A study by Krumbholz and Maiden (2001) reported on the effect of differing national
culture and corporate culture on the successful implementation of ERP. In this study, thecultural importance placed on training, education, user involvement and employee
empowerment was considered a key success factor in the integration and application of
ERP systems. A key element of managing change is the part of corporate culture that
recognizes the need to build user acceptance of the new technology. Employees’ positive
attitude toward change could be achieved by getting them engaged in every phase of the
project. To accomplish this, Vilpola (2008) advocates the user-centered design (UCD)
approach which engages the user early in the system design claiming that this approach
can improve the success of ERP implementation. The UCD approach is based on the
principle that users should be included in the evaluation, modification and
exploitation phases of the ERP system adoption and use. Involving users at the early
stage should result in improved productivity and quality of work and reduce the
cost of training and maintenance of the system. Employees often struggle when they
are asked to change the way they perform their daily tasks. Managers must realize
that if the employees’ perception is that their good results are rewarded by
management (Jones et al., 2008) and there are opportunities as well as organizational
resources available to them for advancement regardless of their age and
background, they work hard toward the success on the new systems (Krumbholz
and Maiden, 2001; Simon and Noblet, 2012).