the use of intranet, organisational memory in...
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T H E U S E O F I N T R A N E T , O R G A N I S A T I O N A L M E M O R Y I N G O V E R N M E N T : G O V E R N M E N T C O M M U N I C A T I O N S H E A D Q U A R T E R S A N D F I N N I S H G O V E R N M E N T
A study submitted in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Science in Information Management
at
THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
by
CHIKAKO ONABE
September 2003
i
Abstract
The problems of managing information and knowledge have grown because of the
increasing complexity of organisations and quantity of information that flows within and
between them. It is necessary that organisation learn from past experience and synthesise the
knowledge gained under such circumstances. Organisational memory is said to support
these activities. Intranets can effectively accommodate the concept of organisational
memory.
This dissertation examines the potential of intranet as infrastructure for
organisational memory. Especially, the focus of this study is the use of the intranet by
central government. In order to achieve this aim, three qualitative methods were employed.
Firstly, a literature review was conducted and used for identifying issues and concepts of
organisational memory and intranets developed by previous researchers. The interview
study was then conducted with the help of the UK government agency, Government
Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Finally, case studies were used to gain information
on intranet use and its development in the UK and Finnish Government. Significantly, the
Finnish information culture of “openness” is in stark contrast to the GCHQ’s one of
“secrecy”.
The motivations and objectives for intranet use and development, and organisational
cultures in both organisations can considerably affect progress with the application of
intranets. There exists the potential of the intranet as an infrastructure for organisational
memory. Firstly, intranets can retain and store daily activities. Traditional information
systems are limited to storing static information, whereas intranets can retain more dynamic
information. Secondly, intranets have a range of facilities to access information. Thirdly,
some types of organisational memory, which used to be recognised as tacit memory, can be
accommodated.
Organisational memory on the intranet is expected to rapidly accumulate a vast
amount of information. These fundamental systems have already been established and
continue to function as designed. Therefore, a critical issue relates to how intranets can
evolve in order to exploit their maximum potential. This process of evolution requires a
clear assessment of an organisation’s needs and the expertise to carry it out.
ii
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Mark Sanderson, for his support in
preparing this dissertation. As with Dr Mark Sanderson, I am deeply grateful to
Government Communications Headquarters for the opportunity to conduct an
interview. I would also like to acknowledge the encouragement and support I had at
various times received from the English Language Teaching Centre at the University
of Sheffield.
I could not have finished this dissertation without the help, support and smiles
of my family, friends and flatmates, especially during very stressful periods. I
extend my thanks to all the people whom I met for better or for worse at the various
stages in my life. Without their existence, my dissertation would not have followed
the same path.
Chikako Onabe
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Contents
Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements .........................................................................................................................ii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. v List of Tables .................................................................................................................................vi Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................vii 1 Introduction................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Background........................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Research Context ............................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Aims and Objectives.......................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Scope and Limitations ....................................................................................................... 4 1.5 Background to Interview ................................................................................................... 5 1.6 Structure of the Dissertation .............................................................................................. 6
2 Methodology.............................................................................................................................. 7 2.1 Qualitative Approach......................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Methods and Data Collection ............................................................................................ 7
2.2.1 Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 8 2.2.2 Interview .................................................................................................................... 9 2.2.3 Case Studies............................................................................................................. 10
2.3 Methodology: Advantages and Disadvantages................................................................ 11
3 Literature Review .................................................................................................................... 13 3.1 Organisational Memory ................................................................................................... 13
3.1.1 Definition and Characteristics of Organisational Memory ...................................... 13 3.1.2 Contents of Organisational Memory........................................................................ 15 3.1.3 Storing and Retrieving Organisational Memory ...................................................... 17 3.1.4 Organisational Memory Information Systems ......................................................... 19 3.1.5 Research Approach .................................................................................................. 21
3.2 Intranets ........................................................................................................................... 22 3.2.1 What are Intranets? .................................................................................................. 22 3.2.2 Intranet Searching .................................................................................................... 25 3.2.3 Intranets and Organisational Memory...................................................................... 29 3.2.4 Intranet Use in Corporations .................................................................................... 30
3.3 Summary.......................................................................................................................... 32
4 Government Communications Headquarters: Interview Based Study ......................................................... 34 4.1 Background...................................................................................................................... 34 4.2 Organisational Context .................................................................................................... 35
4.2.1 Information Processing ............................................................................................ 35 4.2.2 The Organisational and its Information Culture ...................................................... 36 4.2.3 Infrastructure............................................................................................................ 37
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4.2.4 Information Structure............................................................................................... 38 4.3 Organisational Memory ................................................................................................... 39
4.3.1 Long-term Organisational Memory ......................................................................... 39 4.3.2 Short-term Organisational Memory ......................................................................... 40 4.3.3 Future Perspectives .................................................................................................. 43
4.4 Intranet Use...................................................................................................................... 44 4.4.1 Roles of Internet....................................................................................................... 44 4.4.2 Intranet’s Contents ................................................................................................... 45 4.4.3 Intranet Search ......................................................................................................... 46
4.5 Summary.......................................................................................................................... 47
5 Intranet Use in Government..................................................................................................... 49 5.1 UK Government............................................................................................................... 49
5.1.1 e-Government .......................................................................................................... 49 5.1.2 Progress with Intranets............................................................................................. 50 5.1.3 Information Retrieval............................................................................................... 53 5.1.4 Contents of Intranets ................................................................................................ 53
5.2 Finnish Government ........................................................................................................ 55 5.2.1 Background.............................................................................................................. 55 5.2.2 Reform of the Central Government ......................................................................... 56 5.2.3 Intranet Deployment ................................................................................................ 57 5.2.4 Intranet Portal: Senaattori ........................................................................................ 59 5.2.5 Contents of Intranets ................................................................................................ 64
5.3 Summary.......................................................................................................................... 66
6 Discussion................................................................................................................................ 69 6.1 Motivations and Objectives ............................................................................................. 69 6.2 Organisational Culture and Setting.................................................................................. 71
6.2.1 Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions ....................................................................... 72 6.2.2 Business and the Business Environment.................................................................. 73
6.3 The Contents of Intranets................................................................................................. 75 6.3.1 Organisational Memory ........................................................................................... 75 6.3.2 Static Memory and Active Remembering................................................................ 76
6.4 Information Searching ..................................................................................................... 77
7 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 79 7.1 Summary.......................................................................................................................... 79 7.2 Evaluation........................................................................................................................ 80 7.3 Further Research.............................................................................................................. 81
Bibliography.................................................................................................................................. 82 Appendix 1: Interview Questions.................................................................................................. 89
v
List of Figures
3.1 Enterprise Information Portal............................................................................... 28
4.1 Access to Information in GCHQ (present)........................................................... 42
5.1 Senaattori Version 1............................................................................................. 60
5.2 Senaattori in 2002 ................................................................................................ 61
5.3 Senaattori in 2003 ................................................................................................ 62
5.4 Wap version of Senaattori.................................................................................... 62
5.5 The interface of working room of the Strategic Policy Programmes in Senaattori........ 63
5.6 The Strategic Policy Programmes in Senaattori .................................................. 64
6.1 Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions ................................................................... 72
vi
List of Tables
3.1 A typology (map) of organisational knowledge .................................................. 16
5.1 Content of the Intranets in indivisual departments and agencies......................... 54
vii
Abbreviations
CSOM Computer-Supported Organisational Memory
EDRMS Electronic Document and Record Management Systems
EIP Enterprise Information Portal
ERMS Electronic Resource Management Systems
e-GMS e-Government Metadata Standard
GC&CS Government Code and Cipher School
GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters
GSI Government Secure Intranet
HTML HyperText Markup Language
HTTP HyperText Transport Protocol
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IT Information Technology
KM Knowledge Management
OMIS Organisational Memory Information System
OMS Organisational Memory System
SFS Finnish Standards Association
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
XML eXtensible Markup Language
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1 Introduction
1.1 Background
Human societies have been accumulating and disseminating cultural
knowledge since their very beginnings. This cultural transmission of skills,
knowledge, belief and ideas involved various means of communication: oral
traditions or lists of items, using symbol, languages, or codes. Such information was
recorded in various materials and disseminated at different rates of speed, and spread
within or beyond cultural boundaries.
Today, this process is still in existence but our information environment has
changed dramatically since the advent of information and communication technology
(ICT) and the development of the Internet. People are daily inundated with a great
deal of information, as well as having to create new forms. Indeed, it is often
impossible to handle and check all received information. As such, it is very difficult
to find the right or most valuable information because recipients often do not know
what information they actually need. Another point is that the ratio of information
sent and received means that it can quickly become out of date and redundant within
a very short time.
The problem of managing information and knowledge has grown because of
the increasing complexity of organisations and the quantity of information that flows
within and between them. To survive in this environment, organisations must learn
from past experiences and synthesise the knowledge gained under new circumstances.
There is much at stake. Finding the right expert, augmenting organisational
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knowledge and memory, managing intellectual property can generate greater
prosperity for organisations.
Cross and Baird (2000: 69) state, “The consistency and effectiveness of
knowledge use through an organisation can be improved by learning”.
Organisational memory is said to support organisational learning and knowledge
creation because organisations cannot learn without previous knowledge and
experience.
Studies cited in Lehner and Maier (2000) indicate that an organization utilises
only 30% of the available knowledge and inaccessible information tends to cause
avoidable mistakes for an organisation. In addition, only a very small fraction of the
available information will be accurate and relevant, even although a large amount of
information is retrieved through information browsing methods (Maltz and Ehrlich,
1995).
It is essential to make knowledge available to the right person at the
appropriate time and in the correct context for building and sustaining an
organisation’s competencies (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990; Kwan and
Balasubramanian, 2003). It is necessary to support and integrate organisational
learning and information infrastructure systematically.
Intranets are most likely to have the potential for actualising information
infrastructure. Many major companies, such as Federal Express, Citibank and Cisco,
have already constructed intranets. The rise of portal development in corporations
was predicted since the publication of a Merril Lynch report in 1998 (Shilakes and
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Tylman, 1998). For example, Butler Group (2001) predicts that the market for portal
tools and services will be worth upwards of $4 billion by 2005.
In theory, intranet portals can combine various information sources or
databases, organisational taxonomy, search engine, directory and external resources.
Intranets are also likely to “provide firms with flexible, enabling IT [i.e. information
technology] infrastructures that support the growth of the organisational knowledge
and intelligence” (Choo et al., 2000: 84).
1.2 Research Context
Many research papers including Edmunds and Morris (2000), Detlor (2000),
and Choo et al. (2000) show the potential of intranets/intranet portals to facilitate
access to organisational memory. However, a literature search discovered that there
has been relatively little empirical research into intranet use from the perspective of
organisational memory. It appears that there is a gap in our knowledge in this
important area.
Telleen (1996) mentions that most businesses implement new technology, not
for its own sake, but for vague undefined business goals. In terms of intranets, many
organisations show their interest on intranets/intranet portals because of its potential.
Some organisations have already implemented the systems but others have yet to
initiate them. The situation in the public sector is similar to that in the private sector.
Accordingly, this dissertation focuses on public sector because it is expected that
there may well be an accumulation of organisational memory.
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1.3 Aims and Objectives
This dissertation aims to investigate the potential of intranets as infrastructure
for organisational memory. I particularly focused on intranet use mainly by central
governments. Therefore, it also examines whether intranet searching is an enabler
for obtaining information among different resources, such as databases, systems and
websites.
In order to achieve the above aim, the objectives investigated in this
dissertation are as follows:
• To identify the motivations and objectives for using intranets in government.
• To investigate how the organisational culture and setting affect intranet use
and development.
• To examine the extent to which intranets can support the concepts of
organisational memory.
• To identify the capabilities of intranet search.
1.4 Scope and Limitations
In order to undertake this study within a fixed time frame and to be
reasonably clear about the topic of the dissertation, a number of limitations are
necessary. For the same reasons, the scope of the study has to clarify its limitations.
First of all, the words, information and knowledge, will be clearly defined in
this dissertation. Information will be referred to as data which give meaning by
reducing ambiguity, equivocality, or uncertainty, or which indicate that conditions
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are not as presupposed. Information is treated as an object. Knowledge will be
referred to more complex products of learning, such as interpretations of information,
beliefs about cause-effect relations, or, more generally, the notion of “know-how”.
