 . In the last rank, came the statement Infrast ructure1 “IT provides the company employees with the latest technology in computers ” with a mean of = 2.9667 and a standard deviation of = 1.24828 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to IT Infrastructure in Medium performance sample is 3.1750 and a standard deviation of 0 .84785 , which shows the degree of Neutral of the research sample answers to these statements. 119 1.3 . Analyz ing IT Network Infrastructure in High Performance Sample Table 25 : Analyzing IT Network Infrastructure in High Performance Sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Infrastructure1 82 1.00 5.00 3.3659 .97515 Infrastructure2 82 1.00 5.00 3.6463 .88012 Infrastructure3 82 1.00 5.00 3.7073 1.01212 Infrastructure4 82 2.00 5.00 4.0732 .82821 Infrastructure5 82 1.00 5.00 3.1341 1.00323 Infrastructure6 82 1.00 5.00 3.6463 .97337 Infrastructure7 82 1.00 5.00 3.8659 .99085 IT Infrastructure 82 1.70 5.00 3.6341 .59819 Table ( 25 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the IT Network Infrastructure in High Performance Sample . In the first rank, came the statement Infrastructure4 “The E-Mail Service is always available and reliable " with a mean of = 4.0732 and a standard deviation of = 0 .82821 . 120 In the last rank, came the statement Infrastructure 5 “The internet connection is alwa ys available and reliable with high performance ” with a mean of = 3.1341 and a standard deviation of = 1.00323 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to IT Infrastructure in High performance sample is 3.6341 and a standard deviation of 0.59819 , which shows the degree of Agreement of the research sample answers to these statements. 121 1.4 . Analyzing IT Network Infrastructure in the Entire Sample Table 26 : Analyzing IT Network Infrastructure in the Entire Sample Table ( 26 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the IT Network Infrastructure in the entire sample . In the first rank, came the statement Infrastructure7 “The data storage capacity is sufficient ” with a mean of = 3.4804 and a standard deviation of =1.12061 . In the last rank, came the statement Infrastructure 5 “The internet connection is always available and reliable with high performance ” with a mean of = 2.8922 and a standard deviation of = 1.21895 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to IT Infrastructure in the entire sample is 3.2431 and a standard deviation of 0 .86514 , N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Infrastructure1 204 1.00 5.00 2.9657 1.19679 Infrastructure2 204 1.00 5.00 3.3137 1.09617 Infrastructure3 204 1.00 5.00 3.3578 1.13796 Infrastructure4 204 1.00 5.00 3.4706 1.28811 Infrastructure5 204 1.00 5.00 2.8922 1.21895 Infrastructure6 204 1.00 5.00 3.2304 1.13644 Infrastructure7 204 1.00 5.00 3.4804 1.12061 IT Infrastructure 204 1.00 5.00 3.2431 .86514 122 which shows the degree of Neutral of the research sample answers to these statements. 123 1.5 . IT Ne twork infrastructure comparison in all performance categories Table 27 : IT Network infrastructure comparison in all performance categories IT Infrastructure Sample Mean Standard Deviation Low Performance Sample 62 2.7919 0.95046 Medium Performance Sample 60 3.1750 0.84785 High Performance Sample 82 3.6341 0.59819 Entire Sample 204 3.2431 0.86514 Figure 14 : IT Network infrastructure comparison in all performance categories 2.79 3.18 3.63 3.24 0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 Low performance Sample Medium Performance Sample High Performance Sample Entire Sample IT Network Infrastructure Means 124 Second: Analyzing the statements of the IT Applications Table 28 : Analyzing the statements of the IT Applications Statements Abbreviation The company uses modern IT Applications Applicationsl8 The information provided by the IT Applications of the company is reliable Applicationsl9 The information provided by the IT Applications of the company is accurate Applications10 IT Applications of the company provide users the complete information tha t is needed Applications11 Employees have sufficient understanding of IT Applications Applications12 IT Applications are well integrated Applications13 IT Applications of the company facilitate user friendly interface Applications14 IT Applications of the company are aligned with company processes and objectives Applications15 IT Applications of the company have increased the performance of employees Applications16 125 2.1 . Analyzing IT Applications in Low Performance Sample Table 29 : Analyzing IT Applications in Low Performance Sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Applicationsl8 62 1.00 5.00 2.5645 1.06542 Applications9 62 1.00 5.00 2.9677 1.00764 Applications10 62 1.00 5.00 2.9032 1.14103 Applications11 62 1.00 5.00 2.9839 1.13790 Applications12 62 1.00 5.00 2.7097 .96474 Applications13 62 1.00 5.00 2.6774 1.02067 Applications14 62 1.00 5.00 2.9355 .93862 Applications15 62 1.00 5.00 3.0484 1.04689 Applications16 62 1.00 5.00 2.7903 1.21651 IT Applications 62 1.00 4.90 2.8387 .91120 Table ( 29 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the IT Applications in Low Performance sample . In the first rank, came the statement Applications15 “IT Applications of the company are aligned with company processes and objectives " with a mean of = 3.0484 and a standard deviation of = 1.04689 . 126 In the last rank, came the statement Appl8 “The company uses modern IT Applications " with a mean of = 2.5645 and a standard deviation of = 1.06542 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to IT Applications in Low performance sample is 2.8387 and a standard deviation of 0.91120 , which shows the degree of Neutral of the research sample answers to these statements. 