here - ERIM - Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam

A validation Study of 

House of Quality key 

performance indicators 

“The case of De Unie’s Online union” 

Name: Ferdinand Kieboom 

Number: 283241 

Department: Marketing Management 

Coach: Prof. Dr. F.M. Go 

Co-Reader: Dr. D.M. Halemane 

RSM Erasmus University Rotterdam 

December, 2007

A validation Study of House of Quality key performance indicators 

ii 

Preface 

The author declares that the text and work presented in this Master thesis is original and that no 

sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating the 

Master thesis. 

The copyright of the Master thesis rests with the author. The author is responsible for its contents. 

RSM Erasmus University is only responsible for the educational coaching and beyond that cannot be 

held responsible for the content. 

Ferdinand F. Kieboom 

Department of Marketing Management 

RSM Erasmus University Rotterdam 

November, 2007


iii 

Foreword 

“The metropolis setting makes it possible and necessary for an individual to preserve his autonomy 

and individuality in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, 

and of the technique of life” 

Simmel 1922 

By the end of 2006, the RSM Erasmus University and Microsoft Netherlands started the research 

project “The New World of Work”. This research project aimed to provide insights in the changing 

way of working for the workforce, enabled by information and communication technology (ICT). One 

of the organizations that joined the research project was Dutch labor union De Unie. Each student, 

participating in this research investigated a single case study, from which the case study of De Unie 

served as my Master’s Thesis. 

At the start of this research project I only knew labor unions from strikes presented in the 

newspapers and on television, and I was wondering why a Dutch labor union would like to participate 

in our research project. To my opinion, labor unions were a little old-fashioned and conservative. 

I already knew that representative organizations were facing a decline in memberships for the past 

years. By the time I was wondering the above, I came to the understanding that in fact it was not 

strange at all for a workforce representative organization such as De Unie to participate in this 

research project. 

As labor unions are facing difficulties on the recruitment and retention of members the primary 

concern for unions will be to identify new concepts that adapt to the needs of the changing 

workforce and rejuvenate the traditional union. Fortunately, I noticed the management of De Unie to 

be aware of the urgency for workforce representative organizations to develop new concepts. And as 

a result, De Unie recently started with the first virtual union in the Netherlands. My opinion about De 

Unie changed; this might be a progressive organization! 

Traditionally, labour unions centres on maintaining the elusive balance in the group-individual 

member relationship. I came to the understanding that one of the forces that is changing the group- 

individual relationship is the growth of the internet and other ICT tools. The latter increases the 

speed and availability of information and turn the group-individual relationship on its head, due to 

the emergence of ICT-enabled individualization. For De Unie, understanding members’ needs for


individualization and reconciling these with the requirements of the group will be a precondition to 

the online union’s success. 

Towards the end of my thesis I realized that with the start of the online union, although at the 

moment very small and not fully developed, De Unie explored a complete new concept with high 

potential to succeed. By this research study, I have tried to provide De Unie direction for the ongoing 

way of improving the online union to adapt to the needs of the changing workforce. 

Providing direction is phase I in the process of improving the online union. Translating the needs of 

the members into the design will be the second phase. During my last contact with De Unie, the 

project manager of the online union mentioned: “Okay, I was thinking about the following technical 

requirements in order to translate the needs.......how do you think about it?” At that point, my 

opinion about labor union De Unie was definitely changed; this organization certainly can be 

progressive. 

iv


v 

Acknowledgements 

The research study you are about to read has been written as my Master’s thesis. In writing this 

paper I was fortunate with the support and advice of many people with different fields of expertise. 

In this section I’d like to dedicate some words of appreciation to those who guided me in my journey 

towards this final thesis. 

First of all I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Prof. Dr. Frank Go for his time, guidance, 

overwhelming support and enthusiasm when writing this thesis. His knowledge, rich interpretations 

and critical view led to many hours of great conversations that were of great importance for the final 

result of this Master’s thesis. For his invaluable contributions I am very grateful. 

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to my co-reader, Dr. Murthy Halemane. I would like 

to thank him for his time, critical view and overwhelming commitment. Also thanks for the nice 

conversations, practical advices and interest in the research subject. 

Furthermore, I would like to thank Ad Breukel for the valuable conversations we had in Utrecht. His 

knowledge and experience in the field of research are tremendous. I would like to thank him for the 

time he made free for us and for his valuable advices. In this way I will also show my respect to Dr. 

Robbert Govers for his contributions at the start of our research. 

A special word of thanks will go to Prof. Dr. Ir. Eric van Heck, Dr. Peter van Baalen and Drs. Marcel 

van Oosterhout for their constructive criticism, contributions and support to our team during the last 

year we worked on the New World of Work project. I really appreciated our cooperation. I would 

also like to thank my “teammates” Robbert Engels, Marcel Legerstee, Vincent Vermeulen and 

Wieteke Dupain; we made it! 

For this research for the online union I will also express my gratitude to many people of De Unie for 

the discussions, advice and support. I would also like to thank all members of the online union who 

took the time to fill in my survey and therefore contributed with valuable information. 

Last, but certainly not least, I would like to express my deepest respect and gratitude towards my 

family; my parents and my brother. Their never ending support and encouragement was of great 

importance to me. I feel very fortunate to have a family like you! 

Ferdinand Kieboom, November 2007


This thesis is dedicated to the memory of R. van Zevenbergen-Huisman 

vi 

Dedication 

(1917 – 2007)


vii 

Executive Summary 

Workforce representative organizations in the Netherlands are witnessing a decline in the number of 

memberships for about 10 years. Under influence of ICT, the design of work is changing from a 

centralized to a decentralized form. As a result, the function and role of representative organizations, 

such as De Unie, are changing as well. In response, representative organizations are searching for, 

and experimenting with new service concepts in order to recruit new members and increase the 

position of the organization as well as the organization’s cash flow. Under influence of the 

aforementioned forces, De Unie started to develop a new union concept that is more responsive to 

the members’ contemporary needs. As a result, De Unie recently launched the first online union in 

the Netherlands; “De Internetvakbond”. 

The current research study serves to improve decision makers’ understanding of the demands of the 

members, and offers objective knowledge about the key performance drivers of the online union. 

Hence, it will provide De Unie direction to the ongoing process of designing an online union that 

adapts to the demands of the changing workforce. By both identification of the most important 

needs of the members, by collection of empirical data and; by translating the needs into appropriate 

technical requirements. 

This research starts with a literature review followed by exploratory research to the needs of the 

members and the performance drivers of the online union. The present study applies the SERVQUAL 

model to measure the quality of the services offered by the online union. By including Kano’s model 

we were able to identify how well the different service attributes of the online union are satisfying 

the needs of the members. By integrating the SERVQUAL and Kano model into the concept of the 

House of Quality, we were able to translate the needs and requirements of the member into the 

design process of the online union. 

By exploratory research we identified five dimensions that are considered to determine the overall 

performance of the online union; interaction, solidarity, information, safety and interaction. 

Statistical analysis merged the dimensions interaction and solidarity and indicated a significant 

positive relationship between tangibles and the overall performance of the online union. The House 

of Quality indicated Digitalization to be the most important technical requirement in the ongoing 

process of improvement and enables the online union to meet the widest collection of members’ 

needs. Digitalization in this case offers the online union possibilities for value-based pricing of 

services, connect different parties in the network and enables interaction between the De Unie, it’s 

members and third parties. From this perspective it increases the value of the online union.


viii 

Table of Contents 

Preface ........................................................................................................................................ ii 

Foreword .................................................................................................................................... iii 

Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... v 

Dedication ...................................................................................................................................vi 

Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................... vii 

Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... viii 

List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... xi 

List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ xi 

Chapter 1 - Introduction ............................................................................................................. 13 

1.1 Research Background .................................................................................................................. 13 

1.2 Theories of service improvements .............................................................................................. 14 

1.3 Problem Definition and Research Questions .............................................................................. 16 

1.3.1 Research Questions .............................................................................................................. 17 

1.4 Research objectives ..................................................................................................................... 18 

1.5 Research Design .......................................................................................................................... 18 

1.6 Thesis Structure ........................................................................................................................... 19 

Chapter 2 - Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................. 21 

2.1 Online trade unions ..................................................................................................................... 21 

2.2 New Media challenges ................................................................................................................ 23 

2.3 Virtual Communities .................................................................................................................... 26 

2.3.1 Concept of virtual communities ........................................................................................... 26 

2.3.2 Typology of virtual communities .......................................................................................... 29 

2.3.3 Function of Virtual Communities in Marketing .................................................................... 31 

2.4 SERVQUAL ................................................................................................................................... 33 

2.5 Quality Function Deployment ..................................................................................................... 34 

2.5.1 The Four-Phase Model ......................................................................................................... 35 

2.5.2 House of Quality ................................................................................................................... 36 

Customer Needs (WHAT’S) ............................................................................................................ 37 

Planning matrix (WHY’S) ............................................................................................................... 39 

Technical Response (HOW’S) ........................................................................................................ 39 

Relationship matrix ....................................................................................................................... 39 

Technical Correlation Matrix ......................................................................................................... 40 

Technical Matrix ............................................................................................................................ 40


2.6 Conceptual model ....................................................................................................................... 40 

Chapter 3 – Methodology ........................................................................................................... 43 

3.1 Research Design .......................................................................................................................... 43 

3.2 Data description .......................................................................................................................... 43 

Phase I: Exploratory research; defining member’s needs ............................................................. 44 

Phase II Quantitative research; online survey ............................................................................... 44 

Phase III Establishing the House of Quality ................................................................................... 45 

3.3 Instrument development and quality ......................................................................................... 45 

Chapter 4 - Results Empirical Study ............................................................................................ 49 

4.1 Phase I: Results exploratory research ......................................................................................... 49 

4.1.1 Interviews with employees of the online union ................................................................... 50 

4.1.2 Interviews with the members of the online union ............................................................... 51 

4.2 Results Quantitative research ..................................................................................................... 54 

4.2.1 Sample description ............................................................................................................... 54 

4.2.2 Factor analyse ....................................................................................................................... 57 

Scale Reliablity ............................................................................................................................... 59 

Correlations ................................................................................................................................... 60 

4.2.3 Multiple Regression Analysis ................................................................................................ 60 

4.3 Establishing the House of Quality; translating “What” into “How” ............................................ 62 

4.3.1 Gap analysis ......................................................................................................................... 62 

4.3.2 Kano Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 64 

4.3.3 Data Collection House of Quality ......................................................................................... 65 

4.3.4 The House of Quality ............................................................................................................ 66 

4.4 Summary empirical results .......................................................................................................... 69 

4.4.1 Exploratory research ............................................................................................................. 69 

4.4.2 Conclusions Quantitative results .......................................................................................... 69 

4.4.3 Conclusions House of Quality ............................................................................................... 70 

Chapter 5 - Conclusions, Implications and Recommendations ...................................................... 71 

5.1 Synopsis ....................................................................................................................................... 71 

5.2 Central Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 71 

5.3 Implications ................................................................................................................................. 72 

5.4 Methodological value .................................................................................................................. 73 

5.5 Recommendations for future research ....................................................................................... 73 

References ................................................................................................................................. 75 

ix


Appendix 1: Survey Data............................................................................................................. 81 

1.1 Expectation vs. Perceptions ........................................................................................................ 81 

Appendix 2: Independent correlations ........................................................................................ 82 

Appendix 3 ................................................................................................................................. 84 

3.1 Kano matrix ................................................................................................................................. 84 

Appendix 4: Case description De Unie ......................................................................................... 85 

Appendix 5: Interviews employees’ online labor union. ............................................................... 88 

5.1 List of interviewed employees .................................................................................................... 88 

5.2 Questions ..................................................................................................................................... 88 

5.3 Conclusions interviews with employees ..................................................................................... 90 

Appendix 6: Interviews with members online labor union. .......................................................... 93 

6.1 List of interviewed members ....................................................................................................... 93 

6.2 Questions ..................................................................................................................................... 93 

6.3 Conclusions interviews with members. ....................................................................................... 95 

Appendix 7: Survey Internetvakbond De Unie ............................................................................. 98 

Appendix 8: Statistical Analyses ................................................................................................. 108 

8.1 Factor Analysis ........................................................................................................................... 108 

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xi 

List of Figures 

Figure - 1 House of Quality .................................................................................................................... 16 

Figure - 2 Thesis Outline ........................................................................................................................ 19 

Figure - 3 Polyinclusion (Go & Fenema, 2003) ...................................................................................... 24 

Figure - 4 The Four-Phase model of QFD (Cohen 1995) ........................................................................ 35 

Figure - 5 House of Quality .................................................................................................................... 36 

Figure - 6 Kano’s model (ReVelle et al, 1998) ....................................................................................... 38 

Figure - 7 Conceptual Model (Based on Go, 2005) ............................................................................... 41 

Figure - 8 Empirical research design after phase I. ............................................................................... 53 

Figure - 9 Frequency site visits .............................................................................................................. 56 

Figure - 10 Reason to visit website ........................................................................................................ 56 

Figure - 11 Overview gap scores ........................................................................................................... 63 

Figure - 12 Kano Categorization ............................................................................................................ 65 

Figure - 13 The House of Quality for the online union .......................................................................... 66 

List of Tables 

Table 1 - Virtual Community benefits for consumers and producers (De Valck, 2005) ........................ 32 

Table 2 -Service dimensions Online union ........................................................................................... 53 

Table 3 - Demographic Characteristics .................................................................................................. 55 

Table 4 - Sector of the organization ...................................................................................................... 56 

Table 5 - Function of members ............................................................................................................. 56 

Table 6 -Rotated component matrix .................................................................................................... 58 

Table 7 - Dimensional structure after Factor Analysis .......................................................................... 59 

Table 8 - Internal Reliability ................................................................................................................... 60 

Table 9 - Correlation matrix .................................................................................................................. 60 

Table 10 - Regression Coefficients ........................................................................................................ 61 

Table 11 - Technical Correlation Matrix ................................................................................................ 68 

Table 12 - Importance rankings How's .................................................................................................. 69


xii


Chapter 1 - Introduction 

“Your workplace is wherever you are” 

1.1 Research Background 

- Motto from Interpolis Insurances Tilburg 

Just looking at the captioned statement some people may probably remark: “Yeah, perhaps in your 

dreams ....”. However, one of the leading insurance companies in the Netherlands succeeded in 

turning its ‘your workplace is wherever you are’ dream scenario into an innovative office concept 

back in 1995. Its imaginary power harnessed in a ‘new world of work’ dream scenario and ability to 

mobilize superb implementation skills, supported by sound planning. This enabled Interpolis to 

achieve concrete business savings in reality. For instance, its new building offers 64% more 

workplaces and accommodates 103% more employees than its traditional office building (Veldhoen, 

2005). Hence, this case provides both inspiration and an appropriate introduction to frame the 

present case research. In particular, it conceives a test to validate the House of Quality technique 

through a statistically reliable sample of the De Unie’s member population in the Netherlands. 

Nowadays the way we design our work is strongly influenced by Information Technology. Sinha and 

van de Ven (2005) indicate that the design of work, i.e. the way in which work is performed, is 

changing from centralized to decentralized structures. Sinha and van de Ven (2005) attribute this 

change to IT, which divides, distributes and coordinates work across organizational and national 

boundaries. From the performance perspective IT can be viewed as an enabler of work design 

changes rather than a just another tool to automate processes (Dederick, 2003). 

This research study is part of the overall research project The New World of Work (NWoW). This 

research project is conducted by the RSM Erasmus University in systematic- and comprehensive 

collaboration with Microsoft Netherlands, Rabobank and the Dutch trade union organization De 

Unie. The research team consists of nine members from three different departments of the RSM 

Erasmus University; marketing management, decision and information sciences and strategic 

management. The five student members investigated each one case study. The research project 

results are culminated in a report, including the case studies, for the participating companies and, 

separately, presented in a Master’s thesis, of which the present study serves as one. 

13


The present case study focuses on the Dutch labour union De Unie. Recently, De Unie started its 

journey to discover new concepts of working. For example; a new building with different features to 

facilitate new ways of working was built in the year 2003. Within 2006 De Unie started the first 

online labour union in the Netherlands; “the online union” (De Internetvakbond). Labour unions 

worldwide are facing a decline in the number of members for almost twenty years now (Greene 

2000, Ward 2002, Heery 2004). Problems on recruitment and retention of members are the primary 

concern for unions to identify new concepts that adapt to the needs of the changing workforce and 

rejuvenate the traditional union. Also in the Netherlands unions are challenged with the above 

described decline in the number of members. 

In essence a labour union centres on maintaining the delicate balance in the group-individual 

member relationship. The latter is shifting as a consequence of two main forces. First, the changing 

power balance altering the traditional configurations and relations in the market; second, the growth 

of the internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT). The latter accelerate 

the velocity of information and business processes and turn the group-individual relationship on its 

head, due to the emergence of ICT-enabled individualization. 

Fortunately, the leadership of De Unie is aware of the significance of the aforementioned forces and 

the urgent need to develop a new union concept that is more responsive to the members’ 

contemporary needs. It merely started an online union as an experiment to rejuvenate the 

organizational concept that would fit to the needs of the “new workforce” and new members. 

Hence, understanding members’ needs for individualization and reconciling these with the 

requirements of the group is a precondition to the online union’s success. At present, there is a lack 

of information regarding members’ identities and motives. Such data is vital to plot an adoption 

strategy for the online union. Therefore, this research seeks to provide insights about members’ 

identities and motives in relation to the online union. Moreover, it provides recommendations on 

how De Unie can improve its processes to align the online union with the conventional organization, 

which is rooted in the co-located form of conducting work, that the majority of members are familiar 

and comfortable with. 

1.2 Theories of service improvements 

In order to translate customer’s requirements into the development process of new products or 

services, nowadays different methods exist to control, measure, manage and improve quality in 

different areas. One method to measure the quality of a service is the SERVQUAL model of 

Parasuraman et al (1985). The model determines the quality of a service by measuring customer’s 

expectations and perceptions on different service attributes. A gap exists when the expectation of a 

14


service exceeds the perception of a service. In order to measure how well different service attributes 

are able to satisfy the needs of customer the Kano model was developed (Kano, 1984). Kano’s model 

classifies the attributes into three categories, according to the level of satisfaction. 

The present study applies the SERVQUAL model to measure the quality of the services offered by the 

online union. By including Kano’s model we are able to identify how well the different service 

attributes of the online union are satisfying the needs of the members. The SERVQUAL model only 

identifies gaps between member’s expectations and perceptions but does not mention how the 

explored gaps can be closed in order to improve the performance of the online union. Therefore, 

based on the concept of Tan and Pawitra (2001), the needs of the members identified by the 

SERVQUAL model will be integrated into the concept of Quality Function Deployment (Akao, 1990). 

This in order to provide information how De Unie can improve the design the online union. 

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) represents a powerful structured methodology for exploring and 

steering interaction between different contributors in the product or service development or 

improvement process (Tidd 2001). This is also the case when designing IT-related products of 

services, like in this case the online union. Within the theory of QFD there are two dominant models; 

the four phase model and Akao’s Matrix of Matrices Model. This research study will make use of the 

four phase model of QFD. The Four-Phase model divides a product or service development process 

into four phases. For each phase a matrix in shape of a house is used. 

In order to translate the needs and requirements of the member into the design process, the needs 

explored by the SERVQUAL model will be integrated into the first house of the four phase model; the 

House of Quality (HOQ). The HOQ is used to depict customer requirements, technical measures, 

target values, and competitive analysis (Eureka and Ryan, 1994). Therefore the HOQ will be an 

important instrument in this ongoing process of improvement in order to match the needs and 

requirements of the members and the design requirements of the online union. 

