“Every change is difficult” A case study of employee behavior in Mölnlycke Health Care's intranet

Abstract

Due to the outstanding success of social media during the first decade of the 21th century, the business sphere has become aware of the economic potential within this segment of the market. Companies of all sizes aim to have some sort of presence on social media-related websites, and moreover, incorporating social features into the corporate intranets. Thus, there has been a shift in intranet design towards adopting the features of social media. In this case study, we examine the implementation of the global company Mölnlycke Health Care’s new intranet. The company has previously been a divided one, and the new intranet was launched with the intention of making the employees more committed towards the company as well as their colleagues – thus creating a more united company. Our findings made it clear that the employees' intranet behavior was characterized by the fact that the employees first and foremost visit the intranet in work-related purposes and use it as a tool in their daily work. Even though all employees demonstrated some sort of commitment towards the intranet, there were large individual differences in the level of contribution – with a general inclination towards passively following what happens on the intranet. The passive behavior was predominantly explained by the employees not experiencing a connection to the areas described in the articles, or lacking a reason for contacting other employees. This case study is summed up by giving recommendations for future development of the intranet, regarding how to encourage the employees to use the intranet more and increase the employees' intranet commitment.