local villages in a globally connected structure
TRANSCRIPT
Local Villages in a Globally Connected
Structure: a Case Study of Social Enterprise
Media in the Multinational Workplace
Lene Pettersen, Associate Professor
International Conference on Social Media & Society 2016Goldsmiths University of London
@LeneJBP
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2930971.2930984
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE MEDIA
ESTABLISH NEW RELATIONSHIPS
+$-
YET, THE TENDENCIES IN PREVIOUS RESEARCH*
INTO FACEBOOK AND ENTERPRISE MEDIA FIND…
That people connect with people they already know, rather that establishing new relationships or connections.
Context: The work place with (specialized) work tasks to be done.
*(boyd, 2008; Chatora, 2010; Ellison, 2007;
Quan‐Haase, Cothrel, and Wellman, 2005; Quan-Haase, and Wellman, 2006; Steinfield, DiMicco, Ellison, and Lampe, 2009).
1. What are knowledge professionals’
interaction practices when they need
assistance relevant to their work?
2. How do these practices unfold across
offline (i.e., the organization’s
contextual structure) and across online
spaces (i.e., virtual arenas)?
- Social structure is dual (actor-structure).
- Personal trust grows between actors in their day-to-
day social contexts.
- Daily routines are key for social integration of
individuals and structures.
- ‘Space’ to Giddens is related to ‘time’, not to clock
time, but….
STRUCTURATION THEORY
● but to co-presence (being together here and now in a shared context (place)).
● ‘Space’ points to the importance of face-to-face interactions
for meaningful and turn-taking in conversations and social interactions that
take place through everyday language and settings. Hint: Goffman, 1959.
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- Social structure is dual (actor-structure).
- Personal trust grows between actors in their day-to-
day social contexts.
- Daily routines are key for social integration of
individuals and structures.
- ‘Space’ to Giddens is related to ‘time’, not to clock
time, but….
- Structuration = Relations that take shape in a particular
structure can exist “out of time and space” independent
of the context in which they were created (Giddens,
1979; 1984).
STRUCTURATION THEORY
GIDDENS’ THEORIZING ON ‘MODERNITY’
• With modernity, the master keys for social interaction, meaning and ontological
security are removed from being together in time-space (Giddens, 1990;
Giddens and Pierson, 1998).
• Modern society is characterized by:
– time-space distantiation
• Social relations are 'lifted out' from local contexts to abstract or online global spaces
which is characterized by lack of norms (anomie) .
– disembedding mechanisms.
• Interchanges can be passed around without regard to the specific characteristics of
individuals (e.g lingua franca, money).
THE ORGANISATION STUDIED
• A French consultancy company with entities in 20+ countries in Europe, the
Middle East and Africa.
• 5000+ knowledge professionals (consultants).
• Delivers consultancy services from business and strategy, to programming
and tech development.
• The organization, anonymized as Tech Business Company (TBC) introduced
an internal social platform to
“Build professional networks, develop competence by following others more
skilled, find out what others are doing and not reinvent the wheel, have things
you’re working on easy to find and share, easily work with colleagues in other
business units” (from TBCs implementation strategy)
• 27 in-depth interviews in six entities in four countries
(with Marika Lüders)
• Social network analysis of off-line collaboration tendencies
• Pilot study in Norway 2010
• Participatory observations in the UK and Denmark
• Analysis of functionality, architecture, overall strategy, user patterns, and more
• Self-perceived ICT-competence
• Ethnographic field studies in Norway and Morocco in 2011
and repeated in 2012
• Close analysis of participators platform use, in particular the ‘Following’ and ‘Group’ functionality in the software
• Key informant methodology•Close analysis of participators social capital (numbers of connections) in SNS (Facebook, LinkedIn) and numbers of go-to colleagues at work
METHODOLOGY
• Platform user statistics 2010-2013
•Password and login details to the platform 2010-2013
A LONGITUDINAL, EXPLORATORY, MIXED METHOD CASE STUDY
SOME OF THE
• The physical architecture: entrance, identity, signs, office landscape, room, floors.
• Sitting at the same desk in the same physical place day after day, often leaving symbols behind when leaving work.
• Conversing in their native language during the workday.
• Approach others they are located close to, and that they know and trust when in need for work-assistance.