15


16 

Figure - 1 House of Quality 

As showed in Figure - 1, the House of Quality is formed by a number of elements (rooms) on different 

levels. The left room lists the member’s needs or requirements, the “Whats”. The room below the 

roof consists of the “Hows”, the technical (design) requirements. Function of the “Hows” is to 

translate the “Whats” into terms that are measurable. The body of the house presents the 

correlation between the “Whats” and “Hows”. Through this correlation matrix we are able to analyze 

the extent to which each “How” affects each “What”. 

1.3 Problem Definition and Research Questions 

Nowadays an information worker has got many technological tools available. The present study 

levers IT as an enabler of work design. In the communications context and the array of tools available 

for social interaction, IT tools are applied both on the co-located and remote work level. The 

information environment helps workers to solve increasingly complex and ambiguous problems. 

However, research that mapped information flows among executives indicated ‘that there was only 

limited collaborative activity in pockets of the organization’; ‘in general this lack of collaboration was 

a product of people not knowing what other people knew’ (Cross, 2001). 

From an information environmental perspective ICT enables organizations to decentralize their 

decision making system. By extension decentralized types of organizations provide people the 

opportunity to make decisions that matter to them (Malone, 2004:6). Hence, it offers workers more 

freedom in how and where to carry out their job. In spite of such promise, the new ways of working 

paradigm faces a formidable challenge for organizations. Namely, they have to initiate a “change” in 

the mind of the information workers, especially on how to deal with their new-found freedom on the 

job.


Providing employees with the “right” IT tools as an enabler of work is only a first step. The second 

step is crucial, that is determining workers’ intentions and competences to bring about an 

appropriate match between ‘man-machine’. Only then is it feasible to determine the requirements, 

i.e., what is wanted and to translate such data into how organizational processes should be ordered 

in an appropriate design. 

As a workforce representative organization, De Unie will have to adapt to the changing workforce 

and design new concepts that support the needs and requirements of her members and from this 

become a valuable partner in terms of work related support and personal development. The 

individualization of the workforce is gathering pace in the context of urbanization. It places a 

premium on “an individual to preserve his autonomy and individuality in the face of overwhelming 

social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life” (Simmel, 1922). 

As the world (and organizations) becomes flat (Friedman, 2004) and the sourcing of human resources 

increasingly flexible, in nature it is only logical that De Unie abandons centralized thinking and acting 

in favour of a decentralized model of organization. Within this context, De Unie developed the online 

union; that is supposed to function as a ‘virtual community’. Some of the main characteristics of a 

virtual community are: a set of relationships between individual members and the group, 

represented by De Unie and sub-units within the labor union. 

But what happens when an organization migrates from a centralized to a decentralized model of 

organizational structure and strategic decision making? How are geographically dispersed members 

and branch offices of De Unie responding to the concept of the online union? Do stakeholders 

perceive the online union primarily as a new way of social interaction? Or as a vehicle that corrodes 

the character of relations that are based on face-to-face encounters and relations which have 

evolved over time? 

1.3.1 Research Questions 

As mentioned in previous sections, this research is part of an extensive research for Microsoft 

Netherlands. This specific research study for the online union will be conducted at De Unie. The 

following research question and five sub questions are formulated: 

Research question: 

How does De Unie address to the implications for the New World of Work through the design 

and implementation of the online union? 

17


Theoretical based sub questions: 

1) How to use the theory of House of Quality? 

2) To what extent can the online labour union be defined as a Virtual Community? 

Practical based sub questions: 

3) What are the needs of the members of the online labor union? 

4) Who are the existing members and who can be potential members? 

General sub question: 

5) How does De Unie needs to change the organizational design of the online labour union 

in order to fit with the needs of its members which are collected through the House of 

Quality? 

1.4 Research objectives 

The research objective enables us to chart the course for this research. The objectives of this in- 

depth study can be divided into a theoretical and practical objective. 

Theoretical objective :An extensive theoretical review of the existing literature about online unions, 

virtual communities and methods for measuring and managing the quality of a service will provide us 

a better and deeper understanding of factors influencing the service performance of the online 

union. The literature therefore will create a stable foundation for this research study. 

Practical objective: Based on the integration of the SERVQUAL model and the Kano model into the 

method of Quality Function Deployment, this study for the online union seeks to identify different 

factors which help to match the design of the online labour union with the needs and requirements 

of the members. The main goal for this research study is: 

To improve the design of the (already existing) online union, in order to be more effective in its way 

to serve the needs and requirements of its members. In other words; to get this community working 

well for De Unie and its members, it will be crucial to get a clear understanding of the expectations 

and needs of its members. 

1.5 Research Design 

A single case study will be conducted (Yin, 2003) to investigate the needs and requirements of the 

members and from these findings redesign the online union. This research starts with a literature 

study followed by preliminary research in terms of qualitative interviews with workers of the online 

18


union as well as members of the online union. Based on the literature study and the preliminary 

research, the explored performance drivers and needs of the members will be processed into an 

extensive questionnaire. A survey will be conducted under the member population of the online 

union in order to quantify the findings of the literature study and the preliminary research. 

The results of the survey will be processed into the House of Quality as “Whats”. In strong 

collaboration with the management team of the online union, the process requirements to adapt to 

the needs of the members will be identified and processed into the HOQ as “How’s”. By adding the 

strength of the relationship between the “How’s” and the “What’s” we will be able to determine the 

importance of each process requirement. By doing so we will be able to make pronouncements on 

how to improve the online union. 

1.6 Thesis Structure 

A visualization of the thesis structure is presented in Figure - 2 (Verschuren en Doorewaard,’2002), 

followed by a brief description of the content of each of the chapters included. 

Chapter 1 

-Introduction- 

Chapter 2 

-Literature review- 

Chapter 3 

-Methodology- 

Figure - 2 Thesis Outline 

Chapter 2 

-Conceptual model- 

Chapter 5 Conclusions 

Chapter 1 (Introduction): presents an introduction into the current research study and the subjects 

included. Furthermore this chapter describes the problem statement, research objectives, research 

design and description, contribution of thesis (relevance), and structure of thesis. 

19 

Chapter 4 

Phase I 

Exploratory research 

Chapter 4 

Phase II: 

Survey Analysis 

Chapter 4 

Phase III: Establishing 

House of Quality


Chapter 2 (Theoretical Framework): presents the results of the literature review. This chapter will be 

divided into four parts. The first part will discuss the content of this research in terms of the current 

situation for representative organizations like unions and potentials for new concepts. The context 

will be described within the second part and focuses on virtual communities whereas the third part 

will discuss the process of improvement by an extensive review of the SERVQUAL and Kano models 

and the concept of the Quality Function Deployment. The literature review will constitute as the 

foundation for the conceptual framework that is present in the last part of this chapter. 

Chapter 3: (Methodology) discusses the methodology for the current research study. This chapter 

presents the research design, data description, instrument development and validity and reliability 

aspects of the measures. 

Chapter 4: Results Empirical study; this chapter is divided into three parts. The first part will discuss 

the process and findings of the exploratory research to the needs of the members, indicated as key 

performance drivers of the online union. Results of the interviews with employees as well as a group 

of members of the online union will be presented. From these results several propositions are 

formulated. The second part of this chapter presents an extensive analysis of the results of the 

conducted online survey. To find empirical evidence for the formulated propositions, several 

statistical tests like Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis will be discussed. Furthermore, 

the information gathered by the online survey will function as input for the construction of the 

House of Quality in the third part of this chapter. The third part presents a broad description of the 

construction of the House of Quality for the online union. The House of Quality is used to provide De 

Unie direction for informed decision making in the ongoing process of improving the online union, as 

the House of Quality directly links the technical requirements to the needs of the members. 

Chapter 5: (Conclusions and recommendations) will discuss the conclusions, implications and ideas 

for further research. This chapter will describe an answer to the problem statement, realization of 

objectives, theoretical and empirical conclusions from the research, managerial implications and 

limitations and directions for further research. 

20


Chapter 2 - Theoretical Framework 

This chapter will provide an overview of previous research related to the subjects that will be 

discussed within this study. The first section, 2.1, will discuss literature findings about the topic of 

this research study; online unions. It discusses the current situation of representative organizations 

like a labor union and potentials for new concepts. Furthermore three future scenarios will be 

presented. In relation to new union concepts, section 2.2 will discuss the influence and opportunities 

of new media types. Especially the significance of changing ways of interactions between a supply 

and demand sides will be highlighted. 

One specific type of new media are virtual communities. A review of the concept, types and 

relevance of virtual communities will be provided in this section 2.3. Section 2.4 presents the 

SERVQUAL model which will be used to measure the performance of the online union. Data provided 

by the SERVQUAL model will be processed into the method of Quality Function Deployment. This 

research study will focus on the design process of the online union. The House of Quality presented 

in section 2.5.2 will be used to design the concept of the online union to the needs of its members. 

The established theoretical framework forms the foundation for the conceptual model. Section 2.5 

presents the conceptual model for the current research study 

2.1 Online trade unions 

Problems in recruitment and retention of members over the past two decades form the foundation 

for the decline of traditional labor unions. In order to reverse this decline, unions should adapt to the 

needs of the changing workforce and from this perspective develop new types of unions that are in 

shape with the needs of the workforce and are appropriate to the 21th century (Heery et al, 2000). 

The existing decline increases the need for renewal of union memberships. According to Greene et al 

(2000) it is important that renewal of a union is not limited to existing areas but unions should also 

be aware of recruitment possibilities in traditionally non-unionized sectors and growth areas of the 

economy like the service sector. Heery et al (2000) mentioned in this case also the increase of the 

contingent workforce, which includes temporary work, agency work and freelance work. 

The growth of the internet and many different information and communication technologies is also 

challenging the role of traditional representative organizations like labor unions. Greene et al (2000) 

argue that for their renewal labor unions should use IT options like internet, to organize in a more 

innovative and potentially more effective way. In particular, the use of the internet in the labor union 

21


context is referred to as ‘e-union’, ‘virtual union’, ‘cyber union’ (Ward, 2002). The e-union includes 

options, such as web sites, e-mail, chat rooms, bulletin boards and online applications and voting 

mechanisms that attract new and younger members (Ward, 2002) and afford De Unie opportunities 

to organize its activities in a decentralized manner. The shift to a decentralized organization model 

has consequences, especially in three areas: 

Space, time and distance: Employees and employers who were traditionally separated from 

organization and solidarity due to physical barriers are able to participate by the use of IT. Distances 

will decrease as IT applications make it possible to connect geographically dispersed members and 

organizations. As a result of the dispersed and flexible work patterns of various work sectors, physical 

relationships are hard to establish. E-unions can provide features of a strong community based 

relationship between and with her members. 

Transparency: As the internet offers members the opportunity to employ local, national and 

international online union related resources, it increases the transparency of the behavior of union 

officials to her members. Online unions can also provide a critical alternative source in a trade union 

context, as they provide elements of civic participation, political activism and transport policy-making 

(Greene et al, 2000 p4). 

Solidarity and Activism: Online labor unions create opportunities for enhanced forms of solidarity 

and communication at local as well as global levels. An online labor union can connect members with 

the same interests or aims and therefore creates new ways to maintain collectivism and solidarity 

without physical barriers. The Internet can also establish faster and more frequent communications 

which can increase membership loyalty to collective actions (Pliskin et al, 1997). 

In case of the changing workforce and the future of work, Beck (2000) described different scenarios. 

Central in his scenarios is the change from the work society to the knowledge society. New 

information technologies, globalization, individualization and ecological factors influence society and 

the future of work. From Beck’s perspective it seems that new technologies and especially the 

emergence of the internet also influence the nature and structure of union organizations. Within this 

context Ward and Lusoli (2002) developed three scenarios: 

1. Erosion: Although full-scale erosion is very unlikely, by the increasing influence of new information 

technologies, limited erosion of the traditional functions of representative organizations is predicted. 

First of all, new media types like e-commerce are challenging the traditional areas from which labor 

unions have recruited their members. Secondly, the increasing use of new IT applications will result 

22


in a more individualistic and consumption orientated culture. Third, the traditionally hierarchical 

structure and conservative culture of unions makes it difficult to benefit from new technologies. 

2. Modernization: Within the scenario of modernization, unions will use the opportunities of new 

information technologies to modernize traditional union functions. IT is used to establish a more 

positive and modern image for labor unions. For example websites can be uses as online information 

databases. Online services can be improved by providing not only commercial services but also 

online professional assistance and training. But new information technologies can also be used for 

targeting and recruiting new members like for example the so called e-generation; people who have 

grown up with technology. 

3. Democratization: The scenario of democratization moves further than the modernization scenario 

where information technologies are used for modernization, online services or recruitment. The 

increasing speed and the volume of information obtainable via diverse computer mediated 

communications, offer members the ability to communicate their opinions on policy matters on a 

more frequent and direct base to a local, national and global audience. Therefore IT facilitates 

change towards both decentralized organizations and participation in the decision making of 

individuals. However, if not coordinated in an effective manner it may lead to activism that may take 

the form on the internet by the foundation and ‘wild-growth’ of independent online unions. 

2.2 New Media challenges 

Over the past decades transportation and information technology have transformed human 

interaction with space. (Go and Fenema 2003). Information technologies made it possible to connect 

people at different ends of the globe and accelerated the sharing of information (new facts) and 

concepts (Simon 1991). Simmel (1922) therefore talked about “the metropolis” as a modern life 

compared with small town/rural life. The used citation of Simmel in the foreword of this thesis 

illustrates this idea. 

The result of technology developments can be presented in two models. First, people may be 

included in one or more spaces sequentially or in parallel. The different spaces in which people may 

be included are depicted Figure - 3. In this model the material space represents situations where 

artefacts and people exist together in the same context. Information space is the use of “network of 

networks” (i.e. Lievrouw & Livingstone, 2006). Mind spaces are connected when people and/or 

machines interact. Social spaces occur when people include themselves in multiple social contexts 

and relationships (Go & Fenema, 2003). In this context the forming of mind space and social space 

are faced with a shift from material spaces to information spaces. In theory a lot is written about 

23


“virtual communities” in which social spaces and mind spaces are formed in the virtual environment. 

People are articulating their mind space by means of information technology, and direct one to one 

interactions are mediated (“co-presence”). 

Gutek (2003) argues that there are three patterns of interaction, namely; relations, encounters and 

pseudo relationships. Relations exist when consumers have repeatedly contact with an organization. 

In this context, both sides know each other in a more personal way. Encounters, on the other hand, 

are patterns of interaction that happens once and episodically. Nowadays interactions shift more and 

more from relationship to encounter but a relationship will not disappear. It is possible to deal with 

“encounter” customers like they are “relation” customers. This is mainly a result of the changing 

media. Within the so called pseudo relations there is no need for face-to-face interaction between 

the organization and the customer. This implies that the relationship can be social and technical at 

the same time. The relationship of the online union with her members can be described as a pseudo 

relationship as there are in the first place no face-to-face interactions, interactions are mainly 

through new media types but are still based on a more personal relation between De Unie and the 

members. 

Information 

space 

space 

Mind space 

Material 

space 

Figure - 3 Polyinclusion (Go & Fenema, 2003) 

It is argued by Prahalad & Ramaswamy (2004: p.5), that the processes of value creation are rapidly 

shifting from a product view to personalized co-experiences. As value shifts to experiences, the 

market is becoming a forum for conversation and interactions between consumers, consumer 

communities, and firms. Therefore and in contrast to Gutek (2003), Prahalad and Ramaswany also 

take into account the existence of networks. They distinguish four different dimensions of 

interaction: dialog, access, risk-benefits, and transparency. A dialog implies interactivity, deep 

24 

Social 

space


engagement and the ability and willingness to act on both sides. But a dialog will be difficult if 

consumers do not have the same access and transparency to information. Nowadays it is possible to 

connect to information as much as people needs from the community, from other consumers but 

also from the organization. Both access and transparency are important to have a dialog. 

Furthermore, these dialog, access and transparency can lead to a clear assessment of the risk- 

benefits of a course of action and decision (Phahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004: p.9). The internet has got 

a primary role in this ongoing process as the internet makes is possible to share personalized 

experiences in an easy way by for example virtual communities. 

Research has consistently shown that “who you know” has a significant impact on what you come to 

know, as relationships are critical for obtaining information solving problems and learning how to do 

your work. Particularly in knowledge intensive work, creating an informational environment that 

helps employees solve increasingly complex and often ambiguous problems holds significant 

performance applications (Cross et al 2001). A lack of collaboration is typically a product of people 

not knowing what other people know. In order to create a strategic pay-off for the organization it is 

important that the organization first recognizes and secondly understands how to cope with 

knowledge and information flows. Cross et all expect emerging collaborative technologies to 

facilitate virtual work and skill profiling systems to help with the location of relevant expertise. 

However these emerging technologies are very important; to be effective and efficient just 

technology is not enough and organizations need more information on how people seek out 

knowledge, learn from and solve problems with other people in organizations. Within this context 

Cross et al indentify four features that distinguish effective from ineffective relationships: 

- 1 knowledge; knowing what another person knows and thus when to turn to them; 

- 2 Access; being able to gain timely access to that person; 

- 3 Engagement; willingness of the person sought out to engage in problem solving rather than dump 

information, 

- 4 Safety; i.e., a degree of safety in the relationship that promoted learning and creativity. 

25


2.3 Virtual Communities 

This part of the theoretical review will discuss the subject of virtual communities. The way this 

section is organized is adopted from the description of virtual communities by De Valck (2005). 

Section 2.4.1 will discuss the concept of (virtual) communities and provides a definition. Section 2.4.2 

will describe different types of virtual communities and section 2.4.3 will discuss the role of virtual 

communities in marketing, particularly their potential effectiveness in stimulating participation 

patterns of members (De Valck, 2005). 

2.3.1 Concept of virtual communities 

As a result of the development of the internet, nowadays it is easy for people to get in contact with 

people from all over the world. The internet makes it possible to form direct interactions with people 

who are geographically dispersed, have different backgrounds and live in different time-zones. This 

offers people the possibility to interact with others about a common topic of interest or a common 

problem. 

When computer networks link people as well as machines, they become social networks, also called 

computer supported social networks (CSSN’s) (Wellman et al 1996). A specific type of a CSSN is the 

virtual community. Traditionally the term community is linked to a geographic place like a 

neighborhood where people live together (Wellman and Gulia 1999b). Today, a community is no 

longer limited to the physical place it occupies in society, but is regarded as a set of relationships 

where people interact socially for mutual benefit (Wellman 1997). The term “virtual” indicates that 

primary interactions are electronic or enabled by technology (Ridings 2004). This brings us to the 

main difference between communities in the traditional environment and virtual communities: the 

common space of a virtual community is the cyberspace. Go & Fenema (2003) emphasize that within 

the virtual environment social spaces and mind spaces are formed. “People are articulating their 

mind space by means of information technology, and direct one to one interactions are mediated 

(“co-presence”)” (Go & Fenema 2003, p 9). 

The concept of virtual communities finds it origin in the development of the internet and exists for 

almost a quarter of a century (Reingold 2000, Ridings 2004). One of the first definitions of virtual 

communities was made by Howard Reingold. He describes virtual communities as “a collective of 

geographically distributed individuals bound by a common interest exploiting Internet technologies 

to enable communication” (Reingold 1993). Ridings et al (2002, p 273) define virtual communities as 

“groups of people with common interests and practices that communicate regularly and for some 

duration in an organized way over the Internet through a common location or mechanism”. 

26


When we look to similarities between traditional and virtual communities, three core components 

are found to be similar (Kozinets 2001, Muniz & O’Guinn 2001 p.418): 

Consciousness of kind: members of the virtual community feel a strong connection towards 

each other and see themselves as a group although they have never met. This sets them 

apart from non-members. 

Shared rituals and traditions: members of a community act and behave to the norms and 

values of the community where they belong to. 

A sense of Moral responsibility: members of a community feel a sense of responsibility to 

each other and the community itself. 