Secondly, the study restricts its scope to explicit knowledge which can be
communicated through paper-based or electronic formats, such as archives, e-mails,
images, videos and so forth. Although verbal communication, implicit knowledge or
tacit knowledge could be included, I consider the above more relevant to this
particular area.
Finally, this study is concerned with how the knowledge is accessed from
organisational memory in the context of organisational culture and setting. Other
functions of organisational memory are not addressed in this study. The analysis of
how knowledge becomes part of an organisation’s memory is beyond the scope of
this study.
1.5 Background to Interview
An interview was conducted with the help of the UK government agency,
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). The interview focuses on the
administrative information in GCHQ because the core information is too sensitive to
be disclosed to people from outside the organisation. For this reason, this
dissertation focuses on the administrative rather than specific information in
Government. It is easier to compare between governments because this kind of
information can be identified within all organisations.
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Most of the other data about the intranet use in government were collected
from case studies in the literature. In this dissertation, two governments were
selected: the UK and Finnish governments. In the UK, the government has been
examining the possibility of intranet use. Therefore, it is useful to understand the
current situation surrounding GCHQ policies. In Finland, the central government has
been running intranets and intranet portals for a number of years. Interestingly, the
Finnish information culture of “openness” contrasts with the GCHQ’s tendency to
closed “secrecy”.
1.6 Structure of the Dissertation
This dissertation is divided into seven chapters. Chapter Two describes the
methodological framework on which the research is based. Details are then given
regarding methods and data collection. Chapter Three reviews the literature on the
subject of organisational memory and intranets in order to provide an overview of the
concept and current situation. Chapter Four presents the interview results and
findings. Chapter Five examines intranet use by the two governments, the UK and
Finland, with a focus on the literature and other sources. Chapter Six draws upon the
case study and interview findings and discusses them along with relevant literature in
order to determine what conclusions can be drawn from this study. Finally, in
Chapter Seven, the research findings are summarised and the research is evaluated.
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2 Methodology
2.1 Qualitative Approach
This dissertation takes a qualitative approach as it involves analysing data
from documents and an interview rather than numerical data. It also relies on my
own subjective conclusions. The approach is also inductive rather than deductive: it
begins with an initial hypothesis, and then inferences and deduction are formulated.
Also, supporting arguments and evidence are drawn from the relevant literature.
A grounded theory approach, as developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967), is
adopted. The reason is that grounded theory provides systematic techniques and
procedures of analysis and helps develop a substantive theory based on various
criteria, such as significance, theory-observation compatibility, generalizability,
reproducibility, precision, rigor, and verification. The theory stresses both discovery
and theoretical development. The research findings consist of a set of new insights
into phenomenon and novel theoretical orientation (Strauss and Corbin, 1990).
2.2 Methods and Data Collection
In this dissertation, three qualitative methods, namely literature review,
interview and case study, are applied. The primary data are derived from
professional and disciplinary literature, such as journal articles, books and
conference papers, principally from management studies, information science,
computer science and sociology, official reports and a semi-structured interview.
Patton (2002) states that using a combination of multiple methods can validate and
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cross-check findings because each source has strengths and weaknesses. In other
words, a multi-method approach (“triangulation”) is more often recommended. As
the same dependent variable is investigated using multiple additional procedures,
such as, survey research, archival data, and content analysis, it can confirm the
validity of the processes (Tellis, 1997). As a whole, the constant comparative
method of analysis and its coding procedures is used. Following this, connections
and links are formulated between the topics. Consequently, conclusions are drawn
from these comparisons and analyses.
2.2.1 Literature Review
A literature review reflects a particular theoretical sensitivity. It provides “a
rich background of information that “sensitizes” you to what is going on with the
phenomenon you are studying” (Strauss and Corbin, 1990: 42). The literature also
includes “information, ideas, data and evidence written from a particular standpoint
to fulfil certain aims or express certain views on the nature of the topic” (Hart, 1998:
13).
In order to access relevant information for this research, it is vital to search a
range of databases. Therefore, databases such as LISA, Web of Science, Emerald
and Ingenta, SienceDirect and SwetsWise are searched. Search terms include
knowledge management, organisational memory, intranet, intranet portals and EIP.
The web also proved to be a useful and rich source of information.
It is not the purpose of this research to attempt to summarize the findings of
earlier research. Rather, it is to identify issues/concepts of organisational memory
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and intranets developed by previous researchers. The relevant literature was
critically reviewed. To that end, two issues are briefly discussed: organisational
memory and intranets.
2.2.2 Interview
The interview-based study focuses on a single organisation, GCHQ. I was
able to collect data from the Technical Director of Information and Knowledge
Services which is a centralised unit which concerns itself with the policy and
management of GCHQ. The unit provides a number of specialist services, including
library services which allow the access to unclassified, openly-published materials to
staff internally. Record services act as the agent of the Public Records Office in
recording the Government Communications Headquarters activities, and webmaster
services. They are in charge of internal intranet and external website (Personal
Communication, 2003).
The interview questionnaire (Appendix 1) was formulated from the
combination of all the research objectives and the result of the preliminary literature
research. The interview was semi-structured and tape-recorded and later transcribed.
The interview took about eighty minutes at the University of Sheffield, Department
of Information Studies. I noted key words so as to help me recall what had been
mentioned while recording. To analyse the interviewee’s responses, a transcript of
the interview was made. However, since my intention was not to conduct
conversational analysis, it excluded interjections.
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No specialist software was used as sufficient analysis was possible by simply
categorising the specific details. The transcript included about 9,500 words and they
were categorised by the topic identified through the literature review. This approach
aided both comparison and analysis.
The empirical data were then used to refine and improve the sensitizing
concepts and their interrelations to build theories that better represent and reflect the
real world. In grounded theory approach, it is important to deal carefully with the
range of variation of a given phenomenon and with any negative cases, as these are
strong sources for revising concepts and improving understanding of their
interrelations (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). In addition, the information on the GCHQ
websites was used in order to obtain rich process descriptions of the organisation.
2.2.3 Case Studies
Case study research could be defined as “a time-honoured, traditional
approach to the topics in social science and management” (Garson, c2002) and
satisfies “the three tenets of qualitative method: describing, understanding and
explaining” (Tellis, 1997). This valuable method of research has distinctive
characteristics. One of the examples is that “the researcher considers not just the
voice and perspective of the actors, but also of the relevant groups of actors and the
interaction between them” (ibid.). Therefore, case study is appropriate to investigate
and describe the real life context in the organisation because it is holistic and context
sensitive (Patton, 2002). It can provide useful and rich data on intranet use in the
public sector. As a result of initial research, the literature on intranet issues in the
UK and Finnish Government are identified.
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The case study regarding the UK government is based on the results of
pertinent three main surveys, namely the National Audit Office (1999), National
Audit Office (2002) and Cumming and Cuthbertson (2001). These surveys
conducted by the National Audit Office covered most of the central government
departments and agencies, and conducted consecutively. The surveys are supposed
to clearly show intranet use and development in UK central government.
However, in terms of the Finnish government, it employs patchwork case
study approach, which “is intended to provide a more holistic view of the dynamics
of the research subject” (Garson, c2002). The data were accessed from mainly
websites such as the Ministry of Finance (http://www.vn.fi), the International
Federation of Library Associations (http://www.ifla.org), the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (http://www.oecd.org), and the Library
Association (http://www.la-hq.org.uk).
2.3 Methodology: Advantages and Disadvantages
Patton (2002: 513) comments that “qualitative inquiry draws on both critical
and creative thinking – both the science and art of analysis”. However, he points out
that the qualitative approach has its strengths as well as weaknesses. The strength is
that human insight and experience can evolve into new understandings and ways of
seeing the world. On the other hand, the potential weakness is “so heavily dependent
on the inquirer’s skills, training, intellect, discipline, and creativity” (ibid.: 513). In
other words, the quality of the result depends on the qualities of the researcher.
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Strauss and Corbin (1998) warn of a possible risk of over using and being
over reliant on the literature. The amount of research literature standing between
researchers and data can be an obstacle to creativity, but when used as a basis of
analysis, it can stimulate ideas.
In terms of case analysis, a case does not provide all of the information within
an organisation. Garson (c2002) points out that a case study cannot reveal more
variables than the researcher has data. The analysis tends to depend on assumptions
the researcher makes at the outset of their work. However, he also mentions that this
weakness may be also considered as strength of the approach. The reasons are:
it has the capability of uncovering causal paths and mechanisms, and through richness of detail, identifying causal influences and interaction effects which might not be treated as operationalized variables in a statistical study (ibid.)
As this study takes a triangulation approach, each data and methods are
expected to cover the weakness and complement each other.
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3 Literature Review
3.1 Organisational Memory
3.1.1 Definition and Characteristics of Organisational Memory
Organisations can be said to have some form of memory which differs from
human memory and the sum of the memories of its organisational members
(Moorman and Miner, 1997). Regardless of their recognition, managing
organisational memory is a daily activity in organisations. Organisational memory is
regarded as a prerequisite for knowledge management (KM) and organisational
learning (e.g. Abecker, et al., 1997; Huber, 1990; Decker and Maurer, 1999). Stein
(1995: 18) describes the importance:
Organizational memory relates the dialectics of learning vs. unlearning, flexibility vs. stability, human resources vs. information technologies, and is essential to planning, communicating, decision making and information processing in organizations.
The possible definitions of organisational memory have been discussed for
over a quarter of a century (Lehner et al., 1998; Stein 1995). Organisational memory
has been defined in many various and contradictory ways depending on the particular
disciplines: e.g., decision science, management science and sociology. As yet, no
clear, precise definition has been universally accepted (Ackerman and Halverson,
2000; Lehner et al., 1998; Stein, 1995). For example, Covington (1985: 172) in
political science defines organisational memory as “information acquired by one
agency member and shared with others who use it”. In management, organisational
memory is defined as “collective beliefs, behavioural routines, or physical artefacts
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that vary in their content, level, dispersion, and accessibility” (Moorman and Miner,
1997: 93).
Studies by Huber (1996), Levitt and March (1988), Olivera (2000) and Stein
and Zwass (1995), adopt the definition, the means by which organisations store
knowledge for future use, in a broad sense. In other words, organisational memory
could and should store relevant knowledge which has the potential to contribute to
the performance of organisation (de Vasconcelos et al., 2002). On the other hand,
the concept of organisational memory as developed by Walsh and Ungson (1991)
tends to be referred to in the literature because they provide the first theoretical
framework for organisational memory. The definition is “stored information from an
organization’s history that can be brought to bear on present decisions” (Walsh and
Ungson, 1991: 61).
This definition seems to be reasonable, but it is also insufficient in giving a
complete description of the concept. For instance, Lehner and Maier (2000: 286)
points out that Walsh and Ungson “do not use a comprehensive term for knowledge
as a point of departure, rather they only draw upon information relevant for decision
making”. Stein and Zwass (1995) also claim that the definition does not discuss
issues regarding organisational effectiveness.
Walsh and Ungson (1991) also demonstrate that the structure of
organisational memory consists of information acquisition, retention facilities and
information retrieval. They fail to consider another component: i.e., information or
knowledge management. They also postulate the existence of five storage
components in organisational memory, together with external archives. There exists,
15
in any organisation, individuals, organisational culture, transformations,
organisational structure, and ecology. However, there exists an equally important
component, namely internal archives, such as computer databases and paper files
(Ackerman, 1998; Lehner and Maier, 2000; Stein and Zwass, 1995).
According to the above arguments, space, time-functions, decision making,
knowledge, and organisational effectiveness seems to be key attributes in clearly
defining organisational memory. Regarding time-functions, Ackerman (1994: 4)
maintains that organisational memory “faces three standard historiographical issues:
temporal distance, points of reference, and context”. Organisational memory is
time-dependent and time-sensitive. In addition to these characteristics, Moorman
and Miner (1997) cite different dimensions such as amount, dispersion, accessibility,
and content.
3.1.2 Contents of Organisational Memory
A number of typologies or classifications of the contents of organisational
memory have been developed. These are useful categories because they can provide
broad overviews of the sorts of variations that exist between memories. Some of the
classifications are presented below.
