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Communicare 24(1) - July 2005
AC Leonard
Empirical support of the positive impact of an Intranet
on communication in the working environment
ABSTRACT
Organizations of all shapes and sizes have to embrace information technology to survive
and thrive in an increasingly competitive environment. Consequently, the level of
penetration and sophistication of information technology is growing rapidly, and with
it a concomitant increase in the level of organizational impact. In this article the authors
investigate the impact of an Intranet on organizational issues, such as communication.
The research study shows that technology like an Intranet, if used correctly, can have
a very positive impact on an organization’s communication culture and as such on various
other important organizational issues. The research was conducted in an insurance
company in South Africa (“The Insurance Company”).
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Dr. Awie Leonard is a senior lecturer in the Department of Informatics at the University
of Pretoria.
Leonard: Empirical support of the positive impact of an
Intranet on communication in the working environment
1. INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
The need for communication and information flow in any organization is essential. It
requires technology that guarantees that the most recent and accurate information is
delivered on demand, which ensures that the information can be held at a single source
and allows information to be maintained by the people who would normally maintain and
prepare the original information (Hermes, 2000).
In this regard it is important to note the work of Doherty and King (1998). According to
them different issues in an organization could cause problems in terms of the smooth
running of the different functions or systems within the organization. They define an
organizational issue as any distinct area on the interface between a technical system
and either the characteristics and requirements of the host organization or its individual
employees, which could lead to operational problems of any information system in the
organization. In this regard they refer inter alia to the culture of an organization. There
is also recent evidence suggesting that organizational issues are becoming even more
important and will also become more critical to the successful development and
implementation of information systems such as Intranets.
Given the recognized importance of organizational issues, Doherty and King (supra) state
that it is somewhat surprising that recent research suggests that organizational issues
are still not properly addressed during the systems development process (Eason, 1988,
Hornby et al.,1992 and Lim et al., 1992). This probably happens because the systems
development process is still primarily a technology-driven process (Clegg et al., 1997).
According to Damsgaard and Scheepers (1999) many organizations are in the process of
adopting and implementing Intranet technology. They state that although some have
great success, there are already some warning signs of Intranet failures (referring to the
work of Romm & Wong, 1998). Several reasons are offered in the literature as to the cause
of the poor use of Intranets (failure), all of which are related to soft issues rather than
technical aspects.
Some publications detail the calculation of Return on Investment for this technology.
Shephard (1998) provides a good method for the analysis of the cost benefit of Intranets
within an organization. Fastrak Consulting provides an on-line Intranet cost benefit
calculator (Shephard, 1998). However, as the value of the Intranet lies mostly in soft
issues such as communication and collaboration, these characteristics are much harder
to measure. The impact of the Intranet on these issues and how communication and
collaboration are facilitated by the Intranet will ultimately determine the effectiveness
of this technology within the organization. The tools mentioned do not measure the
effectiveness of the Intranet. Therefore, the essence of the problem is that companies
are implementing Intranet systems at great cost, without knowing whether they are
contributing to communication, collaboration and change within the organization. Until
recently, there was no method to measure whether the Intranet actually delivered on the
expectation.
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From the literature, communication and collaboration can be identified as the main
issues that are important to measure (Murgolo-Poore et al., 2000). Despite the obvious
importance of the soft issues involved in evaluating the effectiveness of the Intranet,
very few serious attempts have been made to measure them. Measurement is necessary
to help management to determine whether their Intranet is effective or not. It should
also be measured to determine whether employees of the organization perceive the system
to be effectiveby or not. Any measurement should be done using a reliable validated
instrument. Such an instrument, called the Intranet Effectiveness Instrument, has been
developed by the Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia (Murgolo-Poore et al.,
2000). They developed a generic measure of Intranet effectiveness. The intention was
to develop a scale that would have a general applicability in the measurement of the
construct of Intranet effectiveness. The process they followed entailed the reviewing of
extant literature on Intranets, the development of the scale that included the generation
of possible items for inclusion in the scale and the subsequent testing of these items by
means of a survey. Thereafter the scale was purified and the reliability and validity of
the instrument were established. To ensure the development of a psychometrically sound
instrument, the approach followed by this study was as recommended by Churchill in 1979
(Murgolo-Poore, et al, 2000).
The next section provides a brief background on the organization that has been chosen
for this research project as well as the approach followed in this research study.
