Engagement of employees to internal service development : Case: Development of the contract management tool
Piiroinen, Sari (2012)
Piiroinen, Sari
Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu
2012
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2012120317988
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2012120317988
Tiivistelmä
The common thing and the main idea to the most of the service design theories are to involve the end customers to designing the services companies are producing to their customers. In those theories, the customers mean end users; external customers.
Companies are also producing and developing internal services to their internal customers, the employees. The purpose of this thesis’ study was to find out if the early involvement and engagement of the employees to the development of the internal service would be beneficial and what would the possible benefits.
Thesis’ theoretical framework is concentrating to the employees’ engagement and motivation theories including service development and service design point of views.
The case study of this thesis is a qualitative study with exploratory research approach in one case company and the study process was divided into two parts. The first part consisted of engaging the employees to the development, design, and the usage of the future internal service, a contract management tool, and finding out what were the benefits the early engagement brought. The second part of the study concentrated to find out how the engagement in the early development phase influenced to the employees’ opinions, behavior, and change resistance, and what the employees thought about the whole process.
Several qualitative research methods such as semi structured interviews, questionnaire, and focus groups were used during the study, and all in all 72 employees participated to the study.
The study results showed that employee involvement and engagement will bring benefits not only to the developed service, but for the whole process. The results of the study also showed that the employees are keen on to be part of the process development already from the start. They brought plenty of good ideas and real service requirements to the development and design process. By using these ideas, the service development team could concentrate to the rights things already from the beginning. This made the service development process faster. Knowing the employees’ requirements helped when selecting the tool supplier, it helped to develop the user-friendly, easy-to-use, logical service, and it eased the implementation. All in all the employees involvement reduced the change resistance, made the process smoother and brought cost and time savings during the process.
Companies are also producing and developing internal services to their internal customers, the employees. The purpose of this thesis’ study was to find out if the early involvement and engagement of the employees to the development of the internal service would be beneficial and what would the possible benefits.
Thesis’ theoretical framework is concentrating to the employees’ engagement and motivation theories including service development and service design point of views.
The case study of this thesis is a qualitative study with exploratory research approach in one case company and the study process was divided into two parts. The first part consisted of engaging the employees to the development, design, and the usage of the future internal service, a contract management tool, and finding out what were the benefits the early engagement brought. The second part of the study concentrated to find out how the engagement in the early development phase influenced to the employees’ opinions, behavior, and change resistance, and what the employees thought about the whole process.
Several qualitative research methods such as semi structured interviews, questionnaire, and focus groups were used during the study, and all in all 72 employees participated to the study.
The study results showed that employee involvement and engagement will bring benefits not only to the developed service, but for the whole process. The results of the study also showed that the employees are keen on to be part of the process development already from the start. They brought plenty of good ideas and real service requirements to the development and design process. By using these ideas, the service development team could concentrate to the rights things already from the beginning. This made the service development process faster. Knowing the employees’ requirements helped when selecting the tool supplier, it helped to develop the user-friendly, easy-to-use, logical service, and it eased the implementation. All in all the employees involvement reduced the change resistance, made the process smoother and brought cost and time savings during the process.