WHO IS KEY...? - CHARACTERIZING VALUE ADDING USERS IN ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS

Whereas the use of Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) is a pervasive topic in research and practice, both parties are still struggling to come to a better understanding of the role and impact of ESN in and on knowledge-intensive corporate work. As a part of this phenomenon, employees who communicate their knowledge in ESN helping other users to do their daily work play a decisive role. We need to come to a better understanding of the role and behaviour of such valu adding users. This is a prerequisite, for example, for understanding knowledge support hubs or for enabling more effective internal information and knowledge sharing. Against this background, we investigate the structural characteristics of valu adding users in ESN using qualitative text analysis and Social Network Analysis. Based on a large scale dataset of a global consulting company using the ESN Yammer.com we analyse the social relationships of valu adding users. We confirm their significant position and draw conclusions for research and practice

Identifying Value-adding Users in Enterprise Social Networks

Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) have been gaining increasing attention both in academia and practice. In previous works, different user types were identified in ESN. However, there is no clear definition of value-adding users, their characteristics and how this type of user can be identified. Based on a literature review, we show that value-adding users are defined in different ways in respect to different objectives, for example spreading knowledge, vivacity of the network or real-time feedback. Each of the value-adding users shows different characteristics that are allocated to the following dimensions: network structure, message, behavior, and social network affinity. Based on the objectives and characteristics, we conduct a single case study, analyze a dataset of a cooperating company, conduct several interviews, and thereby identify value-adding users with respect to objectives. So, we can show that our approach is applicable, useful and that it is a valuable means to take decisions

Identification of User Roles in Enterprise Social Networks: Method Development and Application

The importance of gaining insights into informal organizational structures for management purposes is acknowledged by both research and practice. However, “traditional” approaches to analyzing informal organizational social networks involve significant manual effort and do not scale for larger datasets. Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) have emerged as important tools for informal employee interactions, such as for problem-solving and information sharing. While the analysis of ESN back end data might provide insights into the informal fabric of organizations, and in particular employees’ roles in such networks, there is a lack of systematic approaches for carrying out ESN analytics, such as for user role identification. Following a design science research process, a process-based method to identify user roles from ESN data was developed and evaluated. The method’s efficacy is demonstrated through an in-depth application in a case study of Australian professional services firm Deloitte. In doing so the paper shows how ESN data can be utilized to derive metrics that characterize participation behavior, message content, and structural network positions of ESN users

The Impact of User Behaviours on the Socialisation Process in Enterprise Social Networks

The success of teams in enterprise social networks (ESN) is of high importance in today’s project-based and digitised work environments. In this context, onboarding of new hires or allocated team members means the adoption of group characteristics and behaviours. Studies identified cohesion and trust as part of the socialisation process and found communication behaviours that facilitate socialisation. ESN not only enable efficient communication or relationship building, they also make the socialisation processes visible and analysable. In this paper, we propose to use metrics from social network analysis (e.g. extraversion, openness and proactiveness) to operationalise communication behaviours identified as positive for socialisation. First evaluations with two ESN data sets in OLS, beta regression and multilevel models sparsely support the influence on closeness, which we expect to reflect the level of group integration

Helper, Sharer or Seeker? - A Concept to Determine Knowledge Worker Roles in Enterprise Social Networks

In order to manage knowledge work, companies need to understand how knowledge is shared, integrated, translated and transformed in organisa-tional practice. However, knowledge work often happens in informal organisa-tional structures, thus, making it difficult to identify and understand the occurring knowledge practices and participating actors. Enterprise Social Networks (ESN), i.e. internally accessible social networking services, have evolved as important platforms for knowledge work. Facilitating knowledge interactions between us-ers, the analysis of ESN data might be well suited for characterising and identi-fying knowledge actions and different knowledge worker roles. Drawing on an existing knowledge worker role typology as well as findings from social media research, this paper develops a conceptual basis that serves as starting point for determining knowledge worker roles using ESN data. The next steps of this re-search involve the empirical testing of the typology using data obtained from a real case scenario

Behavioural Dimensions for Discovering Knowledge Actor Roles Utilising Enterprise Social Network Metrics

The identification of distinct user roles is an important theme in social media research. However, for Enterprise Social Networks (ESN), the use of social media within organisations, research identifying such roles is still lacking. Yet, understanding user roles, in particular regarding their knowledge con-tributions and communication behaviour, might usefully support companies in managing critical knowledge resources. Against this backdrop, in this research-in-progress paper we derive 16 metrics characterising the participation behaviour, message content and structural position of ESN users of an Australian professional services firm. Based on a factor analysis, we identify four distinct dimensions of ESN user behaviour: Contribution & networking, information provision, contact dispersion and invisible usage. With this research we contribute to the literature by transferring concepts and meth-ods of organisation science and social media research to an ESN context. Further, our approach forms the basis for the identification of different types of knowledge actors, which might ultimately help to improve organisational knowledge transparency

WHAT BENEFITS DO THEY BRING? A CASE STUDY ANALYSIS ON ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS

Over the last years, Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) have gained increasing attention both in academia and practice, resulting in a large number of publications dealing with ESN. Among them is a large number of case studies describing the benefits of ESN in each individual case. Based on the different research objects they focus, various benefits are described. However, an overview of the bene-fits achieved by using ESN is missing and will, thus, be elaborated in this article (research question 1). Further, we cluster the identified benefits to more generic categories and finally classify them to the capabilities of traditional IT as presented by Davenport and Short (1990) to determine if new capabilities of IT arise using ESN (research question 2). To address our research questions, we perform a qualitative content analysis on 37 ESN case studies. As a result, we identify 99 individual benefits, classify them to the capabilities of traditional IT, and define a new IT capability named Social Capital. Our results can, e.g., be used to align and expand current ESN success measurement approaches

A framework to identify knowledge actor roles in enterprise social networks

Enterprise social networks (ESN) are increasingly used by companies to reinforce collaboration and knowledge sharing. While prior research has investigated ESN use practices, little is known about potential user roles emerging on these platforms. Against this backdrop, this paper develops an ESN knowledge actor role framework

The Perceived Business Value of Social Media at Work

Social Media is a new phenomenon that impacts businesses, society and individuals. Social media has swept into the business world, disrupting businesses, bringing new opportunities and challenges. The use of social media in organizations has the potential to shape the “future of the work”. Both consultancy reports and scholarly articles highlight and discuss the new opportunities and organizational benefits provided by social media to change the current top-down (i.e. initiated by management) business model to a more collaborative and bottom-up (i.e. initiated by employees) approach. Such a model is customizable to specific user needs, empowering employees to design specific workflows thus helping them to work more effectively. Using social media, personal knowledge can be synergized into collective knowledge through social collaborative processes that may facilitate externalization of knowledge, fostering creativity and innovation. All these processes have the potential to lead to knowledge creation through interaction and collaborative processes and thereby increase companies’ competitiveness. However the successful deployment of social media for internal communication and facilitation of knowledge sharing and collaboration in organizations is difficult. Based on quantitative as well as qualitative data from 13 Danish organizations, we investigate the following research question: What is the business value of social media in organizations as perceived by the employees? Based on the data analysis, the paper derives a model of factors associated with the perceived business value of social media