2. COMPANY BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH APPROACH
The unit of analysis for this research study was the Intranet users (approximately 949
people) that form a section of the employees of The Insurance Company. The said employees
were chosen for this research project because they are active users of the company’s
Intranet and the management of the company needed to make a strategic decision about
the future use of the Intranet in the company. The outcome of this decision was dependent
on the research results obtained in this research study. The aim of the research study was
therefore to demonstrate that the Intranet is effective in terms of improving and supporting
communication and collaboration within the company, and could act as a catalyst for
change.
To determine the effectiveness of the Intranet within The Insurance Company in terms of
communication and collaboration, the Intranet Effectiveness Instrument was used. This
instrument consists of a simple questionnaire. It is therefore a process that can be
performed with relative ease. The evaluation is presented through statistical analysis
and deductions, conclusions based on the results are provided.
The research approach phases involve the following steps:
Literature study on the measurement of the effectiveness of Intranet and related
topics. The emphasis was on determining the impact of the Intranet on social issues
within organizations.
Evaluation of the measurement techniques available, with specific reference to the
Intranet Effectiveness Instrument.
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Leonard: Empirical support of the positive impact of an
Intranet on communication in the working environment
The conversion of the Intranet Effectiveness Instrument to a format suitable for
email use.
The gathering of information at The Insurance Company by means of electronic mail
(email) and Intranet technology as well as hand-completed questionnaires for
respondents in the geographical area in close proximity to the researcher. The
questions posed to the respondents are identical in both instances.
Statistical analysis of the information.
The making of deductions and conclusions, which led to insight into the problem of
whether the Intranet is considered effective by the employees of The Insurance
Company. This will answer the following research questions:
Is the corporate Intranet effective with regard to communication within
the company?
Is the corporate Intranet effective with regard to collaboration within the company?
What is the effectiveness, if any, of the Intranet as a catalyst for change in this
organization? Can the Intranet be applied to bring about changes to the
organization?
3. ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES INVOLVED IN INTRANET USE
As stated earlier, Doherty and King (1998) define an organizational issue as any distinct
area on the interface between a technical system and either the characteristics and
requirements of the host organization, or its individual employees, which could lead to
operational problems within the organization.
This is a generic definition and encompasses a wide variety of “non-technical” issues.
Based on this definition it is immediately possible to classify organizational issues such
as the impact of a system on an organization’s culture, working practices or performance,
and similarly, and its impact on a user’s motivation or performance.
Organizations today are frequently fragmented and distributed over large geographic
areas. This is especially true in organizations that operate globally. It is a challenge for
management and workers to communicate over these distances. Other organizational
functions such as training and collaboration must necessarily also take place over these
distances. Businesses have become very complex, leading to the need for vast amounts
of knowledge within the business environment. This knowledge must be managed and
available when required by staff members. As the business and its internal and external
environment change, these changes must be managed to ensure smooth transitions to
new systems. This implies that organizations must become learning organizations in
order to learn and change to gain a competitive advantage and achieve their goals.
Business activities such as business process engineering and organizational innovation
can be facilitated through the use of Intranets.
Kirsner (1999) reports that Intranets often fail due to three main elements: relevance
and usefulness, speed of updating information and communication. Kirsner also advises
companies to consider the following when implementing Intranets: relevance, updates,
communication and gauging success.
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It is thus clear that technical expertise and support account for only a small measure of
the success of the Intranet, whereas the organizational issues determine the ultimate
success and effectiveness of this technology.
The abovementioned discussion refers to the soft issue categories that are important to
consider in measuring the Intranet as the communicative, collaborative and catalyst
characteristics of the Intranet. These three elements overarch the soft issues that play
a role in organizational functioning. They are intricately intertwined and impact on one
another. Collaboration depends on communication; elements that act as catalysts depend
on being communicated and collaborated.
The following section describes the reasoning and subsequent development of the Intranet
Effective Instrument (IEI). It describes the dimensions to be measured as collaboration,
communication and a catalyst for change.
4. METHODOLOGY USED DURING THE IEI SURVEY
The Intranet Effectiveness Instrument is a validated tool that was developed to measure
the impact of the Intranet on social issues within the organization. This section describes
the methodology followed to implement this instrument in The Insurance Company in
order to measure the perceived effectiveness of the Intranet within the company.
The Intranet Effectiveness Instrument as well as the documentation supporting the
reasoning behind the development of this tool (Murgolo-Poore, 2001) were obtained from
the Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. This documentation also describes
the technical development of the instrument.