As mentioned above, there are similarities between virtual communities and traditional 

communities. Besides the main difference in the common space in which traditional and virtual 

communities occur, another important difference is that members participating in virtual 

communities participate on a voluntary base (De Valck, 2005). The “only” consequence of leaving the 

virtual community is the end of a membership. Within traditional communities joining and leaving 

the community is much more difficult because often members grow up in these communities. 

Hagel and Armstrong (1997) developed the virtual community business model which identifies five 

defining characteristics of virtual communities: 

Distinctive focus: within the virtual community people with the same interests come together. A 

distinctive focus helps (potential) members to understand what resources can be found within the 

community. Organizers of the community create a specific climate and create a set of norms and 

values. Members have to act to these norms and values. 

Ability to integrate content and communication: the virtual community makes it possible to share a 

lot of different published information. Members not only interact with each other about the 

credibility of the content, but also with the publishers. This can result in credible, valuable and 

reliable information which for example can be used in the purchasing process of a product of service. 

Appreciation of member-generated content: members participate within the community by giving 

opinions, sharing experiences, discussing products or services. The information and knowledge 

provided by a certain member can be valuable for the community and its members. These virtual 

exchanges of a certain member can for example influence certain buying behaviour of other 

members. 

Access to competing publishers and vendors: much more as in the traditional environment, the 

virtual environment offers (potential) online consumers the possibility to compare many publishers 

27


and suppliers to each other. Within the virtual environment consumers can compare different 

products, services, quality, prices and locations which will help them to make a more well-defined 

decision. In this case the virtual community acts as an organizing community to its members. 

Commercial orientation: some companies create their own communities; commercial communities. 

Companies provide valuable information about the company or/and her products to the members of 

the community. This information can lead to more appreciation of the company and her products by 

the members of the community. This makes the virtual community an attractive tool for companies. 

When discussing the concept of virtual communities an important aspect is to understand why 

people join a virtual community. What is their main purpose, why do they actively participate and 

why do they come back to the community every time? One of the reasons for participating in a 

virtual community can be either functional, such as information exchange (Wellman 1996) or from a 

hedonic aspect as the creation and consumption of a positive experience through interaction 

(Bargozzi and Dholakia, 2002). Interaction is recognized on three levels of communication; two-way 

non interactive communication; reactive communication and fully interactive communication (Jones, 

1997). Within the community information and knowledge can be seen as a valuable currency or as 

social resource (Hitz and Wellman 1997). Different form traditional communities, useful information 

and knowledge can be spread within the virtual community through so called “weak-ties” because 

members are relative strangers to each other. The virtual community can also be considered as an 

important reference group for its members, mostly in a secondary but sometimes also in a primary 

way (Constant et al, 1996). 

Another reason for participating in a virtual community is the social aspect provided by the 

community. It is stated by Heering (1996) that the freedom to express views and to receive social 

support are one of the main reasons for individuals to join and participate in a virtual community. 

Wellman (1997) defines virtual communities as social networks that use computer support as the 

basis of communication among members instead of face-to-face interaction. Furthermore, virtual 

communities make it possible to find individuals who are in the same situation and provide 

emotional support, social support, a sense of belonging and companionship (Wellman et al, 1999a). 

According to Hagel and Armstrong (1997) following types of needs can be distinguished why people 

participate in a virtual community: 

Interest; within the virtual community members come together because of a common 

interest. Members exchange information and share knowledge about this common interest 

by sharing resources or giving opinions and advices. Preece (2000) defines the virtual 

28


community as a group of individuals who cooperate to share resources and satisfy each 

other’s needs. 

Relationships; virtual communities offer people with the same interests of/ or problems the 

possibility to come together within the virtual community. By frequently interacting within 

the virtual community, strong and personal relationships may be formed. Sociability, or social 

interaction, is a key ingredient in building social capital in virtual communities. Social capital 

is fundamental to the sustenance of the community and encourages members to collaborate 

and cooperate with each other for a common purpose (Preece 2002). 

Fantasies; members in virtual communities can share different fantasy experiences they 

have. For example; members can engage in role-playing games where everything seems to 

be possible. 

Transaction; in the virtual community members can make economical transactions. For 

example goods can be sold to other members like at markplaats.nl 

As a growing interest and influence of virtual communities is assured, Kozinets (1999) emphasizes 

that “unlikely to replace physical encounters or information from traditional media, online 

interactions are becoming an important supplement to social and consumption behavior”. 

2.3.2 Typology of virtual communities 

According to De Valck (2005) virtual communities can be used for a wide range of different topics but 

vary greatly due to (1) their main purpose, (2) the computer-mediated context in which they occur, 

and (3) their organizational structure. The first type of segmentation, main purpose, is most relevant 

for this particular research and will be discussed more deeply below followed by a brief discussion of 

the other two types of segmentation. 

Segmentation by main purpose 

As mentioned above, virtual communities are organized around different topics. Also many different 

typologies to distinguish virtual communities are known. The most well known typology is made by 

Hagel and Armstrong (1997). They made a distinction of communities based on the purpose for 

which they are organized: communities of relationships, communities of interest, communities of 

fantasy and communities of transaction: 

Communities of relationships; within this type of communities members have something in 

common or are in the same situation. For example a common illness, being single or having 

the same job. 

29


Communities of interest; members of this type of communities are willing to share 

knowledge and experiences. For example recommendation sites like Kieskeurig.nl, where 

people share their experiences about different product. 

Communities of fantasy; within communities of fantasy members interact with each other by 

playing virtual games with each other. Within this fantasy world members can play with 

fictive persons in different fictive environments. 

Communities of transaction; within this communities members exchange goods, services etc. 

on a demand and supply manner. 

Although this classification by Hagel and Armstrong (1997) is still used, nowadays many other types 

of virtual communities can be distinguished. Some examples are; brand communities (Muniz & 

O’Guinn, 2001), communities of ethnicity (Mitra, 1999), communities of consumption (Kozinets, 

1999) and e-learning communities (Hardaker and Smith, 2002). Although these types of virtual 

communities are useful to detail and will limit the focus for research, according to De Valck (2005) 

they do not add new categories to the classification of Hagel and Armstrong (1997). 

De Valck (2005) stated that in fact most virtual communities are a combination of a community of 

relationships and a community of interest which combines social interaction with information 

exchange based on for example a similar demographic background, specific brand, consumption 

related activity, certain travel destination or a medical problem. 

To cover the main purpose served by virtual communities, De Valck (2005) adds another type to the 

four types distinguished by Hagel and Armstrong (1997); the community of practice. A community of 

practise consists of a group of people who are informally bound (within or between organizations) 

and share their knowledge and information to learn from each other regarding shared (work) related 

practices. 

Segmentation by computer mediated context 

Virtual communities are supported by different functional software systems, like for example; email 

lists, chat rooms, electronic bulletin boards or online buying functionalities. Different types of virtual 

communities will arise due to different characteristics of the software (De Valck, 2005). Kozinets 

(1999) classified virtual communities, based on the computer mediated context of the community. 

This classification is based on two dimensions; group focus (information exchange vs. social 

interaction) and social structure (loose vs. tight). 

30


Segmentation by organizational structure 

According to De Valck (2005), the way a virtual community is organized not only influences the way 

individual members participate but has also influence on how they make consumer decisions. 

Therefore the third segmentation aspect distinguished by De Valck (2005) is based on the 

organizational structure of the virtual community. For segmentation on the organizational structure 

De Valck distinguished several dimensions. The most appropriate one for De Unie will be the issue 

whether and to what extent the individual members are likely to endorse the virtual community on a 

voluntary basis. 

2.3.3 Function of Virtual Communities in Marketing 

As mentioned before, the internet can be very valuable to its users. The internet is able to connect 

across diverse and dispersed locations. By doing so, the internet creates new social constructs like 

communities of users (Jones 1999). Therefore the interest of marketers in learning about, organizing 

and managing virtual communities on the internet is increasing (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2002). 

Hagel and Armstrong (1997) announce that companies which are able to invest in new possibilities 

created by the internet will gain positive advantages by the creation of virtual communities, leading 

to market knowledge and information. Nowadays marketers start finding ways that can strengthen 

and support their brand image and overall corporate identity by the creation of strong virtual 

communities (Hildebrand, 1998). 

Kozinets (1999) mentioned that marketers should be aware that within the virtual environment, 

consumers are considered to be; 1) more active and discerning; 2) less accessible to one-on-one 

processes and 3) provide a large amount of valuable and cultural information. Taking this into 

account, Rowley (2004) contributes that within the virtual environment marketing communications 

therefore are concerned with the following factors; creating presence, creating relationships and 

creating mutual benefits. 

De Valck (2005) summarized the benefits for consumers as well as for producers in the overview 

presented in Table 1. 

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Table 1 - Virtual Community benefits for consumers and producers (De Valck, 2005) 

The main benefit for consumers will be the extent of information that can be found by interacting in 

virtual communities. Knowledge and experiences related to products, services, brands, producers 

and retailers are shared between community members. The information gathered within the 

community can result in improved consumers decision-making and product usage. 

Besides gathering knowledge and experiences of other users, virtual communities can be used for 

interaction between consumers and producers. Interaction with consumers will provide companies 

more information about consumer needs, attitudes, behaviour and norms and values (De Valck, 

2005). Interactions with companies offer consumers the opportunity to give their opinions about 

existing products and services. Companies can anticipate on this feedback and use it in further 

development processes. By interaction between companies and customers a relationship can be 

established which can result in loyalty and mutual understanding. 

When communities are integrated into the development process of new products, this is called 

collaborative product development (Go, 2007) or community based innovation (Fuller, 2004). Due to 

their high product interests and knowledge, members of communities of consumption can be a 

suitable source for virtual participation in new product development processes (Kozinets, 1999). 

Members of virtual communities can act as co-creators, testers and buyers by their contribution in 

the development process (Fuller, 2004) and therefore co-create value in a dynamic way (Prahalad 

and Ramaswamy, 2004). 

32


2.4 SERVQUAL 

The SERVQUAL model developed by Parasuraman et al (1985) provides organizations a technology 

for measuring and managing service quality (Buttle, 1996). Unlike the quality of goods, the quality of 

services cannot be measured objectively by for example the number of defects. Parasuraman et al 

(1985) stated that the quality of services is an abstract and elusive construct because of the following 

three unique features of services; intangibility, heterogeneity and inseparability of production and 

consumption. As objective measures for services are difficult, an appropriate approach for measuring 

the quality of the firm is to assess customer’s perceptions about the service. The multi-item scale 

SERVQUAL model measures customers perceptions on a quantitative way and can be uses as 

diagnostic application to indicate service quality and strengths. The SERVQUAL model defines service 

quality as the difference, the gap, between customer’s perceptions of the service and the 

expectations of the service. Since its foundation in 1985, extensive research has resulted in a refined 

model that consists of 22 items distributed into five dimensions. The 22 items describe aspects of the 

following five dimensions of service quality: 

Tangibles: physical facilities, equipment, and the appearance of personnel. 

Reliability: ability to perform the promised service accurately and dependably. 

Responsiveness: willingness to help customers and to provide prompt services 

Assurance: knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and 

confidence. 

Empathy: caring and individualized attention to customers 

To measure the five dimensions of service quality, the SERVQUAL survey consists two sets of 22 

statements. The first set measures customer’s expectations for a class of services (e.g. hotels) 

whereas the second set measures the perceived performance of a particular service provider (e.g. 

Hilton Hotel). A score for the quality of service is assessed by subtracting the perceptions score (P) of 

the expectations score (E). Positives scores mean that the perceived performance exceeds 

customer’s expectations. Negative scores submit to an underperformance in relation to customers 

expectations. A score of zero means that there is satisfactory quality. 

Parasuraman et al (1988) tested the SERVQUAL model in different service categories (appliance 

repair and maintenance, retail banking, long-distance telephone, securities brokerage and credit 

cards) and claim that the model consists of generic dimensions and therefore is applicable for use in 

a variety of service encounters. Other research studies challenge the dimensionality of the 

SERVQUAL model. Buttle (1996) stated that the SERVQUAL dimensions are not universal but the 

number and content of the dimensions depend on the context. Within some contexts the domain of 

33


service quality may be complex whereas it can be simple and unidimensional in others (Babakus and 

Boller 1992). 

Tan and Pawitra (2001) discus two other areas of improvement. The SERVQUAL model assumes a 

linear relationship between customer satisfaction and service performance attributes. Low customer 

satisfaction therefore would be a result of low attribute performance. This is not necessarily true; in 

case of satiation or when the attribute is taken for granted, paying more attention to a specific 

attribute will not always result in higher customer satisfaction. On the other hand, unexpected or 

delightful attributes can have a great impact on customer’s satisfaction. 

The third limitation according to Tan and Pawitra (2001) is that although the SERVQUAL model is a 

good method to identify service gaps, it is not able to indicate how the gaps can be closed or how to 

translate the gaps into innovation. Tan and Pawitra (2001) therefore integrated the SERVQUAL model 

(Parasuraman et al 1988) and the Kano model (Kano et al, 1984) into Quality function Deployment 

(Akao 1990) in order to further service excellence. The customer satisfaction evaluations of different 

service attributes are used as input for improvement and innovation. The Kano model will be 

discussed in section 2.5.2. The concept of Quality Function Deployment will be presented in section 

2.5. 

The above described approach by Tan and Pawitra (2001) will be used as a foundation for this 

research. Member satisfaction of different online union related attributes will be measured and 

integrated into the House of Quality to guide improvement and innovation of the online union. 

2.5 Quality Function Deployment 

The original term Quality Function Deployment is derived from six Chinese characters: “hin shitsu ki 

no ten kai”, this can be translated into “quality (hin shitsu) function (kino) deployment (ten kai)’. 

Together the Japanese characters mean “how do we understand the quality that our customers 

expect and make it happen in a dynamic way” (Cohen, 1995). 

The concept of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was originated in the early 1970’s as a means to 

motivate engineers to consider quality early in the design process. Akao (1990) described the method 

of QFD as “a method for developing a design quality aimed at satisfying the customer and then 

translating the customer’s demand into design targets and major quality assurance points to be used 

throughout the production phase”. In line with Akao’s definition, the definition of Hauser and 

34


Clausing (1988) is more concerned with teamwork and communications; “quality function 

deployment focuses and coordinates skills within an organization, first to design, then to 

manufacture and market goods that customers want to purchase and will continue to purchase”. 

Although QFD is originally developed for productdevelopment, it has been used in the service 

industry for quite a while. QFD is a good way to get a clear identification of the detailed steps which 

are necessary to perform a service. In case of the online labour union we can identify the members 

as keystone customers. They have most influence in determining the succes or failure of this new 

concept. Other groups in this case are the Unie itself and third parties like employer organisations 

and the government. 

2.5.1 The Four-Phase Model 

Within the theory of QFD there are two dominant models. The first model is the Four-Phase model 

which is also known as the Clausing model or the American Supplier Institute (ASI) model. Second 

model is Akao’s Matrix of Matrices Model. While the Four-Phase model provides a blueprint for 

product/ service development and therefore covers basic product/ service development steps, the 

Matrix of Matrices model is also designed for Total Quality Management (TQM). The Four-Phase 

model is easier in style and therefore more widely used, although in the content the two models 

don’t differ that much. For this research we will focus on the Four-Phase model. 

The Four-Phase model divides a product or service development process into four phases. For each 

phase a matrix in style of a house is used (Figure - 4). 

Figure - 4 The Four-Phase model of QFD (Cohen 1995) 

The first phase of the model is used to collect the customer requirements and attributes for a 

product or service; the needs of the customers. These needs are called WHAT’S. 

In this phase of the model the WHAT’S need to be transformed into technical requirements called 

the HOW’S. The second phase will have to transform the technical requirements from the first phase 

35


into part characteristics, which is called parts deployment. Within the third phase the key part 

characteristics are transformed into process parameters or/ of operations, this is called process 

planning. In the fourth phase these process parameters or/ of operations are transformed into 

production parameters of/ of operations and is called production planning. 

The product and service planning in the first phase is the most fundamental part of the Four-Phase 

model and therefore is given a special name; House of Quality (HOQ). As mentioned in section 2.5.1, 

this research focusses on the four phase model and especially on the first phase; House of Quality. 

2.5.2 House of Quality 

The foundation of the House of Quality (HOQ) is the belief that products should be designed to 

reflect customers’ desires and “tastes”. Hauser and Clausing (1988) described the HOQ as a sort of 

conceptual map that provides the means for interfunctional planning and communications. Clausing 

and Plugh (1991) give a more specific definition as the HOQ is a multifunctional tool that can be used 

throughout the whole organization. For engineers, it is a way to summarise basic data for the 

product of service development process in a usable form. For marketing, it represents the customer’s 

voice and general managers can use it to discover new opputunities. A typical House of Quality will 

be presented as a house-shaped matrix (Figure - 5). The horizontal part of the matrix contrains 

qualitative and quantitative information relative to the customer (WHAT’S). The vertical portion of 

the matrix contrains technical information that responds to the customers inputs (HOW’S). The 

following elements form the House of Quality and will be discussed below; 1. Customer needs (left), 

2. The planning matrix (right), 3. Technical requirements or HOW’S (upper), 4. Relation matrix 

(centre) 5. The roof and 6. Technical matrix (bottom). 

36 

Figure - 5 House of Quality


Customer Needs (WHAT’S) 

As mentioned before, QFD starts with the customer. The first step in creating a House of Quality is to 

identity the needs of the customers for the product or service, collect and when necessary organize 

these needs, and reveal the relative importance perceived by the customers. Usually when an 

organization is using the HOQ, the focus is on the ultimate customers. Also in this research for the 

Unie, the focus will be on the ultimate customers who are in this case the members of the online 

labour union. 

After identifying the target group of customers, the needs of the customers for the product or service 

have to be determined. A customer need is a description, in the customer’s own words, of the benfits 

that have to be fullfilled by the product or service (Griffin and Hauser 1993). 

Kano et al. (1984) developed a model which defines three types of customer needs (Figure - 6). In 

this model attributes of a product or service are categorized on how well they are able to satisfy the 

needs of the customers. The following categories of customer needs are defined: 

- Basic needs, also known as must-be needs; customers become dissatisfied when performance of the 

product attribute is low and satisfaction will not rise above neutral even with a high performance of 

product or service attribute. These needs reflect to features wich must exist before a potential 

customer will consider a product or service. The performance or one-dimensional needs allow a 

direct comparisson between competing products and are therefore more quantifiable. Customer 

satisfaction is a linear function of the performance of the product attribute; higher attibute 

performance will lead to higher customer satisfaction. The third category are the exitement or 

attractive needs also called delighters. Inclusion of these features delight the customer, even if they 

did not ask for such features. Therefore customer satisfaction increases super-linearly when 

increasing the product of service attribute performance. Important to notice is that there will be no 

decrease in customer satisfaction when there is a decrease in attribute performance. These are the 

features that give a feeling of “wow” to the customers and therefore we can conclude that these 

features are most suitable for differentiation. 

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Figure - 6 Kano’s model (ReVelle et al, 1998) 

The Kano model suggests that only satisfying the basic and performance needs of the customer may 

not be enough. In highly competitive markets it can be important for organizations to create product 

or service attributes targeted at exciting and over-satisfying them (Tan et al 2001). Shen et al. (2000) 

discussed that the Kano model shows that attributes which had once been attractive, become one- 

dimensional over time because people get used to their availability. Over time these attributes 

become taken for granted and will fall into the category of basic needs of the customer. Therefore 

timely development and introduction of products or services with innovative and novel attributes 

will be important in a highly competitive market. 

