INTRODUCTION
Furthermore, the
Intranet can be viewed as an information utility for the enterprise.
(Christiansen, 1996) It doesn't matter whether one uses a Mac, Windows or a
UNIX workstation – it is plugged in to the Intranet and find what you need,
from documents to email to data to audio and video. Corporate and department
information is accessed via the standards of the Internet: e-mail, WWW, file
transfer, and other Internet services. The information utility concept has
broad appeal. It enables everyone to be a 'knowledge worker' by providing
real-time information access to all published documents and data in the corporation.
The rapid and near-universal adoption of Internet standards is producing an
avalanche of new products and refurbished, web-enabled applications from all
major applications vendors.
Physically, an Intranet is formed
by linking the various pieces of information and communications technologies
that an organization owns or uses; interconnected in such a fashion that all
the resources of the organization are readily available to anyone who needs
them, wherever and whenever they are needed. (Gareiss, 1996) These resources
that are linked together are not merely the physical devices such as computers
or fax machines. The data that is stored in or accessed through the physical
devices are resources too; as are the software applications that can operate on
and manipulate those data resources.
An Intranet encourages the members
of the organization to make better and more informed decisions. (Gareiss, 1996)
An Intranet encourages and supports more effective use of people by people and
should support faster and more efficient decision making processes. To repeat the
point: An Intranet weaves together three essential components; tangible
resources such as computers, intangible resources in the form of data and, most
important of all, the experience and knowledge of people within the
organization.
The study would be assessing the
intranet system of Mosscare Housing LTD (MC). It was chosen as the case study
for the project due to its easy accessibility of information and largely
traditional structure. There are several definitions of Intranet, but they all
generally refer to network activities where protocol replaces physical items
such as paper and pen. Mosscare Housing LTD is a not-for-profit organization,
and is responsible for over 2,500 properties and sheltered accommodation
schemes in the Greater Manchester area. It provides accommodation services for
the community by developing new properties, renovating existing ones, and
managing the tenancies.
Statement of the Problem
1. Describe
the characteristics of the employees in terms of age and departmental
affiliation.
2. Identify
the challenges and opportunities institution face as a result of Intranet
technology.
3. Assess the behavior and attitudes of the employees regarding the use of
Intranet within the organizations.
4. Recognize the adaptation method of MC to Intranets.
5. Identify the factors affecting intranet usage.
Hypothesis
The study intends to
test the hypothesis:
“Has the proliferation of intranet
had a positive or negative effect on working paradigms within business
organization?”
Significance of the Study
The study would benefit several areas
of the corporate system. First of all, the study would be able to benefit the
Information Systems of corporations in general as well as with Mosscare. The
research would be able to provide them the idea on the departmental
distribution of the employees who use the technology. This would allow them to
furnish additional data that would be valuable for the department who has the
greatest number of employees clicking to the company’s intranet. This would
allow the said department to modify a section for frequently asked questions
(FAQs) to allow easier access for the employees.
In this light, the management of
companies in general as well as with Mosscare would also benefit from this
study. The results of this study would allow the employees to become more aware
of the company mission and vision through the intranets. This way, the
management would be able to easily keep the employees informed of company
affairs and in the same time, continue to place their moral in a high level.
Likewise, the employees of Mosscare
would also benefit from this study. This study would convey their concerns
regarding the intranet network within their company. This would provide them
additional aspects of the intranets that would be able to cater to their
specific needs. Moreover this study would do well to the Intranet technology as
a whole. This would provide the followers in the field of networking and other
related technologies a concrete representation on the impact of intranets on an
organization.
Scope and Limitations
The study would be limited to the
analysis of the Intranet utilization of the company Mosscare Housing LTD. This
would utilize a researcher made questionnaire that would be provided to the
employees of the said company. The employees that would be given the said
instrument would amount to twenty-five (25) respondents.
Definition of Terms
Browser
This is a program that allows the user to read and access information on the
World Wide Web.
Cyberspace
The conceptual or virtual area where pages, data, images, and all the rest fly
back and forth from computer to computer, user to user.
FAQs - Frequently Asked
Questions
These are questions and
answers that occur regularly within a user group. FAQs are a timesaving feature
for all kinds of users.
Firewall
A protection of the internal company network against unauthorized access via
the Internet.
FTP - File Transfer
Protocol
It is a very common method
of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a special way to log in to
another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files.
There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible
repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP by logging in using the
account name anonymous. Thus, these sites are called anonymous FTP servers.
HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol
The way Web pages are
transferred over the Internet or an Intranet. Icon A small picture or graphic
used to represent a location in the inter- or Intranet (for example a
flow-chart graphic to take the user to the departmental flow chart); an action
(a mailbox as a place to send feedback); or a program (a W to indicate
Microsoft Word).
Internet
Interconnected computer networks from around the world.
Intranet
Interconnected computers and networks within an organization.
ISDN - Integrated Services
Digital Network
Basically, it is a way to
move more data over existing regular phone lines. It can provide speeds of
roughly 128,000 bits-per-second over regular phone lines.
LDAP - Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol
LDAP is preferred for
creating directories. LDAP provides a standard way for Internet clients,
applications, and servers to access directory services using TCP/IP, regardless
of the hardware/software platform.
Network
Lots of computers connected together. Lots of networks all over the world are
connected to make the Internet. Lots of networks connected within an
organization such as a university or company make an Intranet.
Search Engine
Software used to find
information on the Web. Examples are Lycos and Yahoo.
Server
This is a computer with
the capacity to provide connectivity (sharing) to multiple personal computers.
Surfing
Going from page to page, link to link, via a browser. Surfing could have been
called "clicking" for the mouse clicks that make the process
possible, or "linking" from the program logic, which makes the
process, occur.
TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. This is the suite of
protocols that defines the Internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating
system, TCP/IP software is now available for every major kind of computer
operating system. To be truly on the Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP
software.
URL - Uniform Resource
Locator
It is the address of
location for accessing Web pages. Clicking on an icon or "hot text"
is the most common means of accessing and using a URL.
Web or Net
The World Wide Web (a
server) consisting of a hypermedia system (linking sounds, text, pictures,
video) which your computer (a client) can access.
Webmaster
The supervisor ensuring that the system is up and running; the coordinator of
access; the relay for communications between users and hosts to sites.
Chapter 3
METHODS
AND PROCEDURES
This chapter shall discuss the research methods available for
the study and what is applicable for it to use. Likewise the chapter shall
present how the research will be implemented and how to come up with pertinent
findings.
Method of Research to be Used
There are three kinds of research methods, correlational, experimental
and descriptive. (Walliman and Baiche, 2001) The correlational kind of research
method is used due to ethical
problems with experiments. Moreover, it is also used due to practical problems
with experiments. Moreover, inferring causality from correlation not actually
impossible, but very difficult. This mode of study is widely applicable, cheap,
and usually ethical. Nonetheless, there exist some "third variable"
issues and measurement problems. The correlational research refers to studies in which the purpose is to discover
relationships between variables through the use of correlational statistics
(r). The square of a correlation coefficient yields the explained variance
(r-squared). A correlational relationship between two variables is occasionally
the result of an outside source, so we have to be careful and remember that
correlation does not necessarily tell us about cause and effect. If a strong
relationship is found between two variables, using an experimental approach can
test causality.
On the other hand, the
experimental method is the only
method that can be used to establish cause-and-effect relationships. (Creswell,
1994) That is, it is the only one that can be used to explain the bases of
behavior and mental processes. In this method, the subjects are split into two (or more) groups.
One group, called the experimental group gets the treatment that the
researcher believes will cause something to happen (this treatment is formally
called the independent variable). The experimental and control groups are compared on some variable that is presumed to reflect the
effects of the treatment, or outcome. This is formally referred to as the dependent variable.
And lastly, the descriptive research method uses observation and
surveys. In this method, it is possible that the study would be cheap and
quick. It could also suggest unanticipated hypotheses. Nonetheless, it would be
very hard to rule out alternative explanations and especially infer causations.
Thus, this approach was used for this study. This descriptive type of research utilized
questionnaires and observations in the study.
To illustrate the descriptive type of research, Creswell (1994) will
guide the researcher when he stated: Descriptive method of research is to
gather information about the present existing condition. The purpose of employing this method is to
describe the nature of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study and
to explore the cause/s of particular phenomena. The researcher opted to use
this kind of research considering the desire of the researcher to obtain first
hand data from the respondents so as to formulate rational and sound
conclusions and recommendations for the study.
The research described in this document is based solely on qualitative research methods. This permitted a flexible and iterative
approach. During data gathering the choice and design of methods were
constantly modified, based on ongoing analysis. This allowed investigation of
important new issues and questions as they arise, and allowed the investigators
to drop unproductive areas of research from the original research plan.
The study intended to investigate the
benefits of Intranets within an organization, particularly in Mosscare Housing
LTD. Specifically, the study sought to describe the characteristics of the
employees in terms of age and departmental affiliation; identify the challenges
and opportunities institution face as a result of Intranet technology; assess
the behavior and attitudes of the employees regarding the use of Intranet
within the organizations; recognize the adaptation method of MC to Intranets;
and identify the factors affecting intranet usage.