Covington (1985) classifies the organisational memory contents of the three
United States government agencies in terms of substantive content and normative
orientation which refers to the presence or absence of norms. The former consists of
procedural (positional or operational task) and programmatic information (policies),
whilst the latter consists of descriptive memory and prescriptive memory.
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Descriptive memory creates an organisational learning capability. On the other hand,
prescriptive memory creates an independent and self-sustaining organisational
identity.
Stein (1995) also classified organisational memory in terms of the level of
abstraction as well as normative orientation (Table 3.1). The meaning of Stein’s
normative orientation is as same as Covington’s. The level of abstraction is scaled
by concreteness and abstraction.
Table 3.1 A typology (map) of organisational knowledge Source: Stein (1995)
Abstract Techno-Scientific Knowledge
Policies, Values, Ethics, Strategies
Concrete Events, People, Inputs, Outputs
Rules, Norms, Roles, Tasks
Descriptive Prescriptive Normative Orientation
Moorman and Miner (1997) infer from earlier research that there are two
types of organisational memories, called procedural and declarative memories.
Procedural memory is considered process memory or memory of underlying skills
for performing tasks. In other words, it involves skills and routines. On the other
hand, declarative memory is information or knowledge about concepts, facts, or
events.
From another standpoint, the type of demanded information/knowledge from
organisational memory is highly likely to depend on the organisational context and
culture (Moorman and Miner, 1997). There can also be variation within
17
organisations. For example, skill-based organisations rely more heavily on tacit
knowledge than do bureaucracies (Levitt and March, 1988; Orr, 1986).
Organisations frequently facing environment change rely on informally shared
understandings more than do organisations in simpler, more stable environments
(Levitt and March, 1988). A goal-driven organisation might employ organisational
memory mechanisms for recent events and outcomes. This is because the situational
context does not need to be reconstructed and substantially reinterpreted to use the
information (Ackerman, 1998).
In addition, the use of terms about organisational memory is also different
between the organisations in different context. Stein (1995:24) provides some
examples:
Information maintained for just a few hours would be considered short term to members of most organizations, but not to a trader executing buy and sell decisions. Similarly, six months would be long term to a computer industry analyst, but not to a banker reviewing credit history.
3.1.3 Storing and Retrieving Organisational Memory
A vast amount of “hard” information, such as statistics and cooperate
manuals, is stored for operating reasons and to fill the reporting requirements of
other units or organisations on a routine and daily basis. The knowledge is retained
in the form of standard operating procedures, routines, and scripts. On the other
hand, the “soft” information, which people routinely acquire and mentally retain, is
also stored (Huber, 1996).
Organisational memory varies in availability, or the extent to which it can be
retrieved for use (Moorman and Miner, 1997; Walsh and Ungson, 1991). Certain
18
forms of information are more accessible than others (Levitt and March, 1988;
Davenport and Prusak, 1997). Levitt and March (1988: 328) state “A availability is
associated with the frequency of use of a routine, the recency of its use, and its
organisational proximity”.
Regarding organisational needs, it is essential to scan organisational memory,
whether in human, paper and electronic format (Mintzberg et al., 1976, cited in
Huber, 1990). It is also crucial to know their environment to survive and compete in
complex uncertainties. Zack (1999: 45) insists “an organization must efficiently and
effectively create, locate, capture, and share knowledge and expertise in order to
apply that knowledge to solve problems and exploit opportunities”. On the other
hand, he also describes “Many organizations are so complex that knowledge is
fragmented, difficult to locate and share, and therefore redundant, inconsistent, or
not used at all” (ibid.: 45).
Day (1991) cited in Moorman and Miner (1997: 93) maintains:
Organizations without practical mechanisms to ‘remember’ what worked and why have to repeat their failures and rediscover their success formulas over and over again. Memory mechanisms are needed to ensure that useful lessons are captured, conserved, and can be readily retrieved when needed.
Even if an organisation has a rich memory but the information is too difficult
or time-consuming to obtain, it may not be worth using. A lack of information
overview in an organisation leads to a longer search time. Thus, organisational
memory is not voluntarily accessible: efficient and effective retrieval mechanisms
are therefore necessary. As a solution, ICT could fulfil this function. However,
19
inadequate retrieval structures may result in organisation making learning more
difficult (Levitt and March, 1988).
As Ackerman and Halverson (2000) point out that organisations should be
able to retrieve their past experience, but research literature does not reveal what
form of this memory can serve this need.
3.1.4 Organisational Memory Information Systems
There are several synonyms in the relevant literature such as OMS
(Organisational Memory System) and CSOM (Computer-Supported Organisational
Memory). In this dissertation, there are no significant differences in definitions
among the terms. OMS and CSOM are thus synonymous with Organisational
Memory Information System (OMIS).
The definitions of OMIS are slightly different according to Lehner et al. and
Stein and Zwass’s emphasis:
An Organisational Memory System (OMS) is a system, (a) which realises parts of the organisational knowledge base with the help of information and communication technologies and/or (b) realises and supports tasks, functions and procedures that are connected to the use of the organisational knowledge base (Lehner et al., 1998:7).
Organizational memory information system (OMIS) as a system that functions to provide a means by which knowledge from the past is brought to bear on present activities, thus resulting in increased levels of effectiveness for the organisation (Stein and Zwass, 1995: 95)
The former includes a much broader and wider meaning than the latter
because Stein and Zwass construct this definition with the idea of organisational
effectiveness.
20
Most of the researchers agree that application of advanced databases and
network technologies support organisational memory concepts and approaches
(Huber, 1990; Lehner et al., 1998; Stein and Zwass, 1995). Those technologies are,
for example, data warehousing, data mining, data mart, multimedia and hypermedia
databases, management support system and Web-based technologies. Organisational
memory supported by advanced and related technologies would do nothing but
realise parts of the organisational memory (Lehner et al. 1998). The reasons behind
this approach relating to the characteristics of such technologies. The dimensions
could be the capability and capacity of these technologies and the complexity and
ambiguity of organisational memory as Levitt and March (1998: 329) expand the
concept:
Expert systems of the standard type have difficult capturing the unpredictable richness, erratic redundancy, and casual validity checking of traditional retrieval procedures, and they reduce or eliminate the fortuitous experimentation of unreliable retrieval.
Huber (1996) compares the properties of organisational memory in expert
systems and those in human experts, in that some properties of expert systems are
inferior to those of human experts. The accessibilities, completeness, precision,
reliability and “own-ability” of expert systems are superior to those of human experts.
He predicts that the more expert systems become user-friendly and capable, the more
“soft” and local information will store in computer systems.
OMISs should be implemented with the functions, namely acquisition,
retention, maintenance, search and retrieval of information (Huber, 1996; Stein and
Zwass, 1995; Lehner et al.; 1998). All the functions, except for maintenance, are as
same as the functions which are presented by Walsh and Ungson (1991). OMISs
21
have been implemented by many researchers as information systems (e.g. Ackerman,
1994; Lindstaedt, 1996). Most of them focus on specific area or functions of
organisation. In other words, limited organisational memories within organisations
are only used, but insufficient research has been carried out on the various functions
presented above.
Instead of the above approaches, a more rational approach would take
organisational memory concepts as a vision for the future development of
intranets/intranet portals which provide an open architecture for the ubiquitous and
seamless infrastructure (Lehner et al., 1998; Ji and Salvendy, 2002).
3.1.5 Research Approach
Most organisational memory studies employ qualitative methodologies.
Generally speaking, the organisational memory literature is largely based on
theoretical rather than empirical examination (Ackerman and Halverson, 2000;
Walsh and Ungson, 1991). For this reason, it is difficult to justify some concepts of
organisational memory because there is a lack of written evidence to back it up and
insufficient empirically-derived analysis. For example, it is assumed that organisational
memory supports organisational learning or KM. However, this belief is mostly
supported by anecdotal evidence. Systematic and/or qualitative methodology to
transform from anecdotal evidence to a more formal one is still lacking.
However, a number of studies have recently conducted to seek a deeper
understanding of the nature of phenomena. This approach tends to deliberately
employ a well articulated theoretical framework first and then provide the research
22
with new ways of thinking about important aspects of organisational memory. The
methods include mainly survey research and ethnographic approach. For example,
Ackerman and Halverson (2000) adopt distributed cognition theory to explore the
memory used in the work activities of a telephone hotline group. Olivera (2000) uses
observation and interviews to develop the framework for organisational memory in
multinational, business consulting organisation.
3.2 Intranets
3.2.1 What are Intranets?
Intranets are described as networks within organisations based on Internet
technology. According to Abraham (1998) cited in Choo et al. (2000: 71), intranets
are defined as “a set of applications built on an internet-enabled infrastructure
meant for internal use only by employee of a single organisation”. There are valid
reasons for using intranets in corporate settings:
From simple use modes such as publishing, to more advanced use modes such as organisational-wide searching for information; transacting with functionality on intranet pages and other organisational computer-based information systems, interacting between individuals and groups in the organisation; and even the recording of the computer-based organisational memory (Damsgaard and Scheepers, 2001)
Intranets can allow organisations to share information, to enhance
organisational communication, and to support collaboration across existing
boundaries, such as departmental, functional or geographical boundaries, within
organisations. The users are not required specific knowledge: namely, programming
language and software (Choo et al., 2000; Damsgaard and Scheepers, 2001; Harvey
et al., 1997).
23
Intranets are based on the same standards as the Internet. These standards
include TCP/IP as a network protocol, HTTP as a communication protocol, HTML
or XML as a document publishing protocol, and a web browser. For these reasons,
intranets are expected to enable communication between different hardwares,
softwares and networks. Intranet technologies can integrate existing IT systems and
provide legacy systems with a universal graphical user interface. Intranets can be
said to have the flexibilities, usability, cost-effectiveness, and maintenance (Choo et
al., 2000; Harvey et al., 1997).
Intranets basically consist of content pages and broker pages. Content pages
may be static pages or dynamic pages where the page content is generated on-the-fly
from a database or other repository of information. Three sources of contents are
identified on current intranets: formal, project/group, and informal information. The
characteristics of the above information depend on accuracy, currency,
confidentiality, liability and commitment. Broker pages have the function to help
users find the content pages which appropriate for their current requirements (Telleen,
1996).
Detlor (2000: 93) explains that intranets/intranet portals “have the potential of
providing organizations with a rich and complex shared information work space for
the creation, exchange, retention, and reuse of knowledge”. The shared information
work space consists of three components; a content space to provide information
access to corporate data and documents; a communication space to provide channels
for conversations and negotiations on collective interpretations; and a coordination
space to provide work flows and routines to support cooperative work action.
24
Intranets are typically used for publishing static and formal information, for
example, departmental homepages and technical documents. Intranets/intranet
portals might have advanced capabilities, namely asynchronous and synchronous
capabilities. The former includes electronic mail, discussion forums, etc., whilst the
latter includes online meetings, video conferencing, and chat-lines. Those
capabilities are predicted to become important because virtual teams and groups are
becoming more significant (Aneja et al., 2000).
Intranets are expected to evolve from a push-type to a pull-type environment
and reduce information overload, because they play a role of controlling the dreaded
information or information floating. Intranets offer the information pull that the user
can decide what and when to use the information. This is different from the
information push of traditional environment as it means that the information is
distributed to all organisational members on a distribution list (Goldhoff, 1996;
Harvey et al., 1997). It is suggested that the responsibility for the dissemination
shifts from the information creator to the user. The user’s attitude for information
seeking has to change from reactive to proactive seeking. In other words, each staff
is responsible for managing information. In contrast with Goldhoff and Harvey et al.,
Edmunds and Morris (2000) claim that only information pull is not efficient method.
They explain it is necessary to combine information pull with information push to
alert the user to new and update information. By doing so, the systematic relay of
information distribution moves from untargeted to targeted way. It is important a
better balance between information push and pull.
25
3.2.2 Intranet Searching
The most important use of intranets is searching because searching intranets
helps to identify potential useful information which might create new valuable,
therefore, exploitable knowledge.
Intranet searching can take many forms. According to Hills (1997) cited in
(Damsgaard and Scheepers, 2001: 682), one of them is a “flat search” which could
be navigated “from the intranet home page by following hyperlinks to the desired
information”. The searchers need to know what they are searching for and a
navigation path to the information. The most popular form can be intranet portals
which can be an index or directory page, or an intranet search engine (Damsgaard
and Scheepers, 2001).
