Computer-mediated-communication and social networking tools at work

Purpose – Advances in information technology (IT) have resulted in the development of various computer‐mediated communication (CMC) and social networking tools. However, quantifying the benefits of utilizing these tools in the organizational context remains a challenge. In this study, the authors aim to investigate the effects of three specific tools, viz. instant messenger, email and knowledge forum, on facilitating the communication and social network at work, and their subsequent influence on individuals’ work performance. Together with a social network diagram, the proposed model is validated by a survey of 59 employees of a company which embeds these three CMC and social networking tools in the work process. The key findings, implications and future research are discussed. Design/methodology/approach – The authors verify the research model with data from the Hong Kong office of an international bank headquartered in London, UK. They also collected the data on the social networks of 59 employees to draw a network diagram of the respondents using the social network analysis software UCINET. Findings – The research model is fully supported by the survey data. Meanwhile, the social networks analysis also suggests the linkage of using IM at work and the high level of degree and high level of closeness. Originality/value – This study provided an empirical verification of media performance theories, evidenced by interactive tools such as IM and email. This research also directly linked the elements of social network, viz. degree, closeness and betweenness, with the CMC and social network tools, the communication, interactivity, relationship, and work performance

Virtual Teams: Human Resources’ technology preferences for better communication, increased trust and performance.

AbstractVirtual Teams (VTs) are increasingly being adopted by companies. Being geographicallyand time dispersed, human resources of VTs are totally dependent upon the use ofinformation and communication technologies (ICT) to support their communicationalsuccess. Although much research has already been done on several aspects of VirtualTeams, very little has focused on the relation between the virtual team communicationperformance and the selection of tools available to the team members. Additionally,most of the theories related to tool selection concentrate in the combined characteristicsof task and technology, disregarding human factors based in personal characteristics,comfort and preferences.To detect which technology workers of Virtual Teams prefer for accomplishing eachone of their communicational needs and to analyze the impact of personal characteristicsbased technology choice, on cohesion, leadership, knowledge share and trust,leading to virtual team performance, an electronic questionnaire has been sent tomembers of virtual teams in several companies from different sectors of activity, and79 valid answers were received.The analysis looked at the data from different perspectives: Is there, globally, a preferredtechnology? Do personal characteristics of workers - Gender, Age Group, EducationLevel and IT use Proficiency – influence the choice? And, does the choice ofthe preferred technological tool that best suits each of the four HRM themes – Trustbuildup, Management, Knowledge Share and Cohesion – follow the global preference?The results have shown that e-Mail is the preferred technology choice and that thischoice is not influenced by gender. The other three sets of personal characteristicsinfluence the choice. For building Trust and Cohesion, the preferred technology is videoconference,contradicting the global tendency whereas for Knowledge Share andfor Management activities e-Mail is again the preferred technology, in line with themain choice.Keywords: virtual teams, communication technology, channel selection, human resources,cohesion, trust, performanceResumoA adoção de Equipas Virtuais pelas empresas tem vindo a aumentar. Encontrandosedispersos, geograficamente e no tempo, os recursos humanos das equipas virtuaisdependem totalmente da utilização de tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TIC)para suportar as suas necessidades comunicacionais. Embora exista muita investigaçãoefetuada sobre inúmeros aspetos das equipas virtuais, muito pouca se focou narelação entre o desempenho comunicacional destas e a seleção das ferramentas disponíveispara os membros. Além disso, a maior parte das teorias relacionadas com aselecção de ferramentas concentra-se na combinação de características tarefa/tecnologia,descurando factores humanos baseados nas características pessoais, no confortoe nas preferências.Com o fim de detetar qual a tecnologia preferida pelos trabalhadores das equipas virtuaispara a satisfação das suas necessidades comunicacionais e ainda para analisaro impacto da escolha tecnológica - baseada em características pessoais - na confiança,coesão, liderança e partilha de conhecimento foi enviado um questionário eletrónicoa membros de equipas virtuais de empresas operando em diferentes sectores, tendosido recebidas 79 respostas válidas.A análise dos dados centrou-se em diferentes perspetivas: Existe uma tecnologia preferida?As caraterísticas pessoais dos trabalhadores – género, faixa etária, escolaridade ecapacidade de utilização de tecnologia – influenciam a escolha? A escolha da tecnologiaque melhor se adapta a cada um dos 4 temas de GRH - confiança, coesão, liderançae partilha de conhecimento – segue a preferência global?Os resultados mostraram ser o e-Mail a tecnologia preferida e que esta escolha nãoé afetada pelo género. Os outros três tipos de caraterísticas pessoais mostraram terinfluência na seleção da tecnologia. Para o estabelecimento de confiança e coesão, atecnologia preferida foi a vídeo-conferência enquanto para a partilha de conhecimentoo e-Mail voltou a ser a escolha principal.Palavras chave: equipas virtuais, tecnologia de comunicação, seleção de canais, recursoshumanos, coesão, confiança, performance

