PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONS THROUGH THE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS IN RIVERS STATE OF NIGERIA

The study identified information technology (IT) systems available for partnership between public and private organizations in Port Harcourt, Rivers State of Nigeria. The population consisted of 300 senior officers (90 administrators and 210 supervisors) of 30 (5 large multinational companies and 25 medium-sized organizations including oil services and manufacturing companies, Banks, Universities and hospitals) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. A sample of 90 senior officers (30 administrators and 60 supervisors) was drawn (using stratified random sampling technique) from the 30 organizations in Port Harcourt, Rivers State to participate in the study. A 25-item Likert format (forced choice) questionnaire validated and with test ? retest reliability index of 0.83 was used to collect data for the study. The research question was answered with frequencies and percentages while the hypothesis was tested with t-test statistics. The results showed that all the 30 organizations studied have basic functional Information Technology Systems, but only the bigger companies have the most expensive mainframe and mini-computers. It was recommended that the smaller organizations in Port Harcourt, Rivers State of Nigeria should strive to acquire the bigger Information Technology Systems for economy, increased speed of information processing and a greater capacity to adapt to changes and partnership in the environment. The smaller organizations should also take advantage of the larger IT systems through some kind of shared-time arrangements with other bigger organizations.