Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 12, No 2, 761–768 (2011) Environmental education
Introducing Computer and Network Services and Tools in Forest Service and the HR Factor Z. S. Andreopoulou Laboratory of Forestry Informatics, Faculty of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, P.O. Box 247, 54 124 Thessaloniki, Greece E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract. Forest service in Greece offers multiple services within the protection and preservation of forest areas. This paper studies the contribution of the factor ‘human resources’(HR) in the new changing work environment, with the introduction of computer and network services, tools and techniques in Forest Service. A survey was performed in the region of Epirus, a distant mountainous region, with many productive forests and national parks. Questionnaires were addressed to foresters, technician foresters and administrative employees in Forest Service units between July and November 2008. The results indicate that HR exploits moderately new technologies although they believe that computers and network services, tools and techniques would increase productivity and improve decision-making. Regarding the critical points for the effective use of IT tools and network services, they consider as important parameters the creation of a network-based national forest database, the sufficient computer training of forest personnel, the lack of forest software, the high cost for the implementation of an integrated e-government project within Forest Service. Keywords: forest service, computers, networks, tools, work environment, human resources, e-government.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND Today, in ‘information age’ when knowledge is power, it is generally acknowledged that organisations depend on their information1,2. The convergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), the Internet and all kinds of web-based projects are emerging in a fast pace in our society to generate numerous ICT techniques, tools and services1,2. It is though evident that for a public service to effectively use ICT, it must be ‘e-ready’, as it concerns infrastructure, organisational features, and Internet accessibility and human resources skills3. The great socio-economic and technological changes have created an increasing need for goods and services from natural resources2. Under these circumstances it is imposed that the multiple benefits from forests and generally from the natural environment can only be achieved when we use the tools of the new technology and the new daily workflow within Forest Service, aiming to increase the productivity of human resources, has to be redefined through the use of computers and 761
network tools and techniques3,4. The term human resources (HR) covers the total of persons that participate in the function of an organisation, no matter how big or small is this participation in their field of action. In addition, human resources is a basic component for administration Subjects of forest administration in Greece constitute the following issues: (a) preservation of forest ownership; (b) execution of treatments; (c) constructive works; (d) organisation of Forest Service Units, and consequently (e) the effective function of the service4. Modern forestry mostly focuses on environmental sustainability of the ecosystems in relationship to the citizens as a result of the current change both in urban and rural areas5. As forests and forest areas cover almost 20% of the area in Greece, the multiple roles of forests imposes the existence of several task divisions in a F.D.O., such as forest management, wood production, forest and wild life protection, forest technical constructions, treatments, reforestations, recreation, forestrelated legal issues, administration and economics. All the above activities create a variety of administrative jobs, that deal with the editing of projects, reports, books, maps and various documents that are sent to the central service in the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food, to the Prefecture Forest Administration Department, to Regional Forest Service, other services or the local population1–4. There are also many administrative and statistic books that need to be completed continuously. Therefore, the personnel are due to paperwork for administrative purposes that have to handle within timetables1–4. The total of human resources believe that computers can contribute effectively in the improvement of produced services, in the increase of productivity and the elimination of bureaucracy that is a great problem in all modern societies4. As it concerns the introduction of ICT in Forest Service has already been realised in relative research that the use of information technology is a one-way procedure in order to meet the extended needs of the local Forest units1–6. In recent research7, it was identified the main factors in a model that explained 84.2% of the satisfaction of HR within Forest Service from ICT introduction as: (a) 0.629 number of dpt that already employ ICT within daily workflow; (b) 0.555 for number of employees who have already attended ICT seminars; (c) 0.46333 the percentage of daily tasks executed using ICT; (d) 0.826 the number of employees using ICT, and (e) 0.289 the years already using ICT in the FS (Ref. 7). The application of software can easily increase the productivity in everyday administration works. The general model for the introduction of new technologies in the work environment includes: (a) automatic management of incoming documents; (b) various forest service databases management; (c) communication with persons, groups or entities; (d) project management applications for the organisation of personnel activities, and finally (e) the total management in the function of forest service district office1,3,8. 762