2.2 . Analyzing IT Applications in Medium Performance Sample Table 30 : Analyzing IT Applications in Medium Performance Sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Applicationsl8 60 1.00 5.00 3.0167 1.11221 Applications9 60 1.00 5.00 3.2167 .97584 Applications10 60 1.00 5.00 3.2500 .93201 Applications11 60 1.00 5.00 2.9667 1.05713 Applications12 60 1.00 5.00 2.7833 1.23634 Applications13 60 1.00 5.00 3.0500 1.03211 Applications14 60 1.00 5.00 3.1667 .90510 Applications15 60 1.00 5.00 3.2500 .87576 Applications16 60 1.00 5.00 3.2833 1.04300 IT Applications 60 1.60 4.70 3.1150 .78585 127 Table ( 30 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the IT Applications in Medium Performance Sample . In the first rank, came the statement Applications16 “IT Applications of the company have increas ed the performance of employees " with a mean of = 3.2833 and a standard deviation of = 1.04300 . In the last rank, came the statement Applications12 “Employees have sufficient understanding of IT Applications ” with a mean of = 2.7833 and a standard deviation of = 1.23634 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to Infrastructure in Medium performance Sample is 3.1150 and a standard deviation of 1.04300 , which shows the degree of Neutral of the research sample answers to these statements. 128 2.3 . Analyzing IT Applications in High Performance Sample Table 31 : Analyzing IT Applications in High Performance Sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Applicationsl8 82 1.00 5.00 3.4634 .91887 Applications9 82 1.00 5.00 3.5244 .78921 Applications10 82 2.00 5.00 3.4390 .81797 Applications11 82 2.00 5.00 3.2561 .75049 Applications12 82 1.00 5.00 3.0000 .94281 Applications13 82 1.00 5.00 3.1341 .74969 Applications14 82 2.00 5.00 3.3049 .67931 Applications15 82 1.00 5.00 3.5488 .81880 Applications16 82 1.00 5.00 3.3659 .85364 IT Applications 82 1.70 4.60 3.3366 .58468 Table ( 31 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the IT Applications in High Performance Sample . In the first rank, came the statement Applications15 "IT Applications of the company are aligned wi th company processes and objectives " with a mean of = 3.5488 and a standard deviation of = 0.81880 . 129 In the last rank, came the statement Applications12 “Employees have sufficient understanding of IT Applications ” with a mean of = 3.0000 and a standard devia tion of = 0 .94281 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to IT Applications in high performance sample is 3.3366 and a standard deviation of 0.58468 , which shows the degree of Neutral of the research sample answers to these statements. 130 2.4 . Analyzing IT Applications in the Entire Sample Table 32 : Analyzing IT Applications in Entire Sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Applicationsl8 204 1.00 5.00 3.0588 1.08572 Applications9 204 1.00 5.00 3.2647 .94088 Applications10 204 1.00 5.00 3.2206 .98028 Applications11 204 1.00 5.00 3.0882 .97862 Applications12 204 1.00 5.00 2.8480 1.04643 Applications13 204 1.00 5.00 2.9706 .94119 Applications14 204 1.00 5.00 3.1520 .84308 Applications15 204 1.00 5.00 3.3088 .92992 Applications16 204 1.00 5.00 3.1667 1.05591 IT Applications 204 1.00 4.90 3.1201 .78007 Table ( 32 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the IT Applications in the entire sample . In the first rank, came the statement Applicaions15 "IT Applications of the company are aligned with company processes and objectives " with a mean of = 3.3088 and a standard deviation of = 0 .92992 131 In the last rank, came the statement Applications12 “Employees have sufficient understanding of IT Applications” with a mean of = 2.8480 and a standard deviatio n of = 1.04643 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to IT Applications in the entire sample is 3.1201 and a standard deviation of 0 .78007 , which shows the degree of Neutral of the research sample answers to these statements. 132 2.5 . IT Applications comparison in all performance categories Table 33 : IT Applications comparison in all performance categories IT Applications Sample Mean Standard Deviation Low Performance Sample 62 2.8387 0.91120 Medium Performance Sample 60 3.1150 0.78585 High Performance Sample 82 3.3366 0.58468 Entire Sample 204 3.1201 0.78007 Figure 15 : IT Applications comparison in all performance categories 2.84 3.12 3.34 3.12 2.50 2.60 2.70 2.80 2.90 3.00 3.10 3.20 3.30 3.40 Low performance Sample Medium Performance Sample High Performance Sample Entire Sample IT Applications Means 133 Third: Analyzing the statements of the IT Personnel Table 34 : Analyzing the statements of the IT Personnel Statements Abbreviation IT Division have deployed sufficient Personnel to provide IT services Personnel17 IT Personnel solve the problem in the first instance Personnel18 IT Personnel keep users well informed about the progress of users complaint/s Personnel19 IT Personnel handle users complaints/queries seriously Personnel20 IT Personnel inform users exactly when maintenances will be performed Personnel21 The behavior of IT Personnel gives confidence to users Personnel22 IT Personnel are friendly and polite with users Personnel23 IT Personnel are knowledgeable enough to perform their job Personnel24 IT Personnel are continuously in touch with the users Personnel25 134 3.1 . Analyzing IT Personnel in Low Performance Sample Table 35 : Analyzing IT Personnel in Low Performance Sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Personnel17 62 1.00 5.00 2.7419 1.11525 Personnel18 62 1.00 5.00 2.9032 1.05130 Personnel19 62 1.00 5.00 2.7419 1.02326 Personnel20 62 1.00 5.00 2.8871 .92515 Personnel21 62 1.00 5.00 2.5968 1.12293 Personnel22 62 1.00 5.00 2.9032 1.00343 Personnel23 62 1.00 5.00 3.5000 1.00409 Personnel24 62 1.00 5.00 3.0806 1.13511 Personnel25 62 1.00 5.00 2.6774 1.19801 IT Personnel 62 1.00 4.70 2.8935 .86950 Table ( 35 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the IT Personnel in Low Performance Sample . In the first rank, came the statement Personnel23 "IT Personnel are friendly and polite with users " with a mean of = 3.5000 and a standard deviation of = 1.00409 . 