The adaptation of Bring Your Own Device as a Green Information Technology Practice at the North-West University

Abstract

BYOD and Green IT have become the recent trends in organizations including higher education institutions. BYOD helps organizations increase their productivity and the satisfaction of employees since it allows them to make use of their mobile devices for both work and personal purposes at the work place. There are benefits of BYOD with regards energy conservation and Green IT. Putting effort into illuminating the effect of a particular technology and envisaging the positive outcome of implementation is paramount to its adoption, therefore this study investigated the perception of employees regarding the adaptation of BYOD as a Green IT practice. The study centres on energy conservation through adaptation of BYOD as a Green IT practice in higher education. In an effort to explain the factors to be considered before adoption and to depict the relationship between BYOD, Green IT, and energy conservation, the technology acceptance model (TAM) was presented and a conceptual framework based on TAM was developed. This study followed the positivist paradigm and the quantitative approach and data was collected using questionnaire from employees of the North-West University (NWU), South Africa. The study found that the employees of this institution are willing to adopt BYOD in line with energy saving aspect of Green IT practice. The study also found that the institution supports BYOD to an extent and the employees perceive the existing BYOD practices in the institution to be of value to them and easy to use.