In the late 1990’s, a portal was referred to as a search engine and the main
goal was to facilitate access to information contained in documents spread through
the Internet (Dias, 2001).
In a corporate world, when an Intranet reached a certain size, some form of
navigation and retrieval tools were required to provide the most commonly used and
recently updated items for the users. A similar mechanism of Internet portals, such
as Yahoo!, is considered to be applicable for Intranet environment. Intranets allow
users to search both internal and external information simultaneously. For this
reason, the internal portal can act as a vital point for information access (Butler
Group, 2001).
26
The words intranet and intranet portals are sometimes used interchangeably.
It is often difficult to distinguish between the differences. However, Plumtree (1999)
cited in Detlor (2000:92) explain: “corporate portals differ from intranets in that a
portal’s primary function is to provide a transparent directory of information
already available elsewhere, not act as a separate source of information itself”.
Detlor (2000: 91) defines intranet portals as “single-point Web browser interfaces
used within organization to promote the gathering, sharing, and dissemination of
information throughout the enterprise”. In addition, in agreement with Plumtree, he
(2000: 91) emphasises,
Corporate portals provide access not only to the underlying net work but also to the information content, services and applications built on top of that network infrastructure and located across a company’s vast array of information resources.
There is, indeed, a wide range of related terminology such as corporate
portal, corporate information portal, business portal and enterprise information
portal (EIP). In the corporate world, EIP is much more commonly used than the
other terms. Some of the terms have slightly different definitions and characteristics,
but these distinctions are beyond the scope of this dissertation. Therefore, in this
study, the term intranet portal is used as a broader term which indicates their slightly
various characteristics.
Figure 3.1 shows the conceptual model of EIP presented by Shilakes and
Tylman (1998), who coined the term Enterprise Information Portal in their business
report. The portal integrates structured data with unstructured data. It enables users
to retrieve the information from unstructured repositories, such as web pages, office
documents, discussion forums and online information feeds, to structured
information repositories, such as enterprise applications, data warehouse, database,
27
and decision support systems. By means of the interface, the users are able to handle
both structured and unstructured data.
Intranet portals consist of eight basic elements: namely, categorization,
content publication and management, integrated access/search, personalisation,
integration, security, expertise and profiling, and collaboration (e.g. Aneja et al.;
Butler Group, 2001; Dias, 2001; Firestone, 2003). In terms of integrated
access/search, it is essential to search across multiple information repositories
because the information is scattered on numerous places. It is necessary that access
or search allows a user to obtain all the information needed in the desired context.
Current trend in industry is to improve a navigation and search engine. The terms,
categorisation, ranked, and weighed, can also be significant, while several
companies introduce their productions with personalisation, summarisation, and
query expansion. The research relating to these areas with empirical study including
usability performance are flourished (e.g. Bawa et al., 2003; Fagin et al., 2003).
Figu
re 3
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nter
pris
e In
form
atio
n Po
rtal
Sour
ce: S
hila
kes a
nd T
ylm
an (1
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29
3.2.3 Intranets and Organisational Memory
Damsgaard and Scheepers (2001: 674) state that “a recent development is the
organizational application of intranet technology to support knowledge management
(KM) processes”. The ideas of knowledge management can be developed from
concepts such as organisational learning and organisational memory. Generally
speaking, KM consists of three highly intertwined organisational processes. The first
process involves knowledge creation and adds new knowledge to the organisation’s
knowledge repository. The second involves the identification and access of relevant
knowledge from the repository. The third involves sharing and diffusing knowledge
within the organisation (Damsgaard and Scheepers, 2001). A detailed examination
of KM is beyond the scope of this study. However, this study as same as Lehner and
Maier (2000) and Gray (2001) takes a position that KM is a subset of organisational
memory because KM is concrete, purposive systems for augmenting experiential
knowledge.
There are certain retention structures and processes for acquiring, storing, and
retrieving in organisational memory. Intranets may cover all in this regards and have
the potential to function as organisational memories which allow a company to retain
its knowledge for future use.
Intranets can also support and improve the storage and retrieval of
information from a wide variety of information sources, such as databases, legacy
systems, and web file servers, housed in various locations both within and outside
organisations. The information can include hard, quantitative structured data
typically found in most database application systems as well as more “soft”,
30
unstructured information located in a large number of organisational documents and
procedure guides.
Intranet portals can also provide the users with search and browsing tools,
which is both convenient and easy to use, to find information because the users
access the information directly from their desktop. The accessibility will encourage
the users to acquire, use and share information. This systematic process can result in
effective organisational learning (Choo et al., 2000, Detlor, 2000).
3.2.4 Intranet Use in Corporations
There is a wide variety of the functions on the intranet. According to Choo et
al. (2000), most organisations tend to use the intranet for the retrieval of corporate
documents and for information dissemination purposes such as sales and marketing,
product development, customer service and support, and human resources.
Organisational intranets can provide competitive sales information, human resources
and employee benefits statements, corporate directories, policy guides, and company
newsletters are typical information sources. In addition, Choo et al. (2000) maintain
that intranets can provide organisations with an infrastructure for delivering KM
solutions.
This trend can be exemplified by two approaches by the following
organisations: Citibank of New York (InfoWorld, 1997) and the Irish arm of Deloitte
and Touche (Fanning, 2002). They appear to positively confirm the above
statements.
31
In the Citibank of New York, an intranet is used as a place to store, acquire,
disseminate, share and search and retrieve information. It provides multiple views of
the same information. The intranet includes items of general interest; organisational
function, such as technology or legal; corporate businesses, such as credit cards and
consumer banking; and national news. The intranet in the Citibank of New York has
reduced distribution cost and confirmed that more people can find the information.
For example, people can use the intranet to find out previous projects which are
similar with their projects. Some departments encourage employees to share their
views and use a feedback box to all sources of published information (InfoWorld,
1997).
The Irish firm of Deloitte and Touche is located in three cities. The firm
faces in establishing an information sharing culture because of the sensitive nature of
work despite great communicators. KM initiatives make an attempt to change the
culture, but it is still underway. The main purpose of developing the intranet is staff
communication and the net result is better client communication. The intranet allows
the firm to starts organising a wealth of information in disparate locations and in
multiple formats. The intranet has to provide a repository of communication material
for clients and staffs as well as ordinary details such as how to report a technical
problem or answer a client question. The intranet was developed with a content
management tool which allows for a tree structure site, a document and image
repository and a user-friendly interface (Fanning, 2002).
32
A good deal of research-in-practice is published. It is usually undertaken by
people directly involved in intranet implementation and development within
organisations.
3.3 Summary
In this chapter, the two themes of organisational memory and intranets were
described and evaluated according to the literature.
The literature concerning organisational memory was found to be generally
valid and sound. However, the two main problems with the literature on
organisational memory are identified. The first problem is a failure to establish a
consensual definition. The definition is essential for communication between
scholars or between scholars and practitioners to develop this field. The second
problem is that most of the organisational memory literature is based on more
theoretical concepts rather than rigorous, empirical examination. Although theories
are tools of investigation, it is also essential to evaluate the theories by an assessment
of empirical studies. The environment of organisational memory is rapidly changing
and expanding due to new high technologies. More case studies need to be
conducted to validate theoretical concepts presented in the literature.
On the other hand, the literature on intranets emphasises the view that
intranets are learning intensive and amorphous technologies with considerable
potential for organisations. In other words, intranets are moulded and shaped
according to their organisational needs. The role of intranet technology in enabling
and supporting knowledge work and knowledge workers in organisations has been
33
well-documented in the past. Although there is a number of research-in-practices,
how to transit organisational needs and requirements requires further research. It is
essential that more empirical studies, including problem solving and seeking new
directions, are conducted.
As a whole, the literature and theories presented above are pertinent to this
study because they can provide valid evidence proving that intranet technology holds
new capabilities for actualising the concepts of organisational memory. In other
words, the literature can define the capacities of the intranet as an infrastructure for
organisational memory. Moreover, it also implies that the intranet could be created
in different ways in organisations.
34
4 Government Communications Headquarters: Interview Based Study
This chapter provides background information on GCHQ (Government
Communications Headquarters, 2002) and the summary of the research findings from
the transcript of the interview with the Technical Director of Information and
Knowledge Services, GCHQ (Personal Communication, 2003). A clear distinction is
made between the interviewee’s personal opinion and the organisation’s perspective.
The findings are categorised along with the interview questionnaire (Appendix 1).
4.1 Background
GCHQ is a UK government department which collects relayed signals to
provide secret intelligence to the British Government. Such a system is in pursuit of
a number of statutory goals, including national security, safeguarding economic well-
being of the UK and prevention and detection of serious crimes. The other
significant role is to protect government communication and information systems
and to protect the UK’s critical national infrastructure against various threats, such as
interference and disruption. GCHQ employs around 4,500 staff, most of whom have
specialist skills in mathematics, languages, analysis, information technology and
communication engineering.
GCHQ was founded in Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, after World War I
as the Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS) with 25 cryptologists and 30
support staff. There were three main purposes of GC&CS: studying the various
methods of enciphered communication used by foreign powers; extracting
information from signals intelligence; and sharing that intelligence with other
35
security and defence agencies in the UK. In 1922, GC&CS came under control of
the Foreign Office, which led the establishment of Navy, Army and Air Sections
within the School in the following years. GC&CS provided codebreaking capability
to the British government of the time and cracked the German encoding machine,
Enigma, during World War II.
GC&CS was re-named GCHQ in 1946 and moved to the present location,
Cheltenham, in 1952. GCHQ’s activities are governed by a number of statutes, for
example, the Intelligence Services Act 1994 and the regulation of Investigatory
Powers Act 2000. GCHQ reports to the Foreign Secretary and works closely with
the UK’s other intelligence agencies.
GCHQ is one of the world’s leading signals intelligence agencies. Many
small buildings distributed across the two existing distinct sites, Benhall and Oakley,
in Cheltenham, have been combined into a single site at Benhall in 2003. The
project cost is estimated at £ 330 million.
4.2 Organisational Context
4.2.1 Information Processing
GCHQ might be described as an “information factory” because it takes
information in, processes it, and disseminates it rather like Reuters or the BBC.
There are two broad types of information: core and administrative information.
Their definitions are as follows.
36
The core information becomes the intelligence that the organisation passes on
to the government. The information is specific-focused and would not be
recognisable because of its covert nature.
However, administrative information, although it is a little broader, would be
recognisable to anybody from any organisation. It includes, for example, all
personnel information, financial information, and the information about terms and
conditions of service.
As described in Chapter One, the dissertation focuses on the administrative
part of the business because the core business is too sensitive to be disclosed to
people from outside the organisation.
4.2.2 The Organisational and its Information Culture
In general, the culture of GCHQ has been profoundly influenced by its
history. In the 1940’s, the organisation recruited leading specialists of the day in the
fields of mathematics and linguistics from British universities. There was a feeling
that the organisation was very special. The organisation naturally had very academic
and elitist beginnings. The environment nurtured individual independence and
excellence within the organisation. This resulted in a more academic and
professional culture rather than a more business oriented approach to problems.
Historically, there was also a culture of secrecy relating to the nature of the
business within the organisation. In other words, there was a culture of not talking
about work. One example was that the staff would not know anything about people
who worked in the office next door if they were not immediate work colleagues.
37
At the present time, GCHQ is striving to obtain the balance between security
on the one hand and knowledge-sharing and information-sharing on the other. It has
become clear over time that the organisation needs to change some of those internal
barriers of secrecy. The secrecy need within the core business tends to be strong.
The need for the ability to share information within the administrative part of
business is much greater. It is clearly not as sensitive. While the organisation limits
the degree of exposure of secret information within it, it encourages as much as
possible the sharing of less secret information.
There is an emphasis in the organisation to disseminate common information
as widely available as possible: to make it easily accessible; quick and easy to find,
and to make it shareable. There are two important systems at the centre of this,
namely, the e-mail system and the intranet. However, it still uses a “push
mechanism” to convey important messages to its staff. It passes on pieces of paper
with a circulation sheet to the staff. A large amount of that information is duplicated
on the intranet. As a result, the push mechanism tends to be on paper and the intranet
acts as a repository.