135 In the last rank, came the statement Personnel25 “IT Personnel are continuously in touch with the users ” with a mean of = 2.6774 and a standard deviation of = 1.19801 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to IT Personnel in Low performance sample is 2.8935 and a standard deviation of 0.86950 , which shows the de gree of Neutral of the research sample answers to these statements. 136 3.2 . Analyzing IT Personnel in Medium Performance Sample Table 36 : Analyzing IT Personnel in Medium Performance Sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Personnel17 60 1.00 5.00 3.1333 1.08091 Personnel18 60 1.00 5.00 3.0167 .91117 Personnel19 60 1.00 5.00 2.9833 1.01667 Personnel20 60 1.00 5.00 3.0500 .96419 Personnel21 60 1.00 5.00 3.0667 1.11791 Personnel22 60 1.00 5.00 3.2667 .93640 Personnel23 60 1.00 5.00 3.7333 .82064 Personnel24 60 1.00 5.00 3.4333 .87074 Personnel25 60 1.00 5.00 3.1167 1.19450 IT Personnel 60 1.20 5.00 3.1917 .72889 Table ( 36 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the IT Personnel in Medium Performance Sample . 137 In the first rank, came the statement Personnel23 "IT Personnel are friendly and polite with users " with a mean of = 3.7333 and a standard deviation of =0 .82064 . In the last rank, came the statement Personnel18 “IT Personnel solve the problem in the first instance ” with a mean of = 3.0167 and a standard deviation of = 0 .91117 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to IT Personnel in Medium performance sample is 3.1917 and a standard deviation of 0.72889 , which shows the degree of Neutral of the research sample answers to these statements. 3.3 . Analyzing IT Personnel in High Performan ce Sample Table 37 : Analyzing IT Personnel in High Performance Sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Personnel17 82 1.00 5.00 3.6220 1.00173 Personnel18 82 2.00 5.00 3.4878 .91953 Personnel19 82 1.00 5.00 3.3902 .89933 Personnel20 82 1.00 5.00 3.5000 .90608 Personnel21 82 1.00 5.00 3.6829 1.10976 Personnel22 82 1.00 5.00 3.3415 .93253 Personnel23 82 1.00 5.00 3.9268 .91328 Personnel24 82 2.00 5.00 3.5732 .70326 Personnel25 82 1.00 5.00 3.0854 .91895 IT Personnel 82 1.60 4.80 3.5195 .66804 138 Table ( 37 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the IT Personnel in high Performance Sample . In the first rank, came the statement Personnel23 "IT Personnel are friendly and polite with users” sites are always available and reliable " with a mean of = 3.9268 and a standard deviation of = 0 .91328 . In the last rank, came the statement Personnel25 “IT Personnel are continuously in touch with the users ” w ith a mean of = 3.0854 and a standard deviation of = 0 .91895 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to IT Personnel in high performance sample is 3.5195 and a standard deviation of 0.66804 , which shows the degree of Agreement of the research sample answers to these statements. 139 3.4 . Analyzing IT Personnel in the Entire Sample Table 38 : Analyzing IT Personnel in the Entire Sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Personnel17 204 1.00 5.00 3.2108 1.11844 Personnel18 204 1.00 5.00 3.1716 .99009 Personnel19 204 1.00 5.00 3.0735 1.00711 Personnel20 204 1.00 5.00 3.1814 .96309 Personnel21 204 1.00 5.00 3.1716 1.20138 Personnel22 204 1.00 5.00 3.1863 .96979 Personnel23 204 1.00 5.00 3.7402 .92909 Personnel24 204 1.00 5.00 3.3824 .92096 Personnel25 204 1.00 5.00 2.9706 1.10490 IT Personnel 204 1.00 5.00 3.2328 .79279 Table ( 38 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the IT Personnel in entire sample . In the first rank, came the statement Personnel23 "IT Personnel are friendly and polite with users " with a mean of = 3.7402 and a standard deviation of = 0.92909 . 140 In the last rank, came the statement Personnel25 “IT Personnel are continuously in touch with the users ” with a mean of = 2.9706 and a standard deviation of = 1.10490 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to IT Personnel in the entire sample is 3.2328 and a standard deviation of 0 .79279 , which shows the degree of Neutral of the research sample answers to these statements. 141 3.5 . IT Personnel comparison in all performance categories Table 39 : IT Personnel comparison in all performance categories IT Personnel Sample Mean Standard Deviation Low Performance Sample 62 2.8935 0.86950 Medium Performance Sample 60 3.1917 0.72889 High Performance Sample 82 3.5195 0.66804 Entire Sample 204 3.2328 0.79279 Figure 16 : IT Personnel comparison in all performance categories 2.89 3.19 3.52 3.23 0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 Low performance Sample Medium Performance Sample High Performance Sample Entire Sample IT Personnel Means 142 Forth: Analyzing the statements of the Organization Performance Table 40 : Analyzing the statements of the Organization Performance Statements Abbreviation IT has improved the productivity Performance26 IT contributed to increase the profit Performance27 IT has improved the internal controls in the company Performance28 IT has improved the overall performance of the company Performance29 4.1 . Analyzing The Performance in Low Performance Sample Table 41 : Analyzing the Performance in Low Performance Sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Performance26 62 1.00 4.00 2.8548 1.02184 Performance27 62 1.00 5.00 1.8710 .81951 Performance28 62 1.00 4.00 1.9355 .78659 Performance29 62 1.00 5.00 2.0484 1.09286 Performance 62 1.00 4.00 2.1774 .69007 143 Table ( 41 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the Organizational Performance in Low Performance Sample . In the first rank, came the statement Performance26 "IT has improved the productivity ” with a mean of = 2.8548 and a standard deviation of = 1.02184 . In the last rank, came the statement Performance27 “IT contributed to increase the profit ” with a mean of = 1.8710 and a standard deviation of = 0.81951 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to organizational performance in Low performance sample is 2.1774 and a standard deviation of 0 .69007 , w hich shows the degree of Disagreement of the research sample answers to these statements. 