Theorizing HR Intranets: Contextual, Strategic and Configurative Explanations

This paper presents the results of a longitudinal exploratory survey based on a sample of French firms. Different contexts of Intranet, as well as introduction, development stages, performance and Intranet content are presented. Three approaches are in existence: corporate Intranet, specialized Intranet and HR Intranet. These can be linked to different stages of development: communication, functional support, and knowledge management. The HR Function will be successful if it integrates Intranet in its management process, if the players are aware of the stakes and they behave as “real change agents”. Research shows the importance of strategic alignment between human resource management (HRM) and Intranet as well as the relevance of technological infusion, therefore, this paper’s result in showing a configurative approach that allows the integration of more variables and in turn leads to a systemic model contains great significance.