4.2.3 Infrastructure
GCHQ has become increasingly technologically focused. It employs state-
of-the-art technologies to improve the ability to intercept intelligence across a broad
range of communication systems and to process the data effectively. The new
accommodation which will be occupied in September 2003, will result in a more
effective operation.
38
The new building is also expected to enable the transmission of information
and knowledge through the circulation of people around the building because its
design is circular. Currently, the organisation is located into different buildings and
sites. This is one of the barriers that now exist to the staff sharing knowledge and
experience across boundaries within the organisation.
In terms of the organisation as a whole, GCHQ is one of the most advanced
information processing organisations in Europe, possibly in the world. As regards
the core part of the business, the systems are much more sophisticated and entirely
electronic. The organisation invests heavily in the IT for core business. However, it
invests less on the administrative systems because the priority is the core business.
The administrative systems are thus in transition.
4.2.4 Information Structure
GCHQ has shifted from a paper-based to a more electronic environment. The
organisation has still not completely become electronic because its record system is
still paper-based. Equally, it is in the transition from an ad-hoc chaotic electronic
environment to a more structured electronic environment.
Nevertheless, GCHQ is a very complex organisation which has a large
number of connected operative units. It is not easy to transfer to a structured
electronic environment because each unit has already created very complex
information systems and datasets. This transition is a gradual process, as it involves
moving a large amount of data and it cannot do this automatically. The only way to
transfer it is by hand because it is necessary to examine the material closely in order
39
to decide whether it is worth keeping and where it should go. Consequently, it is a
very labour-intensive process to transfer information from this chaotic structure into
a more formal structure.
Therefore, the organisation is beginning to seriously consider the problems of
content management in a broader context.
4.3 Organisational Memory
4.3.1 Long-term Organisational Memory
There are three retention review periods for documents. Firstly, the records
are reviewed after five years. So, the majority of short-term materials are usually
thrown away. Secondly, there is a review after 25 years, which effectively produces
an officially defined long-term “historical record”. Finally, there seems to be
subsequent reviews at 50 and 100 years.
This activity of GCHQ is governed by the British Public Record Acts of 1956
which has been amended subsequently, most recently last year. This requires GCHQ
to keep records for historical and governmental purposes, a list of all its policy
decisions and explanations of how GCHQ reached those policy decisions, key
financial transactions with explanations of decisions made around those transactions,
and other key factors of the work. GCHQ also has to store copies of the output
which was sent to the government. This is kept entirely secret for up to one hundred
years.
40
The primary records for both historical purposes and for internal use are on
paper. GCHQ is legally required at present time to keep long-term records on paper
because there is no other suitable means of retention. It is important that the records
are transferred from electronic to paper for permanent preservation if short-term
records are to be retained as long-term records
In terms of the historical information, GCHQ has an electronic catalogue that
provides titles and files. However, it is not accessible to staff from their workstations.
It is only accessible to the personnel who manage the historical record. The files are
held in locations called registries which are currently distributed in the different
buildings. If information of this kind is needed, it is necessary to either telephone,
walk to, or e-mail the registry which holds the required files. It is also necessary to
explain to the staff that a file is requested on a certain subject. The staff in the
registry then use their database system to search for the appropriate title. The
database systems can then give the staff the file reference number. On the basis of
the number, the staff would be able to find the file in the various filing cabinets.
They would then book the file out to the borrower who would be able to take it away
to work on. When work on the file is completed, it is returned through the internal
messenger system. It then returns to the registry.
4.3.2 Short-term Organisational Memory
Basically, there are two types of the short-term memory: paper and electronic
documents. In the paper system, a set of procedures and practices exist that are
associated with the historical record. The paper-based short-term memory is held in
working files according to these procedures. If a person is working a certain subject,
41
it is possible to place all the documents on the subject within a file. The file would
be stored centrally using the registry service. This paper-based processing is
becoming less common and the organisation is moving towards an electronic process.
On the other hand, there is the electronic system of short-term records. There
are desktop systems which include an internal e-mail system. An internal e-mail
system is associated with public folders which are accessible to the whole
organisation. The meaning of “public” does not entail external, public access. The
electronic correspondence can be stored in these folders, some of which are less
well-structured. But some of them are beginning to follow a corporate structure, so
that people can find information on same topics in the same place.
The e-mail holdings are stored in a hierarchical structure, which is based on,
what is called the GC Directory, which is essentially taxonomy of the business. If
two members of staff in different areas are working on the same subject, they will
have the same structure to work with and will tend to store information about similar
topics in similar places. So if a person were to move job and wanted to find
something, they would know roughly where to look because the structures of the file
space would be similar. However, prior to the introduction of GC Directory, each
area had on its own structure and invented its own thing.
In addition to e-mail storage capabilities, there is also the ability to store
normal office documents that one produces daily, such as Microsoft Word
documents and Excel spreadsheet. There are personal file and shared file spaces on
the servers. Currently, the shared file spaces are complicated and not well-organised
because they were essentially constructed by different groups of the organisation.
42
However, as with public folders, shared file spaces are trying to be structured with
the GC Directory.
Electronic Resource Management System (ERMS) holds all the financial
information such as current accounts, previous financial accounts and the human
resource information such as staff records. ERMS was installed a few years ago. It
includes only limited amounts of data, but it is key piece of organisational memory.
The access to short-term material is now electronic. But finding it can be
difficult because it does not have search engines that can search the short-term
correspondence and documentation spaces. Figure 4.1 shows present information
access in GCHQ.
Figure 4.1 Access to Information in GCHQ (present)
Staff
Working File
Long-Term Memory
Registry
Interne
Specialist
ERMS
Desk Top
Intranet
Correspondence and
Document Space
Files
General administrative
information
Short-Term Memory
Paper Electronic
Retention Review
Retention Review
Retention Review
RetentionReview
Registry Staff
43
4.3.3 Future Perspectives
There is pressure towards e-Government with the advent of current
administration. In terms of the long-term organisational memory, it has been set a
deadline by central government by which time all of the new records have to be held
in electronic form. GCHQ has agreed to try and achieve this target by 2006.
The existing paper records from 2005 back in history will not be converted.
They will remain as paper archives. The reason is simply that the digitization does
not bring sufficient benefit to carry out that enormous task of handling all the paper.
It seems to be much better to keep good catalogue for people to be able to access the
data on paper. From 2006, GCHQ will have electronic records system. The 2006
developments would be in line with the rest of other government departments. The
transition of the long-term history will be completed by 2006.
In terms of organising the information on the administrative systems, it hopes
to complete a number of transitions from a chaotic to an organised structure by
around 2006. It is easier to handle the electronic records if the electronic documents
are handled simultaneously in a consistent and coherent fashion.
In the personal opinion of the interviewee, the transition to well-structured
organisation may take longer than 2006 because the deadline is rapidly approaching.
In addition, there will be an Electronic Document and Record Management Systems
(EDRMS) which can store day-to-day documentation, daily administrative
documents and transition those. It is most likely that an interface to this system
would be through a web browser and would appear as if it were a part of the intranet.
44
However, physically, it might not be a part of the intranet. It might even function as
an effective, separate system. Nevertheless, there is likely to be a component of the
intranet holding this information, which will perhaps be organised in a different way
for the purpose of the communication, as opposed to be the purpose of storage. It
might be that documents are duplicated or projected into that communication space
from the EDRMS space.
4.4 Intranet Use
4.4.1 Roles of Internet
GCHQ has PC connections to the internet through an Internet service
provider. It has the functionality of normal Internet connection. However, the
GCHQ staff cannot connect to the Internet from the terminal on their desk as it is
physically separated. There are specialist terminals in other rooms, which enable the
staff to log on to the Internet. Many people in the organisation would not access the
organisation’s external public websites because there is no need. They can access
information on the intranet much more conveniently. But, when the staff are on the
intranet, they can only obtain internal information.
So the use of external sites is primarily for people outside the organisation.
The unit of Information and Knowledge Services could be the largest user of the
Internet. They use it as a source of publicly available information. The IT
department uses the internet as a vehicle for tracking changes to IT systems and
monitoring bug reports to keep the internal IT fully functioning.
45
4.4.2 Intranet’s Contents
The internal networks, intranet, are entirely separated from the outside world.
However, the intranet stores more general administrative information. It is intended
for access by a large number of staff. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the staff
within the organisation seems to be using the intranet. The structure was somewhat
chaotic in the past because it was developed in an ad-hoc way. However, GCHQ
begins to control the disorganised structure. There is a search engine which works
on the intranet. But, to some extent, the effectiveness of that search engine is
compromised because the information is not well-structured.
The intranet is not a formalised system. It is intended as a communication
medium. It assists that people pull information by themselves when they need it
rather than a vehicle for holding memory. The intranet may act as a repository
because there is some organisational memory associated with the intranet. But the
intranet is not used explicitly as a vehicle for organisational memory.
For example, certain projects within the department would put project
documentation on the intranet to inform the rest of the organisation. But formally
that organisational memory is still held on the paper files. The intranet is not the
vehicle for holding that memory. It might be the vehicle for the communicating
some small part of it.
There are some processes concerning publication and material on the intranet.
There are rules and regulations about what is appropriate and what is inappropriate to
place on the intranet. These processes involve the concept of mass communication.
46
In other words, it depends on how many people need to see it and whether it is at an
appropriate security classification for many people who may see it. In such cases,
the information may then be put on the intranet.
There is a small amount of metadata on publications and documents on the
intranet which is based around a subset of Dublin Core. In the personal opinion of
the informant, the organisation should make use of the e-Government Metadata
Standard (e-GMS) internally. The use of e-GMS is mandated on the UK
Government Internet websites.
4.4.3 Intranet Search
At present, GCHQ does not have intranet portals but a corporate home page
which is given a portal look (personal communication, 24 July 2003). The intranet
search supports two types of information seeking behaviour: to navigate through a
hierarchical browsing approach and to use the search engine to find the information.
There is a usual intranet HTML browsing interface. For example, an explicit
directory overlaid on top of the interface, Yahoo! style directory structure, points into
the desired data space.
Complementing this system, there exist search engines which are very simple
interfaces; essentially, a single box for typing in keywords. The search engine
interface is similar to the Internet search engines, such as Google or Yahoo! There
are no specific requirements for the search engines. However, the users require that
the system is simple, fast and effective and delivers the right information when they
want it.
47
The primary reason for structuring the information is for security. The
material is broken down into collections of data of different security classification, so
that the department can control access to that material through the search engine.
There are materials which are divided into collections. It tends to be the case that the
same subject is held on same servers and within the common file areas because of the
distributed nature of the intranet. There is implicit structure. The “spider” in
constructing the indexes exploits this.
The only material spidered by the search engine is the explicitly published
material, either HTML, PDF or Microsoft Word format. This is held on the separate
sets on servers and is spidered independently, spidered on its own. Only search is
these repositories. It means that the search engine does not cover the whole
administrative information by any means. In other words, a search engine cannot
access large portions of the administrative information. However, EDRMS is
expected to provide the functionality that a search engine collects information
beyond the boundaries. On that point, the integration between EDRMS and the
intranet search will be considered.
4.5 Summary
As previously mentioned, there are two types of information in GCHQ: core
and administrative information. In the administrative part of business, GCHQ
encourages to share the information because transparency of the information will
make it possible to improve the effectiveness and efficiency in the organisation.
48
It is recognised that there are long-term and short-term memories. Long-term
memory is primarily preserved on paper. However, all the new records created after
2006 will be held in electronic form. In terms of the short-term memory, the
documents are stored either paper or electronic. As with long-term memory, 2006
will be a critical year for managing the information and knowledge at GCHQ. It
faces the transition from a paper to a more electronic environment and from an ad-
hoc electronic to a more structured electronic environment.
As yet the intranet is not a formalised system in GCHQ. It tries to create a
common information environment for general administrative information. It tends to
function as a communication medium through the way which people can pull
information by themselves. It can act as a repository. However, it is not used
explicitly as organisational memory.
In terms of the intranet search, it is possible to obtain the information by
navigating through a hierarchical browsing approach or by using its search engine.
They are not integrated on the single site. The functionality of the search engine is
basically the same as the basic Internet search engine’s.
The access to information from both electronic and paper-based
administrative information systems in GCHQ is limited. It could be related to the
transition of information structure, security issues, and traditional practices. In
addition, there might be only a little processed information which relates to the
content or information retrieval.