4.2 . Analyzing the Performance in Medium Performance Companies Table 42 : Analyzing the Performance in Medium Performance Companies N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Performance26 60 1.00 5.00 3.2333 .74485 Performance27 60 1.00 5.00 3.1000 .98635 Performance28 60 1.00 5.00 2.9333 1.05552 Performance29 60 1.00 5.00 3.1333 1.12697 Performance 60 1.00 5.00 3.1000 .62977 144 Table () explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the Organizational Performance in Medium Performance Sample . In the first rank, came the statement Performance26 "IT has improved the produc tivity ” with a mean of = 3.2333 and a standard deviation of = 0 .74485 . In the last rank, came the statement Performance28 “IT has improved the internal controls in the company ” with a mean of = 2.9333 and a standard deviation of = 1.05552 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to organizational performance in Medium performance sample is 3.1000 and a standard deviation of 0 .62977 , which shows the degree of Neutral of the research sample answers to these statements. 4.3 . Analyzing The Performance in High Performance Companies Table 43 : Analyzing the Performance in High Performance Companies N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Performance26 82 1.00 5.00 3.7317 .90334 Performance27 82 2.00 5.00 3.1829 1.06722 Performance28 82 1.00 5.00 3.3049 1.17262 Performance29 82 2.00 5.00 4.0732 .87179 Performance 82 3.00 5.00 3.5732 .68548 145 Table ( 43 ) explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the Organizational Performance in High Performance Sample . In the first rank, came the statement Performance29 "IT has improved the overall perform ance of the company " with a mean of = 4.0732 and a standard deviation of = 0 .87179 . In the last rank, came the statement Performance27 “IT contributed to increase the profit ” with a mean of = 3.1829 and a standard deviation of = 1.06722 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to organizational performance in High performance Sample is 3.5732 and a standard deviation of 0 .68548, which shows the degree of Agreement of the research sample answers to these statements. 146 4.4 . Analyzing The Performance in Entire Sample Table 44 : Analyzing The Performance in Entire Sample N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Performance26 204 1.00 5.00 3.3186 .96819 Performance27 204 1.00 5.00 2.7598 1.13439 Performance28 204 1.00 5.00 2.7794 1.18087 Performance29 204 1.00 5.00 3.1814 1.32109 Performance 204 1.00 5.00 3.0098 .88774 Table () explains the mathematical means and standard deviations of the responses to the sample of the study about the Organizational Performance in the Entire Sample . In the first rank, came the statement Performance26 "IT has improved the productivity ” with a mean of = 3.3186 and a standard deviation of =0 .96819 . In the last rank, came the statement Performance27 “IT contributed to increase the profit ” with a mean of = 2.7598 and a standard deviation of = 1.13439 . In general, the arithmetic mean of the total statements related to organizational performance in entire sample is 3.0098 and a standard deviation of 0.88774 , which shows the degree of Neutral of the research sample answers to these statements. 147 Performance comparison in all companies’ performance categories Table 45 : Performance comparison in all companies’ performance categories Performance Sample Mean Standard Deviation Low Performance Sample 62 2.1774 .69007 Medium Performance Sample 60 3.1000 .62977 High Performance Sample 82 3.5732 .68548 Entire Sample 204 3.0098 .88774 Figure 17 : Performance comparison in all companies’ performance categories 2.18 3.10 3.57 3.01 0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 Low performance Sample Medium Performance Sample High Performance Sample Entire Sample Performance Mean 148 Comparison between all parts’ Mean in all companies categories Table 46 : Comparison between all parts’ Mean in all companies categories Variables Low Medium High All Companies Mean St. Deviation Mean St. Deviation Mean St. Deviation Mean St. Deviation IT Network Infrastructure 2.7919 0.95046 3.1750 0.84785 3.6341 0.59819 3.2431 0.86514 IT Applications 2.8387 0.91120 3.1150 0.78585 3.3366 0.58468 3.1201 0.78007 IT Personnel 2.8935 0.86950 3.1917 0.72889 3.5195 0.66804 3.2328 0.79279 Figure 18 : Comparison between all parts’ Mean in all companies categories 2.8 3.2 3.6 3.2 2.8 3.1 3.3 3.1 2.9 3.2 3.5 3.2 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 Low Performance Sample Medium Performance Sample High Performance Sample Entire Sample IT Infrastructure IT Applications IT Personnel 149 Correlation between IT Components & performance in high organizational performance Since this study is exploratory in nature, the collected data are further analyzed using the Bivariate Correlation test. The Bivariate Correlation test computes Pearson's correlation coefficient, and measures how variables are related. Pearson correlation coefficient is a measure of linear association. The correlation coefficien t value (r) range from 0.10 to 0.29 is considered weak, from 0.30 to 0.49 is considered medium and from 0.50 to 1.0 is considered strong Table 47 : Correlation between IT Components & performance in high organizational performance IT Infrastructure IT Applications IT Personnel Performance IT Infrastructure Pearson Correlation 1 .691 ** .580 ** .656 ** Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 82 82 82 82 IT Applications Pearson Correlation .691 ** 1 .584 ** .619 ** Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 82 82 82 82 IT Personnel Pearson Correlation .580 ** .584 ** 1 .506 ** Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 82 82 82 82 Performance Pearson Correlation .656 ** .619 ** .506 ** 1 Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 82 82 82 82 150 Table ( 47 ) shows the correlation between IT Network Infrastructure, IT applications, IT Personnel and high organizational performance rating . As it can be seen as following: 1. Correlation between IT Network Infrastructure and performance in high performance companies was Significant (P ˂ 0.01) The results show s that, there was a Strong & Positive Correlation between IT Network Infrastructure and performance in high organizational performance (r = 0.656) 2. Correlation between IT Applications and performance in high performance companies was Significant (P ˂ 0.01). The results shows that, there was a Strong & Positive Correlation between IT Applications and performance in high organizational performance (r = 0.619) 3. Correlation between IT Personnel and performance in high performance companies was Significant (P ˂ 0.01). The results shows that, there was a Strong & Positive Correlation between IT Personnel and performance in high organizational performance (r = 0.506) 151 Correlation between IT Components & performance in Medium organizational performance Table 48 : Correlation between IT Components & performance in Medium organizational performance IT Infrastructure IT Applications IT Personnel Performance IT Infrastructure Pearson Correlation 1 .685 ** .675 ** .446 ** Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 60 60 60 60 IT Applications Pearson Correlation .685 ** 1 .722 ** .480 ** Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 60 60 60 60 IT Personnel Pearson Correlation .675 ** .722 ** 1 .482 ** Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 60 60 60 60 Performance Pearson Correlation .446 ** .480 ** .482 ** 1 Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 60 60 60 60 Table ( 48 ) shows the correlation between IT Network Infrastructure, IT applications, IT Personnel and Medium organizational performance rating . As it can be seen as following: 152 1. Correlation between IT Network Infrastructure and performance in Medium performance companies was Significant (P ˂ 0.01) The results shows that, there was a Medium & Positive Correlation between IT Network Infrastructure and performance in Medium organizational performance (r = 0. 446 ) 2. Correlation between IT Applications and performance in Medium performance companies was Significant (P ˂ 0.01). The results shows that, there was a Medium & Positive Correlation between IT Applications and performance in Medium organizational performance (r = 0. 480 ) 3. Correlation between IT Personnel and performance in Medium performance companies was Significant (P ˂ 0.01). The results shows that, there was a Medium & Positive Correlation between IT Personnel and performance in Medium organizational performance (r = 0. 482 ) 153 Correlation between IT Components & performance in low organizational performance Table 49 : Correlation between IT Components & Performance in Low organizational performance IT Infrastructure IT Applications IT Personnel Performance IT Infrastructure Pearson Correlation 1 .864 ** .581 ** .272 * Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .032 N 62 62 62 62 IT Applications Pearson Correlation .864 ** 1 .644 ** .312 * Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .014 N 62 62 62 62 IT Personnel Pearson Correlation .581 ** .644 ** 1 .464 ** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 62 62 62 62 Performance Pearson Correlation .272 * .312 * .464 ** 1 Sig. (2 -tailed) .032 .014 .000 N 62 62 62 62 Table ( 49 ) shows the correlation between IT Network Infrastructure, IT applications, IT Personnel and low organizational performance rating . As it can be seen as following: 154 1. Correlation between IT Network Infrastructure and performance in Low performance companies was Significant (P ˂ 0.01) The results shows that, there was a Weak & Positive Correlation between IT Network Infrastructure and performance in low organizational performance (r = 0. 272 ) 2. Correlation between IT Applications and performance in Low performance companies was Significant (P ˂ 0.01). The results shows that, there was a Medium & Positive Correlation between IT Applications and performance in low organizational performance (r = 0. 312 ) 3. Correlation between IT Personnel and performance in Low performance companies was Significant (P ˂ 0.01). The results shows that, there was a Medium & Positive Correlation between IT Personnel and performance in low organizational performance (r = 0. 446 ) 155 Correlation between IT Components & organizational performance Table 50 : Correlation between IT Components & organizational performance IT Infrastructure IT Applications IT Personnel Performance IT Infrastructure Pearson Correlation 1 .781 ** .657 ** .563 ** Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 204 204 204 204 IT Applications Pearson Correlation .781 ** 1 .677 ** .502 ** Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 204 204 204 204 IT Personnel Pearson Correlation .657 ** .677 ** 1 .555 ** Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 204 204 204 204 Performance Pearson Correlation .563 ** .502 ** .555 ** 1 Sig. (2 -tailed) .000 .000 .000 N 204 204 204 204 Table ( 50 ) shows the correlation between IT Network Infrastructure, IT applications, IT Personnel and organizational performance rating . As it can be seen as following:  Correlation between IT Infrastructure and overall organizational performance rating was Strong (0.563, P ˂ 0.05)  Correlation between IT Applications and overall organizational performance was Strong (0.502, P ˂ 0.05).  Correlation between IT Personnel and overall organizational performance was Strong (0.555, P ˂ 0.05). 