Search results
1 – 10 of over 10000XinYing Chew, Raed Alharbi, Khai Wah Khaw and Alhamzah Alnoor
The study is interested in knowing “the role of the organizational structure as a mediating variable of the relationship between the information technology and organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
The study is interested in knowing “the role of the organizational structure as a mediating variable of the relationship between the information technology and organizational communication”.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was conducted in several service companies, and the study adopted the questionnaire as a basic tool for the data collection on the practical side, as 267 opinions were surveyed, in addition to conducting personal interviews, and the normal distribution of data was tested, analyzing, describing and diagnosing study variables, testing correlations and determining direct effects.
Findings
Findings show that there is no direct and significant statistical impact of information technology on organizational communications. Whereas there was a positive, direct and statistically significant impact of information technology on the organizational structure. There was also a positive, direct and statistically significant effect of the organizational structure on organizational communication.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is restricted to the role of the organizational structure as a mediating variable of the relationship between the influence of information technology on organizational communication.
Practical implications
As part of the practical implication, the paper suggests the need to increase support and attention to the importance of information technology in service organizations in order to increase coordination and organizational communication and achieve a high ability to explore and exploit ideas.
Originality/value
Apart from the fact that several companies were engaged, the organizational structures of these companies were engaged too to examine the impacts of Information technology (ICT) on organizational communication.
Details
Keywords
Julia Stranzl, Christopher Ruppel and Sabine Einwiller
Since research has already shown that social distance affects the relationship between employees and the organization, this study (1) examines job-related resources that…
Abstract
Purpose
Since research has already shown that social distance affects the relationship between employees and the organization, this study (1) examines job-related resources that contribute to teleworkers’ organizational commitment and (2) works out how internal communication professionals can strategically address them.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 50 problem-centered, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with teleworkers from Austrian and German organizations between March and June 2021.
Findings
The interview data resulted in eight job-related resources that contribute to teleworkers’ organizational commitment. By pointing out the communicative aspects of these resources, we discuss how internal communication professionals can strategically engage to maintain the connection between teleworkers and the organization despite the distance. It highlights the communicators’ role as a strategic communicators and networkers, as enabler and as key speaker for employees’ needs.
Research limitations/implications
The data were collected during a health crisis (COVID-19 pandemic) in the context of Austrian and German organizations and refers to the perspective of employees for whom teleworking israther new.
Originality/value
The study provides in-depth insights into teleworkers’ expectations and entails clear implications for the practice of internal communication professionals to strengthen teleworkers’ commitment.
Details
Keywords
Christopher Ruppel, Julia Stranzl and Sabine Einwiller
The study focuses on the negative implications that an organizational crisis can have for individual employees. Specifically, it considers job-related uncertainty, negative…
Abstract
Purpose
The study focuses on the negative implications that an organizational crisis can have for individual employees. Specifically, it considers job-related uncertainty, negative emotions (anxiety and frustration) and job disengagement. Through the lens of the social exchange theory, it is argued that internal crisis communication needs to provide sufficient socioemotional resources to their employees in order to mitigate these negative outcomes. In particular, the study argues for internal crisis communication that fosters organizational transparency and organizational support to achieve these mitigating effects.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey among employees in Austria was administered one year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic – this specific crisis context particularly evoked job-related uncertainty and negative emotions which are considered relevant drivers of job disengagement. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling based on a sample of N = 410.
Findings
Results show that employees' perceptions of job-related uncertainty are strongly linked to job-related anxiety and frustration; job-related frustration, in turn, strongly influences job disengagement. Overall, employees' perceptions of organizational transparency and organizational support contribute both to prevent the risk of job disengagement; however, the processes how these effects evolve differ. Whereas organizational transparency works on the cognitive level via a reduction of employees' perceptions of uncertainty, organizational support shows its effect on the emotional level through a reduction of job frustration.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the scarce research on how internal crisis communication can address employees' uncertainty, negative emotions and job disengagement during a crisis. Moreover, despite the lack of organizational responsibility for creating the crisis, the study emphasizes organizational accountability to respond to the needs of its employees to mitigate negative effects.
Details
Keywords
Rickard Andersson, Mats Heide and Charlotte Simonsson
This article aims to (1) increase the knowledge of how coworkers experience voicing the organization on external social media and (2) deepen and nuance the knowledge of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to (1) increase the knowledge of how coworkers experience voicing the organization on external social media and (2) deepen and nuance the knowledge of the sources of voice control involved in such communication processes. The study helps understand coworker voicing on social media as situated identity expressions through which coworkers negotiate and contest the organizational identity, thereby co-constituting a polyphonic organization.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws upon a constitutive perspective on communication and a communication-centered perspective on identity and organizational identification to investigate the voicing of organizational members of the Swedish Police Force on social media. The article is based on a qualitative study where interviews with police officers and communication professionals at the Swedish Police Authority constitute the main empirical material. A content analysis of selected social media accounts provided important background information to the interviews and enriched the understanding of coworker voice.