The use of social media, e-mail and instant messaging as the predictors of an employee’s work performance / Ainaa Idayu Iskandar, Ahmad Fadhly Arham and Najiah Shohaime

Computer mediated communication tools such as e-mail, instant messaging and social media has become common tools used to deliver messages to get prompt responses. It is an opportunity for organizations to use and fully utilise the functions of e-mail, instant messaging and social network to improve work performance. This study was conducted at one of the public service departments in Malaysia with 132 number of questionnaires distributed. The data was analysed using multiple regression. Findings showed that there is significant relationship between the use of instant messaging and social network with performance, whereas the results for the use of e-mail showed otherwise. This paper provides a better knowledge and information on how to increase the work performance of employees through the use of instant messaging and social network. The findings may also contribute to the existing literature

The Effect of the Social Media Tools on Virtual Team Performance: The Mediating Role of Transactive Memory System Mapping with the Feature Richness

The communication tool is an important component of a virtual team, and virtual teams are highly dependent upon the communication tools for accomplishing their tasks and fulfilling their needs effectively. This research in progress builds upon the existing literature and employs the concept of feature richness of social media tools and a Transactive Memory System (TMS) approach to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the impact of social media tools on virtual team performance. Thus, a conceptual research model which postulates that TMS mediates the relationship between social media tools and virtual team performance, is developed. This research tries to establish an appropriate component-level mapping between the components of TMS construct and the feature richness factors to provide a deeper understanding about the effect of social media tools on TMS and consequently, the impact on virtual team performance

Social Environment of Virtual Collaboration Using Mobile Social Media

Mobile social media such as WhatsApp and WeChat greatly facilitate virtual collaboration within and across organizations. Based on the theory of self-interest and collective action, this study investigates how social environment influences user behavior. Corresponding to social capital, weak ties, and adoption thresholds, extrinsic motivation, communication climate and top management support are identified respectively as the main factors of member environment, group environment and organization environment that impact virtual collaboration. The research model hypothesizes that these social-level variables interact with the psychological processes related to technology use at the individual level. The survey results from virtual teams provide supporting evidence to most hypothesized relationships. The findings yield some interesting theoretical and practical implications for the collaborative use of social information systems

The Imperfection in a Firm’s Knowledge of the Transformation Process Among Interlinked Internal Networks: The Defect Case

This study, firstly, identifies and analyzes the supply chain management of Aseli Dagadu Djokdja, Co., Ltd., (here-after ADD) which has a problem. Secondly, this study pinpoints what causes the problem in ADD’s supply-chain management (SCM). Thirdly, it investigates ADD’s knowledge of the transformation process, since it was not conducted properly. This research chose to use an exploratory case study with an in-depth interview to collect the data. This article questions all the CEOs and observes all stages of activity accompanied by their information, resources, and financial flows. The interviewer applies angulations to two or more of the subjects. This study takes note that ADD’s knowledge of the transformation process  is imperfect; this weakness is at the top managerial level. The problem is also found when oral explanations do not follow the transfer of documents among the divisions and staff. It means that information asymmetry takes place. This study, which is designed with SNT and a comprehensive knowledge of the transformation process, has several biases. The first one is the inference validity bias. Secondly, it did not investigate how ADD’s management faces industrial competitiveness. Finally, this research could not capture what the staff at ADD transforms their knowledge into