156 Hypotheses Test Hypothesis (1) : To test the Impact of IT Network infrastructure on organizational Performance in Oil & Gas companies in Egypt Table 51 : Correlation between IT Network infrastracture and orgnizational performance Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate 1 .563 a .317 .313 .73574 a. Predictors: (Constant), IT Infrastructure The above Table no. ( 51 ) Shows that there are three correlation coefficient values: The simple correlation coefficient (R) measures the correlation degree of independent variables coefficient ( IT Network infrastructure ) with the variable (Organizational Performance) which equal s 0 .563, i.e., it is a strong correlation. This is shown also by R 2 which measures the variation in the dependent variable coefficient (Organizational Performance), which is interpreted by the independent variable to be equal to 0. 317 . Finally, rectifier coe fficient of determination 2̅̅̅̅ amounted to 0. 313 , which means that the independent variable (IT Network Infrastructure) may interpret 31.3% of the changes occurring in the dependent variable that is (Organizational Performance) and the rest (68.7% ) due to the other factors. 157 Table 52 : ANOVA test for IT Network Infrastructure ANOVA a Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 50.636 1 50.636 93.544 .000 b Residual 109.344 202 .541 Total 159.980 203 a. Dependent Variable: Performance b. Predictors: (Constant), IT Infrastructure ANOVA Test is used to test the overall proposed simple linear regression model. The above Table shows that: the proposed simple linear regression model has a strong statistical significance as the (F) value is 93.544 , that is statistically significant at α= 0.001. It confirms the very high exploratory power of the model of simple linear regression statistically. In addition, there is a st atistical significant relationship between the independent variable ( IT Network Infrastructure ) and the dependent variable ( Overall Organizational Performance). Therefore, we reject the hypothesis stipulating that: H01: There is no significant Impact of IT Network Infrastructure on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt And accept the hypothesis stipulating that: H 11: There is a significant Impact of IT Network Infrastructure on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt 158 Table 53 : Coefficients table for IT Network Infrastructure Coefficients a Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 1.138 .200 5.679 .000 IT Infrastructure .577 .060 .563 9.672 .000 a. Dependent Variable: Performance The Coefficients table provides us with the necessary information to predict dependent variable (performance) from independent variable (IT Network infrastructure ). The previous Table shows that the independent variable ( IT Network infrastructure ) has a statistical significance, according to t -test (at the level of significance P ≤ 0.05 ) 159 Hypothesis ( 2): To test the Impact of IT Applications on organizational Performance in Oil & Gas companies in Egypt Table 54 : Correlation between IT Applications and orgnizational performance Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate 1 .502 a .252 .248 .76971 a. Predictors: (Constant), IT Applications The above table no . ( 54 ) shows that the three correlation coefficient values that is the simple correlation coefficient (R) measures the correlation degree of independent variables coefficient ( IT Applications ) with the variable (Organizational Performance) which equal s 0.502, i.e., it is a strong correlation. This is shown also by R 2 which measures the variation in the dependent variable coefficient (Organizational Performance) interpreted by the independent variable to be equal to 0. 252 . Finally, rectifier coefficient of determination 2̅̅̅̅ amounted to 0. 248 , which means that the independent variable ( IT Applications ) may interpret 24.8% of the changes occurring in the dependent variable that is (overall Organizational P erformance) and the rest (75.2% ) due to the other factors. 160 Table 55 : ANOVA test for IT Applications ANOVA a Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 40.304 1 40.304 68.029 .000 b Residual 119.676 202 .592 Total 159.980 203 a. Dependent Variable: Performance b. Predictors: (Constant), IT Applications The above Table shows that: the regression model has a strong statistical significance as the (F) value is 68.029 that is statistically significant at α= 0.001. It confirms the high exploratory power of the model of simple linear regression statistically. In addition, there is a statistical significant relationship between the independent variable ( IT Applications ) and the dependent variable ( Overall Organi zational Performance ). Therefore, we reject the hypothesis stipulating that: H0 2: There is no significant Impact of IT Applications on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt And accept the hypothesis stipulating that: H1 2: There is a significant Impact of IT Applications on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt 161 Table 56 : Coefficients table for IT Applications Coefficients a Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 1.228 .223 5.512 .000 IT Applications .571 .069 .502 8.248 .000 a. Dependent Variable: Performance The Coefficients table provides us with the necessary information to predict dependent variable (performance) from independent variable (IT Applications ). The previous Table shows that the independent variable ( IT Applications ) has a statistical significan ce, according to t -test (at the level of significance P ≤ 0.05 ) 162 Hypothesis ( 3): To test the Impact of IT Personnel on organizational Performance in Oil & Gas companies in Egypt Table 57 : Correlation between IT Personnel and organizational performance Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate 1 .555 a .308 .305 .74012 a. Predictors: (Constant), IT Personnel The above Table no. ( 57) shows that the three correlation coefficient values that is the simple correlation coefficient (R) measures the correlation degree of independent variables coefficient ( IT Personnel ) with the variable (Organizational Performance) which equals 0. 