There are many different methods available for gathering the qualitative data about the customer 

needs; reactive and proactive methods and different types of interviews. One-on-one intervieuws 

and focus groups are proved to be effective methods (Griffin and Hauser, 1993). After analyzing the 

qualitative data, for example by using an affinity diagram, the data is ready for quantification. A 

reliable method for quantifying is a well-designed survey (Cohen 1995 p294). When constructing a 

survey it is important to pay attention to the selection of an approriate sample size, to ensure an 

adequate respons and clear readability of the survey to avoid amiquity bias. Griffin and Hauser 

(1993) stated that a self-selection bias might be present in standerd customer satisfaction data 

collected by the organization itself. 

Not all needs have the same priority to the customers. Some customer needs have higher priorities 

than other needs. The organization will use these priorities to make decisions which balance the cost 

of fulfilling these needs with the desirability (to the customers) of fulfilling that needs (Griffin and 

38


Hauser 1993). In literature the importance of the WHAT’S are mostly positioned at the the right side 

of the House of Quality. Recent studies discussed the House of Quality with the importancies of the 

WHAT’S positioned at the left, next to the WHAT’s. To our opinion this is the right position because 

the importancies are strongly related to the WHAT’S and provide a better and more clear 

understanding of the House of Quality when positioned right next to the needs to which they belong. 

Through a validation study, or an analysis of a statistically reliable sample of respondents a test is 

performed to distinguish between the abolute important and less significant needs. This test used a 

five point Likertscale to measure an importance ranking; where number five represents the most 

important and number 1 the least important. 

Planning matrix (WHY’S) 

Whereas the left side of the HOQ, the WHAT’S, consists qualitative data about the customer needs, 

the right side consists of quantitative data about the customer needs. This part of the House of 

Quality is also called the Planning Matrix. The planning matrix contains a series of collums that 

represent key strategic product or service planning information. The data placed in this matrix allows 

the organization to make stategic decisions about the products of services they are planning. Some 

examples are; competitive satisfaction performance, sales points, goals and in some cases an overall 

weighting of the total collums of the planning matrix. 

Technical Response (HOW’S) 

As discussed, the first two parts of the House of Quality collect and analize information about the 

customer needs (WHAT’s). The next section of the House of Quality, the Technical Response, will 

transform these needs in technical measures; also called the HOW’S. This is the orange part in the 

middle of Figure - 5. According to Chan et al (2002) HOW’s are methods, company measures, design 

requirements, substitute quality characteristics, and engineering characteristics, which can be 

related to and measure the customer needs (WHAT’S). The American Supplier institute (1994) stated 

that good HOW’s must be measurable, global and proactive. 

Relationship matrix 

The relationship matrix is the center of the House of Quality. The relationship matrix identifies the 

strengths of the relationships between the customer needs (WHAT’S) and the technical requirements 

(HOW’S) and therefore is a vital part and the heart of the House of Quality. The strenght of the 

relationship is also called the impact of each HOW on a specific WHAT. Usually the following four 

relationship levels can be distinquished: no relationship, weak/possible relationship, 

medium/moderate relationship, and strong relationship. A symbol representing these ratings will be 

entered into the two-dimensional matrix. 

39


Technical Correlation Matrix 

The roof of the House of Quality, shows which HOW’S are interrelated and how strong these 

relationships are. The technical correlation matrix shows for which areas close communication and 

collaboration is important and for which areas it is less or not important and between which 

attributes design bottlenecks may occur (Cohen 1995). Like for the relationship matrix, also for the 

correlation matrix symbols are used to indicate mutual improvement (+) or trade off (-) relationships 

between the HOW’S. 

Technical Matrix 

The last part of the House of Quality is the Technical Matrix. This part provides a lot of technical 

information that is linked to both customer needs and parts characteristics in the second phase of 

QFD (Chan, 2002). First the relative importance ratings of each HOW to all the WHAT’S needs to be 

determined by multiplying the final importance ratings and the weightings from the plannin matrix. 

Next step is to set the targets for the HOW’S, also called the HOW MUCH’es (American Supplier 

Institute 1994). These targets represents levels of performance for the HOW’S in a way that the 

organization believes that is required in oder to be competitive in comparison to competitive 

products or services. In order to be specific and measurable each target should be quantified. It is 

also important that the targets that are set, are reachable according to the technical sources of the 

The HOW’S with the highest final rates are moved to Phase II of Quality Function Deployment, the 

parts deployment. 

2.6 Conceptual model 

Previous sections discussed the literature relevant for the present research study. Based on the 

literature findings we developed the conceptual model as depicted in Figure - 7. As discussed in the 

literature review, new types of interaction are becoming more significant. For the present research 

we focus on virtual communities, which nowadays form the basis of the internet. More specifically, 

the concept of the online union can be classified as an online community. The present research seeks 

to provide new insights on how to create value by matching the needs of the members of the online 

union on the demand side and the design of the online union on the supply side. Therefore, 

exploratory research followed by a validation study, through a statistically reliable sample of 

members of the online union, is applied to identify key performance drivers of the online union. 

40


Figure - 7 Conceptual Model (Based on Go, 2005) 

The conceptual model is based on the matchmaker model of demand, mediation and supply and 

draws on to the idea of Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004). As described in section 2.2, Prahalad and 

Ramaswamy (2004, p.5) claim that: “The processes of value creation are shifting from a product view 

to personalized experiences.” As the value creation is shifting, the market is becoming a forum for 

interactions between consumers, communities and organizations. Specifically, interactive media is 

able to strengthen these relationships between consumers and organizations, but is can also 

strengthen the relationship between consumers (Lievrouw & Livingstone 2006). These relationships 

can be defined as pseudo relationships (Gutek, 1996). 

Thus the interaction will result in changing relationships and influences between the different 

participants. First, the interactivity aspect of the online community makes it possible to share 

experiences and information and therefore can be a source of knowledge between members. In 

general within online communities different members can be identified. These different identities 

have their own specific knowledge, needs, and expectations. As a result, interactivity can create 

value in a way of mutual benefits. 

Second, interaction strengthens the relation between the organization and the third parties involved. 

The identity of the organization fits with the identity of the members of the online community. In 

other words the organization needs to examine its stakeholders and the expectations of their 

stakeholders (i.e. members and third parties) to create a matching organizational identity. To sum 

up, due to interactivity the components linked to internal and external information will provide 

members of the online union information and knowledge; internal direct from all sorts of members 

41


of the online union and the union itself, and external in a way that information can be gathered 

indirect by third parties. 

In this way the conceptual model is consistent with the interaction approach as stated by the 

Industrial Marketing and Purchase Group; value is co-created through interaction between 

stakeholders including customers, corporations and communities (Ford et al 2003). 

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Chapter 3 – Methodology 

Chapter two discussed the theoretical framework of this research study, followed by the explanation 

of the conceptual model. This chapter will discuss the methodology used for the present research. 

First, section 3.1 presents the research design followed by a brief discussion of the chosen research 

approach and a description of the different data sources in section 3.2. To conclude this chapter, 

section 3.3 discusses the development and quality of the survey instrument. 

3.1 Research Design 

The present research study is conducted at the Dutch labor union De Unie, and specifically focuses 

on a new union concept; the online union. In order to test the conceptual model and indentify key 

performance drivers of the online union, a single case study or survey instrument is not enough to 

validate the model and find appropriate empirical evidence. Therefore different data sources and 

approaches will have to be integrated in order to collect appropriate information. As a result, this 

research will provide De Unie a deeper understanding about the needs of the members of the online 

union and will offer objective knowledge about the key performance drivers. Hence, it will give 

direction to the ongoing process of improvement for the online union. 

As mentioned in previous chapters, the main purpose of this research is to identify expectations and 

perceptions of the members of the online union about its performance and from this point attend to 

the process of improvement of the online union. This means that this research study is not limited 

merely to the identification and proposition of service performance driver enhancements for the 

online union. It has to be noticed that in this case improvements ideally are part of the ongoing 

process (‘s Gravendijk, 2007). In order to find empirical evidence for the process of improvement of 

the online union, we will follow the three steps of measurement and analysis of Quality Function 

Deployment defined by Griffin and Hauser (1993). The first step is to identify the needs of the 

members by means of exploratory research. After this the needs of the members will have to be 

structured in order to set priorities for these needs in the third step. The three different phases will 

be briefly discussed in section 3.2. 

3.2 Data description 

This section discusses the chosen research approach of the current study. It also presents an 

explanation of the different data collection techniques and the way they are preformed. The 

research structure can be divided into three separate phases; 

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Phase I: Exploratory research; defining member’s needs 

Several sources will be used in order to indentify the specific needs of the members that can be 

considered as key performance drivers for the online union. One source is the literature research 

discussed in chapter two. Exploratory research to define the needs will be done by two types of 

planned in-depth interviews. 

Interviews with Union experts: The knowledge embedded by experts can be valuable for the 

classification of the service aspects desired by the members. Union experts in this case are 

employees of De Unie that are in a professional way related to the online union. The knowledge of 

experts about the firm and the industry can help in diagnosing the nature of the research problem 

(Malhotra and Birks 2003). Three structured interviews will be conducted with members of the 

management team of the online union. The results of the interviews are used as input for the in- 

depth interviews with members of the online union. 

Interviews with members: Based on the results of the in-depth interviews with union experts, semi- 

structured in-depth interviews will be held with individual members of the online union. Purpose of 

the interviews is to get a deeper understanding of factors that determine member’s perception of 

the online union. Important to notice in this case is that all interviewed members are also employee 

of De Unie. From this perspective they have a certain double role. While the online union is an 

organization that operates on the internet, its members are geographically dispersed over the 

Netherlands. For practical reasons I decided to interview employees who are also members of the 

online union and therefore located on one of the offices of De Unie. The interviewed members are 

selected from different departments in order to get a deeper understanding of the needs from 

different perspectives. 

The interviews with the union experts and the members of the online union will result in a list of 

items that are assumed to be related to the overall performance of the online union. Propositions 

will be formulated to test the assumed relationships. The explored items will be validated by 

surveying a statistically reliable sample of members of the online union. Results of the exploratory 

research are present in chapter 4. 

Phase II Quantitative research; online survey 

After exploratory research conducted in phase I, an online survey will be used to quantify the 

explored items and to test the formulated propositions by advanced statistical techniques. Based on 

the SERVQUAL concept, the online survey will collect data of member’s perceptions and expectations 

44


of the explored items in phase I. Besides perceptions and expectations, the survey will measure the 

priorities of the explored items based on the Kano model. Data gathered by the SERVQUAL model 

and Kano model will be processed into the House of Quality. 

The content and methodology of the online survey will be discussed in section 3.3. The statistical 

analysis of the data gathered with the online survey will be presented in chapter 5. 

Phase III Establishing the House of Quality 

The data collected from the survey of phase II will be processed into the House of Quality. As 

mentioned in section 2.5 this technique is used to translate the needs of the members of the online 

union into appropriate technical requirements. The House of Quality will provide information for De 

Unie about performance drivers of the online union that are expected and desired by its members. 

Therefore the results in terms of requirements and prioritized expectations can be used as input for 

improvement, innovation and strategic direction (Gonzales 2006) of the online union. On the other 

hand, the House of Quality will be used to provide answers for the research questions and to validate 

the conceptual model. The construction and analysis of the House of Quality will be presented in 

chapter 5. 

3.3 Instrument development and quality 

A survey can be defined as a “pre-formulated set of questions to which respondents record their 

answers, usually within rather closely defined alternatives” (Sekaran 2003, p.236). An online survey 

will be conducted to quantify the items investigated by exploratory research. Hence, it will provide 

data for statistical analysis and integration into the House of Quality. 

Construction of the survey instrument is based on the SERVQUAL model by Parasuraman et al (1988), 

that measures the service quality. Its original service dimensions determined by Parasuraman et al 

(1985) have a universal nature and are in a certain way applicable for many service organizations to 

measure the gap between the delivered quality of services and the expected quality of services. By 

exploratory research we will look if the SERVQUAL attributes are appropriate for this specific 

research. Moreover we are interested to look for new items in relation to the service quality of the 

online union. After exploratory research, the investigated items will be grouped into dimensions. 

Each dimension consists of several items. Items will be measured on a five-point Likert scale from 

strongly disagree to strongly agree. Each item is measured by two questions. The first question 

measures the overall expectation, whereas the second questions measures the respondent’s 

perception about the item in relation to the online union. 

45


The perceived importance of the items is measured by the KANO model in part II and III of the 

survey. In part II respondents are asked how they feel when a certain performance characteristic is 

available at the online union whereas in part III respondents are asked how they feel when a certain 

performance characteristic is missing. Importance’s of each characteristic is measured on a five-point 

scale with the following answer options; I enjoy it that way – I expect it that way – I am neutral – I 

dislike it, but can live with it – I dislike and do not accept it. 

Evans and Mathur (2005) discusses the advantages and weaknesses of an online survey. The main 

advantages of an online survey for the current research study will be discussed below, followed by 

the most important weaknesses: 

- Flexibility: One of the main advantages is that an online survey is flexible in a way that it can be 

conducted in different formats. For example; an e-mail with an invitation and link to the survey, a 

pop-up when a person is visiting a website. For this research the survey was implemented in an 

online survey tool (Global Park). An e-mail invitation with a link was send to all members of the 

online union. 

- Speed and Timeliness: Members of the online union are geographically dispersed over the 

Netherlands. Due to the speed and global reach of the internet an online survey makes is possible to 

interact with geographically dispersed respondents. 

- Convenience: The third important advantage of an online survey will be the fact that respondents 

can fill in the survey on a convenient time and take as much time for answering the questions as they 

need. 

- Ease of data entry and analysis: For respondents an online survey is a relative simple way to fill in a 

questionnaire. The answers of the survey will be automatically transferred into data that can be used 

for statistical analysis. Therefore time needed for inputting and processing data will reduce 

significantly. 

- Controlled Sampling: Online surveys offer different formats to generate samples. For this research 

the database of members of the online union was used to compose the research sample. An email 

that invited members to participate was send to all approximately 1000 registered members. 

Advantage for De Unie is that by inviting the members, the organization shows to be interested in 

member’s opinions and therefore enhances its relationship with her members. 

The most important weaknesses of an online survey relevant for this research: 

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- Unclear answering instructions: Online surveys are self-administered and therefore the answering 

instructions have to be very clear. As a result of unclear answering instructions respondents might 

stop filling in the questionnaire without finishing it. The questionnaire for the online union consist 

clear answering instructions before each new part of the survey. Instructions are carefully tested in 

the pre-test phase of the survey. 

- Impersonal: Online surveys are characterized by the absent of human contact whereas personal 

interviews offer the possibility to in-depth questions. Therefore the questions must we well 

formulated and clear in order to get valuable and usable information. 

- Privacy and security issues: Respondents might hesitate to fill in an online survey when it’s unclear 

if their answers will be treated confidentially and whether their information will be sold to other 

companies. The introduction of the questionnaire for the online union explains the purpose for this 

research and the way information will be treated. An email address will be asked to ensure the 

uniqueness of the answers. The email address will not be used for other purposes. 

Sekeran (2003) stated that when designing a questionnaire one should focus on three areas of design 

principles: 

Principles of wording: The principles of wording refer to different aspects as; the appropriateness of 

the questions, how questions are worded and the level of sophistication of the language used, the 

type and form of questions asked and the personal data sought from the respondents. 

Principles of measurement: The use of suitable scales and scaling techniques will have to lead to two 

methodological conditions that are required for a good research; validity and reliability. Validity 

determines how well a technique, instrument or process is measuring a specific concept. Reliability 

will indicate how stable and consistently the instrument measures the variable. 

Overall appearance of the questionnaire: In order to get a valuable response not only the first 

principles are important, the overall appearance of the survey is important too. Therefore a good 

introduction, organized questions, clear answer instructions and a conclusion are aspects that will 

stimulate respondents to participate and will increase the value of a survey. 

A pre-test was carried out to ensure the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. For the pre-test 

of the survey a selection of 15 professionals of De Unie, graduate students, practitioners were asked 

to fill in the questionnaire and give their opinion about the content and the way questions were 

formulated. Furthermore experts in the field of marketing management and technology and 

innovation management were involved in the developing process of the questionnaire-items. 

47


During the pre-test, grammatical inaccuracies were rectified and when needed the items were 

further clarified. The pre-test was equipped with comment boxes that gave respondents the 

opportunity to comment on its wording, instructions and length. The time needed to complete the 

questionnaire was considered to be +/- 10 minutes. Pre-test showed out that the time ranged from 8 

till 13 minutes which was in line with the expectations and adequate for the respondents. The length 

of the questionnaire was appropriate and in cooperation with De Unie we decided to add one more 

item to the dimension tangibles in order to gather more information about member’s preferences 

for custom made service aspects. After the pre-test the questionnaire was administered to 1000 

registered members of the online union, resulting in 120 respondents in three weeks (calendar week 

42, 43 and 44) who completed the questionnaire. In the current research a “complete” questionnaire 

means that there are no missing values in the data set which means all questions were answered. 

The developed questionnaire consists of the following features: 

PART I 

PART II 

PART III 

PART IV 

- Based on the SERVQUAL method, twenty-two items measured by two 

questions to determine gaps between the perceived and expected 

services of the online union. 

- Based on the Kano method, twenty-two questions to measure perceived 

importance when characteristics are available (functional). 

- Based on the Kano method, twenty-two questions to measure perceived 

importance when characteristics are not available (dysfunctional). 

- Thirteen demographic questions (respondent’s age, gender, education, 

name of the company, work sector of company, job function, work 

experience, years of work in recent firm, years of work in recent position, 

household situation, region of living, frequency visits online union, 

reason for visiting online union). 

The final questionnaire, as distributed to the members, can be found in Appendix V. 

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Chapter 4 - Results Empirical Study 

The research methodology for this research study has been discussed in chapter 3. This chapter 

presents the results of the empirical study. Section 4.1 discusses the results of the exploratory 

research. It presents the identified member’s needs, indicated as performance drivers, and the 

assumed relationships to the overall performance of the online union. Based on the explored items, 

propositions are formulated and tested by an online survey. Section 4.2 presents the statistical 

analysis of the survey and will validate the needs of the members. Data gathered by the online 

survey will be processed into the House of Quality. The composition and analysis of the House of 

Quality is described in section 4.3. 

4.1 Phase I: Results exploratory research 

This section discusses the exploratory research to the needs of the members. The needs can be 

indicated as the performance drivers of the online union. The performance drivers are considered to 

affect the overall performance of the online union. The literature research as described in chapter 2 

functions as the first part of the exploratory research. Based on the literature review, a conceptual 

model was established. The most important element in the exploratory phase are the interviews with 

employees and the members of the online union, in order to investigate the needs, and therefore the 

performance drivers of the online union. 

As discussed in previous chapters, the SERVQUAL model will be used to measure the quality of 

services offered by the online union. The SERVQUAL model is described to be applicable to a wide 

variety of service organizations and offers options to reword some of the items in order to create a 

fit with a specific context (Parasuraman et al, 1988). This particular research study for the online 

union is highly specialized. We expect that one or more attributes of the current SERVQUAL model 

will fit not with the context of the present research study. By qualitative research we expect to 

identify several new attributes which are highly related to online services. This leads us to the 

following proposition: 

Proposition 1: By qualitative research we expect to explore new SERVQUAL attributes that 

are specifically related to online services, not present in the current set of attributes of the 

SERVQUAL model, and that influence the overall performance of the online union. 

Besides interviews with union experts and members of the online union, value information for this 

particular research can be gathered by an exploratory benchmark study. A benchmark study 

compares the activities and/ or performance of competing companies or companies in different 

49


areas. For this research study we planned to perform a benchmark study to compare the activities 

and performance of the online union with direct competitors and other e-services in different areas. 

Potter (1994) mentioned that the starting point for benchmarking will be that the organization must 

change and will have to change radically. As noticed in the previous sections, the online union is the 

first online labour representative organization in Holland. Other union organizations in Holland are 

(yet) not working with this online concept. Although in this case, it has to be mentioned that 

competitors FNV and CNV are developing new campaigns which make use of new media types like 

the internet. However, they do not offer online services in a separate entity. At the moment De Unie 

has planned to start a benchmark study based on the concept of the balanced score card in January 

2008. Due time constraints and the practical start of a benchmark by De Unie within two months we 

were not able to conduct a suitable benchmark study and therefore results of a competitive 

assessment are not included in the current research study. 