Mobile social media in inter-organizational projects: Aligning tool, task and team for virtual collaboration effectiveness

Inter-organizational projects face unique challenges and opportunities due to team diversities and task complexity. Mobile social media like WhatsApp and WeChat emerge as new-generation collaboration tools in such endeavors. Based on a literature review, this study posits that how well team-tool, task-tool and team-task relationships are handled shape virtual collaboration effectiveness. The conceptual framework, validated with the interviews from inter-organizational project team members in China and the USA, leads to a research model. The results of a larger-scale survey confirm that tool usability, task fit and team connectivity contribute to virtual collaboration effectiveness, which affects project management success and team appreciation. In addition, there are noticeable cross-country differences, especially the opposite moderating effects that degree of use imposes on the relationship between virtual collaboration effectiveness and project management success. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed

Exploring the role of networks and proximity for communication satisfaction in an academic library

Researchers tie communication satisfaction within organizations to job satisfaction, productivity, and commitment, and yet supporting communication satisfaction remains a challenge for workplaces. This study proposes that network centrality and proximity both are related to communication satisfaction. Further, this study proposes that proximity actions—voluntary actions which increase proximity with co-workers—relate to network centrality. As employees increasingly work at a geographic distance from their co-workers, they increasingly experience proximity barriers to the already difficult task of staying informed through informal communication channels. This study is a mixed methods case study within an academic library. Findings include the value of mixed methods studies for studying the topic as well as the importance of supporting proximity actions within the organization. The study also suggests multiple avenues for future research including additional qualitative data gathering to explore high-impact behaviors which support satisfaction with organizational communication between departments

Relatório de estágio na empresa Lifial - Indústria Metalúrgica de Águeda

O departamento de exportação de uma empresa é responsável pela gestão do relacionamento da mesma com os seus clientes externos. A gestão de uma carteira de clientes engloba variadas etapas, como a receção e registo de encomendas e a produção de documentos para expedição das mesmas. O presente relatório pretende apresentar a experiência de estágio no departamento de exportação da Lifial - Indústria Metalúrgica de Águeda, empresa membro do grupo internacional Norma Group, demonstrando as diversas fases do processo de exportação, que engloba procedimentos logísticos, bem como as sutilidades culturais que transparecem na comunicação.The export department of a company is responsible for managing its relationship with its international customers. The management of a customer portfolio encompasses several stages, such as receiving and registering purchase orders and producing documents for shipping them. This report aims to present the student’s internship experience in the export department of Lifial – Indústria Metalúrgica de Águeda, a member of Norma Group, demonstrating the various phases of the export process, which includes logistics procedures as well as cultural subtleties.Mestrado em Línguas e Relações Empresariai

Computer-mediated-communication and social networking tools at work

Purpose – Advances in information technology (IT) have resulted in the development of various computer‐mediated communication (CMC) and social networking tools. However, quantifying the benefits of utilizing these tools in the organizational context remains a challenge. In this study, the authors aim to investigate the effects of three specific tools, viz. instant messenger, email and knowledge forum, on facilitating the communication and social network at work, and their subsequent influence on individuals’ work performance. Together with a social network diagram, the proposed model is validated by a survey of 59 employees of a company which embeds these three CMC and social networking tools in the work process. The key findings, implications and future research are discussed. Design/methodology/approach – The authors verify the research model with data from the Hong Kong office of an international bank headquartered in London, UK. They also collected the data on the social networks of 59 employees to draw a network diagram of the respondents using the social network analysis software UCINET. Findings – The research model is fully supported by the survey data. Meanwhile, the social networks analysis also suggests the linkage of using IM at work and the high level of degree and high level of closeness. Originality/value – This study provided an empirical verification of media performance theories, evidenced by interactive tools such as IM and email. This research also directly linked the elements of social network, viz. degree, closeness and betweenness, with the CMC and social network tools, the communication, interactivity, relationship, and work performance