The primary source
of data came from a researcher-made survey questionnaire, which will be given
to the respondents. The respondents of this study were randomly selected
employees at Mosscare.
The secondary sources of data came from
published articles from social science journals, theses and related studies on
modern technologies, online applications, and network technologies.
For this research design, the researcher
gathered data, collate published studies from different local and foreign
universities and articles from social science journals, distribute sampling
questionnaires; arranged interviews; conducted surveys; and made a content
analysis of the collected documentary and verbal material. Afterwards, the
researcher summarized all the information, made a conclusion based on the null
hypotheses posited and provided insightful recommendations on the issues
dealing with the development of intranets.
Respondents
of the Study
The general population for
this study was composed of Mosscare employees, numbering twenty-five (25)
respondents. The respondents were randomly selected.
Instruments
to be Used
To determine the impact of intranets in
working institutions, the researcher will prepare a survey questionnaire, which
will be given to the intended respondents.
Part 1 of the survey asked for the
characteristics of the employees in terms of gender and affiliated department.
Part 2 determined the behavior and attitudes
of the employees with the use of the intranet technology.
Part 3 identified the
challenges and opportunities of the technology of intranets as perceived by the
respondents.
Validation of the Instrument
For validation purposes, the researcher
initially submitted a survey questionnaire and after approval, the survey was
given to three respondents. After the survey questionnaire has been answered,
the researcher asked the respondents for any suggestions or any necessary
corrections to ensure further improvement and validity of the instrument. The researcher again examined the content of
the survey questionnaire to find out the reliability of the instrument. The
researchers excluded irrelevant questions and changed words that were deemed
difficult by the respondents, to much simpler terms.
Administration of the Instrument
The revised instrument was consequently
administered to the respondents of the study, which were chosen through random
sampling. The researcher will exclude the three respondents who were be
initially used for the validation of the instrument. The researcher also tallied, scored and
tabulated all the relevant data in the survey questionnaire.
Limitations Encountered
In the course of the collection of the data
required by this study, the researcher bumped into several slight
inconveniences. Initially, the administration of the research instrument took
several ounces of sweat than expected because of the slightly stubborn
personnel department, which was apparently too busy to accommodate the
researcher. Nonetheless, they have provided the researcher with the approval to
conduct the research, this is without assistance though. This means that the
researcher has to interact personally to the respondents.
In addition, the researcher also realized
that the population is slightly biased. Apparently, this is because they
perceive that they would be sacked by the company if ever they say anything bad
about their system. It was fortunate for the researcher that the greater
majority of the population realized that they wouldn’t be affected by any
breach of information since the researcher assured them that it would only be
used for academic purposes. Besides, placing their names on the questionnaire
was not among the option providing them their much-needed anonymity.
Another problem was the schedule changes that
inevitably hounded the research process. This has been a slight inconvenience
for the researcher considering that he has provided a considerable leeway for
the research process. Moreover, the researcher as well encountered several
hassles in collating the secondary data. The secondary data was hard to collate
due to a notable number of important articles. Choosing the right literature
and studies has consumed a bulk of the researcher’s schedule. Nonetheless, the
study has evidently completed containing relevant information about the
technology of intranets.
Statistical Treatment of Data
When all the survey questionnaire have been
collected, the researcher used statistical methods to analyze all the data.
The researcher statistically treated the data on Part 1, characteristics of the employees
in terms of gender and departmental affiliation.
The statistical formulae used in the second and
third part of the survey questionnaire are the following:
1.
Percentage – to determine the magnitude of the responses to the
questionnaire.
n
% = -------- x 100 ; n – number of responses
N N – total
number of respondents
2. Weighted Mean
f1x1
+ f2x2 + f3x3
+ f4x4 + f5x5
x =
---------------------------------------------
;
xt
where: f –
weight given to each response
x –
number of responses
xt – total number of
responses
Sources:
Christensen, Robert. (1996) Intranet: Misspelling… or Megatrend?
Atlanta Computer Currents, May.
Creswell, J.W. (1994) Research
design. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, California:
Sage.
Gareiss, Robin. "Intranet,
Without the Internet." Data
Communications, 25, no. 5 (April 1996): 39-40.
Sauders, Mark, Philip Lewis, and Dr Adrian
Thornhill. (1997) Research Methods for Business Students. Pitman
Publishing
Sekaran, Uma. (2000) Research Methods For Business. John
Wiley & Sons, Inc
Walliman, Nicholas
and Bousmaha Baiche. (2001) Your research project. SAGE Publications
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