Assessment of the needs of ICT Skills on Employability in SMEs: A VFT approach

the globalised economy comes with extra demand of ICT skills among the graduates. This is due to the demand if ICT technicalities in performing a number of basic activities in the workplaces. Majority of studies which concentrate with ICT skills on employability deals with technical enterprises. In non-technical companies such as construction, manufacturing and agriculture, ICT is studied as among the basic skill-set of graduates. However, recently, there has been special demand of graduates with basic ICT knowledge on recruitment processes. This indicates the growing demand of basic ICT skills among a broad range of professions. However, the type of basic ICT skills required for work is not clear. This study aims to explore and understand the type of ICT skill needed, the significance of each ICT skills on employability and the way of identifying the best graduate based on ICT. This study uses Value Focused Thinking (VFT) to understand and identifying the possible ways of managing ICT skills on employability. VFT uses in-depth interviews will be conducted to identify the fundamental and intermediate concerns regarding ICT skills on employability of graduates. This study explored five main fundamental issues which have to be handled effectively by the stakeholders in order to make sure that ICT graduates are more employable within the SMEs

The Impact of Personal Privacy on the Acceptance of Mobile Phone Technology: A case of Tanzanian SMEs

The adoption of mobile technology has gained a serious attention in organizations and individuals. SMEs in the developing countries have hugely been relying on mobile phone technology in performing their activities. The main reasons for the popularity of mobile phones include their perceived low cost, less learning curve, mobility and its compatibility with the usage at the SMEs level as compared to the desktop computers. Despite existence on studies on adoption of mobile technology in different contexts, few of them have explicitly explored the way personal privacy can affect its acceptance to be used at the workplaces. This study covers this gap by conducting a survey to assess whether or not personal privacy has an impact on the intention and usage of mobile phones among the employees of SMEs. The results show that personal privacy is influencing perceived usefulness of using mobile phones in the SMEs while it has no impact to the Behaviour intention to use. The discussions, implications, and suggestions for future work were also discusse

Assessing the Influence of Self-Efficacy on the Acceptance of Mobile Phone Technology within the SMEs

Mobile phone technologies have proved to provide a significant transformation in performing various activities within companies, especially in least developed regions. Mobile phones provide opportunities for employees of organisations to work any time and anywhere. SMEs comprise of employees who perform multitasking job roles due to their small in size and low financial capabilities and most cases, some of them work remotely from their main offices. Self-Efficacy is a belief that the user has enough skills to use technology to perform a task at hand. This is one of the factors influencing of acceptance of technologies at the workplaces such as SMEs. However, while the majority of studies have explored the influence of self-efficacy in desktop-based computing, it is unclear on the context of mobile phone usage, especially when individuals perfoms their work obligations within SMEs. This study involves a survey of 459 people who works with their small businesses in Tanzania. Among others, the Mobile Phone Self-Efficacy was found to be among the factors which directly influence the Perceived Ease of Use of mobile phone technology as they perform their duties

Exploring the Values of Mobile Phone Technology in Tanzania Tourism SMEs

SMEs have been one of the reliable sources of income and employment worldwide. Mobile technologies have widely been used in performing a number of activities for SMEs. Mobile phone technology is maintained by a single or few operators which leave endusers with huge relief as they no longer deal with technical issues. However, despite the notable advantages of using mobile phone technology in SMEs, their values have been explained in a generic way. Specifics on direct and indirect benefits and concerns on particular aspect and circumstances have not been explored. The main challenge is that it is difficult to single out the values of a technology in organisations because there are other separate factors which also contribute to the overall performance. Identifying specific values of mobile technology on the performance of SMEs is vital for improving the utility of such performance in accomplishing the strategic objectives. This study explores values of mobile phone technology in Tanzania tourism SMEs. The methodology is grounded in the theory of Value Focused Thinking, which uses deep facetoface interviews, with the employees and managers the in Tanzania tourism SMEs. The analysis shows that mobile phone technology improves collaboration and sharing of information between SMEs stakeholders. Among the main concerns to the SMEs level include the security, battery capacity, mobile network coverage, Quality of service and operational costs. Also, implications and future studies are highlighted in this study

The Influence of Values on the Intention and Usage of Mobile Phone Technology:a Case of Tanzanian SMEs

Mobile phone technology has been relied upon in performing a number of activities in the SMEs. In less developed regions, computing infrastructures are very poor thereby depending highly on mobile phones. The improvement of technology in the mobile phones has seen more applications and services being accessed through them. This gives SMEs, especially in developing countries, a preferable alternative to desktop computing technology. However, to maximise the usability of mobile phone technology in SMEs context, key factors which influence users’ perception on its acceptance need to be explained clearly. This study explains the factors influencing employees’ intentions and use of mobile phone technology in SMEs, by extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with values. The analysis results show that the values of mobile phone technology in SMEs have an impact to the behaviour intention to use. This suggests that stakeholders specifically vendors, policy makers, managers and mobile network operators should take their part in handling the challenges and enforcing the benefits of mobile phones since they constitute to the overall intention and usage. This study uses SEM with 459 employees including managers and ordinary employees in different sectors which perform tourism activities in Tanzania. Data analysis was performed by using SEM through AMOS. Implications of the research and future studies are also highlighted in this pape

Exploring the Values of Mobile Phone Technology in Tanzania Tourism SMEs

SMEs have been one of the reliable sources of income and employment worldwide. Mobile technologies have widely been used in performing a number of activities for SMEs. Mobile phone technology is maintained by a single or few operators which leave endusers with huge relief as they no longer deal with technical issues. However, despite the notable advantages of using mobile phone technology in SMEs, their values have been explained in a generic way. Specifics on direct and indirect benefits and concerns on particular aspect and circumstances have not been explored. The main challenge is that it is difficult to single out the values of a technology in organisations because there are other separate factors which also contribute to the overall performance. Identifying specific values of mobile technology on the performance of SMEs is vital for improving the utility of such performance in accomplishing the strategic objectives. This study explores values of mobile phone technology in Tanzania tourism SMEs. The methodology is grounded in the theory of Value Focused Thinking, which uses deep facetoface interviews, with the employees and managers the in Tanzania tourism SMEs. The analysis shows that mobile phone technology improves collaboration and sharing of information between SMEs stakeholders. Among the main concerns to the SMEs level include the security, battery capacity, mobile network coverage, Quality of service and operational costs. Also, implications and future studies are highlighted in this study