Avaliku sektori organisatsiooni ootused siseveebile Eesti Vabariigi Rahandusministeeriumi näitel
Date
2007
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
Following is the summary of Margita Tuulik’s Baccalaureate Thesis “The Expectations of
Public Sector Employees to the Intranet on the Example of the Ministry of Finance Estonia”
that aims to map the primary expectations of officials towards the Intranet of their
organization.
The present Thesis is a pilot-research based on in-depth interviews and gives an overview of
the main tendencies, evaluations and expectations. In order to get more representative
overview of the expectations of the officials the number of respondents should be enlarged.
In the theory chapter author introduces the theoretical grounds and keywords, such as
organizational communication, internal communication, the definition and effectiveness of
Intranet. Forming the theoretical basis author used theories of organizational and internal
communication by Vos, Shomaker and Pace & Faules. Defining the Intranet, theories of
Newell and Masel-Lewise were used. Explaining the Intranet effectiveness theories of
Telleen, Edenius & Borgerson, Davenport & Pearlson and Curry & Stancich were discussed.
The empirical chapter of the Thesis was to find answers to three practical research- questions:
1. What kind of expectations the officials of the Ministry of Finance hold towards the
Intranet of their organization?
2. Are there any differences in expectations of the officials depending on different work
fields?
3. Which kind of content structure of the Intranet supports the reception of information?
The respondents of the quantitative and qualitative research were officials of the Ministry of
Finance Estonia. Quantitative research was held through the Intranet were the questionnaire
was available for all the people in the organization. The questions focused on the content,
quality, display and user convenience of the current Intranet of the Ministry. The qualitative
research was carried out using the method of in-depth interviews. The respondent selection
was made from the people that responded to the quantitative questionnaire; a representative
choice was made including different respondents that provided positive, neutral or negative
evaluations to current Intranet. In addition, selection included both, men and women, as well
officials from different career levels, e.g. heads of units, specialists, referents.
The results of the quantitative research gave the primary overview of the officials’ evaluations
to the quality of the content, user convenience and display of the current Intranet. The main
conclusion was that most of the information in the current Intranet is useful and informative.
Other main conclusion was that restructuring the content is highly needed.
As previously mentioned, the qualitative research was based on the pilot-study, in-depth
interviews with the officials of the Ministry. The main aim of the author was to study
officials’ motivations of using Intranet, expectations to Intranet and needs of development for
the internal communication
Responding the research questions, author claims that the officials of the Ministry of Finance
(as an example group of public sector employees) expect Intranet to be an important channel
to support general communication, but not the main communicator.
The users of the Intranet estimate highly structure of the content that is based on the needs of
the users, highlighting that every section and piece of information should placed and formed
considering its target group. As the volumes of information are quite high in the organization,
displaying the information has to be carefully considered and providing logical structure is
crucial in order to enable adequate reception.
To assure the active usage of the Intranet and diminish the need for several parallel online-
channels for internal communication, Intranet needs to be developed to a more news channel.
Applying the “one window system”, linking the Intranet with other internal information
systems would raise the effectiveness on the Intranet and develop generally the internal
communication of the organization.
The pilot-study showed that considerable differences in the expectations can be drawn by the
career levels and not by the work fields. The need for information and expectations
concerning the Intranet are different among the managers compared to specialists and
referents.
Concluding the summary, there is need for research based on bigger selection of the
respondents to map more precisely the expectations of the organization. Author also points
that the differences in public and private sector are a subject to study.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General)