4.1 Literature study
A literature study was conducted to gather information on the use of the Intranet within
organizations. The functions of the Intranet were determined and a search for ways to
measure the effectiveness of the Intranet followed. As the importance of social issues
in the use of technology such as the Intranet is highlighted in several publications, ways
of measuring the impact of the Intranet on these issues were investigated. Specific
emphasis was placed on identifying dimensions that should be measured to determine
Intranet effectiveness. The paucity of literature in this regard was noted. The literature
study indicated methods of quantifying the return on investment in financial terms, but
very little is said with regard to social issues.
4.2 Analyzing the results
A total of 124 questionnaires were returned, six (6) of which were incomplete and not
taken into consideration for analysis. This represented a response rate of 16.5% (of the
750 members who received the questionnaire). The contents of the 118 completed
questionnaires (15.73% of the total sample) were transferred to an Excel spreadsheet
and emailed to the Curtin University for statistical analysis. The statistical analysis was
conducted by computer and the results were returned to the researcher electronically.
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Leonard: Empirical support of the positive impact of an
Intranet on communication in the working environment
5. RESEARCH RESULTS
The data collected through the implementation of the Intranet Effective Instrument was
analyzed by specialised software. The factors analyzed were reliability, validity (construct,
convergent and nomological validity) and principal components. This questionnaire also
contained questions about time spent using the Intranet and the self-perceived computer
expertise. It was also analyzed for the relationship between these factors. For interest’s
sake, the data was also analyzed to determine whether the time spent on the Intranet
influenced the individual’s perception of the effectiveness of the Intranet.
5.1 General evaluation, means and standard deviations
In the table below, the means and standard deviations of all the IEI items are shown.
Individual items were measured on a seven point scale, with the lowest score indicating
that the member disagreed strongly with the statement made and the highest score
indicating that the member agreed strongly with the statement made. The median score
would thus be 3.5, indicating that the opinion was rather neutral and that the respondent
felt neither strongly for nor against the statement. Any measurement above the median
can be regarded as positive towards the statement made and any measurement below
the median can be regarded as negative towards the statement made.
The standard deviation measures the variation in the opinions provided and gives an
indication of how tightly clustered the opinions are around the mean values.
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In general, the results indicated positive perceptions regarding the statements made.
The areas where the Intranet is perceived to have major impact are:
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Item Mean Std Dev
1. Our Intranet is the solution for bringing people within the 4.78 1.39
organization together.
2. The Intranet provides a major cultural revolution in our 4.80 1.19
organization in the way people work, think and communicate.
3. An Intranet is a vital tool to bring a company together and give 4.87 1.29
its members a strong sense of common purpose.
4. Our Intranet has changed the way our organization 5.19 1.29
communicates internally.
5. The Intranet in our organization has truly allowed a global 4.64 1.32
community to develop.
6. The Intranet in our organization fosters collaboration. 4.29 1.13
7. The Intranet in our organization allows us to effectively 4.36 1.24
implement business strategy.
8. The Intranet in our organization is a very effective way of saving 5.14 1.23
resources, such as time, facilities and money.
9. The Intranet within our organization has become an integral part 5.03 1.12
of the way we operate.
10. The Intranet within our organization brings us together and helps 4.69 1.19
us work more effectively.
11. Many people within our organization talk about the impact the 3.69 1.36
Intranet has had.
12. The attitude of most people toward the Intranet in our 3.94 1.33
organization can be summed up by the statement, “I don’t know
how we got along without this.”
13. The Intranet in our organization helps our people to bring 4.79 1.36
products and services to market much quicker.
14. Our Intranet is a way to collaborate, design, develop and deliver 4.73 1.36
new products and services.
15. The Intranet in our organization gives employees the opportunity 4.63 1.18
to feel like a significant part of our company.
16. The overall effect of the Intranet within our organization has been 4.45 1.36
to make members of our organization better communicators.
17. The Intranet in our organization has meant that many employees 4.53 1.27
now communicate with fellow employees with whom they had
not communicated before.
18. The Intranet within our organization has enabled managers to more 4.03 1.44
quickly learn of problems that cause anger and frustration than
was previously the case.
19. The Intranet in our organization has changed the nature of the 3.97 1.37
interaction between supervisors and subordinates.
Leonard: Empirical support of the positive impact of an
Intranet on communication in the working environment
Changing the way the organization communicates internally.
Cost saving with regard to resources such as time, facilities and money.
The Intranet has become an integral part of the way the organization operates.
