The communicative ecology of Web 2.0 at work: Social networking in the workspace

Robert M. Davison; Carol X.J. Ou; Maris G. Martinsons; Angela Y. Zhao; Rong Du

doi:10.1002/asi.23112

Author(s)

Robert M. Davison
Carol X.J. Ou
Maris G. Martinsons
Angela Y. Zhao
Rong Du

Related Research Unit(s)

City University of Hong Kong

Detail(s)

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2035-2047
Journal / Publication	Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology
Volume	65
Issue number	10
Online published	5 Mar 2014
Publication status	Published - Oct 2014

Link(s)

DOI	DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23112 Final Published version
	Check@CityULib
Attachment(s)	Documents 5441835.pdf Post-print, 426 KB, PDF Publisher's Copyright Statement COPYRIGHT TERMS OF DEPOSITED POSTPRINT FILE: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Davison, R. M., Ou, C. X. J., Martinsons, M. G., Zhao, A. Y., & Du, R. (2014). The communicative ecology of Web 2.0 at work: Social networking in the workspace. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 65(10), 2035-2047, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23112. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
Link to Scopus	https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84937630574&origin=recordpage
Permanent Link	https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/publications/publication(59902ed3-2184-4cca-90bc-d8ce0b3097f2).html

Abstract

Social media have transformed social interactions and now look set to transform workplace communications. In this exploratory study, we investigate how employees use and get value from a variety of social networking technologies. The context of this research is 4 software firms located in China. Notwithstanding differences in corporate attitudes toward social networking, we identify common themes in the way Web 2.0 technologies are leveraged as value is created by employees at all levels. We draw on the communication ecology framework to analyze the application of various technologies. We inductively develop 5 propositions that describe how social networking technologies contribute directly to horizontal and vertical communication in organizations, and ultimately to individual, team, and organizational performance. Implications for research and practice are discussed.