4.1.1 Interviews with employees of the online union 

In order to gain information from an organizational perspective, three interviews with union experts 

were conducted. As mentioned in section 4.3.1, knowledge of the interviewed experts will be used 

for the classification of service aspects for the online union. Therefore the most relevant people to 

interview are union experts whose function is nearly related to the online union. To assess a 

complete overview of information, experts in different hierarchical positions and with different 

functions were interviewed. A complete list of interviewed experts as well as an extensive summary 

of the interview results can be found in appendix 5. This section will discuss the explored service 

characteristics which will be used as input for the planned interviews with members of the online 

union as well as for the final questionnaire in phase II. 

As mentioned before; due a decline in the number of members, unions are searching for new 

concepts that focus on a younger population of members like for example young professionals. De 

Unie also focuses on the “new type of worker” and therefore differentiates from other union 

organizations in Holland. These new type of workers are defined to have a high affinity with digital 

environments like the internet and will use IT as an enabler of work. They are also individualistic in 

terms of searching and gathering for information and knowledge. According to the interviewed 

experts, by the use of the internet an online union is able to function as a valuable “partner” for the 

new type of workers. Valuable in way that it is able to integrate different parties into the network of 

De Unie in order to facilitate an environment that provides knowledge and information that is in 

shape with the needs of the members. 

50


By the absence of a formulated strategy and communication plan it is difficult for the online union to 

recruit and retain new members. For De Unie it is also unclear which sectors of work are represented 

in the online union. The degree of participation of the members is perceived to be very small. A few 

interaction components are available but nearly used (for instance; Hyves communicator). In order to 

create a network of relationships De Unie planned to integrate interaction tools like a forum and 

different platforms that creates opportunities to connect members. Also the involvement of third 

parties like for example Stageplaza 1 are aspects planned for the near future. 

Union experts mentioned the custom-made character of the online union to be a critical advantage 

over the traditional unions. Different from the traditional union, a relative small membership 

contribution has to be paid on a yearly basis instead of a monthly contribution fee. This contribution 

allows members to pose one query for advice. After this they will have to pay for each query 

separately. Experts also noticed the lack of current information offered on the website of the online 

union. 

4.1.2 Interviews with the members of the online union 

The results of the interviews with union experts were used as input for the interviews with the 

members of the online union. Interviews with members were conducted in order to classify their 

needs and to identify the performance drivers of the online union. A list of interviewed members and 

an extensive summary of the results are available in appendix 6. The results of the interviews in 

combination with the results of the interviews with the union experts are used to compose the 

online survey. 

The exploratory interviews with the members identified several performance aspects of an online 

union that can be divided into five different categories that, according to the members, determine 

the overall performance. The categories (dimensions) will be discussed below. For each dimension a 

proposition was formulated to test its influence on the overall performance of the online union. 

Information: interviewed members mentioned the importance of information provided by the online 

union. Interviews showed out that information is the main criteria to visit or contact the online 

union. Therefore, members expect the online union to provide up to date information, information 

that is trustworthy but also information that is relevant and useful for them. Besides this the 

information must be easy accessible. 

Proposition 2: Information will positively influence the overall performance of the online 

union. 

1 Stageplaza; mediating organization for student internships. 

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Interaction: interviews revealed that members expect certain ways of interaction between the union 

and its members. At the moment the online union for example interacts with her members by 

providing online newsletters. But members also expect to get involved in the development process of 

the online union to shape the online union to their preferences. Members also perceived a lack of 

personal attention. Possibilities of interaction between members was mentioned to be preferred but 

are not experienced in the current situation. 

Proposition 3: Interaction positively influences the overall performance of the online union. 

Safety: the category safety mainly reflects to the needs of members for a good representation of 

their shared interest by the online union. Related to a good representation is the influence of the 

online union on for example collective bargaining. Interviewed members expect the online union to 

have a suitable influence to secure a good representation of their interests. Another “safety” related 

aspect is the expectation of affective and adequate support to work related issues but also for 

personal related aspects like for example assurances. 

Proposition 4: The overall performance of the online union will be positively affected by 

safety. 

Solidarity: one of the reasons for people to join a union is the feeling of solidarity provided by a 

representative organization. This feeling of solidarity originates from the fact that members join a 

union for more or less the same reasons and therefore expect to meet members in equal positions. 

Although in the current situation not available in a suitable way; members expect the online union to 

offer new opportunities to interact with people in the same position and share knowledge and 

experiences. 

Proposition 5: Solidarity will positively affect the overall performance of the online union. 

Tangibles: the most important reason for the interviewed members to join the online union is the 

custom-made approach in combination with the relative low contribution price as presented in 

section 4.1.1. This approach offers members the possibility to be represented for their shared 

interest and to profit from customized services for a relative low price. From this we can conclude 

that a good representation of their shared interests and customized services are important service 

characteristics of an online union. Also a first-class presentation of the online union and appropriate 

online facilities (e.g. speed and content of the website) are identified to be important performance 

aspects. 

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Proposition 6: Appropriate perceived tangibles will have a positive effect on the overall 

performance of the online union. 

The explored dimension can be visualized into a research model as depicted in Figure - 8. The model 

represents the assumed influence of the dimensions on the overall performance. By analysis of the 

survey results in section 4.2 we will test the formulated propositions. 

Information 

Interaction 

Solidarity 

Safety 

Tangibles 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

Figure - 8 Empirical research design after phase I. 

The explored items are embodied in a model and clustered into five different dimensions (Table 2) 

Table 2 Service dimensions Online union 

53 

+ 

Overall 

Performance


4.2 Results Quantitative research 

This section presents the results of the quantitative research study. Several attributes investigated in 

the first phase are integrated into the survey model. Based on the SERVQUAL model, an online 

questionnaire was designed to measure gaps between the actual performance and the member’s 

expectations of the online union. By integrating the Kano model we are able to categorize the 

attributes according to the influence of each of the attributes on member’s satisfaction. The 

collected data will be used to test the propositions formulated in section 4.1.2. Hence, data collected 

by the online survey will function as input for the construction of the House of Quality (Tan and 

Pawitra, 2001). 

Section 4.2.1 presents the demographics of the research population whereas section 4.2.2 presents 

the statistical analysis of the survey data. Based on qualitative research to the needs of the members 

we conducted five dimensions (Table 2).A factor analysis will be performed to test the structure of 

the composed dimensions. After the factor analysis, we will execute a multiple regression analysis to 

test for the influence of each of the dimensions on the overall performance of the online union in 

section 4.2.3 

4.2.1 Sample description 

Within three weeks 120 respondents have finished the questionnaire. From a total sample of 1000 

registered members this results in a response rate of 12%. Except from the question “What is the 

name of your company”, all questions were mandatory which resulted in a dataset without missing 

values. Before starting the analysis we filtered the data on respondents duration time to complete 

the questionnaire. Respondents whose duration time was shorter than seven minutes were filtered 

out. Based on the average time of 12,5 minutes, a duration time less than seven minutes assumes 

that they have not filled in the questionnaire seriously enough. After expectation of the dataset, four 

respondents were filtered out resulting in a final dataset of 116 respondents. 

Based on the demographic questions we shaped a general descriptive profile of the member 

population of the online union (Table 3). Specific work and union related characteristics will be 

discussed later in this section. From the general characteristics as presented in Table 1, we can 

conclude that the majority of the sample is male, merely of the age of 50 or higher, educated with a 

MBO or HBO (Bachelors) degree, full-time employed, living together with an employed partner and 

merely settled in the region Noord-Brabant. As mentioned before, the main target group of the 

online union are young professionals. Therefore it is surprising to see that most of the respondents 

are of the age of 50 or higher. One explanation might be that at the start of the online union a 

54


respective group of members of the traditional union became a member of the online union as they 

feel highly associated to the organization De Unie. 

Variable Composition Frequency Percentage 

Gender Male 97 83,6 

Female 19 16,4 

Age 54 31 26,7 

Educational Level Professional Degree 15 12,9 

PHD 1 0,9 

Masters Degree 16 13,8 

Bachelor Degree 38 32,8 

Associate Degree 1 0,9 

University, no Degree 5 4,3 

MBO 39 32.6 

High School 1 0,9 

Household Situation Single 29 25,0 

Couple, partner non-employed 20 17,2 

Couple, partner employed 69 59,5 

Work situation Full time employed 90 77.5 

Parttime employed 16 13,8 

Non-employed 10 8,6 

Region Zuid - Holland 19 16,4 

Noord - Holland 12 10,3 

Utrecht 10 8,6 

Zeeland 3 2,6 

Noord- Brabant 36 31,0 

Limburg 7 6,0 

Gelderland 12 10,3 

Overijssel 4 3,4 

Flevoland 4 3,4 

Friesland 2 1,7 

Groningen 2 1,7 

Drenthe 5 4,3 

Table 3 - Demographic Characteristics 

Table 4 shows the different sectors where employees of the online union work, whereas Table 5 

presents the functions employed by the members. 

55


Services 

ICT 

Insurance 

Transportation 

Construction 

Healthcare 

Retail 

Wholesale 

Finance 

Government 

Education 

Manufacturing 

Other 

0 10 20 30 40 

Table 4 – Sector of the organization Table 5 – Function of members 

As represented in Table 4 most respondents are employed in the financial sector and the services 

sector. The number of respondents working in these sectors can be explained by the fact that in the 

first year of the online union employees of two financial organizations where faced with 

reorganizations and mergers. There was no collective bargaining agreement for their specific sector. 

To represent the interests of these employees, De Unie started a campaign and became the 

employee’s representative organization. This also explains the results of Table 5 from which we can 

conclude that most members have a financial related or management function. 

Daily 0.9% 

A few times a week 

2,6% 

Once a week 4,3% 

A few times a month 

12,1% 

Once a month 

24,1% 

Less than once a 

month 56,0% 

Figure - 9 Frequency site visits Figure - 10 Reason to visit website 

The frequency of visits to the website of the online union is presented in Figure 9. Overall we can 

conclude that members do not visit the site of the online union very often. The majority of the 

56 

Sales 

ICT 

Human resources 

Government 

Research and Development 

Marketing-PR-Advertising 

Legal 

Procurement and Logistics 

Healthcare 

Finance - Administration 

General management 

Consultancy 

Other 

0 10 20 30 

Information 

87,1% 

Recreation 

10,3% 

Interaction 

2,6%


sample visits the site less than once a month (56%) or once a month (24.1%). As showed in Figure 10, 

the main reason for members to visit the site is to gather information (87.1%). 

4.2.2 Factor analyse 

In our model quality (Q) measured by one item is the sum of an expectation rating (E) extracted from 

the corresponding perception rating (P). A gap-score is defined as Q = P – E. The computed gap- 

variables are used for further scale analysis. Further analysis of the gap scores will be discussed in 

section 4.3. 

After qualitative research in phase one, the explored items were structured into five dimensions 

(Table 2). To test the structure of the modified dimensions factor analysis was conducted. Factor 

analysis is a multivariate statistical technique which aim is to reduce a large number of variables to a 

smaller number of underlying dimensions, known as factors. Therefore factor analysis will try to 

explain a maximum amount of variance in our data by means of a small number of factors. 

Before conducting factor analysis, we should test if factor analysis is an appropriate method for 

detecting structures in our data. Therefore we will first inspect the correlation matrix, the Bartlett’s 

test of sphericity, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and the measure of sampling adequacy (MSA). 

When the results of the tests conclude that factor analysis is allowed, the items will be structured 

into factors. 

The Bartlett’s test of sphericity will test the inequality between the correlation matrix and the 

identity matrix. The test values detected a significant result (Chi 1164.774; p:0.00) from which we can 

conclude that there are differences between the correlation matrix and the identity matrix. The 

second test, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test, measures the sampling adequacy. A high value indicates 

sufficient intercorrelations between the variables which mean that the correlations between pairs of 

variables can be explained by other variables.. The test value in our analysis is 0.875. A value of >0.8 

is meritorious. The last test for sufficient intercorrelations is the Measure of Sampling Adequacy 

(MSA). Looking at the anti-image matrix in SPSS, low MSA values of


The scree plot and eigenvalues provided by SPSS, indicate a composition of four factors. After 

deciding the number of factors, the communality values were inspected. A communality (hi2) = % of 

variance in xi explained by the factor model. When a communality value of a variable is relative low 

(.414. 

The Varimax rotation procedure was used to select variables into factors. The varimax rotation 

procedure is an orthogonal method of rotation (axes are maintained at right angles) that minimizes 

the number of variables with high loading factors on a factor thereby enhancing the interpretability 

of the factor (Malhotra & Birks, 2004). 

Component 

1 2 3 4 

Up-to-date information ,807 

Reliability of information ,796 

Offering relevant information ,728 

Member involvement on development ,481 

Interaction between Union and members ,425 ,500 

Interaction between members ,674 

Involvement third parties ,604 

Recognizing needs of the members ,461 

Perception of solidarity ,499 

Opportunity of physical meetings ,721 

Opportunity of virtual meetings ,779 

Members in the same position ,639 

Good representation of interests ,641 

Perception of safety and protection ,509 ,656 

Influence of online union ,756 

Intelligibility objectives and services ,507 

Offering effective support ,646 

Reliability and quality of services ,556 

Professional presentation ,511 ,632 

Good online facilities ,777 

Accessibility of information ,608 

Custom-made services ,658 

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. 

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. 

a Rotation converged in 6 iterations. 

Table 6 - Rotated component matrix 

Factor analysis, as presented in Table 6 indicates four factors which collectively explained 58,7% of 

the variance in all items. Based on the exploratory investigations of phase I, the original model ( 

58


Table 2) consisted five dimensions (factors). The explored dimension “Solidarity” was not recognized 

as a single dimension. Factor analysis merged the dimensions “Interaction” and “Solidarity” and 

indicated it as one dimension, that we (still) name “Interaction”. Furthermore the item “recognizing 

the needs of the members” switched from the dimension “Interaction” to “Information”, whereas 

the item “reliability and quality of services” was replaced from the dimension “Tangibles” to “Safety”. 

Due to the high factor loadings and plausible interpretations, we decided to adopt the new structure. 

The new dimensional structure is presented in Table 7. 

Scale Reliablity 

Table 7 - Dimensional structure after Factor Analysis 

After the factor analysis, item analysis was conducted to test if the dimensions composed by the 

factor analysis are reliable. Cronbach’s alphas were employed to test the reliability of the 

dimensions. Item anlysis is conducted after the factor anlysis because Cronbach’s alphas measures 

how well a set of items measures a unidimensial construct; the scale has no underlying factors. 

Cronbach’s alphas value varies betwen 0 and 1, where values 0.7 are acceptable. As presented in Table 8, for all dimensions 

Cronbach’s alphas are >0.7 which implicates that the scales are reliable. 

59


Correlations 

Dimension Number of Cronbach’s Mean Std Deviation 

items Alphas 

Interaction 8 0.843 -0.629 0.700 

Safety 6 0.817 -0.963 0.737 

Tangibles 4 0.758 -0.573 0.760 

Information 4 0.762 -0.830 0.801 

60 

Table 8 - Internal Reliability 

Correlations were calculated to look for association between the variables. Pearson’s product 

moment correlation (r) was used to express the strength and direction of coherence between the 

independent variables and between the dimensions composed by factor analysis. The higher the 

correlation value the stronger the coherence between the variables. 

Table 9 - Correlation matrix 

All four dimension positively correlate to each other on a significance level of P


explored dimensions on the overall performance of the online union. In order to test the unique 

effects of each dimension (Interaction, Safety, Tangibles and Information) we will conduct a multiple 

regression analysis in which the overall performance will be the dependent variable. 

Table 10 - Regression Coefficients 

The results of the multiple regression analysis are presented in Table 10. The analysis indicates the 

dimension Tangibles to have an independent significant influence on the overall performance 

(t=2,248, p


for members to understand the possibilities and what can be expected. From this perspective an 

adjusted R2 of 24,3% in this case is acceptable. 

4.3 Establishing the House of Quality; translating “What” into “How” 

In section 4.2 the dataset of items established from the perception and expectation ratings was 

statistically tested. Factor analysis examined the structure of the dimensions whereas a regression 

analysis was conducted to test the unique effects of the established dimensions on member’s overall 

rating of the online union. In this section we will integrate the data gathered by substracting the 

expectations from the perceptions plus the data from the Kano related part of the survey into the 

first matrix of Quality Function Deployment; the House of Quality. 

Section 4.3.1 discusses the gap analysis between the expectations and perceptions. Section 4.3.2 will 

present the Kano analysis. Involvement of the management team as experts in the data collection for 

the QFD process is described in section 4.3.3. The compositition of the House of Quality will be 

presented in section 4.3.4. 

4.3.1 Gap analysis 

Based on the SERVQUAL method, the first part of the survey measured the quality of the services 

provided by the online union. As discussed in section 2.4 gaps occur when there are differences 

between customer’s expectation and the actual perception of the service provided; the wider the 

gap, the larger the difference. Positive scores means that the perceptions of a service exceeds the 

expactations whereas a score of zero indicates satisfactory quality. Negative scores on the other 

hand submit to an underperformance in relation to the customer’s expactations. 

Each item is measured by two questions. In our survey the first question measures the expectations 

of a member by asking to indicate on a five-point Likert scale how a specific situation in general 

should be. The second question measures the same situation but than specifically in the case of the 

online union. For example; the first announcement will be “A trade union organization should have 

good online facilities”, followed by “The online union has good online facilities”. 

All items in the survey measured negative gaps. An overview of the gap scores is presented in Figure - 

11. A possible explanation for the negative gaps might be the fact that people have the intention to 

respond more extremly when they are asked to indicate an ideal situation. Therefore the focus 

should be on the variation of the gaps instead of the negative values (Teas, 1993b). The measured 

gaps can be very valuable to the organization as it clearly indicates on which service aspects the 

organization is underperforming. This study focusses on the process of improvement, therefore the 

gaps are valuable as input for the House of Quality but not as single indicators. 

62


The highest negative gapscore can be seen for the attribute “influence of the online union”. This 

score indicates that members expect a union to have sufficient influence on for example collective 

bargainings, whereas they perceive the online union to have less influence. The member population 

of the online union is relative small compared to other unions. As presented in Table 6 the 

memberpopulation is also divided over many different worksectors. The representation in number of 

members in a specifc sector is therefore low which persuades the influence of the online union. 

The second highest negative gap is found on the attribute “offering effective support”. This attribute 

indicates that members expect a union to provide effective support when needed, which can be 

stated to be an important aspect of an online union. The smallest negative gap is represented by the 

attribute “custommade services”. Further analysis of the gaps will be done after a combined 

integration with the Kano scores into the House of Quality. 

-1,60 -1,40 -1,20 -1,00 -0,80 -0,60 -0,40 -0,20 0,00 

-1,43 

-1,07 

-1,04 

-1,01 

-0,95 

-0,91 

-0,90 

-0,84 

-0,77 

-0,75 

-0,72 

-0,72 

-0,72 

-0,66 

-0,63 

-0,62 

-0,60 

-0,55 

-0,52 

-0,49 

-0,32 

-0,22 

Figure - 11 Overview gap scores 

63 

Influence of online union 

Offering effective support 

Good representation of interests 

Intelligibility objectives and services 

Offering relevant information 

Up-to-date information 

Perception of solidarity 

Opportunity of physical meetings 

Member involvement on development 

Reliability of information 

Accessibility of information 

Recognizing the needs of members 

Professional presentation 

Interaction between union and members 

Good online facilities 

Reliability and quality of services 

Perception of safety and protection 

Interaction between members 

Opportunity of virtual meetings 

Involvement third parties 

Members in the same position 

Custom-made services


4.3.2 Kano Analysis 

The second part of the questionnaire (Appendix 7) consists of questions based on the Kano model. 

