SharePoint Intranet as Internal Communication Solution to Internal Communication Issues

Abstract

This thesis is a case study of SharePoint intranet as internal communication solution to internal communication issues. The goal is to collect the three most complained internal communication issues in the company through finding out why the employees are complaining about the internal communication. Then find out how the newly adopted intranet based on SharePoint can help solve the issues. The beneficiary is the Nordic subsidiary of an international corporation with 20.000 employees.

The main research question is: “How can SharePoint as intranet help solve the internal communication issues in the company?” and the second question is: “Why are the employees complaining about the internal communication?”. The first hypothesis is that the company employees are complaining about the internal communication and availability of information in the company. The second hypothesis is that SharePoint as intranet will help solve the internal communication issues. The theoretical framework is based on the collected SharePoint as intranet and internal communication best practices and the methodology is based on the Case Study Research and Applications Design and Methods written by Robert K. Yin (2018) and follows a path of six steps: plan, design, prepare, collect, analyse, and share.

The study follows a methodological path as described in Yin’s book (Yin 2018, 3), where the research questions are defined first, before going through the literature and already made questionnaires, interviews, and observations. The interviews, questionnaires and observations result in 3 topics that need to be considered in the SharePoint used as intranet. The topics are many channels, missing information and targeting issues. The used internet sources result in 9 best practices for internal communication and SharePoint used as intranet that are used as theoretical framework to help solve the 3 main issues in the company’s internal communication.