555 , i.e., it is a strong correlation. This is shown also by R 2 which measures the variation in the dependent variable coefficient (Organizational Performance) interpreted by the independent variable to be equal to 0. 308 . Finally, rectifier coefficient of determination 2̅̅̅̅ amounted to 0. 305 , which means that the independent variable ( IT Personnel ) may interpret 30.5% of the changes occurring in the dependent variable that is (Organizational Performance) and the rest (69.5% ) due to the other factors. 163 Table 58 : ANOVA Test for IT Personnel ANOVA a Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 49.329 1 49.329 90.054 .000 b Residual 110.651 202 .548 Total 159.980 203 a. Dependent Variable: Performance b. Predictors: (Constant), IT Personnel The above Table shows that: the regression model has a high statistical significance as the (F) value is 90.054 that is statistically significant at α= 0.001. It confirms the high exploratory power of the model of simple linear regression statistically. In addition, there is statistical significant relationship between the independent variable ( IT Personnel ) and the dependent variable (Organizational Performance). Therefore, we reject the hypothesis stipulating that: H0 3: There is no sign ificant Impact of IT Personnel on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt And accept the hypothesis stipulating that: H1 3: There is a significant Impact of IT Personnel on the performance of Oil & Gas companies in Egypt 164 Table 59 : Coefficients table for IT Personnel Coefficients a Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 1.000 .218 4.584 .000 IT Personnel .622 .066 .555 9.490 .000 a. Dependent Variable: Performance The Coefficients table provides us with the necessary information to predict dependent variable (performance) from independent variable (IT Personnel). The previous Table shows that the independent variable ( IT Personnel ) has a statistical significance, according to t -test (at the level of significance P ≤ 0.05 ) 165 Chapter ( 4 ): Conclusions & Recommendations 166 Introduction The Information Technology is one of the most influential parts in the organizational performance as it influences all the business sectors and impacts the work performance. Based on what was stated in this study and by examining the information technology components (IT Network Infrastructure, IT Applications and I T Personnel) and their impact on organizational performance according to the results of the field study on a sample of the oil and gas companies in Egypt of those classified as (high, medium and low) performance companies according to the classification AS A, this study concluded that the re is a significant impact of information technology on th e oil & gas companies in Egypt. Through our studies to address the Information technology components (IT Network infrastructure , IT Applications & IT Personnel ) and their impact on the organizational performance in oil & gas companies in Egypt, some results and findings were concluded as follows: Theoretical Results: The Information Technology is one of elements for any organization in order to enhance the performanc e. It impacts the employees’ performance and improves the work flow. Moreover the information technology enhances the process of decision making and the internal & external communication . 167 Practical Results: - There is a significant impact of IT Network infrastructure on overall organizational performance in Oil& Gas companies in Egypt. - There is a significant impact of IT Applications on overall organizational performance in Oil& Gas companies in Egypt. - There is a significant impact of IT Personnel on overall organizational performance in Oil& Gas companies in Egypt. IT in High performance oil & gas Companies in Egypt - Correlation between IT Network Infrastructure and high organizational performance rating was High (0.656, P ˂ 0.01) - Correlation between IT Applications and high organizational performance was High (0.619 , P ˂ 0.01). - Correlation between IT Personnel and high organizational performance was High (0.506 , P ˂ 0.01). IT in Medium performance oil & gas Companies in Egypt - Correlation between IT Network Infrastructure and Medium organizational performance rating was medium (0.446, P ˂ 0.01) - Correlation between IT Applications and Medium organizational performance was medium (0.480 , P ˂ 0.01). - Correlation between IT Personnel and Medium organizational performance was medium (0.482 , P ˂ 0.01). 168 IT in Low performance oil & gas Companies in Egypt - Correlation between IT Network Infrastructure and low organizational performance rating was Low (0.272, P ˂ 0.05) - Correlation between IT Applications and low organizational performance was medium (0.312 , P ˂ 0.0 5). - Correlation between IT Personnel and low organizational performance was medium (0.464 , P ˂ 0.0 5). IT in oil & gas Companies in Egypt - Correlation between IT Network Infrastructure and overall organizational performance rating was High (0.563, P ˂ 0.05) - Correlation between IT Applications and overall organizational performance was High (0.502 , P ˂ 0.0 5). - Correlation between IT Personnel and overall organizational performance was High (0.555 , P ˂ 0.0 5). 