49
5 Intranet Use in Government
This chapter has three objectives. Firstly, the motivation and objectives for
using intranets in government is identified. Secondly, the developments in intranets
in government are examined. Thirdly, the contents of intranets are investigated.
To achieve the above objectives, this chapter begins with intranet use by the
UK government, which has been examining the possibility of intranet use. Intranet
use in the Finnish government is then examined. The central government in Finland
has been running intra-governmental intranets and intranet portals for a number of
years and has successfully implemented their systems in various applications.
5.1 UK Government
5.1.1 e-Government
The present Government tends to accelerate delegation to, and within,
departments as the broad approach of most of the reforms, but it is still necessary to
monitor their performance and collect information centrally. The Government
attempts to make government simpler and more effective for citizens and businesses
by more strategic policy making and integrated services. This view is presented in
the White Paper on Modernising Government in 1999. The Government begins with
a long-term programme and an agenda for change management to modernise
government. It also recognises that public services need to be equipped with a
culture of improvement, innovation and collaborative purpose for this to happen
(Cabinet Office, 1999).
50
The number of citizens who can access the Internet and the World Wide Web
at work or at home increased dramatically from 7.3 million in the middle of 1998 to
over 10 millions in 1999. The figures clearly suggest that people and enterprises
moved en masse to electronic communication. It can be assumed that their demand
to interact electronically with government will continue to significantly increase
(National Audit Office, 1999).
As a result, there is now the concept of an e-Government in the UK
Government. e-Government refers to “the use of technology to enhance the access to
and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, business partners and
employees” (Silcock, 2001: 88). As a benefit of e-Government, Silcock (2001) states
that the government attempts to deliver a modernised, integrated and seamless
service for their citizens.
e-Government in the UK is regarded as a process with five main stages: a
basic site; electronic publishing; interactive e-publishing; a transitional Web-site and
integrated e-governance. In the phase of interactive e-publishing, the agency is
likely to have a partial or full intranet to routinely train staff on how information is
presented on the website and how they can answer questions from the public about it.
In the phase of a transactional website, the agency seems to have a full intranet for
internal staff (National Audit Office, 2002).
5.1.2 Progress with Intranets
According to the National Audit Office (1999), intranets may allow
government departments and agencies to significantly improve their service qualities
51
and the information provision to the public sector. Intranets imply an expanded
ability to make a range of information more accessible to staff and to allow costs to
be cut and efficiency improved. They can be applied to human relations, cutting
administrative costs; providing a front-end for databases and providing internal
access to the organisation’s websites.
Until recently, the UK Government has not had intra-government intranet
and/or an intranet portal. In 1999, it was predicted that the Government Secure
Intranet (GSI) could be developed as a government intranet and/or intranet portal
rather than becoming a high level e-mail network with enhanced security features.
The GSI was criticised for delays in developing directory services and more
extended facilities (National Audit Office, 1999). In Progress in Achieving
Government on the Web (Public Accounts Committee, 2000), it was reported that the
GSI as a communication means would lead to a substantial reduction in departments’
administrative costs: it would be much cheaper to send letters, internal minutes or
telephoning. In addition, Latham (2000) states:
The GSI is being developed as part of a wider government modernisation initiative which, among other things, aims to exploit information and communications technology to support a more coherent and "joined up" approach to policy making and the administration of government.
However, in the 2002 report (National Audit Office, 2002), the aim of the
GSI is “to provide completely reliable electronic communications and secure
internet facilities both between agencies at central level and also with local
government and non-departmental public bodies”. The GSI may, thus be considered
as a segment of Internets rather than a system of intranets.
52
In terms of the level of the government departments, Cumming and
Cuthbertson (2001), who conducted a questionnaire survey of Internet and intranet
use in 23 UK government departments, found that the main reason for developing an
intranet was to improve communications within the organisation. This was followed
by improving efficiency and productivity, implementing an information management
or IT strategy, and reducing printing and distribution cost. The result of
Cuthbertson’s survey (1999) cited in Latham (2000) reports the way that the
government departments and agencies planed the intranet. The majority of the
organisations first implemented a pilot system and then assessed it considering user
feedback before establishing a full system. As other approaches, some of the
organisations carried out some form of cost analysis and a user needs analysis. The
minority of the organisations conducted information audit.
The 1999 report (National Audit Office, 1999) revealed that progress with
intranets in the UK government department and agencies was insignificant. There
could be five causes for this lack of progress. Firstly, government departments and
agencies are under no pressures: and they also lack any keen competitiveness as
required by the private sector. Secondly, there are some strong organisational
learning barriers against adopting new technologies. Thirdly, there is a general
tendency for ‘risk-averseness’. Fourthly, there is a lack of staff with ‘new-media’
expertise. Finally, the UK departments tend to remain very cautious about making
the necessary investment to build cost-effective and well-used intranets.
Many agencies across the UK had pilot intranets or partial intranets, but full
intranets were quite rare in 1999. The key elements are said to depend on the extent
53
to which long-established department or agency legacy systems can be adapted to
allow communication using Web standards. Most of the departments and agencies
considered that it was important for them to develop an intranet (National Audit
Office, 1999). Unfortunately, the survey did not provide the reasons why the
departments and agencies followed this policy.
Although it is a very simple comparison, the appearance ratio of the word
intranet is quite different in two reports, Government on the Web, published the
National Audit Office in 1999 and 2002, 152 and 18 respectively. The 2002 report
does not provide any evidence of progress with intranets from the 1999 report.
5.1.3 Information Retrieval
The survey by Cumming and Cuthbertson (2001) cited above revealed that
half of the respondents considered that the information on the intranet was
disorganised and badly structured. There was also the concern that presentation of
information could attract people more than the intranet design and structure to
support effective searching and retrieval. Cumming and Cuthbertson (2001: 37)
maintain that “The designing of effective keyword search facilities and the use of
underlying thesauri and meta- tags embedded in web pages for indexing and
retrieval purposes is of key importance”.
5.1.4 Contents of Intranets
In terms of its contents, the National Audit Office (1999: 6) recommends that
“all the information provided is reliable and kept up to date by content providers”
54
and “key agency policy documents and information are stored and made available in
electronic formats on the intranet”.
According to the survey by Cumming and Cuthbertson (2001), 55% of
respondents took a central management approach to the contents, with all updates
being filtered through a central unit. Others took a more decentralised approach.
The approach allows individual sections of the organisation to manage and update
sections of the intranet by themselves in line with central guidelines. Cumming and
Cuthbertson forecast that a decentralised approach could increase because the
contents would become too great to be managed by a single central unit. Indeed,
three-quarters of the organisations had a standard format to their intranet pages.
Cumming and Cuthbertson (2001) present materials on the intranet. The
popular materials are typical static information, such as job vacancies and office
circulars. Most of the intranets have basic facilities as same as internet, namely a
search facility, online help and feedback facilities. Just under half have links to the
Web. Proactive and advanced facilities (i.e. chat) of intranets seems not to be
common. Table 5.1 shows the content of the intranets.
Table 5.1 Content of the Intranets in indivisual departments and agencies. Source: Latham (2000)
Type of information Percentage of organisations Job vacancies 89% Circulars 89% Formal material (annual reports etc.) 83% Staff directory 83% Forms 78% Daily news updates 61% Informal information 55% Bulletin board 50% Training materials 50%
55
5.2 Finnish Government
5.2.1 Background
Finland is one of the most advanced user countries in terms of IT.
Approximately half of the population has access to Internet either at work or at home.
It thus makes public services on Internet possible. There are hundreds of thousands
of users of Internet banking, and the numbers are growing fast. The number of
cellular phone subscribers overtakes the number of stationary telephone subscribers.
There is the frequent use of short messaging services (Sørgaard, 2000).
Due to cultural and historical reasons, there is a strong emphasis on openness
and transparency in all decision making in Finland. The citizens can, and are
supposed to, control power elites through the publicity of parliamentary documents
which record the decision making and working of Parliament. The first form of
dissemination was paper, then microfilms and now electronic dissemination. Since
December 1995, information has also been provided through the Internet. The
Parliament and its library in Finland provide the content of decisions on the Internet
within 24 hours of decisions being made. The contents on the Internet include search
and navigation functions and archives (Laaksovirta, 1997). In accordance with the
reformed Act on the Openness of Government Activities enforced in December,
1999, the preparatory documents are also generally public (Jussilainen, 2001).
Jussilainen (2003a: 2) states that Finland has the culture that “promotes the
advancement of the KM: the technological culture and the common use of
information and communication technology”. She also mentions that KM is a part of
56
public administration development in the Finnish Government which has been on the
political agenda.
5.2.2 Reform of the Central Government
The Finnish government launched the central government reform in 2000
because of the lack of cooperation among Ministries and deficiencies in strategic
thinking and management. In addition, there are two concerns: how to keep the best
resources within the public service and how to attract, retain and develop the best
human resources in the ranks of the public service. The main goals of the central
government reform are: to strengthen the cooperation within the central government;
to develop the strategic planning and its tools; and to develop the cooperation among
ministries. KM is a part of this reform. There are three sub-projects relating to KM:
the development of the strategic and coordination tools of the Government; support
in preparation of the Government programme; and evaluation of the government
information systems (Jussilainen, 2001).
The Ministry of Finance is responsible for coordinating Information
Management and use of ICT in government (Sørgaard, 2000). VALTIPA is a
network of information service professionals in the ministries, Parliament and the
National Archives coordinated by the Ministry of Finance. Information services
include library, archives and document management service. The idea of VALTIPA
is to co-operate in order to ensure that the Government and Parliament have
immediate and reliable access to all the information they need in a suitable form
(Government of Finland, 1997).
57
The Ministries are traditionally independent in their information management
and there is a general lack of cooperation, which results in technically incompatible
information systems (Jussilainen, 2001). As the main common information systems
are owned by the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Finance needs to close
cooperation with them (Jussilainen, 2002).
In Finland, all standardization matters are handled by the Finnish Standards
Association (SFS). It guides and co-ordinates national standardization work and
confirms the national SFS-standards. It also represents Finland in European and in
International Standardization organizations (Government of Finland, 1997).
5.2.3 Intranet Deployment
The idea of the intranet for the government was developed in 1994. The
concept has gone thought changes throughout the planning process. It appeared not
to be the right moment for considering the intranet with the separate intranets and
internet web sites, or other information systems produced by the Ministries.
However, the intranet was introduced to the users at the beginning of 1998. The
intranet tries to create a common information environment for the government and
other user organisations (Jussilainen, 2001).
The Finnish Government is likely to consider the intranet as a tool for KM, as
it is believed to be a method of improving the functionality of the government. The
aim of the intranet is to support the working processes and the culture of interaction,
learning, and cooperation. The intranet was built to satisfy the common information
needs of the user organisations, but not the special needs of the ministries. It is
58
planned to be based on user-friendly technology and with common standards
(Jussilainen, 2001).
The intranet can be accessed in the thirteen Ministries, the Chancellor of
Justice, the Office of the President and Parliament. According to Kuittinen (2002),
the number of the daily intranet users is on average 1,400. This seems to be over
20% of the 6,500 potential users although there are problems with obtaining accurate
statistic data.
In terms of document structures, metadata and XML are used. Common
metadata is regarded as a crucial factor for the developing of compatible information
systems. The metadata and XML are needed for the information retrieval as well as
for the information transfer between information systems (Jussilainen, 2001). The
government adopts comprehensive Dublin Core metadata (national Finnish standard
2002); national additions (public sector recommendation: JHS 143); government
additions and ministries’ additions. In addition, there are common schemas: for
instance, thesauri, classification, and document type lists. These classifications can
help in personalizing in the governmental intranet portal, Senaattori. Metadata can
be a useful tool in controlling internal data and documents. However, it can not be
expected that external information resources have the same metadata as the
government. On the other hand, the government standard structure for documents is
under construction. The first version of XML-dtd and XML-schema are used
(Jussilainen, 2002; Kuittinen, 2002).
