Penetration Effect on HR Portals Enhancement Justification: Initial Evidence from Expert Interviews
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 10TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Management and administrative |
| Keywords | justification; HR portal; enterprise portal; intangibles; decision making; IS business value |
| Description | Companies still struggle with finding justifiable reasons to implement strategically important information systems and they are reported to resort to trust, faith or instinct when dealing with intangible benefits. Enterprise Information Portal is a technology that can bring both tangible and intangible benefits. This study focuses on an insufficient theoretical knowledge about justification of a specific type of Enterprise Information Portal - Human Resources Portal (HR portal). The goal of this investigation is to explore why do companies implement HR portals, how are they justifying HR portals, and how are they incorporating intangible benefits into the justification process. For the purpose of this study, semi-structured expert interviews were conducted. The sample consists from two respondents employed at HR portal vendor and from two respondents from different companies that are using the vendor’s HR portal. Namely, it is HR portal consultant, HR portal branch director, and HR portal administrator and HR portal key user. The results show that although the initial decision about using HR portal seems to have a tangible economic rationale, the consequent development of further portal features is not usually justified according to tangible benefits. The reason for this could be the “penetration effect” of easily justifiable initially implemented features. This effect is grounded in previous positive experience with the initial justification and user satisfaction with the portal. Therefore, the “penetration effect” makes it easier for decision makers to trust or have faith that the intangible benefits will be beneficial and they do not seek for more detailed information. The main outcome of this study is creating of conceptual justification model that will be further refined in proposed subsequent research. This study is one of the few attempts to enhance the body of knowledge of justification of Enterprise Information Portals. |