The Kano model (Kano, 1984) was developed to classify product or service attributes on how well 

they are able to satisfy the needs of the customer. Parallel to the items measured in the first part of 

the survey (SERVQUAL), the Kano model measures both the functional and dysfunctional forms of 

the attributes. In example, a functional form to measure will be “How do you feel when the online 

union offers you up to date information?”, whereas the dysfunctional form will be “How do you feel 

when the online union does not offer you up to date information?” For both questions the 

respondents were asked to answer one of the following 5 options “I enjoy it that way”, “I like it that 

way”, “I am neutral”, “I dislike it but can live with it that way”, “I dislike it and don’t accept it that 

way”. While our survey was conducted in Dutch the answer options were translated into respectively 

“Dat stel ik op prijs”, “Ik verwacht niet anders”, “Neutraal”, “Vervelend, maar kan ermee leven” and 

“Vervelend en onacceptabel”. 

The collected data from the functional and dysfunctional questions makes it possible to classify the 

attributes into one of the following Kano categories: attractive, one dimensional, must be, 

indifferent, questionable and reverse. In order to integrate the Kano categories into the House of 

Quality, the categories will have to be quantified. Therefore Tan and Pawitra (2001) developed an 

arithmetic method. For each functional and dysfunctional question the answers of the all 

respondents to each of the answer options were summed. The answer option with the highest sum 

results in the arithmetic and therefore determines the Kano category of a specific attribute. After 

this, all attributes can be presented into the matrix depicted in Appendix 3. As a result the 

classification of the attributes into Kano categories is presented in Figure - 12. 

From the classification presented in Figure - 12 we can conclude that the attributes “Third party 

involvement”, “Good online facilities” and “Custom made services” are classified in the category 

attractive. This indicates that these three attributes surprise and attract the customer when 

available. Implications of the Kano categories were discussed in section 2.5.2. In order to integrate 

the Kano classification of the attributes into the House of Quality, Tan and Pawitra (2001) add 

weightings to the different categories. The category ‘attractive’ will be multiplied by factor ‘4’, ‘one 

dimensional’ by factor ‘2’, ‘must-be’ by factor ‘1’ and ‘indifferent’ by factor ‘0.5’. 

64


4.3.3 Data Collection House of Quality 

Figure - 12 Kano Categorization 

The SERVQUAL gaps of section 7.1 identified the differences between member’s expectations and 

current perceptions of the online union. With addition of the Kano model we were able to determine 

for which attributes improvements will be most critical. A limitation of the SERVQUAL model is that it 

only identifies gaps without addressing on how to close the identified gaps. By integrating both 

models into the House of Quality offers the opportunity to recommend on how to improve and 

innovate the services of the online union. 

As stated by Hauser and Clausing (1988) the method of quality function deployment focuses and 

coordinates different skills within the organization. First to design, secondly to manufacture and 

market the product or service. Therefore to optimize the results of QFD a cross functional team 

including members with different backgrounds and expertise is required (Griffin and Hauser, 1993). 

Data for the House of Quality was provided by the management team of the online union, consisting 

of three people. In this case all members have good knowledge of the current situation of the online 

union and the technical and financial options of the organization. In order to make sure the matrix of 

the House of Quality was well interpreted, a meeting was hold to explain the method. After this first 

session almost all required data was collected. A two-hour telephone meeting with the project 

manager completed the data collection for the House of Quality 

65


4.3.4 The House of Quality 

The different parts of the House of quality are discussed in section 2.5. To recap; the construction of 

the House of Quality consists of 1) the customer needs (left), 2) the planning matrix , 3) technical 

requirements or HOW’S, 4) relation matrix (centre) 5) technical correlation matrix (the roof) and 6) 

technical matrix. 

The House of Quality as constructed for the online union is presented below (Figure - 13). Although 

processed in the completion of House of Quality as depicted below, the technical correlation matrix 

is not displayed in Figure - 13 but will be presented separately. The different elements of the House 

of Quality will be discussed underneath. 

Figure - 13 The House of Quality for the online union 

Customer Requirements 

The customer requirements or “Whats” are qualified by the interviews with employees of the online 

union and members of the online union in phase I of this research study. After this the needs were 

defined into five dimensions and quantified by the online survey of phase II. Factor analysis in phase 

III classified the needs into four dimensions; interaction, safety, tangibles and information. 

66


Technical Requirements 

The technical requirements or “Hows” are established from investigations of the service process of 

the online union during the past half year of this research study. Furthermore requirements were 

performed in strong collaboration with the management team of the online union. A clarification of 

the technical requirements will be discussed below. 

1- Contact availability; available options for members to get in contact with online union. 

2- Employee availability; number of union experts available for direct services. 

3- Knowledge; knowledge available in the organization of the online union (experts, databases, 

third parties) 

4- Frequency of contact; interaction moments with members (newsletter, requests, site visits, 

etc). 

5- Speed of services; process time of the services. 

6- Frequency of information updates; number of information updates on website, newsletters. 

7- Member feedback processing; how feedback is effectively processed through the 

organization. 

8- Database options; database options with all relevant information of the members. 

9- Personalization of services; extent of personalized services for a specific member. 

10- Automatization; extent to which service processes are automated. 

11- Digitalization; extent to which services and facilities are digitalized. 

12- Networking availability; extent of options to create networks between members, the online 

union and third parties. 

Planning matrix/ Competitive assessment 

The results of the benchmark study in chapter 5 were not sufficient enough to be processed into the 

House of Quality (Figure - 13). This insufficiency of the information can be explained by two factors. 

First of all, the online union of De Unie is the only virtual union in Holland whereas competitors in 

this case are the traditional unions. Therefore to compare the activities of the online union we 

studied other e-services in chapter five. Secondly, as mentioned in the introduction and in section 2.2 

the decline in the member population creates a climate where every competitor is searching for new 

ways to recruit members. The management team of the online union does not have enough 

knowledge of the competitive projects related to the online union to process into the House of 

Quality. De Unie has planned to start with a competitive benchmark in the first months of 2008. 

67


Technical Correlation Matrix 

Traditionally the technical correlation matrix is shaped as the roof of a house (Figure - 13 The House 

of Quality for the online union). In order to increase the readability of this part of the HOQ, we 

decided to collapse the roof into the matrix presented in Table 11. The technical correlation matrix 

will map the correlation between the established technical requirements (How’s). Trade–offs will 

have to be made when negative correlations appear. In our model only two negative correlations can 

be identified; first a negative correlation occurs between the speed of the services and 

personalization of services and secondly between speed of services and feedback processing. 

Table 11 - Technical Correlation Matrix 

Technical Matrix 

The technical matrix will display the importance rankings of the technical requirements and guides 

the organization in making decisions within the (re)design process. Therefore this part is the most 

important element of the House of Quality (Figure - 13). To calculate the importance of each 

technical requirement, the interrelations weightings will be multiplied with the adjusted importance 

score for each customer requirement. After this, the scores for each “What” will be summed up. The 

relative importance of the technical requirement is than calculated as a percentage of the total score 

of the “How’s”. Priorities and relative importance scores of each “How” are presented in Table 12. 

Digitalization of the services received the highest score, closely followed by the frequency of 

contacts. Other important “How’s” are the networking facilities, contact availability and knowledge 

transfer between members and De Unie and membership. 

68


Table 12 - Importance rankings How's 

4.4 Summary empirical results 

4.4.1 Exploratory research 

In the first phase of the current research, extensive qualitative research was performed to ensure the 

most important characteristics of an online union, according to the members as well as the 

employees. Based on the idea of the SERVQUAL model by Parasuraman et al (1988), the explored 

items are embodied in a model and clustered into five different dimensions (Table 2). Exploratory 

research provides evidence for proposition one; from the original SERVQUAL model only the 

dimension “tangibles” was maintained and four new context specific dimensions were established. 

The new dimensions are Interaction, Information, Solidarity and Safety. Based on the explored items 

a survey was composed to validate the explored performance drivers through a statistically reliable 

sample of members of the online union. 

4.4.2 Conclusions Quantitative results 

The factor analysis tested the structure of the five dimensions established after exploratory research 

in phase I. Factor analysis indicated four dimensions instead of five dimensions. The dimensions 

interaction and solidarity were fused into one single dimension. The four dimensions showed out to 

be reliable by high Cronbach’s alpha’s (>0.7) and strongly correlate to each other. Therefore we 

decided to adopt the dimensions constructed by Factor analysis as presented in Table 7. 

Regression analysis indicated a significant causal relationship between the independent variable 

tangibles and the dependent variable overall performance. Although the other independent variables 

showed out to influence the overall performance positively, these relationships are not significant. 

From this, the regression analysis provides significant evidence for proposition 6. Based on the 

adjusted R2, our model explains 24,3% of the variation of the overall performance of the online union 

which is in this case acceptable. 

69


From the statistical analysis of the survey data we can conclude that the overall performance of the 

online union is most influenced by the dimension tangibles. Items within this dimension are the 

online facilities, custom made services, good presentation and the availability and accessibility of 

information. 

4.4.3 Conclusions House of Quality 

The House of Quality was established to provide De Unie direction to the improvement of the online 

union. From the presented HOQ in Figure - 13 we can conclude that the technical requirement 

“Digitalization” will be the most important in the ongoing process of improvement and enables the 

online union to meet the widest collection of member’s needs. Although the online union already is 

an organization that functions in a digital way, digitalization will certainly help to improve services 

and offers important opportunities to adapt to the needs of the members. For example; digitalization 

makes it possible to increase the involvement of members by providing new methods of interaction 

like forums, personalized mails, and polls. Digitalization enables De Unie to offer relevant information 

in a digital way which increases the speed to offer up to date information. According to Figure - 13, 

involvement of third parties is of high importance to the members. Digitalization is able to integrate 

and connect different parties in the network of the online union in a fast and relative uncomplicated 

way. 

The House of Quality directly links the technical requirements to the needs of the members and 

therefore can be considered to be one of the most untainted instruments for improvement (Akao, 

1990). For this research study, considerations and correlations addressed to the HOQ are made by 

the management team of the online union and the writer of this study. It has to be mentioned that 

the value of the HOQ depends on the expertise of the design team. In this case team members had 

different expertise’s which made it possible to interpret the HOQ from different perspectives. 

The next step in this ongoing process of improvement of the online union, will be the establishment 

of the second matrix of the concept of QFD; parts deployment. Due time and organizational 

constraints it was not possible to start with the construction of this matrix. Therefore the House of 

Quality as constructed in this research will function as a guide to give direction to De Unie for the 

improvement of the online union. By the time (January 2008) De Unie will start with the next step 

and will continue with the QFD approach. By construction of the second House, De Unie will 

transform the “How’s” of Figure - 13 into part characteristics. 

70


Chapter 5 - Conclusions, Implications and Recommendations 

5.1 Synopsis 

Under influence of ICT the design of work is changing from centralized to a decentralized form. This 

development impacts the function and role of representative organizations such as De Unie, which 

witnessed a membership decline over the past ten years. In response, De Unie has been searching 

for, and experimenting with new service concepts including the online union. The online union is 

seen as an appropriate tool to recruit new members and operate as a means to interact with her 

members, and deliver new services that will increase the position of the organization as well as the 

organization’s cash flow. 

To improve the decision makers’ understanding of the demands of the members and design an 

online union that adapts to the demands of the changing workforce, two approaches were applied in 

this research study. First, statistical analysis aimed at determining the needs of the members and 

secondly the use of the quality function deployment by integrating the needs of the members into 

the House of Quality. 

5.2 Central Conclusion 

A validation study, i.e., an analysis of a statistically reliable sample of respondents is applied in the 

present case to identify the key indicators that impact the performance of the online union. 

Interpretation of the empirical results cause us to conclude that the area of “tangibles” appears to 

have the most significant effects on the ongoing process of improving the online union, and 

therefore, deserves the undivided attention and allocation of resources from De Unie’s management. 

Our central conclusion is derived from the statistical analysis conceived by the test conducted to (1) 

determine the structure of the explored attributes and 2) obtain empirical evidence of the unique 

influence of each attribute on the overall performance of the online union. By exploratory research 

in phase I we identified five dimension that were considered to determine the overall performance 

namely; interaction, solidarity, safety, tangibles and information. Factor analysis merged the 

dimensions interaction and solidarity into one dimension. Both dimensions consist of items that are 

associated to each other. Therefore, and as a result of the high factor loadings and improved 

reliability scores, we adopted the new structure of four dimensions. Statistical analysis provided 

significant evidence for Proposition 5; tangibles will positively influence the overall performance of 

the online union. Although the other dimensions all positively influence the overall performance, 

multiple regression analysis did not show significant relationships. The four dimensions; tangibles, 

71


interaction/solidarity, safety and information merely explain 24, 3% of the variation in the overall 

performance of the online union. 

5.3 Implications 

The House of Quality directly links the technical requirements to the needs of the members and 

therefore can be considered to be one of the most untainted instruments for improvement (Akao, 

1990). Two types of data were integrated in the House of Quality. First of all the gaps between the 

expectations and perceptions of the online union measured by the method of the SERVQUAL model 

and secondly the Kano category to indicate the influence of each item on member’s satisfaction. 

The method of quality function deployment is used to provide De Unie direction for informed 

decision making. First, by questioning the members’ needs; and, second by tailoring the design of the 

online union. Continuously, to match the demands of the members as closely as possible in a 

responsive manner. 

What are the main implications of the House of Quality results? 

For one, “Digitalization” is observed as the most important in the ongoing process of improvement 

and enables the online union to meet the widest collection of member’s needs. Subsequently, 

translate such needs into desirable and valuable services to generate and maintain a cash flow on 

which De Unie depends for its growth and survival. Although the online union already is an 

organization that functions online, the concept of digitalization should be understood as a 

continuous process of versioning information. Shapiro and Varian (1999) refer to ‘versioning’ as a 

technique to lever ‘value-based pricing, i.e., to sell the online union’s services to different members 

at different prices will certainly help to improve services of and offers opportunities to meet the 

most important member requirements. Value-based pricing of services affords the development and 

exploitation of two-way communication with members and stakeholders. Such online approach 

affords De Unie the opportunity to obtain valuable market data without expensive and time- 

consuming marketing studies. Simply, by offering members and third parties a menu of services and 

monitor which one they choose. For instance, De Unie can offer a product line with one product 

offered at members and another one at ‘outsiders’ and observe sales figures to observe purchase 

patterns in both markets evolving. Shapiro and Varian (1999:54) refer to this technique as 

‘versioning’. Digitalization in this case enforces the opportunity to connect different parties in the 

network of the online union. Therefore it enables interaction between De Unie and her members, 

mutual between members but it can also enforce the integration of third parties. From this 

72


perspective it increases the value of the online union, not only for her members but as well as for the 

organization De Unie. 

5.4 Methodological value 

Based on the SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al, 1985) we explored four new attributes by 

exploratory research that fit with the context of the online union. Factor analysis reduced the 

number of attributes to three new explored attributes applicable to online services. From the original 

model merely the attribute tangibles was maintained although the items were modified into topic 

related items. The SERVQUAL model assumes the attributes to have a linear function. By integration 

of the Kano model we were able to get information of the non-linear power of each performance 

driver on the overall performance of the online union which complements the SERVQUAL gaps and 

gives strong support for decision making in case of trade-offs. 

By integrating the SERVQUAL model and the Kano model into the House of Quality, a strong 

instrument was developed to measure the performance of the online union and to provide direction 

for improvement sequentially to create a design that adapts to the needs of the members. Quality 

function deployment originally was developed for product design but nowadays becomes also 

important for the design process of services. By integration of the SERVQUAL and Kano model we 

complemented the method of quality function deployment especially for the design of online 

services. 

5.5 Recommendations for future research 

De Unie is planning to start a benchmark study within the first months of 2008. Due time 

constraints and for the already planned benchmark study of the De Unie we were not able to 

integrate suitable information of competitors and e-services in other areas, into our research 

study. As a result we could not establish the planning matrix/ competitive assessment of the 

House of Quality. To complement the results of the House of Quality, De Unie should 

incorporate the competitive assessment into the model when establishing the second house. 

The House of Quality is established to prove direction to De Unie for the ongoing process of 

improving the online union. As discussed in section 2.4 the second House will transform the 

technical requirements from the first House into part characteristics. By the House of Quality 

we identified different needs and validate a general direction of improvement. To serve the 

different groups available in the community of the online union it is necessary to get a 

deeper understanding of their specific needs and expectations. A proved method to obtain a 

deeper insight, and to gain knowledge about motives and values of different groups will be 

73


the creation of personas. Cooper (1999) described a persona as ”a user archetype you can 

use to help guide decisions about product features, navigation, interactions, and even visual 

design. By designing for the archetype - whose goals, attitudes, and behaviour patterns are 

well understood - you can satisfy the broader group of people represented by that 

archetype”. 

An extensive part of the inputs for the House of Quality is provided by the management team 

of the online union. The input provided correlates with the subjectivity, knowledge and 

experience of the team members. Therefore to optimize the results for the House of Quality 

a cross functional team including members with different backgrounds and expertise is 

required (Griffin and Hauser, 1993). As the online union merely started as an experiment of 

De Unie, nowadays the management team of the online union consists of three people. 

Incorporating more team members would increase the subjectivity, knowledge, experience 

and understanding of the management team. Hence, it will improve the validity of the 

outcomes for the House of Quality. 

74


75 

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Web sites visited: 

www.internetvakbond.nl 

The official website of De Unie’s online union and subject of this research study. 

www.unie.nl 

The official website of labor union De Unie. 

www.geocities.com/unionsonline 

The most known website for information about online unionism. 

www.geocities.com/e_collectivism/ 

Website offers space for discussion and debate about collective activism, organizing and 

action through electronic means 

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Appendix 1: Survey Data 

1.1 Expectation vs. Perceptions 

Custom-made services 

Members in the same position 

Involvement third parties 

Opportunity of virtual meetings 

Interaction between members 

Perception of safety and protection 

Reliability and quality of services 

Good online facilities 

Interaction between union and … 

Professional presentation 

Recognizing the needs of members 

Accessibility of information 

Reliability of information 

Member involvement on development 

Opportunity of physical meetings 

Perception of solidarity 

Up-to-date information 

Offering relevant information 

Intelligibility objectives and services 

Good representation of interests 

Offering effective support 

Influence of online union 

0,00 1,00 2,00 3,00 4,00 5,00 

81 

Average Expectation 

Average Perception


Appendix 2: Independent correlations 

82


83


Appendix 3 

3.1 Kano matrix 

Functional 

Dat stel ik 

op prijs 

Ik verwacht 

niet anders 

Neutraal 

Vervelend, maar 

ik kan er mee 

leven 

Vervelend en 

onacceptabel 

Questionanble Attractive Attractive Attractive 

84 

One 

Dimensional 

Reverse Indifferent Indifferent Indifferent Must be 



Reverse Reverse Reverse Reverse Questionable 

Dat stel ik 

op prijs 

Ik verwacht 

niet anders 

Neutraal Vervelend, maar 

ik kan ermee 

leven 

Dysfunctional 

Vervelend en 

onacceptabel


Appendix 4: Case description De Unie 

Summary Case Description De Unie 

History 

The First labor unions in the Netherlands were raised between 1860 and 1870. The growth of the 

industrialization had significant impact on society. The working conditions were bad, child 

employment was a normal fact, workdays were very long and the position of employees was very 

weak. De Unie is established from several mergers between different independent unions of 

different sizes. De Unie BLHP was founded in 1972 and in 1995 the name of the organization was 

changed in the current name; De Unie. 

