Creating and Sharing Knowledge through a Corporate Social Networking Site: The Impact of Employees' Perceptions on Effectiveness

<p>This research investigates the perceptions of employees at South Winds (the pseudonym), a software engineering company, about using a corporate social networking site for sharing and generating knowledge. It focuses on understanding and explaining how the perceptions of employees from different organisational levels impacted on the usage of the social networking site. Methods of data collection included interviews and focus groups with C-level managers, middle managers and software engineers. Qualitative methods were used for analysing the collected data. Analysis drew on an extended Orlikowski and Gash's technological frames theory (1994) to identify five categories of perceptions relating to technology implementation and use. Applying the concept of framing in this study helped to surface specific areas within which divergence of perceptions occurred. Results showed significant divergences in perceptions about the corporate social networking site in 4 out of the 5 categories across the different levels of the organization. These divergences were found to have arisen largely as a result of information deficiencies. Furthermore, little understanding about the nature of the technology led top management to decide to use an adoption approach that discouraged knowledge sharing and creation through this tool. As a consequence, this study found that there appeared to be little likelihood of creating or sharing knowledge through the corporate social networking site under the observed implementation, although the corporate social networking site was widely perceived as a useful technology for sharing and creating knowledge. Recommendations for realizing potential benefits from using a corporate social networking site include developing plans for aligning organizational perceptions about the corporate social networking site and developing a suitable reward plan based on group performance in order to encourage the employees to create/share knowledge. The findings of this research suggest an extension of the Orlikowski and Gash's (1994) technological frames theory for knowledge management systems. This research also suggests that perceptions about different aspects of a technology may be arranged in a hierarchical chain. This would bring significant implications in designing and implementing technologies.</p>

Creating and Sharing Knowledge through a Corporate Social Networking Site: The Impact of Employees' Perceptions on Effectiveness

<p>This research investigates the perceptions of employees at South Winds (the pseudonym), a software engineering company, about using a corporate social networking site for sharing and generating knowledge. It focuses on understanding and explaining how the perceptions of employees from different organisational levels impacted on the usage of the social networking site. Methods of data collection included interviews and focus groups with C-level managers, middle managers and software engineers. Qualitative methods were used for analysing the collected data. Analysis drew on an extended Orlikowski and Gash's technological frames theory (1994) to identify five categories of perceptions relating to technology implementation and use. Applying the concept of framing in this study helped to surface specific areas within which divergence of perceptions occurred. Results showed significant divergences in perceptions about the corporate social networking site in 4 out of the 5 categories across the different levels of the organization. These divergences were found to have arisen largely as a result of information deficiencies. Furthermore, little understanding about the nature of the technology led top management to decide to use an adoption approach that discouraged knowledge sharing and creation through this tool. As a consequence, this study found that there appeared to be little likelihood of creating or sharing knowledge through the corporate social networking site under the observed implementation, although the corporate social networking site was widely perceived as a useful technology for sharing and creating knowledge. Recommendations for realizing potential benefits from using a corporate social networking site include developing plans for aligning organizational perceptions about the corporate social networking site and developing a suitable reward plan based on group performance in order to encourage the employees to create/share knowledge. The findings of this research suggest an extension of the Orlikowski and Gash's (1994) technological frames theory for knowledge management systems. This research also suggests that perceptions about different aspects of a technology may be arranged in a hierarchical chain. This would bring significant implications in designing and implementing technologies.</p>