The areas where the Intranet is perceived to have a large impact are:
As a solution for bringing the people within the organization together.
As providing a major cultural revolution in the way people work, think and communicate.
As a vital tool to bring the company together and give members a strong sense
of purpose.
As allowing a truly global community to develop.
To foster collaboration
To allow the organization to effectively implement business strategy.
To bring the members of the organization together and help them work more effectively.
To help bring products and services to the market much quicker.
As a way to collaborate, design, develop and deliver new products and services.
As a way to give employees the opportunity to feel like a significant part of
the company.
To change members into better communicators.
To enable communication with fellow employees with whom there was no
communication before.
To enable managers to learn of problems without delay.
The areas where the Intranet’s impact has been less significant are the following:
People in the organization do not really talk about the impact that the Intranet
has had.
People in the organization do know how they managed without the Intranet
The Intranet has not changed the nature of the interaction between supervisors
and subordinates.
5.2 Reliability
The IEI was once again analyzed for reliability. Reliability means that the instrument has
internal consistency allowing it to be used under similar circumstances and obtaining
similar measures. This was done by calculating Cronbach’s alpha. In this case this
measure was 0.9, which is high and thus means that this instrument is reliable. Values
under 0.5 would indicate unreliability and a desired value would be over 0.7.
5.3 Validity
Validity has to do with whether the measure is a true measure, and this instrument was
analyzed for validity. Several assessments were undertaken on this data to determine
the validity of the instrument.
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5.3.1 Construct validity
Construct validity is indicated where the instrument assessments are related to other
independent assessments of Intranet effectiveness. A simple table of the overall
evaluations of the Intranet (question 20) was constructed, with question 20 as the
column, against the average assessments in the dimensions of the IEI as rows. The
expectation is that those respondents who rated overall Intranet effectiveness as low
would also rate the Intranet effectiveness as low and vice versa.
Generally, it can be accepted that the IEI possesses construct validity. The average
evaluations by dimension seem to increase as the overall evaluation increases. Unlike
the original development of the instrument, however, in the case of those who evaluate
the Intranet as Very Successful, their evaluations by dimension are a little lower than
those whose overall evaluation is Successful. This may simply be because of the small
number of respondents who rate the Intranet as Very Successful and may not be significant.
5.3.2 Convergent validity
Convergent validity is indicated where the IEI assessments are significant to other
independent assessments of Intranet effectiveness. This was measured by using a multiple
regression on the overall evaluations of the Intranet (question 20) as the dependent
variable, with the average assessments on the dimensions of the IEI as the independent
variables.
The instrument is said to possess convergent validity as the Rsquare is high at .34, and
this is significant (p<0.01). Of the dimensions, however, it is only communication that
contributes significantly to the regression.
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OVERALL EVALUATION n COLLABORATION CATALYST COMMUNICATION
Very unsuccessful 1 2.33 1.42 2.00
Unsuccessful 13 3.69 3.47 2.71
Successful 94 4.93 4.70 4.36
Very successful 10 4.76 4.52 4.13
Leonard: Empirical support of the positive impact of an
Intranet on communication in the working environment
5.3.3 Nomological validity
Nomological validity is indicated where, in a factor analysis, all the IEI items load on to
the same factors as they did in the original IEI. A principal components factor analysis
of the 19 items was conducted. Using the Eigenvalues > 1 cutoff rule, 15 components were
extracted, which together account for 78.12% of the variation in the data. As can be seen
in the “rotated components” part of the table below, the items generally load together
as expected, especially on the collaboration and communications dimensions, although
the pattern on the catalyst dimension is generally more scattered.
The results of the Principal Components/Factor Analysis are provided in Appendix A.