59
5.2.4 Intranet Portal: Senaattori
Senaattori has been an intra-government intranet portal, or information
directory since 1998 (Jussilainen, 2001; Kuittinen, 2002). The project on the new
version of Senaattori started in the spring, 2000, and was expected to continue to the
end of 2002. New Senaattori was implemented in March 2002. The Prime
Minister’s Office is in charge of the maintenance and development of Senaattori in
collaboration with other Government ministries and Parliament. There are the
editorial staff who are selected from the Government ministries and Parliament and
are responsible for the contents. A network consisting of representative of the
Government ministries’ information management units are responsible for its
technical functioning (Kuittinen, 2002).
The first version (Figure 5.1) was a rather static service for information
delivery, including a simple bulletin board service. There were two advantages and
four disadvantages of the first version. One of the advantages was that the users
began to use electronic services. The other was that the government took the first
steps in establishing a common gateway and access to different applications and
information sources within and outside the government. On the other hand, the
disadvantages were as follows:
• The users were not encouraged to open the intranet daily because e-mail and
calendars were not in the same system.
• It failed to create collaboration space and virtual community.
• Metadata was occasionally used in some systems and intranet.
• Parallel multi-database search project failed. (Kuittinen, 2002)
60
In addition, Sørgaard (2000:29) evaluates the first version of Senaattori as
stated below.
The service has not (yet) developed into a common platform for sharing information between the ministries. The information provided about each ministry’s work, documents, etc. is information from the ministries’ external web services.
Figure 5.1 Senaattori Version 1 Source: Kuittinen (2002)
In the new version (Figure 5.2), Senaattori was defined as a common,
interactive, changing tool for work and a knowledge portal of and for the government.
It supported the working processes and the culture of interaction, learning, and
cooperation, based on user friendly technology and common standards and was a
coordinated aggregate with the intranets of the Ministries (Jussilainen, 2001;
Kuittinen, 2002). The aims of new Senaattori involved promoting cooperation
among Ministries and lowering the barriers among them because the lack of
cooperation and the inefficiency of bureaucratic competition among Ministries were
understood as major problems (Jussilainen, 2001).
61
Senaattori version 2 was much clearer, faster and more user-friendly in
accessing the information than the version 1. The evolution of Senaattori is at fast
speed. Figure 5.2 was presented in August 2002 whereas Figure 5.3 in Feburary
2003. The latter is much clearer and more user-friendly than the former. Senaattori
version 2 provided free text and advanced Dublin Core metadata search. It also
offered an interface to the information and a tool required for decision-making and
the preparation of decisions, and was accessible with mobile equipment (Figure 5.4).
It also provided users with a personalised interface to information within and outside
the government. However, the personalisation was limited to group use (Kuittinen,
2002). Jussilainen (2003a) describes the weak points. Firstly, Senaattori could not
provide the customised information. Secondly, Senaattori supplied voluminous raw
information, but a shortage of analysed information.
Figure 5.2 Senaattori in 2002 Source: Kuittinen (2002)
62
Figure 5.3 Senaattori in 2003 Source: Jussilainen (2003b)
Figure 5.4 Wap version of Senaattori Source: Kuittinen (2002)
63
In 2002, the personalisation in the real sense of the term, which can be
tailored for personal use, could be considered. The service could then expand to the
Government ministries’ administrative sectors and partners (Kuittinen, 2002).
Senaattori as working space of the strategic policy programmes is being
considered (Jussilainen, 2002). According to Jussilainen (2003: 7), “there are plans
to offer filtered, personalised and analysed information as a knowledge support for
the Strategic Policy Programmes”. It will actualise a virtual working space for the
people involved in strategic project.
Figure 5.5 illustrated the preliminary version of the interface of the Strategic
Policy Programme. Figure 5.6 presents the operational version.
Policy programme 1Project 1Project 2Project3Project 4Project 5...
Policy programme 2Policy programme 3Policy programme 4...
Persons
Proposals and alternativesDiscussion
Logo
Search
Senaattori/management/policy programme
Contacts I Directories I Time tables l Dictionaries I Internal services
På svenska
Detailed search | Alphabetical directory | Site map | Feedback
Results and effects
Documents
Calendar
Actual in this programme
First title 22.11.2001Second title 7.12.2001Third title 7.12.2001
Title of the news itmem as a link 22.11.2001Metadata of the article (author, date, source etc)Short summary of the article: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet
Title of the news item as a link 22.11.2001Metadata of the article (author, date, source, etc)Short summary of the article: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet
Goal/realizationGeneral issues
Legislation
EU affairs
Financial planning
Management
Strategic reports
Title of the policy programme
Policy programme
Decisions
Process
Costs and financies
Title of the last messaageOlder messageMore discussion...
Title 1Title 2Title 3 ...
Figure 5.5 The interface of working room of the Strategic Policy Programmes in Senaattori Source: Jussilainen (2002)
64
Figure 5.6 The Strategic Policy Programmes in Senaattori Source: Jussilainen (2003b)
5.2.5 Contents of Intranets
The initial study of the contents required on the first version of the intranet
revealed that the information needs were divided into four processes: national
legislation-drafting processing; national budget preparation process; EU legislation
draft process, and international agreements preparation (Jussilainen, 2001).
The contents which could be accessed through Senaattori version 1 included
the followings (Jussilainen, 2001): news, current matters, directories, institutions and
organisations, statues, budget, the EU, international organisations, international
conventions, statistics, geographical information and maps, and archives, literature
and research. In 2000, the majority of the services provided were free, whereas the
65
access to some information resources, especially external information sources, were
chargeable (Sørgaard, 2000). Sørgaard, (2000: 29) comments that “it is difficult to
categorise and maintain such a collection”.
Jussilainen (2001) expected that there would be three navigations on
Senaattori version 2. The first navigation was planned to contain the information
sources that formed the content in the first version of the intranet. In addition, the
management could use Senaattori as a tool in leading the government. There were
four profiles for:
• Professionals drafting a law
Guidelines and legal information sources would be elements in this profile.
• Planners of finance
Guidelines in national budget preparation process and other economic processes, and the documents resulting from those process (sic) would be the content of this profile.
• EU affairs
The guidelines and access to the EU information sources would be the central elements in this profile.
• Leadership
The results of the reform of the central government will be used. At the moment the central idea is to have the Government programme in focus, and build the profile around it. The following of the carring (sic) into effect of the Government programme, statistics and other information on the state of the society etc, structured according to the structure of the Government programme, would be elements in this profile.
(Jussilainen, 2001: 8)
The second navigation was planned to contain: Calendars, Current affairs,
News and media, Parliament, President of the Republic, Government, Ministries,
State administration, Regional administration, International organisations, Statistics,
Country reports and maps, Documents and Archives, Literature and Research and
Dictionaries.
66
The third navigation was planned to provide: Contact information,
Directories, Training, Working in the government, Internal services, Feedback,
Search, and Help.
As there were only two people updating the intranet, the government was
likely to attempt to convert the information from other information systems to
intranet as automatically (Jussilainen, 2001).
5.3 Summary
This chapter focused on the motivation and objectives for using intranet,
developments and contents of intranet in two governments: the UK and Finland. It is
difficult to provide a systematic comparison of the UK and Finland with respect to
intranet use and development in government. One of the reasons is that the
governments in different countries are often differently structured and vary in their
operations. Another is that the criteria in the literature used are also different.
In the UK, the emergence of e-government which is potential public demand
might affect on the motivation of intranet use in government. Web-based technology
provides a key opportunity for governments to modernise. By developing an intranet,
government departments and agencies can anticipate and improve communications
within the organisation.
On the other hand, there is a strong emphasis on open access to information
in all decision making in Finland. The Act on the Openness of Government
67
Activities and the recent reform of the central government could motivate to use an
intranet as infrastructure for KM.
In terms of the developments in intranets, there are major differences between
the UK and Finnish Government. Whether government intranets are actually
necessary is considered to be a separate issue. To date, the UK government has not
fully developed its own. At the level of government departments and agencies,
progress is rather slow and cautious. One reason for this could be cultural tradition,
for example, “risk-aversiveness”, or the need to restrict sensitive information. There
are clearly different attitudes and approaches to information access. It relates to the
role of governments in allowing greater freedom of access within their respective
political systems.
The Finnish Government appears enthusiastic and positive about using and
developing their intranet. Since 1998, Finland has implemented its government
intranet and intranet portal, Senaattori. The critical success factors can be said as
KM development on political agenda, tradition of openness, and technological
culture. The main document structures are adopted metadata and XML. The intranet
and intranet portal have been reviewed. The first version of Senaattori was only
equipped with simple and static functions such as a bulletin board. However, the
second version, which introduced in the spring of 2002, is much more dynamic than
the first one. New Senaattori is designed as organisation’s knowledge and work
space. In the future, Senaattori will be developed with more proactive knowledge
and working space of the Strategic Policy Programmes with dynamic websites.
68
Finally, many government departments and agencies in UK manage the
contents centrally. However, it will move from central to decentralised management
if the contents reach a certain level. Significantly, the uniqueness and variation of
materials on the intranets are not recognised. On the other hand, in Finland, three
navigations are identified on Senaattori: namely, communication, search function,
publication, reports and online-reference on the intranet.
69
6 Discussion
This chapter provides discussion and further analysis concerning the main
issues described in the dissertation. The discussion examines the interview survey
(Chapter Four) and the case studies (Chapter Five) as well as the relevant literature.
Each research objective is considered sequentially in order to determine what
conclusions can be drawn from this study.
6.1 Motivations and Objectives
When new applications (i.e. groupware) or technologies (i.e. internet) were
introduced to the business world, the general assumption that “everyone else seemed
to have one so why not us?” was widespread. In a sense, society brought pressure to
bear on companies to use new technology. Many companies implemented them
without any clear objectives. As a result, some succeeded in attaining a return from
their investment but many others failed.
At present, it is clear that the use of information technology is more driven by
possibilities and opportunities rather than needs. There is a tendency to concentrate
on what can be realised within systems. The use of intranets can show similar
patterns as above but there is no clear evidence. It is worth identifying the
motivations and objectives for using and developing intranets in government.
In a broader sense, both governments share the same objectives which are to
make governments smaller, more efficient and more effective (Cabinet Office, 1999;
Tiihonen, 1999). Now GCHQ also attempts to improve the effectiveness and
70
efficiency by promoting to sharing non-sensitive information within the organisation.
This could be the primary reason to deploy intranets within government departments.
GCHQ employs intranets as an access tool for general administrative
information by the overwhelming majority of its staff. It is also intended as a
communication medium. Cumming and Cuthbertson (2001) found similar to the aim
of intranet use in the governments departments and agencies in their survey. The
relationship between e-Government issues, which are identified in Chapter Five, and
intranet use in GCHQ is not evidence. It is assumed that the reason is that GCHQ
does not directly serve citizens in the UK.
Concerning intranets as infrastructure for organisational memory, there might
be organisational memory on the intranet. However, intranets in GCHQ are not used
explicitly as a vehicle for their organisational memory. Even though this was the
interviewee’s opinion, an EDRMS is expected to hold their organisational memory
(Personal Communication, 2003). It may be able to search from the corporate home,
but it might not be part of the intranets.
On the other hand, the objectives to deploy intranets in Finland are different
from GCHQ’s. Indeed, there were different objectives before and after starting the
reform of the central government in 2000. Before 2000, the intranet could be seen as
only a tool of static service for information delivery. However, after 2000, the
intranet is strongly considered as a tool for KM. The intranet is being developed to
provide proactive information services for the users.
71
Unfortunately, organisational memory is not clearly mentioned as an
objective in the literature. There is the evidence that one of the concerns in the
Finnish Government reform is how to keep the best resources within the public
services. Davenport and Prusak (1998) describe that intranets are the most important
tools for managing knowledge repository. It is inferred that the Finnish Government
uses the intranet as a tool for organisational memory.
In terms of the objectives of using intranets, there are both similarities and
differences between GCHQ and the Finnish Government. The objectives seem to
reflect that intranets keep simple in GCHQ and sophisticated in the Finnish
Government.
6.2 Organisational Culture and Setting
The literature in Chapter Three suggests that intranets can be developed
differently in various organisations. It is implied that organisational culture affects
intranet development. Brown (1998: 42) presents the most important sources of
organisational culture which reached common agreements among scholars.
1 The societal or national culture within which an organisation is physically situated;
2 The vision, management style and personality of an organisation’s founder or other dominant leader; and
3 The type of business an organisation conducts and the nature of its business environment
According to the above sources of organisational culture, except for
leadership, the influence on intranet use and development is considered in the
following sections.
