Mid Sweden University

In this paper we briefly present ongoing research related to Intranets in order to define shortcomings and needs for further research. An Intranet often mirrors the organization’s and the managers’ view of employees. An Intranet is more a tool to support the organization in common than to solve separate tasks. We outline the ‘map of the world of research of intranets’ where knowledge management, organization theory, design and informatics are the main cornerstones that overlap each other. There are different kinds of approaches depending on the Intranet researchers’ choice of problem domain. One approach is Intranet development in a broad sense as the problem domain. Other researchers have knowledge management as the problem domain and consider Intranet as one way to handle KM. Researchers, who have chosen Intranet as the secondary problem domain, might have their theoretical starting points in other disciplines/spheres of interest. Examples of these disciplines might be organization theory, social science and knowledge. Ongoing research on Intranet mainly focuses on different aspects of implementation, initiative, development processes, knowledge management and roles. There are lacks due to the number of empirical studies. The use of Intranets is poorly investigated and questions about aspects that influence the understanding and use of an Intranet are being raised.

This paper presents a study carried out 2002, concerning the Intranet in five Swedish organizations. The purpose is to investigate in what way different aspects influence the use and understanding of an Intranet. An explorative approach is used, based on two interview guides. The first guide is aimed at managers and IS representatives and covers background aspects of the Intranets, as well as data about the businesses and their Intranets. The second guide is directed to all kinds of users and covers aspects of the use of Intranet and in what way users can influence the content and understanding of the Intranet. The persons interviewed represent end-users, managers and members of the IS staff. Results show that the Intranets in the study are poorly matured and that the main use mode is ‘publishing’. The underlying philosophy of the Intranets seems to be self-information rather than informing others. Furthermore, the use and understanding of Intranet differs between end-users, managers and IS –staff, according to trust and ideas of responsibilities. Finally, important aspects to be considered when investigating the use of Intranets in further research are identified. These aspects are strategies, social context, further development process, competence and the Intranets’ organizational affiliation as well as the culture of the organization.

This paper presents a study of intranet in five Swedish organisations The purpose with the study was to investigate in what way different aspects influences the use and understanding of intranet. The method used was an explorative approach, based on two interview guides. The first interview guide was directed to managers and IS representatives, dealt with background aspects of the intranets as well as data about the businesses and their intranets. The second interview guide directed to all kind of users covered aspects about use of intranet and in what way users could influence the content of intranet and the understanding of intranet. The persons interviewed represented end-users, managers and members of the IS-staffs. The interviews were carried out from May to November 2002. The results showed that the intranets in the study were poor matured and the main use mode was publishing. The underlying philosophy of the intranets seemed to be more that the users were informing themselves instead of inform others Furthermore, the use and understanding of intranet differed between end-users vs. managers and the IS-staff. Finally, we have identified important aspects to be considered when investigating use of intranets in further research. These aspects are strategies, context, further development process, competence, and the intranets belonging to the organisation as well as the culture of the organisation.

Syftet med den enskilda studien var: att inom VICQ-projektets ram, stärka kunskapen om den faktiska användningen av intranät (användningen förklarad via upplevelser av strategi och syfte, initiativ, införande, utveckling) och härvid särskilt belysa olika personalkategoriers uppfattning om intranätet, att utifrån resultatet av ovanstående, identifiera och precisera ytterligare frågeställningar relaterat till vår utgångspunkt (utgångsmodellen) inför kommande studier

In this paper we briefly present ongoing research related to Intranets in order to define shortcomings and needs for further research. The ongoing research mainly focuses on different aspects of: implementation, initiative, stakeholders, roles, and other organisational questions. A new Agenda is presented where some of the questions appearing in the state-of-the-art are categorized and presented as a suggestion for further research.

In this paper we briefly present research related to Intranets in order to define topics of interest. The presented research mainly focuses on: intranet implementation, initiative, stakeholders, roles, and other organizational questions. We also present an umbrella project – VICQ (Viable Intranet for Creativity and Quality), related to the research in progress. This umbrella project intends to focus on questions concerning the use of intranets, philosophy of mangers, philosophy of technology, aspects of design. Some future part projects are identified and described as well as a planned pilot study. In the pilot study we will investigate a number of intranets. The result will be an analysis and a description of three different groups (managers, IS-services, users) view of their intranet. We shall use this analyze to specify questions for further work.

The authors have chosen to apply different aspects of design to a model for a first (preparatory) design of information systems. We will describe important aspects and standpoints, and suggest a first model including a Meta method and a virtual toolbox. Initially we focus on the identification of suitable criteria for a general design of systems development, aspects of design for the first model (starting point model) and the early steps/phases in the development of information systems. We also briefly discuss the model and the Meta method on Intranet in terms of further development.