Resit Social Media at Work
1a) Explain how ICTs support a (historical) shift from ‘little boxes’ to ‘Networked Individualism’, and
describe the consequences of ‘Networked Individualism’ in the area of work and professionalism.
1b) Give three reasons why working in virtual teams is so important in the case of Networked
individualism. Connect these reasons to the characteristics of virtual teams as discussed in Lecture
3.
Social media = all mediated interaction
- Many-to-many (public and visible);
- User-generated content (editable and commentable);
- Persistent.
Afordances = perceptions object’s utility
- Functional = enable action
- Relational = need to be perceived to become active; depends on actor (learned in
interaction)
- Not always visible = after use
- Contextual = depend on context
- Learnt by socialization
Technology is designed well when afordances are readily perceivable veel knoppen op
afstandsbediening is not readingly perceivable voor opa en oma.
Afordances concett
Allows thinking about relation social media and ICT and organization without focusing on
specific tools.
+ Avoids determinism
+ Describes interaction
+ Focus on functionality rather than on features
Afordances social media (!) = VAPE = wat je kunt doen met social media
- In-between determinism and constructivism
- Afordances are perceptions of an object’s materiality
1. Visibility knowledge, behavior, relations (Facebook = easier now)
2. Associations between content, persons (make associations; tagging, keywords adding)
3. Editability, a-synchronicity allows editing
4. Persistence, reviewability (Wiki)
- Work behavior = what content is being produced by whom
- Metaknowledge = who has what kind of expertise in company
- Activity streams = in what part of process are we?
Technological afordances = often visible after being in use
- In-between determinism
Acknowledges determinism and constructivism (both perspectives);
- Describes interaction – not organizational theory, nor technological theory
- Focuses on functionality – rather than on features
- Constructivism
Organizational afordances
- Visibility = of meta knowledge (who has what kind of expertise in company?),
work behavior (what content is produced by whom?) activity streams (in what
process are we?)
- Opinion expression = tagging, likes, review scores
- Reputation and reputation management
- Notifications
- Associations = between content, persons, content-person (enabling emergent
connections and social connections)
- Editability = a-synchronicity allows editing and revising content (info quality,
targeting content)
- Persistence = reviewability, permanence of content & communication (sustaining
knowledge over time, growing content)
<1700 = before ‘modernity’ = small-scale, based on individual skills and craftmanship
,1700-1960 = modernity = large-scale, centralized production heavy mechanized machinery, based
on mass numbers of wage workers, easy for workers to organize themselves
1960-1990 = late modernity/start information society = ofce work, knowledge and information get
economic value; scattered production, need for schooling to deliver experts
1990-now = information society = digitization makes previous methods production obsolete
Societal changes
- Reduction space-time
- Disembedding social systems = trust in systems
- Increased fexibility = reason over tradition
- Information technology revolution
Castells formulated his ideas on current social change, with attention for the role of ICTs in
the transformation of society = Information Technology Revolution = technological
paradigm organized around ICTs.
- Machines replace brainpower (planning tools, answering machines)
- Pervasiveness of IT
- Convergence of technology (across vast distances, regardless of time & synchronicity)
- Networking logical (interconnectedness of machines, people, organizations by means of IT)
Network society = social processes in all domains human activity are increasingly organized in
form of networks, nodes are connected by means of ICTs. Network = any set of interconnected
nodes.
+ Decentralized/horizontal processing allows for flexible and adattable action
- Without ICT it is difficult to mobilize resources and manage when network is large
Network entertrise = not necessarily enterprise who work in networked way but may also be
within one firm that departments work in highly decentralized fashion.
- Networked structure makes organizations more comtetitive in a fast-changing
world (Nokia has diferent products).
Glocalized networks = psychological neighborhoods (communities based on interest)
- Shifting sets of people in other units, workplaces and even other organizations
- Social networks disembodied from place, but tlace remains imtortant as home and work
place are bases (tlace-to-tlace connectivity)
- Phone, write, email, drive, railroading, transiting, fying, Internet (strengthens local links
within neighborhoods)
Wellmann = focus more on individual than on macro-level (everyday experiences)
Networked individualism = people bound up in grouts or little boxes (face-to-face/door-to-
door) = neighborhood, community life, local work, family. Have boundaries for inclusion and
structured, hierarchical, organization = parents/children, supervisors/employees. Person-to-
terson connectivity, weak ties become important, rapid switching between networks =
switchboard (permeable boundaries, fexible)
- High in social control = people know you and in what group you are
- Each social interaction has its place = one group at a time, no rule difusion
Mad-men model
Fishbowl Networked trofessionals
Clearly defined groups Switchboard individuals
Visible communication & within Dispersed contacts & communication
group
Organization loyalty Career loyalty
Work at work Work at home and other places
Group solidarity Transient, shifting social identities
Easy to coordinate and control Difcult person and task coordination and electronic
surveillance
Constructivism = people impact technology
- Hardcore social constructivism = social construction of technology (structured by
human thought and behavior). Written by inventors/designers, interpreted by users.
- Limitation = ignores role technological characteristics in guiding behavior
(technological relativism).
Determinism = technology impacts people (passive user is subjected to the technology)
, - Technological determinism = technology gives structure to human thought and behavior
+ determines social change.
- Hardcore determinism = recognizable in media accounts of how technology is afecting
society (shoot games). Technology structures human action, and therefore, societal and
organizational changes results from technological change.
- Limitation = what about human agency? De mens bepaalt alsnog hoe ze
technologie inzetten
People develop, select, use, adapt technology.
- Problem determinism = too big a role for technology = Uses & efects of same
technology = als iets bedoelt is met bepaald doel, maar men gaat het gebruiken
om bijvoorbeeld agenda bij te houden. Deze theorie zegt: is bepaalt voor dit doel,
maar houdt geen rekening met feit dat mensen het op andere manier gaan
inzetten.
Dystotian = moral tanic = media causing bad things in society (threat societal values), when
media reports on the new technology = threat to societal values
Utotian = media causing good things in society (motor of positive change).
Networked organization = network enterprise = decision-making (based on big data),
innovation, automation (of manual activity), and connectivity (with customers, colleagues
(DIAC)
Business transformation
- Inter-Organization
- Outsourcing (all processes)
- Boundary management, blurring
- Organization-wide
- Changing market
- Customer connection
- Horizontal coordination
- Team-Interpersonal
- Team-based: fast-changing, multiple, cross-boundary
- Results-based
- Reliance on CMC/ICT
- Collaboration
Social structures = structures that organize human activity (rules, procedures)
- Structural features = capabilities (phoning, chatting)
- Stirit = technology presents to people as the way in which it should be used and
interpreted (mobile phone)
Contingent upon other sources of structure
- Task characteristics
- Organizational environment (employees’ use of timesheets)
- Small group system (= team and how it is organized; styles interaction, knowledge, social
norms)
Structuration = social structures provided are brought into action (when people actually use
technology)
- Adaptation
- Use and re-use leads to institutionalization (mail assistant instead of professor)
- Appropriateness (= structuration process)
Duality of Technology (Orlikowki) =
- Structures (recognizes that technological features afect humans)
- And is structured (recognizes human agency)
Adattive structuration theory = how ICTs may afect organizational change (technologies
enable human action by providing social structures = rules, procedures) emailing assistant
instead of professor.
Integrative terstective = Advanced Information Technologies (AIT) bring structures to
life but need to blend in with organizational practices > organizational change may
therefore need time.
Example mobile phone
- Structural features = small object, capable of making calls and sending text messages