This paper studies the contribution of the factor ‘human resources’ in the new changing environment in forest service district units with the introduction of ICT, which is characterised by the use of computer and network services, tools and techniques and the application of new technology solutions in the work environment, with focus of the attitude of HR towards ICT introduction. As a case study it was studied the region of Epirus. EXPERIMENTAL Research was carried out with the method of questionnaire9,10 between July and November 2008 and as a case study it was selected a forest administration division in southern Greece. A questionnaire was sent to all foresters, technician foresters and administrative employees in Forest Prefecture Directories (Ioannina, Arta, Preveza and Thesprotia) and also Forest District Offices (FDO of Metsovo, FDO of Konitsa) of the Epirus region. The particular area have been chosen because it is a mountainous area, it is heavily forested, one of the most productive areas in the Greek territory and also a frontier area, neighbouring Albania and FYROM, in a distance from the capital of the country, Athens. It is a region with important ecosystems, forests and wetlands and the use of information technology is a one-way procedure in order to meet the extended needs of the local FDO for the protection of these sensitive areas. The questionnaire included open and close questions where forest service employees, such as foresters, technician foresters and administrative employees, should apply their comments on the introduction of ICT in FS, the use of computer and network tools, techniques and services in daily tasks. Data from the completed questionnaires were coded into variables to be statistically processed with MsExcel. Qualitative analysis was also conducted with content analysis. Content analysis is a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from data to their context11. The texts provided by the respondents in the survey while answering the ‘open’ questions were processed with content analysis in order to identify common sets of concepts and aspects. Content analysis resulted in two main categories that consist of the major positive and negative indications. RESULTS There were collected 43 questionnaires that were filled in from foresters, technician foresters and administrative employees in the Forest region division of Epirus. In details the questions were filled in by employees in forest units of the Forest prefecture directory of Thesprotia (9), Forest prefecture directory of Preveza (6), Forest prefecture directory of Arta (12), and Forest prefecture directory of Ioannina (3), and also in FDO of Metsovo (8) and Konitsa (5). 763
A percentage of 93% of the forest service employees in the survey have answered that they use a computer in their work in a daily basis. However, it is probably more important to indicate that the percentage of 7% that do not use computers every day were all in the category of technician foresters that usually deal with more practical outdoor tasks. The 51.6% of employees using daily computers and networks tools and services is between 40–50-year old, 22.5% are employees between 30–40-year old and 16.15% are employees between 50–60-year old. Only a percentage of 18.6% answered that they daily make use of programs especially designed for the needs of Forest Service. These programs were mainly of administrative type, such as electronic protocol programs and also programs about mapping, road opening and torrent management within the Forest unit. There are also registered programs about forested areas in the extension of forest unit authority. The computers used in forest units are sometimes connected in a local network. However, only 58.1% of questioned, answered that their computer is connected within a local network in the premises of the Forest Service unit. However, only 40% believe that the local network within the forest service unit is very effective and 20% of them believe that it is not effective at all. Considering the use of the local networks the results are presented in Table 1. Table 1. Uses of local networks within Forest Units and frequency percentage among each use
Uses of local Network Software sharing Exchange of data files Printers sharing Internet services Scanner sharing Remote application handling
Never/rarely (%) 44 32 20 16 72 64
Sometimes Often (%) Very often (%) (%) 32 20 4 24 28 16 8 28 44 12 24 48 0 4 24 24 0 12
It is evident that HR in Forest Units do not adequately exploit the potential of local networks. Their main usages are: printers sharing and access to the Internet aiming to find information in governmental sites. The websites they frequently visit are: the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food (www.minagric.gr), the Ministry for the Environment, Planning and Public Works (www.minenv.gr), the National Publications (www.et.gr), the National Agricultural Research Institute (www.nagref.gr), the Geotechnical Chamber of Greece (www.geotee.gr), Ministry of Internal (www.ypes.gr), etc. as to be properly informed.
