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A validation Study of House of Quality key performance indicators 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 t<strong>here</strong> 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 w<strong>here</strong> 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.
A validation Study of House of Quality key performance indicators 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
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