here - ERIM - Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam

A validation Study of House of Quality key performance indicators
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.
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