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Response: OVER
Summary of Fit
RSquare 0.343967
RSquare Adj 0.326703
Root Mean Square Error 0.392628
Mean of Response 2.957627
Observations (or Sum Wgts) 118
Parameter Estimates
Term Estimate Std Error t Ratio Prob>|t|
Intercept 1.732476 0.186524 9.29 <.0001
COLLAB 0.0286194 0.044828 0.64 0.5245
CATALYST 0.0711446 0.074814 0.95 0.3436
COMM 0.1792035 0.061835 2.90 0.0045
Effect Test
Source Nparm DF Sum of Squares F Ratio Prob>F
COLLAB 1 1 0.0628314 0.4076 0.5245
CATALYST 1 1 0.1394046 0.9043 0.3436
COMM 1 1 1.2947637 8.3990 0.0045
Rotated Components
Rotated Factor Pattern
Q1 0.4244061 0.8071579 0.1734562 0.0351601 -0.086547
Q2 -0.066119 0.6963614 0.4028283 0.1738985 0.2505860
Q3 0.2989953 0.7575822 0.0630633 0.3191372 0.2990648
Q4 0.1088430 0.3088849 0.2902519 0.1228062 0.7865151
Q5 0.4490414 0.5296146 0.1944737 0.4051883 0.3453246
Q6 0.5672283 0.3108215 0.3264137 0.3088663 0.1257223
Q7 0.6365563 0.1267641 0.5151416 0.1950664 0.1915295
Q8 0.7917186 0.1179872 0.2054827 0.0042830 0.3238106
Q9 0.4746166 -0.096978 0.1207750 0.2470507 0.6492202
Q10 0.6025307 0.2997746 0.1955511 0.4612983 0.2074085
Q11 0.1284036 0.2037502 0.2496879 0.8582925 0.0674125
Q12 0.2341225 0.0530567 0.3345739 0.7729994 0.2420602
Q13 0.4659862 0.2933748 0.0923701 0.5550017 0.4598034
Q14 0.7130882 0.2122520 0.2475406 0.2643216 0.1719732
Q15 0.6086697 0.3187481 0.0897145 0.4896541 0.0295331
Q16 0.4515962 0.2538551 0.0631253 0.5025221 0.5137689
Q17 0.2342994 0.1976418 0.6292493 0.0538643 0.4855407
Q18 0.4258304 0.1690879 0.7271475 0.2800933 0.0728640
Q19 0.1723956 0.2106115 0.7672904 0.3146515 0.1455662
Communicare 24(1) - July 2005
6. OTHER OBSERVATIONS
Association between perceived Intranet effectiveness and computer expertise
Question 20 was introduced into the IEI to determine the respondents’ perceived computer
expertise, and an analysis was performed, by using multiple regression, to evaluate
whether an individual’s perception of the effectiveness of the Intranet is related to his/her
computer expertise. The expertise was taken as the dependent variable and the IEI
dimensions were taken as predictors. It was found that there is no significant relationship
between expertise and perceptions of Intranet effectiveness.
Association between time spent on the Intranet and perceived Intranet effectiveness
The purpose of this test was to determine whether the time a person spends using the
Intranet is related to his perception of the effectiveness of the Intranet. This was done
by means of multiple regression, with time spent as the dependent variable and the IEI
dimensions as the predictors. It was found that no significant relationship exists between
time spent using the Intranet and the perceived effectiveness of this technology.
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Response: EXPERT
Summary of Fit
RSquare 0.019999
RSquare Adj -0.00579
Root Mean Square Error 1.000819
Mean of Response 5.194915
Observations (or Sum Wgts) 118
Effect Test
Source Nparm DF Sum of Squares F Ratio Prob>F
COLLAB 1 1 0.31519105 0.3147 0.5759
CATALYST 1 1 0.00485956 0.0049 0.9446
COMM 1 1 0.17813642 0.1778 0.6740
Whole-Model Test
Analysis of Variance
Source DF Sum of Squares Mean Square F Ratio
Model 3 2.33022 0.77674 0.7755
Error 114 114.18673 1.00164 Prob>F
C Total 117 116.51695 0.5100
Leonard: Empirical support of the positive impact of an
Intranet on communication in the working environment
The results are examined and interpreted in the next section. Conclusions are made
regarding the effectiveness of the Intranet on the social issues within this organization.
The different dimensions of communication, collaboration and catalyst are considered
separately.
7. INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The results of the survey show that the Intranet is considered to be successful by the
respondents. Only one of the 118 (0.8%) respondents felt that the Intranet was Very
Unsuccessful and 13 (11%) felt that it was Unsuccessful. A total of 94 respondents (79.6%)
rated the Intranet as Successful and 10 (8.4%) felt that the Intranet was Very Successful.
In the rest of this section the three research questions are addressed in terms of the
Intranet’s value/effectiveness on communication, collaboration and its role as a catalyst
for change.
7.1 Communication
Communication has been defined as playing key roles in providing and obtaining
information, creating understanding and building ownership. No collaboration or change
(catalyst) is possible without communication. Therefore, this dimension is crucial in
supporting goals that rely on the catalyst and collaboration dimensions of the Intranet.