The antecedents and consequences of workplace envy: A meta-analytic review

Extensive research has been conducted into the antecedents and consequences of workplace envy, but there have been limited meta-analytic reviews. This meta-analysis draws on social comparison theory to examine studies of envy in the workplace and develop a comprehensive model of the antecedents and consequences of workplace envy. We reconcile the divergent findings in the literature by building a model of three types of workplace envy that distinguishes between episodic, dispositional, and general envy. The results suggest that individual differences (e.g., narcissism, neuroticism), organizational contexts (e.g., competition, position), and social desirability are predictors of workplace envy. They also reveal that workplace envy is related to organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), negative behaviors (e.g., ostracism, social undermining), negative emotions, organizational perceptions (i.e., engagement, satisfaction), turnover intentions, and moral disengagement. We test the moderating roles of envy types, measurement approaches, and causal directions. The results reveal that these moderators have little differences, and that some variables (e.g., self-esteem, fairness) may be both antecedents and consequences of workplace envy. Finally, we suggest that future research into workplace envy should investigate contextual predictors and moderators of the social comparison process that triggers envy. This meta-analysis can serve as a foundation for future research into workplace envy.

Resource Publicness Matters in Organizational Perceptions

Publicness theory deepens our understanding of differences and similarities of organizational behavior. However, in areas in which public, nonprofit, and private organizations compete to serve people, it remains unclear how the level of dimensional publicness influences individuals' perceptions and choices of organizations. In this study, we present evidence from two online experiments examining the way people's perceptions of resource publicness (operationalized as government funding, donations, and service fees) of elderly care centers in the U.S. influence their judgment of organizations and service choices. Findings suggest that people perceive donative organizations to be the warmest and most competent, followed by government‐funded and commercial organizations. We conclude that individuals’ perceptions of resource publicness lead to different judgment that may influence their service choice decisions.

Information Security Compliance Behaviour of Supply Chain Stakeholders

Supply chain security is an emerging topic in the supply chain management literature. Information security is a key component of supply chain security, and this study aims to identify the factors that influence the compliance behaviour with respect to information security. A related objective is to understand the extent to which compliance was substantive or symbolic. Adopting a qualitative approach, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with stakeholders based in New Zealand who are involved in international supply chains. The interviews find that compliance behaviour is affected by the influence of other organizations, organizational perceptions of compliance, and the rules and norms of exchange in different contexts. The results also indicate that compliance behaviour is more symbolic than substantive in the supply chain environment.

Women’s Discourses of Leadership in STEM Organizations in Singapore: Negotiating Sociocultural and Organizational Norms

The study explores how women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers in Singapore discursively construct leadership. Drawing from 42 in-depth interviews with women in STEM careers, the study examines women’s discourses of leadership, articulating patriarchal sociocultural and organizational norms that serve as barriers to women’s access to leadership positions in STEM. The analysis elucidates the negotiations of work–home pressures shaped by patriarchal gender roles, culturally constituted organizational perceptions of women and their leadership potential, and gendered discourses of leadership as the key themes reflecting the experiences with and understandings of leadership among women in STEM. Particularly salient are the double binds that women experience, reflecting, for instance, Asian cultural norms about gendered performance that foreground women’s roles in face saving and discourses of leadership that call for aggressiveness. Moreover, women experience gendered stereotypes about their content-based competence in STEM areas, further impeding the opportunities available for them to lead in STEM careers.

Coaching executives as tacit performance evaluation: a multiple case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine organizational perceptions regarding the coaching process as an evaluation tool. Methodology – The research method used is a multiple case study based on the author’s work with coached executives in eight organizations in Israel. Texts of 79 coaching encounters with executives, their directors and human resource personnel, were analyzed. Text analysis was performed through a qualitative method. Findings – The research findings provide evidence of the intensity of the coaching practice as a tacit evaluating tool for organizational functioning, in relation to five focusses: the selection of executives for the coaching meetings, the participants’ perception of their participation in the coaching process, the organizational control wishes, how participants deal with organizational supervision and confidentiality. Research limitation – Research findings are discussed from a perspective of power relations in the organization, and their significance is presented. Practical implication – The usage of the coaching tool, not only for its original purpose, but also for evaluating and controlling executives tacitly, can hurt the coaching process, and its authenticity. Originality value – The concept of “tacit evaluation” was developed for this research, and the concept of the coaching process as a tacit tool of control and supervision can help us to better understand the coaching process, and its covert and overt components.