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Table 2. Reasons for non-use of computers in Forest Units within the region of east Macedonia – Thrace
Reasons for non-use of computers
Little (%)
Moderately (%)
Reluctance to change work environment Elderly employees close to retirement age Lack of economic motivation Lack of proper technical support Fear for new technology Computers shortage Indifference for technology Lack of time to learn about computers
17.2 63.5 56.3 36.6 56.0 36.6 34.2 46.6
12.1 12.1 14.6 14.6 7.4 14.6 19.6 21.9
Very much/ significantly (%) 70.7 24.4 29.1 48.8 36.6 48.8 46.2 31.5
Computers within Forest Service units are usually used from foresters, technician foresters and all kind of administrative employees. Thus, there are a certain number of them in each forest unit that practically does not employ computers or network services in daily tasks and that happens for different reasons. These reasons for non-use of computers are presented in Table 2, concerning their intensity. Forest Service employees are ‘very much’ reluctant to change their traditional and familiar work environment and start use in a daily basis computers and network tools and services, in a percentage of 70.7%. However, age is not a problem because only 24.4% answer that their age close to retirement is a significant reason for non-use of computers and networks tools and services within their daily tasks. For more than half of them (56.3%) the economic motivation is not an issue but almost half of them (48.8%) believe that the lack of proper technical support within the Service to help them confront the problems that appear is a significant factor for non-using computers. More than half of them (56%) state that they fear new technologies just a little and one out of three of them (36.6%) fear new technologies very much/significantly, 48.8% of them do not use computers because they are not available in Forest Service and there are fewer computers than employees within Forest Service unit, 46.6% state that they are indifferent about technology issues and 46.6% claim that they have lack of the time needed to learn how to manage new equipment. Regarding the attendance of training seminars about new technology issues among the employees, 72.1% of forest employees have attended relative training seminars about information-communication technologies (ICT) that were organised by various carriers, such as the Prefectures, the Region, the Ministry of Agriculture, The National Agricultural Research Institute, EU projects or other private carriers. These training seminars included various courses but they were primarily provided to beginner levels. Furthermore, 80% of those that have attended a seminar about computer issues have then applied their knowledge to their daily 765
tasks. It is also positive that a percentage of 91% of the employees throughout the Epirus region have expressed their interest to attend more training seminars to acquire specific knowledge in computer and network issues in the close future. Concerning the thematic of the seminars, they have selected the seminar issues as presenting in Table 3. Table 3. Thematic for computer seminars for forest employees
Seminar thematic Internet and network services Word processing tools Introduction to computers, tools, services and techniques Spreadsheet CAD software Computer programming
Percentage 59 23 14 4 4 3
Only 64.3% of them believe that the introduction of computers and network services and tools in forest service, that is practically two out of three employees, has improved the rendered services to the citizen and has decreased bureaucracy. CONTENT ANALYSIS RESULTS
Foresters, technician foresters and administrative employees finally remark in open questions on the positive and negative critical points concerning a total integration of computers and network tools and services within work environment in forest service. Content analysis of texts in open questions revealed 5 critical points for total ICT introduction in forest units and they are quoted below. The issue of total communication. It is highly identified the positive effect of an overall network connection for Greek Forest Service. The respondents anticipate that the employment of computer and network services within forest service units in daily basis through an integrated workflow model would contribute effectively in various subjects related to forest unit function and consequently, increase productivity of the service. The direct communication of the forest service district office with other units can be effective for administration issues. Communication tools can limit bureaucracy, e.g. traditional mail correspondence can be eliminated or easier make notice of regulations, orders and specifications from Central Forest Divisions in time. The issue of data access. The creation of integrated forest service digital data archives or a forest service database accessible from all forest district units and all HR in Forest Service, including correct and updated data, would also eliminate bureaucracy and increase productivity in everyday tasks. Forest and environmental legislation digitally coded in combination with digital map files for authority areas, 766