169 Conclusions : The study concluded the following Conclusions : 1. This study provides the prove of concept that The Information Technology is one of elements for any organization in order to enhance the performance and the study statistical results give us the evidence of the positive impact of information technology on organization performance 2. It has been found in low performance companies that, the companies were providing their employees with old technologies which decrease their work performance 3. Another empirical finding in low performance companies is that t he companies’ internet connections were not reliabl e and the internet performance was not acceptable. The companies’ perception of using internet is for entertainment , and it look like a cost center 4. It appears in low performance companies that the companies are using old applications which impact the performance of work flow 5. One of the most important finding s in low & Medium performance companies that, The companies’ employees need more training to work with information technology applications to raise their performance 6. It has been found in low performance companies that, there is unacceptable integration with all information technology applications. This issue interrupts the movement of data through the systems which impact the performance of work flow 7. It appears in low & Medium perform ance companies that , there is a lack of communication between employees and the information technology staff 170 Recommendations: 1. Based on the results of this research, the perception of top management towards the Information technology should be changed from cost center to be profit center. And the companies should deal with information technology as a n important part of the business chain. Business and IT executives should agree on the best strategy for using technology in order to achieve business -IT al ignment and provide context for IT invest ment priorities. 2. It is recommended to upgrade the hardware which is provided to employees in low performance companies to enhance their performance which will impact the companies’ performance. 3. The Internet is a virtual treasure trove of information. Any kind of information on any topic under the sun is available on the Internet. The ‘search engines’ on the Internet can help you to find data on any subject that you need ; so it highly recommended that in low perfor mance companies the management should change their perception towards the internet and enhance the service of internet 4. In low performance companies , it is recommended to upgrade the information technology applications which will facilitate the work flow and impact the companies’ performance 5. In low & Medium performance companies One of the most important recommendation is improving the employees’ training to work smoothly with information technology applications which will impact the overall work performance 171 6. The IT department in low performance companies should work to integrate all applications to facilitate the movement of information through the companies’ systems 7. Employees in the Oil & Gas Sector in Egypt can smoothly move be tween Oil & Gas companies according to the companies’ needs. Such moves can help in transferring the information technology knowledge, experience, practices and latest applied technologies between sector companies. I highly recommend encouraging these moves to raise the performance of information technology, which will positively affect the overall performance of the sector companies. Suggestions for Future Research The limitations of this study provided some of the possible future research studies. O ne limitation of this study was it only involved with the most important parts of information technology IT network infrastructure , IT applications & IT Personnel , so another study could be done with other parts for IT investment , IT policies and procedure s & IT Governance . In addition, a limitation of the study was the use of ROI as the only indicator for organizational performance, so another study could be done using other financial and non -financial indicators for the organizational performance. Another limitation of this study was that it d idn 't include Foreign and oil & gas production companies in Egypt , so another study could be done for these companies 172 Appendices 173 APPENDIX ( 1) Survey Company: Name (optional): Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements (1)Strongly Disagree (2) Disagree (3) Neutral (4) Agree (5) Strongly Agree N. Statement 1 2 3 4 5 1 IT provides the company employees with the latest technology in computers Infrastructure 2 The Company computer Networks are always available and reliable 3 The voice communication with all company’ sites are always available and reliable 4 The E -Mail Service is always available and reliable 5 The internet connection is always available and reliable with high performance 6 The level of information Security is high 7 The data storage capacity is sufficient 174 N. Statement 1 2 3 4 5 8 The company uses modern IT Applications Applications 9 The information provided by the IT Applications of the company is reliable 10 The information provided by the IT Applications of the company is accurate 11 IT Applications of the company provide users the complete information that is needed 12 Employees have sufficient understanding of IT Applications 13 IT Applications are well integrated 14 IT Applications of the company facilitate user friendly interface 15 IT Applications of the company are aligned with company processes and objectives 16 IT Applications of the company have increased the performance of employees 17 IT Division have deployed sufficient Personnel to provide IT services IT Personnel 18 IT Personnel solve the problem in the first instance 19 IT Personnel keep users well informed about the progress of users complaint/s 20 IT Personnel handle users complaints/queries seriously 21 IT Personnel inform users exactly when maintenances will be performed 22 The behavior of IT Personnel gives confidence to users 23 IT Personnel are friendly and polite with users 24 IT Personnel are knowledgeable enough to perform their job 25 IT Personnel are continuously in touch with the users 26 IT has improved the productivity Performance 27 IT contributed to increase the profit 28 IT has improved the internal controls in the company 29 IT has improved the overall performance of the company 175 APPENDIX ( 2) Supporting Letters EGPC Letter 176 Ministry of Petroleum Letter 177 CAPMAS Letter 178 APPENDIX ( 3) References: 1. 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