72
6.2.1 Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions
According to cultural dimensions demonstrated by Geert Hofstede (Hofstede,
1984), who conducted the most comprehensive study of how values in the workplace
are influenced by culture, there are significant different national cultures between the
UK and Finland. Both countries have a low power distance indicators (PDI). It
means that both societies do not emphasise the differences between citizen's power
and wealth. In other words, the emphasis is on social equality and equal opportunity.
However, the national culture in the UK has higher individualism (IDV) and
masculinity (MAS) and lower uncertainty avoidance (UAI) than in Finland. In the
UK, compared with Finland, there is a tendency towards individuality, a higher
degree of gender differentiation, and less rule-oriented, and more readily acceptance
of change. In addition, change seems to occur more rapidly as long as traditions and
commitments do not become impediments to change (International Business Center,
2003).
Figure 6.1 Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Source: International Business Center, 2003
The culture of equality and opportunity for everyone is supposed to exert a
positive influence on the intranet deployment in both governments, for example, e-
government in the UK and the transparency of information in Finland. However,
73
there is no strong correlation between national culture and, intranet use and
development in government. The findings in this study show rather contradictory
results. The National Audit Office (1999) reported that the reason why progress with
intranet in the UK was insufficient caused the tendency to reject changes within the
departments and agencies. There is no doubt that the situation prevents the progress
of intranet development. The national culture in Finland shows higher uncertainty
avoidance tendency than in the UK. However, in Finland, progress with the intranet
is much more advanced than in the UK.
Within the Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions, there is no convincing
evidence to show that national culture in any way affects intranet deployment.
6.2.2 Business and the Business Environment
In contrast to national culture, the nature of business and the business
environment appear to show a greater extent of intranet use.
GCHQ and the Finnish Government both seek themselves more efficient and
effective in their operations. As intranets have the potential to realise the objectives,
the environment can be a positive factor for intranet use and development in both
organisations.
There were, however, some negative factors when developing intranets in
GCHQ. Firstly, GCHQ had a culture of secrecy relating to the nature of the business,
resulting in the creation of a complex information structure and an information
culture. The interviewee (Personal Communication, 2003) said that such a system
cannot transfer information into a more formal structure automatically. It is also
74
assumed that there was an unwillingness to share information because it was not
within their own administrative culture. Secondly, the priority in GCHQ was the
core business of intelligence gathering and safeguarding information. They would
invest less on the administrative systems as it would affect intranet development.
The interviewee (Personal Communication, 2003) said that the government
departments in the UK were the same position to move from a paper-based
environment ten years ago. The main pressure to transform the system increased
with the advent of e-Government policies. The government departments were all in
transition, but they were at different points in that transition as some were more
adventurous than the others. It is implied that the same things happen in regard to
intranets. The National Audit Office (1999) reported that there were some pilot
intranets or partial intranets, but full intranets were quite rare. What exactly made
them different is very interesting area to further investigate: namely, the relationships
between organisational culture and intranet development in government.
On the other hand, there is a cultural and traditional tendency for a strong
emphasis on openness and transparency in all decision making in Finland as opposed
to the GCHQ’s culture. Since its early stage, documents have been structurally well-
organised. This environment therefore makes it easier to implement intranets. As
the objective, smaller and more efficient state, encourages to sharing information and
KM, it is necessary to fully deploy IT.
In terms of intranet development, the central government in Finland
demonstrates the strong initiatives. They developed the intranet according to the
capabilities of the application and potential user needs. On the other hand, the UK
75
government departments and agencies focus on actual user needs and then implement
intranets (Latham, 2000). There is the same tendency in GCHQ. For example, the
intranet search engine would not be developed unnecessary but sophisticated on the
request of the users (Personal Communication, 2003). The different approach to
intranet development in both countries might be caused by the difference between
public administration systems. According to Pollitt and Bouckaert (2000), the
politico-administrative systems in both countries are significantly different. For
example, the nature of executive government in Finland is consensual with its
tradition for grand coalitions, whereas the one in the UK is majoritarian. Concerning
administrative culture, Finland tends to be Rechtsstaat while the UK has public
interest model. However, it is absolutely essential to investigate a causal relationship
between intranet development and public administration systems.
It is important to note that an organisational culture and its setting can
significantly affect the progress of intranet development and use. In both cases,
implementing intranets can bring about organisational cultural change.
6.3 The Contents of Intranets
6.3.1 Organisational Memory
There remains the issue to what the extent intranets can accommodate
organisational memory. In a broad sense, organisational memory is referred to as the
means by which organisations can store knowledge for future use. According to this
definition, the material could be a part of organisational memory because they are
recorded. It will not be recorded if the materials are not intended for future use.
76
It is possible to categorise them according to how long the memory is stored
on the intranet, namely short-term and long-term memory. Generally speaking, the
retention periods of documents are quite different from private sector. For example,
in the case of the GCHQ, the distinction between short-term memory and long-term
historical memory is whether documents are retained over 25 years.
6.3.2 Static Memory and Active Remembering
As intranet technologies are capable of storing a variety of information from
static to dynamic; structured to unstructured; routine to non-routine or asynchronous
to synchronous information. These were in contrast to the isolated KM systems.
The Finnish Government intranet and intranet portal are good examples of such
systems. Senaattori Version 1 provided texts on a single subject and hyperlinks to
other documents or websites. It could also present graphics. Senaattori 2 can be
used as a medium for managing dynamic transaction, for example, e-mail, online
calendar, search, wireless access. In terms of work space of the Strategic Policy
Programmes in Senaattori, there is a possibility of having more interactive contents,
such as discussion forums, video conferencing and chat lines, storing and reusing
them in the future.
There are three main information sources on the intranet: formal,
group/project, and informal information. Initially, all three sources are a part of
short-term memory which is discarded in a short time. Formal information has the
potential of becoming long-term static memory more than other information because
of these characteristics: accuracy, currency, confidentiality, liability and commitment.
As the information has no format and is unstructured, it used to be difficult to store
77
and share group/project and informal information in computer systems. It was
referred to as tacit knowledge.
Some tacit knowledge will become explicit knowledge on the intranet. It is
possible to accommodate not only formal information but also decision tracking
information which helps understand the rational of the decision making process. It
can be expected that requested memory on the intranet will be dynamic memory
rather than static memory. The intranet users will begin to actively remember
organisational memory on a routine and daily basis. It will support the concepts of
organisational learning and memory. However, dominant contents on intranets are
still traditional files or database.
Organisational memory, even explicit knowledge, is more complicated than
the structure of traditional computing paradigm. How to link this knowledge on the
intranets will be important in the future. It could be necessary to develop new
frameworks on the intranet to support organisational memory.
6.4 Information Searching
Dias (2001:269) describes the problems of chaotic organised information
within organisations:
Most of the time, this information is stored in computer hardware in a unorganized way, spread in databases, rendering access to relevant knowledge difficult, and compromising employees’ productivity on their daily activities. Consequently, many modern enterprises lack a global view of their own data and information.
It is important to manage contents as intranets have the capabilities of storing
a variety of information. However, the approach of content management will tend to
78
be decentralised because the contents become too great to be managed by a single
central unit. This trend might imply a trade-off between the quality and quantity
even if there are guidelines and standard formats. The shift from central to
decentralised management might create chaotic and disorganised situations as similar
to the Internet. This means that there can be a vast amount of information, but it is
very difficult to find the required information.
In the case of GCHQ, the access to information strongly relates to security
issues. GCHQ needs to create a more structured, formal electronic environment. At
present, the intranet is not a formalised system. GCHQ will have an EDRMS which
posts the information on the intranet. It might be necessary to separate the function
of content management from intranets to keep an organised information environment.
In theory, intranet portals, intranet search engines have the capabilities to
facilitate access to various resources on the internal network. Intranet search engines
can automatically make indexes using a spider. On the other hand, for effective
access to information, it is necessary that organisations know about their information
culture and structure. How to use existing systems, resources, and repositories on the
intranet, which include both structured and unstructured information, should be
considered. It could be said as information audit. It will be vital to organise contents
into categories that can be browsed and searched and to integrate search function
across multiple information, repositories. Corporate taxonomies, metadata and XML
could be prerequisites.
79
7 Conclusion
7.1 Summary
The two case studies and one interview study demonstrated intranet use and
development in Government. It was seen that the progress of intranet development
and its use is different between GCHQ and Finnish Governments. The motivations
and objectives for intranet use and development and organisational cultures in both
organisations can considerably affect progress with the application of intranets.
Intranets can be created in different ways in various types of organisations.
The nature of business and the business environment can dictate such differences, but
it was seen that national culture does not strongly affect the development and
progress with intranets in both organisations. This evidence could be applicable and
useful to design and implement intranets.
Compared with traditional file systems and databases, intranets can support a
wide range of organisational memory. There exists the potential of the intranet as
infrastructure for organisational memory. Firstly, intranets can retain and store daily
activities. Traditional information systems are limited to storing static information,
whereas intranets can retain more dynamic information. Secondly, intranets have
facilities to access the information, interface and navigation. Thirdly, some
organisational memory, which used to be recognised as tacit memory, is included.
Organisational memory on the intranet is expected to grow a huge amount of
information immediately. The fundamental systems have already been established
80
and continue to function as planned. Therefore, the critical issue relates to how
intranets can evolve in order to exploit that maximum potential. This process of
evolution requires a clear assessment of an organisation’s needs and the expertise to
carry it out.
7.2 Evaluation
Although this dissertation has not revealed a large amount of evidence
showing that governments use intranet as infrastructure for organisational memory,
the implications were clearly presented. On the whole, the research achieved the
overall aims and objectives set out in Chapter One.
There was a difficulty in comparing the cases which were used in this study.
The first reason is that these cases do not contain all of the available information. It
is necessary to make certain assumptions. The second reason is that the research into
the intranet use and development in the UK Government, for understanding the
current situation surrounding GCHQ policies, was conducted after the interview.
There were some similar tendencies to intranet use and development between the
research results and in the literature, but why the similarities evolved requires further
investigation. Ideally, the research should be arranged before the interview. The
third is that the unfamiliarity of organisation structure and culture was made some
difficulty to obtain standard answer. It was hoped that more information about
intranet use in Government, which could have been fruitful for further investigation,
would be discovered.
81
7.3 Further Research
Although there were the limitations to the investigation, some interesting
results and importance have been identified and these can be used as a basis for
further research. Further theoretical development and empirical research will
provide a better understanding of how organisations can store and use their
knowledge using intranets. Providing answers to the following questions can enable
us to successfully plan and implement any future projects in various organisations.
• What is not fully understood, and would be an interesting subject for
empirical research, is the extent to which non-routine and informal
information is deliberately stored to be used as a basis for future decision
making. This behaviour could involve anticipating future needs for the
information.
• Organisational memory cannot be represented by traditional file and database
structure because of the complexities. But can intranets provide the new
framework for organisational memory to connect different varieties of
experiential knowledge?
• Are some public service cultures more receptive and innovative for intranet
use and development than others? And if so, what factors contribute to this
receptiveness?
• Is organisational culture change relating to implement intranets the result of
deep organisational changes?
82
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Appendix 1: Interview Questions
Organisational Setting
1. Please give me a brief description of GCHQ.
2. What is your organisational role?
3. What is your organisational culture?
4. What extents are you required sharing information/knowledge?
Organisational Memory
5. What kind of records is stored in your organisation? Which format do they
take?
6. What type of records belongs to short-term memories? What type of
records belongs to long-term memories?
7. How is the information accessible in your organisation?
8. Are there any organisational memory information systems like SAP or
Notes Domino, except for Intranet?
9. What extend do organisational memory information systems support
organisational memory?
Intranet
10. How many servers are there?
11. How many staff members are using it?
Intranet search
12. Is there any difference of search functionality between the internet you
offered and intranet?
13. How is intranet search being used?
14. How often is the intranet search updated?
15. How are the data gathered?
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16. How the index is structured internally?
17. What kind of search interface and the features are available to the users?
18. Do you provide a single gateway to search intranet? How is a user query
transformed to suit each database?
19. What are the end-user requirements for intranet-based search engines? Is it
relating to your organisational culture or setting?
20. What do you think about the usability as a user?