Sense of Self in the Context of Digitalization: Essays on Digital Self-Continuity Conceptualization and Empirical Investigations

Digital technologies have deeply weaved into the infrastructures of society and organizations, fundamentally transforming how individuals interact with each other and, consequently, transforming how individuals verify and express their sense of self. Rooted in this context, this dissertation explores two hitherto largely ignored areas in Information Systems (IS) research with two essays related to the theme of self and identity. The first essay investigates whether and how stigmatized self presented on social media (e.g., Facebook and LinkedIn) impacts a job applicant’s hireability ratings. Nowadays, more and more companies use social media to screen job applicants before contacting them for interviews. This process, termed social media (SM) assessments, is convenient in many aspects, however, it is potentially discriminatory. What is even worse, recruiters might not be fully aware of the discrimination during SM assessments given the lack of structure. We need to understand the mechanisms through which stigmatized self presented on social media impact hireability in order to mitigate potential discrimination. This essay uses a veteran with PTSD, the effect of which on hireability has not been looked at yet, as the proxy for stigmatized self. With a pair of experiments using Facebook and LinkedIn profiles that vary the presence of PTSD disclosure and of individuating information, this essay found that PTSD can lead to stigmatization of the job applicant. The stigmatization led to lower hireability ratings. We also found support for the mediating mechanisms of trust, which has not been extensively investigated in the literature on personnel selection. This essay contributes to the literature by exploring PTSD’s effect on hireability, investigating trust’s role in the process, and unpacking potential discrimination during SM assessments. The second essay theorizes how individuals, using digital technologies, verify their sense of self, and achieve self-continuity both actively and passively. IS researchers tend to focus on the active mechanisms, but these passive mechanisms through which individuals verify their sense of self are largely ignored. This essay contributes to the IS literature by juxtaposing the active and passive mechanisms through which individuals using digital technologies to achieve their sense of self-continuity (termed digital self-continuity)

IS Information Systems a (Social) Science?

McBride (2018) worries that researchers increasingly approach information systems (IS) research like a natural science whereby they seek to develop general laws “by applying statistical surveys and running laboratory experiments”. While it is interesting to liken IS to the hard sciences, the discipline has deep interdisciplinary roots that join many ontological, epistemological, and even philosophical understandings of phenomena related to information technology (IT). These diverse viewpoints strengthen the discipline. They are healthy and beneficial for a discipline that studies rapidly moving, complex phenomena. Rather than turn away from rigorous, statistically intensive methods, we propose that IS researchers embrace diversity and adopt an entrepreneurial model of scholarship. By employing entrepreneurial mindsets to guide their selection of theories and methods, we believe IS scholars can create opportunities to conduct rigorous, relevant work that examines increasingly diverse, complex, and emerging IT-related phenomena

Self-disclosure and SNS Platforms: The Impact of SNS Transparency and Culture

Self-disclosure on social networking platforms has attracted attention in Information Systems (IS) research. While studies have connected individual beliefs such as perceived privacy, perceived benefits, and cost to SNS use, less research has examined how characteristics of the social media platform itself shape SNS use. This study extends the literature by examining how the interplay between SNS transparency and individual culture affect user\u27s self-disclosure of personal information as well as factors that shape users’ perceptions on SNS transparency. Drawing on Accountability Theory, Communication Privacy Management Theory, and Culture Theory, we build a comprehensive, integrative model that offers a more holistic view of self-disclosure and the impact of the contextual factors on self-disclosure behaviors. The proposed study will use factorial survey (Vance et al. 2013) to collect data. This study will conceptually develop and operationalize a new construct—SNS transparency—that could help the researchers to gain better understanding of SNS-based self-disclosure and offers insights into how to integrate transparency into social media platforms

Hirers scrutinising veterans’ social media tend to stigmatise those with post-traumatic stress disorder

Military veterans are vulnerable to having their post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) discovered on social media by hiring agents. Veterans with PTSD tend to be more stigmatised than veterans without the condition and are less likely to get an interview. They are often judged as more likely to engage in counterproductive behaviours such as saying something hurtful to someone at work, or acting rudely to co-workers. Wenxi Pu, Philip Roth, Jason B Thatcher, Christine Nittrouer, and Michelle “Mikki” Hebl offer recommendations to organisations and veterans looking for a job

Hirers scrutinising veterans’ social media tend to stigmatise those with post-traumatic stress disorder

Military veterans are vulnerable to having their post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) discovered on social media by hiring agents. Veterans with PTSD tend to be more stigmatised than veterans without the condition and are less likely to get an interview. They are often judged as more likely to engage in counterproductive behaviours such as saying something hurtful to someone at work, or acting rudely to co-workers. Wenxi Pu, Philip Roth, Jason B Thatcher, Christine Nittrouer, and Michelle “Mikki” Hebl offer recommendations to organisations and veterans looking for a job

The Impact of Culture on Information Security: Exploring the Tension of Flexibility and Control

There is an underlying cultural tension in organizations between flexibility provided by digital technologies and control desired for information security. This study seeks to understand information security and culture by exploring the implications of the co-existence of incongruent values of flexibility and control that are necessary for a complex business environment. While organizations value the flexibility provided by information technologies in this complex business environment, the flexibility and autonomy could potentially generate information security weakness by introducing more points of vulnerability into the cybersecurity ecosystem. To understand this tension of the co-existence of these incongruent cultures we take the perspective of culture as a toolkit, the lens of the Competing Value Framework, and the saliency associated with frames to study how organizations can utilize culture to safeguard against attacks, while at the same time utilize and introduce digital technologies to embrace flexibility and address the complexity in the business environment

Self-Disclosure and SNS Platforms: The Impact of SNS Transparency

Self-disclosure on social networking platforms has attracted attention in Information Systems (IS) research. While studies have connected individual beliefs such as perceived privacy, perceived benefits, and cost to Social Network Sites (SNS) use, less research has examined how characteristics of the social media platform itself shape SNS self-disclosure behaviors. This study conceptually develops and operationalizes a new construct—SNS transparency—that helps researchers to gain a better understanding of SNS-based self- disclosure and offers insights into how to integrate transparency into social media platforms. We examine how SNS transparency affects user\u27s self-disclosure of personal information. This study extends the literature by building a comprehensive, integrative model that explains the impact of the contextual factors on self-disclosure behaviors

Self-disclosure & SNS Platforms: The Impact of Transparency, Accountability & Culture

Self-disclosure on social networking platforms has attracted attention in Information Systems (IS) research. While the IS literature has connected individual beliefs such as perceived privacy, perceived benefits, and cost to use, less research has examined how characteristics of the SNS platform itself shape social media platform use. This study addresses this gap by examining how platform transparency, platform accountability, and user’s culture affect users’ self-disclosure of personal information. In doing so, we also examine the factors that shape users’ perceptions on platform transparency. We propose a comprehensive research model in this research-in-progress paper. This study will have significant research and practical implications

Turning the Negative Affiliation Around: Looking Glass Self in Online Community Platforms

Numerous online communities have been established as the advancement of digital technologies. These online communities provide spaces where individuals can express what they like and thus being true to themselves. The expression of the true self is criti