can help to confront problems similarly all over the country, to answer citizens petitions and to take the right decisions under conditions of certainty. Statistical data can be easily registered and used for decision-making, e.g. forest fires prevention or research purposes. The needed data will be immediately available in their correct, latest version. The project is very difficult to be realised because of the huge volume and variety of the files. The difficult forest service archive files need experienced employees to work for a long time. Lack in computer literacy. The lack of specific computer knowledge is an important problem for the introduction of new technologies in forest service workflow, enhanced from the partly negative attitude of employees towards the new changing work environment. Employees are indifferent about new technologies when, in many cases, certain forest employees monopolise computer use. It is also difficult to deal with demanding technical computer problems because of lack of authorised technical support. All employees should attend training sessions for the effective use of software within their everyday jobs. The proper motivation of employees regarding computer and network tools and services should be properly planned. Specific forest software. An important factor is the development of common, specific software for all forest service. Various types of data, documents, protocol books, economics, maps, number tables, legislation, etc. should be processed with the same software programs, created especially for the needs of the service. For this reason, employees would work everywhere in the country under the same software. Infrastructure/hardware. Hardware is another critical point along with software within the new technology environment and it should be of a common type. However, planning to implement Forest Service with updated infrastructure and replacement of older hardware should be supported from the Government motivation. CONCLUSIONS The research on the attitude of HR towards the use of computer and network tools, techniques and services has proved that it is mainly positive. The results indicate that HR exploit moderately new technologies although they consider that ICTs can contribute effectively in the improvement of produced services, in the increase of productivity and the elimination of bureaucracy that is a great problem in all modern societies. Similar findings were also identified in recent researches1–3 such as for the region of east Macedonia and Thrace in N. Greece and Peloponnesus. However, a low percentage of HR is reluctant to participate in that process and change their traditional and familiar working environment by using new technologies, also because of indifference for technology issues, computers shortage within Forest Service and lack of adequate technical support. 767
Findings from the research in the region of Epirus reveal that the forestry public sector has not reached high rates of adoption mainly concerning infrastructure, hardware, and LANs (local networks) and moreover, there is a certain lack in personnel skills and education as to computer literature. Among the policies to promote ICT is also the investment in education, thus, in addition to the appropriate training in computer and network tools and services of forest employees in order to maximise profit by the use of ICTs. It is sensible to further extend research on e-readiness among public domain in Greece with focus on the factors associated with progress in e-Government implementation in combination to expertise from other countries. ‘Human resources’ factor is critical in making forest service a flexible and effective public sector and negative indications should be deeply concerned. Forest service should emphasise on the proper information of the personnel about the advantages of using new technology and their proper computer training. REFERENCES 1. Z. S. ANDREOPOULOU: E-Organization of Forest Records in Greece. J. of Environ. Protection and Ecology, 2 (8), 455 (2007). 2. Z. S. ANDREOPOULOU: Educational Perspectives and the Impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s) in an Environmental Government Division. J. of Environ. Protection and Ecology, 4 (7), 721. (2006). 3. Z. S. ANDREOPOULOU: Adoption of Information and Communication Technologies-ICTs in Public Forest Service in Greece. J. of Environ. Protection and Ecology, 4 (10), 1194 (2009). 4. Z. S. ANDREOPOULOU, A. PAPASTAVROU: Research on the Attitudes of Human Resources in Forest Service in Greece towards the Development of Forest Informatics. MEDIT – J. of Economics, Agriculture & Environment, 2, 53 (2001). 5. J. A HELMS: Forest, Forestry, Forester: What Do These Terms Mean? J. of Forestry, 100 (8), 15 (2002). 6. A. C. PAPASTAVROU, P. D. LEFAKIS, Z. S. ANDREOPOULOU, L. S. ILIADIS: Forest Informatics. Vol. II. Publishing Dept. of A.U.TH., Thessaloniki, Greece, 1999, 94–98. 7. Z. S. ANDREOPOULOU, K. SOUTSAS, C. GOUPOS: Research on the Factors Affecting the Satisfaction from the Exploitation of Informatics in Forest Administration. In: Proc. of the 1st Conf. of Hellenic Operational Research Society, ‘Administration and Project Management’, 25–27/9/2003, Larissa, Greece, Vol. B, 2003, 231–240. 8. Z. S. ANDREOPOULOU, A. PAPASTAVROU: Workflow in Forest Service and the Contribution of the Factor ‘Human Resources’. In: The New Technology Work Environment. J. of Applied Systems Studies, 2, (2004). 9. G. ARABATZIS, S. POLYZOS: The Impacts of the CAP Reform on Land Uses and the Forest Development. European Spatial Research and Policy, 14 (2), 89 (2007). 10. G. DAOUTOPOULOS: Methodology for Social Research in Agriculture. 2nd ed. Thessaloniki, 1994. 11. K. KRIPPENDORFF: Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology. 2nd ed. Sage, 2004. Received 15 October 2010 Revised 5 December 2010
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