The data was analyzed and purified by using recognized procedures. It resulted in the
elimination of certain items culminating in a 19-item IEI scale. Thereafter, the reliability
of the instrument was determined. The researchers used a rotated factor matrix to load
items onto three different factors. These factors were labelled the “three Cs” of Intranet
effectiveness.
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Response: TIME
Summary of Fit
RSquare 0.014256
RSquare Adj -0.01169
Root Mean Square Error 1.052881
Mean of Response 1.711864
Observations (or Sum Wgts) 118
Effect Test
Source Nparm DF Sum of Squares F Ratio Prob>F
COLLAB 1 1 0.0000015 0.0000 0.9991
CATALYST 1 1 0.1721070 0.1553 0.6943
COMM 1 1 1.0982776 0.9907 0.3217
Whole-Model Test
Analysis of Variance
Source DF Sum of Squares Mean Square F Ratio
Model 3 1.82762 0.60921 0.5495
Error 114 126.37577 1.10856 Prob>F
C Total 117 128.20339 0.6495
Communicare 24(1) - July 2005
Four questions in the IEI were loaded onto the dimension of communication. In the case
of the other two elements, the average evaluations of these dimensions increase as the
overall evaluation increases.
It was determined that the Intranet contributed significantly to communication with
fellow employees with whom members had not communicated before. It was also the
respondents’ perception that the Intranet contributed towards making the members of
the organization better communicators. It was found, however, that the Intranet had a
small impact on the time managers took to learn about problems causing anger and
frustration. The Intranet had very little impact on the nature of the interaction between
supervisors and subordinates. This may be positive in the sense that the nature of the
interaction between supervisors and subordinates did not rely on a relatively impersonal
communication tool such as the Intranet.
It is perceived that the Intranet is successful in terms of the dimension of communication.
7.2 Collaboration
The Intranet as a technology possibly has the highest influence on collaboration within
an organization. Effective collaboration was stated to mean that employees use the
knowledge management systems and become contributors thereto to enhance the content
and its value. Several collaborative functions were cited in a previous section of this
report. Literature has shown that this is the dimension that facilitates business results
in an organization. It is thus important to gauge the impact of this specific dimension
closely during the process of measuring the effectiveness of the Intranet. The Intranet
Effectiveness Instrument loads 12 of the 19 questions onto this dimension. Most of the
responses to questions under this dimension were indicative of high effectiveness of the
specific dimension. As in the case of the Catalyst, the average evaluations of these
dimensions increase as the overall evaluation increases. However, in the case of those
who evaluated the Intranet as Very Successful, the evaluations are a little lower than
those whose overall evaluation is Successful. This may be attributed to the small number
of respondents who rated the Intranet as Very Successful.
From the results the Intranet is perceived to have the greatest impact on the way the
organization communicates internally, which of course contributes to collaboration within
an organization. The question is specifically related to change in this function. The Intranet
is also considered an integral part of the operation of the organization. The perception
is that the Intranet is very effective in saving the organization resources such as time,
facilities and money. It is perceived that the Intranet brings the members of the organization
together and helps them work more effectively.
The Intranet mission states that the Groupnet will focus on “collaborative communication”.
The goals of the Intranet in the organization are being shifted to service more Human
Resources functions and it is here that collaboration is of the utmost importance. The
success of Human Resources functions will rest solely on collaboration within the Intranet
environment.
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It can be deduced from the responses that the Intranet succeeds in its goal to contribute
greatly towards collaboration in the organization. It is interesting that the members
within the organization do not actually credit the Intranet for contributing to collaboration
within the organization. The two questions determining whether the members actually
realize the contribution of the Intranet and talk about it were graded such that it is clear
that the Intranet and its contribution is not the topic of many discussions in the
organization. This could be interpreted as either a good or a bad sign. Different experts
have different opinions. John Kessling (Gerstner, 1999) says that an effective Intranet
causes people to comment that they do not know how they managed without it. In
contrast, Jerry Stevenson, in the same publication, says that an Intranet is truly effective
when people stop noticing it. In this case, it is important to determine whether the Intranet
is not being noticed due to its effectiveness and the fact that it is fully integrated into
the working lives of the employees or whether the Intranet is not being noticed because
it does not play a big role in the working lives of the employees. It is clear from the
responses that most members feel that the Intranet is successful as a medium for
collaboration. The conclusion is that the Intranet fulfils its expectation and is therefore
not noticed due to its integrated nature.