• Sitting close to others important for their work.
• Choose communication spaces that are closed, smaller and personal (telephone, email, F2F, coffee machine).
SITTING CLOSE TO FAMILIAR AND RELEVANT OTHERS
«It tends to be a locational thing. The people that literally sits
near me». Male, 40+, UK.
OFFLIN
E
«What creates interest in the platform is when
people ask questions. But we often experience it as
unnatural to ask questions in the open. It’s no
problem if you talk with someone face-to-face or if
you’re just a small group»
Male, 40+, Norway.
«I feel closer to the project at the moment than the office.
[The office] is not my place of work really, it’s just a place I
come occasionally. I’ve spent far more time in customer
sites than in this office».
Female, 30+ UK
• All entities have constructed their own local semi-spaces in the global
platform.
• These semi-spaces mimic offline elements (e.g. welcome pages, pictures of
the employees or the office building).
• Employees use their native language when they communicate.
• People follow close colleagues and people they already know, and join
groups with people they work close with.
• Employees have organized their semi-spaces as blueprints of their offline
organizing:
OFFLINE IS A CATALYST FOR ONLINE INTERACTIONSO
NLIN
E
«Most other members [in groups] are from Denmark.
We were organized earlier in groups, and we have
moved this organizing into the enterprise platform»
Male, 30+, Denmark.
«[Followers] are from Denmark. I don't think there is
anyone from outside [his entity]. Its people I know
well»
Male, 40+, Denmark.
• The norms and rules for usage and conversations that should be followed in
the online space differ from one organizational context to another.
• The offline norms and rules triumph over online interactions.
• The social enterprise platform and online interaction does not include the
wider social contexts that interactions are part of
– > misunderstandings, prejudices of others, sanctions.
RULES AT PLAY OFFLINE ARE LIFTED INTO LOCAL ONLINE SPACESO
FFLIN
E -
ON
LIN
E
«Dear colleagues. Thank you for all the congratulations and ‘likes’ in the enterprise platform. Thank you for the flowers I got when little [name] was born. I am enjoying my time at home and will be back at work in the middle of March.»
Woman, 40+, Norway.
OfflineOnline
CONCLUDING REMARKS
• Offline and online are complementary
• Social relationships are not lifted out from the context in which
it once was established, creating anomie or a lingua franca as
Giddens fears.
• On the contrary, relationships, practices and norms are lifted
in - creating local villages due to a global interconnected
structure
– This is due to structuration processes taking place.
• This suggests that social platforms have a great potential to
expand existing social relationships and that organizations
should not underestimate the importance of offline meetings
and social gatherings.
ACTOR
STRUCTURE
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[ευχαριστίες] [teşekkürler] [takk] [grazie] [gràcies] [dank] [shukrani]
[nhờ] [köszönöm] [buíochas] [dankie] [terima kasih] [ขอบคุณ]
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boyd, d. 2008. Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life., in Youth, Identity, and
Digital Media, D. Buckingham, Ed. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital
Media and Learning.
Chatora, A.T. 2010. Social relationships and identity online and offline: a study of the interplay between offline social relationships and
Facebook usage by Rhodes University students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. Master Thesis, Rhodes University.
Ellison, N.B. 2007. Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 13(1): p. 210-
230.
Quan‐Haase, A., Cothrel, J., and Wellman, B. 2005. Instant messaging for collaboration: a case study of a high‐tech firm. Journal of
Computer‐Mediated Communication, 10(4).
Quan-Haase, A. and Wellman, B. 2006. Hyperconnected Net Work. Computer-Mediated Community in a high-tech Organization, in The
Firm as a Collaborative Community: reconstructing trust in the Knowledge Economy, Adler, P., and Heckscher, C., Ed. Oxford University
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Steinfield, C., DiMicco, J. M., Ellison, N. B., and Lampe, C. 2009. Bowling online: social networking and social capital within the
organization. Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Communities and technologies. ACM.
Giddens, A. and Pierson, C. 1998. Conversations with Anthony Giddens: Making sense of modernity. Stanford University Press.
Giddens, A. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge Polity.
Giddens, A. 1979. Central problems in social theory: action, structure and contradictions in social analysis. University of California Press.
Goffman, E. 2000 [1959], The presentation of self in everyday life. NY, USA: Garden City.
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