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A validation Study of House of Quality key performance indicators
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.
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