7.3 Catalyst
The first three questions of the questionnaire load onto the Catalyst factor. The average
evaluations of these dimensions increase as the overall evaluation increases. However,
in the case of those who evaluated the Intranet as Very Successful, the evaluations are
a little lower than those whose overall evaluation is Successful. When considering the
means of these factors, it is clear that the respondents believe that the Intranet is the
solution for bringing people within the organization together, and that the Intranet
provides a major cultural revolution in the way the people work, think and communicate.
They also indicated that they consider the Intranet as a vital tool to bring a company
together and give the members a strong sense of common purpose.
This dimension has been identified as an important characteristic of the Intranet, as it
facilitates employee acculturation, training and communications while lowering business
costs. The results of the survey indicate that it will be an effective medium for realizing
the goals of the organization.
The vision states that the Intranet must act as a “change agent” within the group.
Considering the rating received on the Catalyst, the Intranet is successful as a change
agent and will contribute to the success of the planned initiatives within the organization.
8. CONCLUSIONS
The goal of the Intranet is to make employees more effective in their jobs. The measure
of success of an Intranet should thus not only be in hard financial terms considering only
the start-up and maintenance costs of the technology. The measures of success should
be measures that determine whether the individual and working community have improved
the quality of the workplace and thus improved quality of work. Intranets should not only
125
Communicare 24(1) - July 2005
contain information that is convenient to have. They should include data, information
and knowledge that are easily digestible, essential for decision making and vital for daily
work. The system should allow for individualized interactions and the technology used
must be agile. Intranets should be developed consistent with the organizational goals.
At The Insurance Company, the Intranet has been developed to provide a host of functions
to support and enhance business processes. The technical and hard financial aspects can
be measured by using technical standards and financial analytical techniques. The soft
issues that drive the success of the Intranet are more difficult to measure. These soft
issues are communication, collaboration and catalyst for change. By using a valid, reliable
instrument, the Intranet Effectiveness Instrument, it was possible to measure these soft
issues at The Insurance Company Employee Benefits.
It was determined that the Intranet at The Insurance Company can be considered effective
as the impact of the Intranet on the soft issues is positive. The research questions are
answered as follows:
Communication through the corporate Intranet at The Insurance Company Employee
Benefits is considered effective.
Collaboration as facilitated by the corporate Intranet is effective.
The corporate Intranet is effective as a catalyst for change in the organization. It
can thus be applied to bring about changes in the organization.
The article concludes with applications of the research results on the business unit as
well as recommendations for consideration in the business unit and the company as a
whole. Used as base-line information, these survey results are valuable in establishing
a point of departure for future measurements. They should also be used as comparison
with other business units to determine where improvement and marketing of the Intranet
are necessary. At the very least, this survey was valuable in determining the perceptions