Mission and strategy 

De Unie has set herself the following target: in a world of life and work where everyone is constantly 

faced with fresh choices, to set out together and to find realistic solutions to individual needs and 

matters relating to work, income and personal development. De Unie attaches great importance to 

carefully handle the interests of society and those of members, staff and stakeholders, in line with 

her focus on socially responsible entrepreneurship. 

Profile 

With members employed in the industrial, service and health care sectors, De Unie is a modern, 

independent trade union that goes for custom-made solutions. De Unie is a typical network 

organization and contributed to over 300 collective agreements and represents the shared interests 

of employees in mergers and reorganizations but also member’s individual interests in the areas of 

work, income and personal development. De Unie mainly targets on professionals and are well 

represented among middle and senior management. The total number of members nowadays is over 

97.000. 

According to other labor unions, De Unie distinguishes itself by providing personal support based on 

in-depth understanding of businesses and collective agreements. In the area of income, De Unie 

provides individual members with advice in particular on taxation, pensions and social security, but 

she also handles queries about other matters relating to income. 

In addition to the basic products and services of a labor union, De Unie offers her members other 

products and services under labels such as UnieReizen (travel) and Member Benefits (financial 

advice, insurance and mortgages). In order to create a network of partnerships De Unie works 

85


together with partners who share the philosophy of socially responsible entrepreneurship. 

From the above described profile we can conclude that De Unie aims to be a trade union that helps 

its members to develop their personal strengths. 

Environment 

The Netherlands has got three trade union confederations: the FNV (Federation of Dutch Trade 

Unions), the CNV (National Federation of Christian Trade Unions) and the MHP (Trade Union 

Confederation for Middle and Senior Management). De Unie is, via the union of independent trade 

organizations, a member of the MHP. De Unie is aware of the fact that we live in a global society. 

Unions should meet the challenges this brings along. Therefore De Unie is affiliated to Union 

Network International [UNI], the European Metalworkers Federation [EMF], the International 

Metalworkers Federation [IMF] and the International Travel workers Federation [ITF]. 

Organizational structure 

From eight regional offices throughout the Netherlands, union officials, lawyers and secretaries keep 

in direct contact with the members of De Unie. The management and service departments are 

located at the head office “Unieplaza” in Culemborg. At this moment 220 employees work for De 

Unie. The head office, Unieplaza, has opened her doors in 2003 and has got a deeper function 

instead of just a building. This Unieplaza acts as a metaphor for De Unie as it stands for transparency 

and transformation and therefore represents the character and culture of the organization. 

Culture 

The culture of De Unie can be best described as an open culture with a high level of collegiality and 

an open way of communication. The relationship between the employees and the management team 

is not that open as it is between the employees. There is a high level of top-down decisions that 

result in some resistance and “fear” from the employees to the management team. Another 

important issue might be that the chosen policy and direction of the management team is not clear 

and policies are not always good understood by everyone. The communication between employees 

and the management team can be described as more formal. The management team is settled in the 

head office of De Unie in Culemborg and from this fact regional offices have a certain resistance to 

the “head office” as to their opinion this represents the management. 

Internal and external trigger 

An internal trigger for De Unie is that the current organizational structure is used for about twenty 

five years now. The organizational structure is region bounded (eight region offices and one head 

86


office) which does not fit with the current situation in our society. The structure will have to be 

changed into a project or sector-based structure in order to go deeper into the core businesses. 

De Unie is aware of the change in society and in the way work is going to change in the future. One of 

the issues mentioned by all interviewed employees is the change from “industrial employment” to 

“knowledge employment”. Although management of De Unie is aware of this change, they realize 

that the organization in general still acts as a traditional labor union. Another very important external 

trigger is the fact that the traditional market of De Unie is shrinking. The number of members is not 

growing anymore; in fact it is going down for about ten years now. 

Process 

The head office Unieplaza is facilitated with flexible workplaces at all departments. People can 

choose to work in cocoons for effective meetings, concentration rooms and flexible workplaces 

between colleagues. Secondly working at home is already a common fact at De Unie. A lot of 

employees, when possible in their function, work one day a week at home. Employees are satisfied 

about the offered hard- and software which makes remote-working possible. 

Although there might be some resistance to decisions made by the management, the adoption level 

of new technologies is perceived to be high. 

New concepts 

De Unie is the first labor union in the Netherlands that started with a labor union on the internet; the 

online union (www.internetvakbond.nl). One of the differences with a labor union in the traditional 

environment concerns the price of a membership. For the traditional labor union a standard price is 

set, whereas for the online union members pay a small standard price for which they can get help for 

one question. After this, members will have to pay for each request separately. 

In line with the concept of the online union is the concept of www.ruziemetdebaas.nl. This site acts 

as a sort of platform to discuss (starting) conflicts with the boss. The site is free to access for 

everyone. Main goal is to give people a deeper understanding about the conflict itself, their position 

in this conflict, and off course possible solutions. Another new and unique concept, applicable on the 

site of the online union, is the Medstick. The Medstick is a completely electronic mobile medical 

database (USB stick) with the same size as a normal credit card. The Medstick consists all the medical 

information of the owner of the stick. This concept is perfectly in line with the mission of De Unie to 

find realistic solutions to individual needs and matters relating to work, income and personal 

development. 

87


Appendix 5: Interviews employees’ online labor union. 

5.1 List of interviewed employees 

Date / Time 

21-09-2007 

13.00 – 14.00 

20-09-2007 

14.00 – 15.00 

20-09-2007 

15.15-17.15 

5.2 Questions 

Introductie 

Departement 

Policies and 

expertise 

Online labour 

union 

General 

Management 

Location 

Unieplaza, 

Culemborg 

Unieplaza, 

Culemborg 

Unieplaza, 

Culemborg 

88 

Name 

Function 

Licisca Kruse Policy manager 

Online union 

Bart Willems Project manager 

Online union 

Jacques Teuwen Chairman De Unie 

- Mijzelf introduceren, doel interview aangeven (Onderzoek naar de behoeften van de leden 

door middel van QFD, dit interview is bedoeld om verwachtingen binnen de Unie te 

kwalificeren, in het bijzonder met betrekking tot het huidige beleid, kennis overdracht en 

mogelijkheden binnen De Unie te kwalificeren) 

- Wie is de geïnterviewde (functie,kennis internetvakbond, opleiding en ervaring) 

Algemeen 

- Wat is de achtergrond van de internetvakbond, wat zijn de beweegredenen geweest om 

hiermee te starten en wat denk je dat het doel is? 

- Waar bestaat het huidige aanbod van de internetvakbond uit? 

- Wat is de huidige status van de internetvakbond, in termen van acceptatie? 

Inrichting internetvakbond 

- Wordt de internetvakbond centraal of decentraal (vanuit regio’s) aangestuurd in termen van 

IT en vakbondmedewerkers? 

- Zijn er behalve de leden en De Unie nog andere partijen die participeren binnen de 

internetvakbond en hoe worden deze partijen bij de ontwikkeling van de internetvakbond 

betrokken?


Ledenbestand 

- Wie is/zijn op dit moment de doelgroep(en) qua leden en is hier een verschuiving te 

verwachten? 

- Zijn er voor de bestaande traditionele leden van vakbond De Unie ook voordelen aan de 

internetvakbond? 

- Wat is een kritiek voordeel voor potentiële leden om voor de internetvakbond te kiezen ipv 

de traditionele vakbond? 

- Hoe worden de huidige leden van de internetvakbond betrokken bij de ontwikkeling van de 

internetvakbond? 

- Hoe denk je dat het gevoel van verbondenheid is bij de leden van de internetvakbond? 

Behoeften leden 

- Wat is volgens jullie de Top 5 van verwachtingen van leden van de internetvakbond? 

- In hoeverre voldoet de internetvakbond aan deze behoeften verwachtingen? 

- Hoe zou deze top 5 er volgens jullie in de nabije toekomst uit zien, zou deze gelijk blijven? 

Welke verschuivingen zou je verwachten? 

Verschillen t.o.v. traditionele vakbond 

- Wat zijn de belangrijkste verschillen met de traditionele vakbond? 

- Hoe worden deze verschillen naar de buitenwereld gecommuniceerd? 

- Wat is de invloed van de internetvakbond op de relatie met leden en hoe verschilt deze met 

Toekomst 

Overig 

relaties met leden in de traditionele omgeving? 

- Er zijn duidelijke verschuivingen zichtbaar op het gebied van werk, zie ons onderzoek, wat 

zou in jou ogen de mogelijke impact hiervan kunnen zijn voor de internetvakbond in termen 

van vraag en aanbod? 

- Wat zijn in jou/jullie ogen (mogelijke) verbeterpunten van de internetvakbond en wat 

zouden deze verbeteringen op kunnen gaan leveren? 

- Welke meerwaarde heeft de internetvakbond in jou ogen? 

- Einde van het interview, zijn er nog zaken met betrekking tot de internetvakbond die niet 

behandeld zijn in dit interview en volgens jou toch van belang zijn? 

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5.3 Conclusions interviews with employees 

General 

In the year 2006 De Unie started the first online union in the Netherlands. The foundation of the 

online union is based on the actuality of a decreasing number of “traditional” members of De Unie. In 

fact the size of the member population is decreasing for almost ten years. It must be stated that De 

Unie is not the only labor union with a decreasing number of members; all labor unions in the 

Netherlands, and even abroad, are facing this tendency. 

The different labor unions in the Netherlands are developing new concepts in order to reach a 

younger population of members like students or starters. De Unie differentiates from this by not only 

focusing on young members but also on the “New type of worker”. These new type of workers have 

got a high affinity with digital environments and use IT as an enabler of work and are more 

individualistic in terms of searching and gathering information and knowledge. De Unie is aware of 

the fact that we live in a global society and that there is a change in the field of work and in the use 

and usefulness of new media types. From this perspective the online labor union is used as a kind of 

experience to determine how De Unie can become a useful “partner” for these new type of workers. 

The objective for the online union is not only to stop the decrease of members but moreover to 

create, as a labor union, added value for this new generation of workers. An important aspect for 

achieving this goal is to get a well understanding on how to manage relationships within this virtual 

environment. At this moment De Unie is trying to discover how they can combine different parties of 

their network in order to facilitate an environment that provides knowledge and information which 

fits with the needs of this new type of workers and therefore will become a valuable source. 

At this moment the online labor union offers mainly three types of services: 

- Shared promotion of members interests 

- First line support to employer related subjects by union experts 

- Different platforms like “conflicts with your employer”, “My core competences” and an 

online internship database. 

The online union is organized around a fully centralized structure. The IT-applications and the 

management team are located in Unieplaza, Culemborg. Of course, the union experts who attend to 

the questions of the members are also located in some of the eight region offices. Because questions 

are answered by the same employees for the traditional union as for the online union, the quality of 

the services provided by the online union is stated to be the same as for the traditional union. 

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Communication about the online union to the outside is based on free publicity through 

communication channels of De Unie itself like the internet site of the “traditional” Unie, newsletters, 

magazines etc. In the near future De Unie will focus on communication options on the internet, for 

example search engines or cooperation with other communities. 

As mentioned above, the online union started in 2006. The spin off resulted in almost 2500 

members. Due to the absence of a formulated strategy and communication plan it is difficult to 

retain these members. As a result the number of members of the online union is already decreased 

to +/- 2000. In terms of acceptation, all interviewed persons agreed that there is an already a certain 

level of acceptation of the online labor union. This acceptation is still insufficient due to the fact that 

the online labor union is still not completely developed and is still unknown for most people. At the 

moment it is unclear which sectors are most present in the member population; different sectors are 

represented. 

Critical advantage of the online union above the traditional union is the customized identity of the 

online union. The contribution price for the online union is stated at 10 euro for a one year 

membership including one possibility to ask information of a union expert. After this, members will 

have to pay for each question separately. For the traditional union the contribution price is stated at 

15 euro a month without knowing which services you will use. A member of the online union pays for 

what he needs. 

The participation of the recent members is sufficient. For example members have the possibility to 

actively participate in the decision process for their shared promotion of interests. This works out to 

be a prosperous element of the online union. The participation of members on the development of 

the online labor union is very small. At the start of the online union members had the possibility to 

participate as an ambassador to assist in the development process. Unfortunately De Unie never 

looked at these advices and decided to stop with this ambassador function. 

Interviewed employees perceive the members feeling of solidarity to De Unie as low. This is mainly 

due to the absence of “follow up actions”. At this moment there is only a monthly newsletter. In the 

future this feeling of solidarity will have to grow as a result of more involvement of the members in 

the development of the online union. One possibility to achieve this is to set up different forums in a 

way like the Hyves network works. 

At this moment there are not many other organizations participating in the online union. One 

organization that participates is Stageplaza. The current platform for internships is facilitated in 

cooperation with Stageplaza. In the future other organizations that will link their network to the 

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network of De Unie are expected to join the online labor union. The plan is to set up different forums 

where people can get in contact with each other. From this the aspect of relationship management 

shows up again. 

Interviewed employees were asked of what they think are the most important needs of the 

members. The answered needs are mentioned below: 

- The need of appropriate information; where and how easily can I find the information I need. 

- Networks; which party be important for me and for which issue can I use this person. 

- First line assistance to employer related issues. 

- Interaction with other members who are in the same sector/position 

- Feeling of solidarity 

When looking on the needs mentioned above, the interviewed employees conclude that the first line 

assistance to employer related issues works well. But the online union is not developed enough to 

fulfill the other needs. For example the interaction aspect on the site is very small, only the Hyves 

site of the labor union offers members the possibility to interact with each other although the use of 

this possibility is minimal. Another example related to the network-need is the start of the internship 

database. Overall we can conclude that for this moment, the online union works presents itself as 

the traditional union in a new appearance. For the near future, a shift in the needs is not expected 

but they will definitely become stronger. 

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Appendix 6: Interviews with members online labor union. 

6.1 List of interviewed members 

Date / Time 

24-09-2007 

9.00-9.45 

24-09-2007 

10.00-10.45 

24-09-2007 

11.00-11.45 

24-09-2007 

13.00-14.45 

24-09-2007 

Department 

Policies and 

Expertise 

Policies and 

Expertise 

Policies and 

Expertise 

Location 

Unieplaza, 

Culemborg 

Unieplaza, 

Culemborg 

Unieplaza, 

Culemborg 

Region Office Mid Unieplaza, 

Culemborg 

Section Chairmen Unieplaza, 

Culemborg 

93 

Name 

Function 

Ewald van de Sark Labour counsellor 

Sjerp Holterman Head department 

policies and 

expertise 

Peter Kersten Staff member 

Reward systems 

Jos Drogen Statesman 

Wim Brouwer Operating group 

chairman 

15.00-15.45 

25-09-2007 Section Chairmen Telephone Gerwin van de Lei Operating group 

13.00-14.00 

meeting 

chairman 

Reserve Reserve Reserve Susan Mogony Reserve 

6.2 Questions 

Introductie 

- Mijzelf introduceren (onderzoek naar de behoeften van leden van de internetvakbond door 

middel van QFD; dit interview is bedoeld om verwachtingen en huidig beeld van leden t.a.v. 

de internetvakbond te kwalificeren. 

- Wie zit er voor mij (functie; sinds wanneer lid, kennis internetvakbond) 

Algemeen 

- Hoe werd je geattendeerd op het bestaan van de internetvakbond (bijv. via bestaande 

communicatie kanalen van De Unie, op internet gevonden, via vrienden etc.) 

- Heb jij zelf mensen geattendeerd op het bestaan van de internetvakbond en de 

mogelijkheden die deze dienst aanbied?


- Kun je specifiek aangeven waarom jij gekozen hebt om lid te worden? 

- Wie zijn in jou ogen de doelgroep(en) van de internetvakbond? 

Verschillen internetvakbond vs. traditionele vakbond 

- Kun je aangeven wat in jou ogen het verschil is tussen de internetvakbond en de traditionele 

vakbond? 

- Wat is voor jou een kritiek voordeel van de internetvakbond ten opzichte van de traditionele 

vakbond? 

- Is er voor jou ook een belangrijk nadeel van de internetvakbond en de traditionele vakbond? 

Verwachtingen leden 

- Wat waren je verwachtingen van de internetvakbond ten aanzien van de diensten/ services 

die zij aanbieden? 

- In hoeverre voldoet de internetvakbond aan deze verwachtingen? 

- Welke meerwaarde heeft de internetvakbond voor jou? 

- Wat zijn in jou ogen (mogelijke) verbeterpunten van de internetvakbond? 

Betrokkenheid 

- Een vakbond, en zeker De Unie, wil leden een gevoel van verbondenheid geven. In hoeverre 

is dat gevoel van verbondenheid bij jou als lid van de internetvakbond aanwezig, en kun je 

uitleggen waar dat gevoel op gebaseerd is? 

- Hoe wordt je als lid betrokken bij de ontwikkeling van de internetvakbond? 

- Heb je zelf weleens gebruik gemaakt van een van de diensten van de internetvakbond? Zo ja, 

Uitstraling 

Overig 

beschrijf je ervaringen? 

- Heb je het gevoel dat de internetvakbond dezelfde kwaliteit en professionaliteit aanbiedt als 

de traditionele vakbond De Unie? 

- Als je specifiek kijkt naar de website van de internetvakbond, straalt de internetvakbond dan 

dezelfde kwaliteit en professionaliteit uit als de traditionele vakbond De Unie? 

- Einde van het interview, zijn er nog zaken met betrekking tot de internetvakbond die niet 

behandeld zijn in dit interview en volgens jou toch van belang zijn? 

94


6.3 Conclusions interviews with members. 

Interviewed members were mainly attended to the online union through communication channels of 

De Unie. Attention was created on the website of De Unie and by newsletters provided by De Unie. 

Two interviewed members mentioned posters and the free publicity in for example papers at the 

introduction period of the online union. Nowadays advertisements of the online union are only 

noticed on the website of De Unie. Four out of six interviewed members attended relatives on the 

online labor union which resulted in a couple of new memberships. The other two interviewed 

members also attended other people, but from a professional perspective as they are employees of 

De Unie. 

People were asked to mention a specific reason why they chose to join the online union. The most 

frequently answered reason was the price members have to pay for a membership of the online 

labor union in contrast with the price of a traditional membership. This price offers members the 

possibility to be represented for their shared interests and to profit from customized services for a 

relative small price. 

According to the interviewed members, the target group of the online union are younger people who 

are at the starting point of their career (young professionals) or at the end of their professional or 

academic study. Two interviewed members noticed that the online union is not only focusing on 

young employees or students. They mentioned that the concept of the online union, to their opinion, 

is suitable for people who crave for the safety of shared promotions of interest and on the other 

hand are looking for the comfort of custom made services. 

In line with the answers of the interviewed employees in Appendix 5.3, the interviewed members 

defined the same differences between the online union and the traditional union. From a consumer 

perspective, first of all the price of a membership indicates a significant difference. Secondly, all 

interviewed members mentioned the difference in concept; the traditional union works from a 

supply perspective (standard package of services) as the online union works from a demand 

perspective (custom made services). From these answers we might conclude that the concept of the 

online labor union is clear to the members, but it is important to mention that these answers might 

be biased by the fact that all interviewed members are employees of De Unie. 

Member’s opinions about the presentation of the site of the online union are divided. Half of the 

interviewed members perceive the site to have a professional performance, the other members 

think that the site does not look professional and looks a little out dated. Although there are 

95


different opinions about the professional looks of the site, all members perceive the quality of the 

online union is equal to the traditional union and according to them the site looks trustworthy. 

An important aspect of the interviews with members of the online union was to identify member’s 

expectations and to what extent these expectations are fulfilled by the current online union. Each 

aspect mentioned will be discussed below: 

Easy accessible Information: 

Members of the online union expect to find useful information in an easy and quick way. The online 

union should provide a sort of “database” with relevant information divided in for example sector 

categories. Members perceive the amount of information which is relevant and useful for them as 

low. The online union consist no judicial work-related information in an easy accessible context. 

Up to date information: 

It is important for members that the information that is offered by the online union is highly up to 

date. People expect here to find the most recent information about relevant work related issues. At 

this moment members perceive the online union not as a medium that can provide them the latest 

relevant information. The site is not updated very often and consists no or very few recent facts. 

Interaction: 

The aspect of interaction can be divided into two categories; first of all there can be interaction 

between the online union and its members. Members expect for example to be informed by 

(personalized) newsletters, interaction about the development of the online union and some of the 

interviewed members favor more personal contact when they have made a request. At this moment 

newsletters are not personalized and appear on a monthly base. Members of the online union are 

not involved in the development process, although at the start a platform of ambassadors was 

founded. Unfortunately the online union never used this possibility. 

Secondly, members expect that there are possibilities to interact with people who are in equal 

situations or who can be useful for them in a particular way. This type of interaction is not available 

on the online union. In a certain way it is possible to interact with people in the same situation on the 

online platform www.ruziemetdebaas.nl, but this platform only contains information about conflicts 

between employer and employee. Not only interaction with people is preferred, also with third party 

organizations which can be valuable for the members. For example insurance companies, retirement 

fund organizations or the upcoming internship database which is launched in cooperation of 

Stageplaza. 

96


The above described aspects of interaction with other members focuses only on virtual aspects. Two 

interviewed members noticed the absence of physical meetings. “When organizing an event to bring 

people together who for example work in the same sector, will probably increase the feeling to 

belong to a certain group”. 

Solidarity 

In line with the quote above; one of the reasons for people to join a union is the feeling of solidarity 

provided by a union. This feeling of solidarity originates from the fact that members join a union for 

more or less the same reasons. The feeling of solidarity with the online union can be classified as 

small. This is mainly caused by the absence of face-to-face contact between the online union and her 

members but is also affected by the nonexistence of virtual and physical interaction possibilities 

between members. 

Safety 

People join the online union to have the certainty that their common interests are represented and 

promoted in an effective way. Interviewed members mentioned that due to the broad variety of 

subjects handled by the online union there is an increase in uncertainty about a well representation 

of their common interests. Some members consider the influence of the online union to be relative 

small in comparison to the traditional union. 

First-line support 

Affective and adequate support to work related issues is expected by members of the online union. 

Members expect quick response on questions. It was mentioned that for some questions a database 

on the site would be enough. People can find the answer/ solution by themselves without the need 

of support by an expert. 

97


Appendix 7: Survey Internetvakbond De Unie 

Introductie 

Welkom! 

De wereld van werk is aan het veranderen en hierdoor ook de behoeften van de werknemers. Om 

haar leden goed van dienst te kunnen zijn dient een vakbond in te spelen op deze veranderingen. 

Daarom heeft vakbond De Unie ruim een jaar geleden een nieuwe service opgericht; de 

Internetvakbond. 

Deze vragenlijst is opgesteld om te onderzoeken welke verwachtingen er onder leden heersen ten 

opzichte van de internetvakbond en hoe de internetvakbond op deze behoeften kan inspelen. 

Het invullen van deze vragenlijst is van groot belang; de internetvakbond kan hierdoor beter 

ingericht worden naar de behoeften van haar leden en kan jou hierdoor beter van dienst zijn. 

Dit onderzoek maakt deel uit van een onderzoek dat is opgezet door Microsoft Nederland in 

samenwerking met de RSM Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam. Vakbond De Unie participeert ook 

binnen dit onderzoek naar de invloed van informatie technologieën op de manier hoe wij ons werk 

inrichten. 

Begin bij het invullen van deze vragenlijst met het opgeven van je e-mailadres, dit om te waarborgen 

dat jou antwoorden uniek zijn. Je e-mailadres zal niet voor andere doeleinden gebruikt worden en zal 

niet aan derden verstrekt worden. 

Het invullen van deze vragenlijst neemt ongeveer 10 minuten tijd in beslag. 

Deze vragenlijst bestaat uit vier verschillende delen. In elk deel worden verschillende aspecten 

gemeten. 

Deel I: Percepties van karakteristieken van een vakbond 

Deel II: Gevoelens bij aanwezigheid van verschillende karakteristieken 

Deel III: Gevoelens bij het ontbreken van verschillende karakteristieken 

Deel IV: Algemene en demografische gegevens 

Bedankt voor je deelname! 

98


DEEL I 

Dit eerste deel van de survey gaat over verschillende karakteristieken van een vakbond. We willen je 

vragen om telkens aan te geven: 

- In hoeverre jij vindt dat een vakbond over een bepaalde karakteristiek moet beschikken. 

- In hoeverre de internet vakbond aan deze karakteristiek voldoet. 

De verschillende karakteristieken zijn geclusterd in de volgende groepen: informatie, interactie, 

verbondenheid, veiligheid en gebruik. 

Information (Volledig mee oneens – Volledig mee eens) 

1.1 – De informatie die een vakbond aanbiedt dient actueel te zijn. 

1.2 – De internetvakbond biedt actuele informatie aan. 

1.3 – Van een vakbond mag verwacht worden dat de informatie die zij aanbiedt betrouwbaar is. 

1.4 – De internetvakbond biedt betrouwbare informatie aan. 

1.5 – Een vakbond dient haar leden te informeren wanneer zij specifieke beroepsgerelateerde 

informatie voor hen heeft. 

1.6 – De internetvakbond informeert haar leden wanneer zij specifieke beroepsgerelateerde 

informatie voor hen heeft. 

Interaction (Volledig mee oneens – Volledig mee eens) 

2.1 – Van een vakbond mag verwacht worden dat zij haar leden actief betrekt bij de ontwikkeling van 

de vakbond. 

2.2 – De internetvakbond betrekt haar leden actief bij het ontwikkelen van de internetvakbond. 

2.3 – Een vakbond dient te voorzien in interactie tussen de vakbond en haar leden. 

2.4 – De internetvakbond voorziet in interactie tussen de vakbond en haar leden. 

2.5 – Een vakbond dient interactie mogelijk te maken tussen leden onderling. 

2.6 – De internetvakbond maakt interactie mogelijk tussen haar leden. 

2.7 – Om een zo volledig mogelijk pakket aan diensten te bieden dient een vakbond derde partijen 

zoals bijvoorbeeld pensioenfondsen, verzekeringen of stagebanken bij de vakbond te betrekken. 

2.8 – De internetvakbond betrekt derde partijen zoals bijvoorbeeld pensioenfondsen, verzekeringen 

of stagebanken in haar aanbod. 

2.9 – Het is realistisch om te stellen dat een vakbond begrijpt wat de behoeften van haar leden zijn. 

2.10 – De internetvakbond begrijpt wat de behoeften van haar leden zijn. 

99


Solidarity (Volledig mee oneens – Volledig mee eens) 

3.1 – Een vakbond moet een gevoel van verbondenheid naar haar leden uitstralen. 

3.2 – De internetvakbond straalt een gevoel van verbondenheid uit naar haar leden. 

3.3 – Fysieke ontmoetingen met andere leden dragen bij aan een gevoel van verbondenheid. 

3.4 – De internetvakbond maakt fysieke ontmoetingen met andere leden mogelijk 

3.5 – Virtuele ontmoetingen met andere leden dragen bij aan een gevoel van verbondenheid. 

3.6 – De internetvakbond maakt virtuele ontmoetingen met andere leden mogelijk. 

3.7 – Binnen een vakbond vindt men leden die in dezelfde positie verkeren (gelijkgestemden). 

3.8 – Binnen de internetvakbond vind men leden die in dezelfde positie verkeren (gelijkgestemden). 

Safety (Volledig mee oneens – Volledig mee eens) 

4.1 – Een vakbond zorgt voor een goede belangenbehartiging van haar leden. 

4.2 – De internetvakbond zorgt voor een goede belangenbehartiging van haar leden. 

4.3 – Een vakbond geeft haar leden een gevoel van zekerheid en geborgenheid. 

4.4 – De internetvakbond geeft een gevoel van zekerheid en geborgenheid. 

4.5 – Een vakbond kan in voldoende mate invloed uitoefenen bij bijvoorbeeld Cao-onderhandelingen 

4.6 – De internetvakbond kan in voldoende mate invloed uitoefenen bij bijvoorbeeld Caoonderhandelingen. 

4.7 – Een vakbond geeft duidelijk aan wat haar doel is en wat voor diensten zij aanbiedt. 

4.8 – De internetvakbond geeft duidelijk aan wat haar doel is en wat voor diensten zij aanbiedt. 

4.9 – Van een vakbond mag verwacht worden dat zij adequaat hulp te biedt wanneer dat nodig is. 

4.10 – De internetvakbond biedt adequate hulp wanneer dat nodig is. 

Tangibles (Volledig mee oneens – Volledig mee eens) 

5.1 – Een vakbond is betrouwbaar en levert en diensten van goede kwaliteit aanbiedt . 

5.2 – De internetvakbond is betrouwbaar en levert en diensten van goede kwaliteit aanbiedt. 

5.3 – Een vakbond dient zich op een professionele manier te presenteren. 

5.4 – De internetvakbond presenteert zichzelf op een professionele manier. 

5.5 – Een vakbond dient goede online faciliteiten te hebben (denk hierbij aan de het aanbod op de 

site). 

5.6 – De internetvakbond heeft goede online faciliteiten (denk hierbij aan de het aanbod op de site). 

5.7 – Een vakbond dient ervoor te zorgen dat informatie snel en makkelijk toegankelijk is. 

5.8 – De internetvakbond biedt informatie op een snelle en makkelijk toegankelijke manier aan. 

5.9 - Een vakbond dient een vraaggericht aanbod aan services te bieden (betalen naar gebruik i.p.v. 

algemeen lidmaatschapstarief). 

5.10 - De internetvakbond biedt een vraaggericht aanbod aan services aan. 

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DEEL II 

In dit tweede deel van de survey vragen we je een aantal stellingen te beantwoorden. Elke stelling 

beschrijft een bepaalde situatie met betrekking tot een vakbond. Stel je de verschillende situaties 

goed voor en geef aan welke antwoordoptie het meest je gevoel bij deze situatie beschrijft. 

Antwoordopties: 

I enjoy it that way Dat stel ik op prijs. 

I expect it that way Ik verwacht niet anders 

I am neutral Neutraal 

I dislike it but can live with it Vervelend, maar kan er mee leven 

I dislike and do not accept Vervelend en onacceptabel 

1 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond altijd de meest actuele informatie aanbiedt? 

2 – Wat vind je ervan als de informatie die jou vakbond aanbiedt betrouwbaar is? 

3 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond je informeert wanneer zij specifieke 

beroepsgerelateerde informatie voor je heeft? 

4 – Wat vind je ervan waneer jouw vakbond jou betrekt bij de ontwikkeling van de vakbond? 

5 – Hoe zou je het vinden als er mogelijkheden tot interactie zijn tussen de vakbond en haar leden? 

6 – Hoe zou je het vinden als er mogelijkheden tot interactie zijn tussen de leden van jou vakbond 

onderling? 

7 – Wat vind je ervan als jouw vakbond derde partijen zoals bijvoorbeeld pensioenfondsen, 

verzekeringsmaatschappijen en stagebanken? 

8 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond goede kennis heeft van de behoeften van haar 

leden? 

9 – Hoe zou je het vinden als jouw vakbond een gevoel van verbondenheid uitstraalt? 

10 – Hoe zou je het vinden als jou vakbond fysieke ontmoetingen met andere leden mogelijk maakt 

(bijv. d.m.v. een evenement) om het gevoel van verbondenheid/ saamhorigheid te stimuleren. 

11 – Hoe zou je het vinden als jou vakbond virtuele ontmoetingen met andere leden mogelijk maakt 

(bijv. d.m.v. forums) om het gevoel van verbondenheid/ saamhorigheid te stimuleren 

12 – Hoe zou je het vinden als je binnen jou vakbond leden tegenkomt die in dezelfde positie als jou 

zitten (gelijkgestemden)? 

13 – Wat vind je ervan als jouw vakbond zorg draagt voor een goede belangenbehartiging? 

14 – Wat vind je ervan als jouw vakbond zorgt voor een gevoel van zekerheid en geborgenheid? 

15 – Wat vind je ervan als jouw vakbond in voldoende mate invloed kan uitoefenen op bijvoorbeeld 

Cao-onderhandelingen? 

101


16 – Hoe zou je het vinden als jouw vakbond duidelijk aangeeft wat haar doel is en welke diensten zij 

aanbiedt? 

17 – Wat vind je ervan als jouw vakbond adequaat hulp kan bieden aan haar leden wanneer dit nodig 

is? 

18 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond betrouwbaar is en diensten van goede kwaliteit 

aanbiedt? 

19 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond zich op een professionele manier presenteert? 

20 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jou vakbond over goede online faciliteiten heeft (denk hierbij 

bijvoorbeeld aan het aanbod op de site)? 

21 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond informatie op een snelle en makkelijk 

toegankelijke manier aanbiedt? 

22 - Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond een vraaggericht aanbod aan services aanbiedt? 

(Betalen naar gebruik i.p.v. een algemeen lidmaatschapstarief)? 

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DEEL III 

In dit deel van de survey worden je dezelfde stellingen voorgelegd als in het vorige deel. Bij de 

stellingen in dit deel zijn de verschillende karakteristieken echter niet aanwezig. Geef wederom aan 

welke antwoordoptie het meest jou gevoel bij de situatie beschrijft. 

Antwoordopties: 

I enjoy it that way Dat stel ik op prijs. 

I expect it that way Ik verwacht niet anders 

I am neutral Neutraal 

I dislike it but can live with it Vervelend, maar kan er mee leven 

I dislike and do not accept Vervelend en onacceptabel 

1 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond niet altijd de meest actuele informatie aanbiedt? 

2 – Wat vind je ervan als de informatie die jou vakbond aanbiedt niet betrouwbaar is? 

3 – Hou zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond jou niet informeert wanneer zij specifieke 

beroepsgerelateerde informatie voor je heeft? 

4 – Wat vind je ervan waneer jouw vakbond jou betrekt bij de ontwikkeling van de vakbond? 

5 – Hoe zou je het vinden als er geen mogelijkheden tot interactie zijn tussen de vakbond en haar 

leden? 

6 – Hoe zou je het vinden als er geen mogelijkheden tot interactie zijn tussen de leden van jou 

vakbond onderling? 

7 – Wat vind je ervan als jouw vakbond geen derde partijen zoals bijvoorbeeld pensioenfondsen, 

verzekeringsmaatschappijen en stagebanken? 

8 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond geen goede kennis heeft van de behoeften van 

haar leden? 

9 – Hoe zou je het vinden als jouw vakbond niet een gevoel van verbondenheid uitstraalt? 

10 – Hoe zou je het vinden als jou vakbond geen fysieke ontmoetingen met andere leden mogelijk 

maakt (bijv. d.m.v. een evenement) om het gevoel van verbondenheid/ saamhorigheid te stimuleren. 

11 – Hoe zou je het vinden als jou vakbond geen virtuele ontmoetingen met andere leden mogelijk 

maakt (bijv. d.m.v. forums) om het gevoel van verbondenheid/ saamhorigheid te stimuleren 

12 – Hoe zou je het vinden als je binnen jou vakbond geen leden tegenkomt die in dezelfde positie als 

jou zitten (gelijkgestemden)? 

13 – Wat vind je ervan als jouw vakbond geen zorg draagt voor een goede belangenbehartiging? 

14 – Wat vind je ervan als jouw vakbond niet zorgt voor een gevoel van zekerheid en geborgenheid? 

15 – Wat vind je ervan als jouw vakbond in onvoldoende mate invloed kan uitoefenen op 

bijvoorbeeld Cao-onderhandelingen? 

103


16 – Hoe zou je het vinden als jouw vakbond niet duidelijk aangeeft wat haar doel is en welke 

diensten zij aanbiedt? 

17 – Wat vind je ervan als jouw vakbond geen adequate hulp kan bieden aan haar leden wanneer dit 

nodig is? 

18 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond niet betrouwbaar is en garant kan staan voor een 

goede kwaliteit van haar diensten? 

19 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond zich niet op een professionele manier 

presenteert? 

20 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jou vakbond niet over goede online faciliteiten heeft (denk 

hierbij bijvoorbeeld aan het aanbod op de site)? 

21 – Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond informatie niet op een snelle en makkelijk 

toegankelijke manier aanbiedt? 

22 - Hoe zou je het vinden wanneer jouw vakbond geen vraaggericht aanbod aan services aanbiedt? 

(Algemeen lidmaatschapstarief i.p.v. betalen naar gebruik)? 

104


DEEL IV 

Dit is het laatste deel van de survey. In dit laatste deel willen we graag nog enkele algemene vragen 

stellen over de internetvakbond en enkele demografische vragen. 

Hoe vaak bezoek je de site van de internetvakbond? 

Dagelijks 

Een aantal keren per week 

Een keer per week 

Een aantal keren per maand 

Eens per maand 

Minder vaak 

Met welke reden bezoek je de site van de internetvakbond over het algemeen? 

Om informatie in te winnen 

Voor ontspanning 

Voor interactie met de internetvakbond 

Voor interactie met leden 

Als je een cijfer mag geven aan de internetvakbond, wat voor cijfer zou je op dit moment geven op een 

schaal van 1-10 (1=erg slecht - 10=uitmuntend)?........................................... 

Voor welke organisatie ben je werkzaam? (open)………………………………………. 

Sector waarin uw organisatie actief is 

Productie 

Onderwijs 

Overheid 

Financiële sector 

Groothandel 

Detailhandel 

Gezondheidszorg 

Bouw 

Transport 

Verzekeringen 

Informatietechnologie 

Overige 

Functie 

Consultancy 

105


Algemeen management 

Financiën, administratie 

Gezondheidszorg 

Inkoop en logistiek 

Juridisch 

Marketing, PR, reclame 

Onderzoek en ontwikkeling 

Overheid 

Human resources 

ICT 

Verkoop 

Leeftijd 

54 

Geslacht 

Man/ Vrouw 

Opleidingsniveau 

Professionele graad 

Gepromoveerd 

Masters (aan universiteit) 

Bachelors (aan HBO of universiteit) 

Kandidaats 

Universitaire opleiding, geen diploma 

MBO 

Middelbare school 

Overig 

Huishouden 

Alleenstaand 

Met partner (niet-werkend) 

Met partner (werkend) 

Overig 

106


In welke regio woon je: 

Zuid-Holland, Noord-Holland 

Utrecht, Zeeland 

Noord-Brabant 

Limburg, Gelderland 

Overijssel, Flevoland 

Friesland, Groningen 

Drenthe 

Werkervaring 

Ik ben momenteel… 

Full time werkend 

Parttime werkend 

Niet werkend 

Sinds hoeveel jaar werkt u voor uw huidige werkgever? (selecteer één antwoord) 

0 - 0,5 jaar 3 - 5 jaar 

0,5 - 1 jaar 5 - 10 jaar 

1 - 2 jaar 10 of meer jaar 

Sinds hoeveel jaar werkt u in uw huidige functie? 

0 - 0,5 jaar 

0,5 - 1 jaar 

1 - 2 jaar 

3 - 5 jaar 

5 - 10 jaar 

10 of meer jaar 

Hoeveel verschillende functies of betrekkingen hebt u binnen uw huidige organisatie gehad? 

1 - 3 

4 - 6 

6 - 9 

10 of meer 

Opmerkingen 

We stellen eventuele opmerkingen zeer op prijs: als je nog opmerkingen hebt of vragen wilt stellen 

naar aanleiding van deze vragenlijst, kun je deze hier invoeren. 

107


Appendix 8: Statistical Analyses 

8.1 Factor Analysis 

108

here - ERIM - Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam

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