of the respondents and evaluating the viability of the intended role of the Intranet within
the organization.
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128
EigenValue: 10.3045 1.2895 1.1486 1.0956 1.0043 0.5987 0.5406 0.4842 0.4006 0.3260 0.3043 0.2849 0.2589 0.2378 0.2004 0.1564 0.1403 0.1180 0.1064
Percent: 54.2343 6.7871 6.0453 5.7661 5.2860 3.1511 2.8454 2.5485 2.1085 1.7156 1.6015 1.4993 1.3625 1.2517 1.0546 0.8229 0.7386 0.6212 0.5599
CumPercent: 54.2343 61.0214 67.0667 72.8327 78.1187 81.2699 84.1153 86.6638 88.7723 90.4879 92.0894 93.5887 94.9512 96.2028 97.2574 98.0804 98.8189 99.4401 100.0000
Eigenvectors:
Q1 0.19356 0.52156 -0.15972 -0.29428 -0.09688 0.07328 0.19852 -0.08889 -0.23631 0.07932 -0.11011 -0.18959 0.13721 0.03458 0.11359 0.54985 0.02440 -0.15736 0.21335
Q2 0.18084 0.48741 0.23065 0.13755 0.13904 0.02970 -0.11679 0.50931 0.49210 -0.07586 -0.07427 0.06127 0.01078 0.21184 0.13421 -0.08163 0.16064 0.05744 0.09164
Q3 0.23769 0.37104 -0.17381 -0.01152 0.25250 -0.12869 -0.11108 -0.20429 -0.03486 -0.14872 0.15292 0.08527 0.26679 -0.02900 -0.24780 -0.11241 -0.43716 0.34879 -0.35817
Q4 0.20374 -0.00378 0.33910 0.02975 0.51305 -0.18307 0.10138 -0.21225 -0.33973 -0.03316 0.19421 0.34989 0.11477 0.05493 0.24400 -0.07479 0.29325 -0.20132 0.07767
Q5 0.26936 0.13383 -0.11226 -0.00431 0.13444 0.20125 0.14066 0.20118 -0.05013 0.23779 -0.05096 0.03816 -0.35154 -0.37112 -0.19434 -0.18929 -0.04794 -0.50859 -0.34511
Q6 0.23917 0.01017 -0.05968 -0.11537 -0.16649 -0.01451 -0.66167 -0.07839 0.00729 0.05733 0.55232 -0.02372 -0.27873 0.01780 -0.04768 0.16195 0.18357 -0.05722 0.03866
Q7 0.24255 -0.14171 0.14229 -0.20454 -0.24476 -0.30192 -0.16409 0.13675 -0.16854 -0.41738 -0.31461 0.09471 -0.07668 0.35698 -0.03450 -0.03022 -0.29581 -0.34714 -0.09122
Q8 0.21827 -0.22036 -0.01431 -0.46219 -0.00240 -0.03749 0.38426 0.16944 0.20143 -0.05807 0.13991 0.39757 -0.15318 -0.01945 -0.35288 0.17948 0.11091 0.29034 0.11591
Q9 0.19784 -0.41720 0.06857 -0.07653 0.30298 0.48047 -0.14368 0.26304 -0.00790 0.12486 0.05539 -0.18439 0.42933 0.19252 -0.04019 0.22129 -0.16152 -0.07761 -0.08342
Q10 0.25946 -0.06050 -0.19311 -0.03478 -0.06593 0.19494 -0.20142 0.24276 -0.40215 0.03176 -0.29183 0.21223 -0.12601 -0.21262 0.41006 -0.13790 0.00706 0.44915 0.07541
Q11 0.21168 -0.01014 -0.18414 0.55276 -0.16098 0.07870 -0.04876 -0.11441 -0.11587 0.10559 -0.25946 0.27633 0.10488 0.25426 -0.44262 0.15620 0.32205 0.00965 -0.00633
Q12 0.22969 -0.18634 -0.04817 0.45140 -0.10635 -0.23078 0.18578 0.04943 0.22707 0.01602 0.18671 0.15289 -0.04814 -0.18878 0.37727 0.43602 -0.34272 -0.04764 -0.06877
Q13 0.26487 -0.11106 -0.17700 0.11043 0.20701 -0.30585 -0.06285 0.07341 0.02228 0.03695 -0.05657 -0.27520 0.07683 -0.22837 -0.23898 -0.20452 -0.14547 -0.07288 0.68116
Q14 0.24157 -0.11968 -0.11715 -0.23239 -0.13938 -0.42357 0.00819 -0.06411 0.19821 0.56567 -0.13585 -0.11545 0.25424 0.13358 0.18657 -0.18183 0.20725 0.03137 -0.26689
Q15 0.23324 -0.01113 -0.34113 -0.03128 -0.15865 0.39761 0.19497 -0.33966 0.25380 -0.15556 0.15912 0.12138 0.03496 0.26998 0.25593 -0.38831 -0.07175 -0.17254 0.19364
Q16 0.25239 -0.14547 -0.15137 0.08271 0.26656 -0.04926 0.15735 -0.10542 0.04458 -0.39180 -0.09155 -0.53654 -0.31211 0.09474 0.06979 0.09264 0.33128 0.18388 -0.24673
Q17 0.20854 -0.01715 0.48696 -0.05884 0.06215 0.19520 -0.14956 -0.50732 0.26362 0.18861 -0.38428 -0.00498 -0.24654 -0.09732 -0.03435 0.09877 -0.18982 0.12252 0.09440
Q18 0.23547 -0.01458 0.28507 -0.00251 -0.39598 0.08764 0.01858 -0.03500 0.05368 -0.34075 0.03854 -0.09349 0.44937 -0.52296 -0.04838 -0.09114 0.26903 -0.03774 -0.08905
Q19 0.21451 0.07133 0.39815 0.17556 -0.29335 0.05318 0.32334 0.11681 -0.32935 0.22041 0.31642 -0.28695 -0.14380 0.25851 -0.09259 -0.20682 -0.16113 0.21582 0.03964
Eigenvectors:
Principal Components / Factor Analysis
Principal Components
APPENDIX A