Findings
This analysis shows that coworkers voice the organization differently. Furthermore, the study of how coworkers experience this voicing indicates that these variations in how coworkers voice the organization depend on how strongly they identify or disidentify with organizational identity and image expressions voiced by significant others. Based on the analysis, this study presents four voice positions highlighting coworkers' varying degrees of identification/disidentification when voicing their organization on social media and reflecting upon their experiences of voicing. Furthermore, the analysis also demonstrates four sources of voice control: (1) management, (2) colleagues, (3) significant non-members and (4) the status and position of the coworker's voice. These four sources of voice control influence coworkers' voices on social media.
Practical implications
This study also contributes with practical implications, for example that the traditional idea of monophonic organizations must be revised and also embrace a polyphonic, bottom-up approach to strengthening internal trust and organizational identity. This comes naturally with the price of less control and predictability by management but with the benefits of increased coworker engagement and pride.
Originality/value
This study contributes new knowledge and a nuanced understanding of coworker voice on social media and the sources of control that influence coworkers' voices.
Details
Keywords
Matthew D. Roberts, Christopher T. Price and Seong-Jong Joo
This research aims to understand how organizational workplace meetings surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic impacted logistics Airmen across the United States Air Force and how these…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to understand how organizational workplace meetings surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic impacted logistics Airmen across the United States Air Force and how these meetings impacted their risk seeking behavior on social media.
Design/methodology/approach
This survey research tested an extended Planned Risk Information Risk Seeking Model (PRISM) with organizational meetings as an antecedent to determine if current meetings influenced an Airman's perceived behavioral control, attitude toward seeking, subjective norms, knowledge sufficiency and intention to seek information regarding COVID-19.
Findings
Results of the CFA showed that the expanded PRISM model had good model fit. Additionally, using a custom dialog PROCESS macro in SPSS, it was found that perceptions of existing meetings were directly, positively related to attitude toward seeking, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, and indirectly related to knowledge sufficiency threshold and information seeking. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Originality/value
This research adds to the limited body of knowledge of crisis communication and effectively expands the PRISM model to include an antecedent that helps explain information seeking during times of uncertainty.
Details
Keywords
Kaisa Laitinen and Anu Sivunen
The purpose of this study is to investigate the various enablers of and constraints on employees' information sharing on an enterprise social media platform. It draws on two…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the various enablers of and constraints on employees' information sharing on an enterprise social media platform. It draws on two theoretical perspectives, communication privacy management theory and the technology affordance framework, as well as on empirical data in an attempt to paint a comprehensive picture of the factors shaping employees' decisions to share or not share information on enterprise social media.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative field study is based on semi-structured interviews and enterprise social media review data from a large Nordic media organization.
Findings
On an enterprise social media platform, privacy management principles shape employees' information-sharing decisions in relation to personal privacy boundaries, professional boundaries and assumed risks, online safety concerns and perceived audience. Additionally, the technological affordances of visibility, awareness, persistence and searchability shape employees' information sharing in varying and sometimes even contradictory ways. Finally, organizational factors, such as norms, tasks and media repertoires, are associated with employees' information-sharing decisions. Together, these three dimensions, personal, technological and organizational, form a model of the enablers of and constraints on employees' decisions to share information on enterprise social media.
Originality/value
This study extends the understanding of different factors shaping employees' decisions to share or not share information on enterprise social media. It extends the two applied theories by uniquely combining interpersonal privacy management principles with a technological affordance framework that focuses on the relationship between the user and the technology. This research also furthers the authors' knowledge of what privacy management principles mean in the organizational context. This study shows connections between the two theories and extends the understanding of technology affordances as not only action possibilities but also constraining factors. Additionally, by revealing what kinds of factors encourage and inhibit information sharing on enterprise social media, the results of this study support organizations in their efforts to manage information sharing on enterprise social media systems.
Details
Keywords
Oana Apostol, Marileena Mäkelä, Katariina Heikkilä, Maria Höyssä, Helka Kalliomäki, Leena Jokinen and Jouni Saarni
The paper explores processes associated with the adoption of corporate sustainability communication in a B2B context. It employs a combined action research and sensemaking…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper explores processes associated with the adoption of corporate sustainability communication in a B2B context. It employs a combined action research and sensemaking approach to document moments that precede the initiation of external sustainability communication.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is the outcome of an action research project, where we examine the case of one industrial company that was silent on its multiple sustainability-related practices, but recently decided to become more transparent to the outside world. A processual approach to sensemaking is adopted to show how organisational and non-organisational members actively participated in meaning co-construction.
Findings
Corporate silence can be disrupted by triggering events that cause moments of sudden realisation for organisational members, eventually leading to the initiation of sensemaking processes inside the organisation. Once this occurs, the possibility of externally communicating sustainability appears a feasible and strategic approach to pursue. We document how different actors are involved in meaning co-construction and how the entire process of sensemaking unfolds.
Practical implications
A sensemaking approach sheds light on the complexity of sustainability communication, where multiple actors are involved. This is a useful approach to consider in order to couple sustainability with other organisational practices. Moreover, sensemaking opens a window of opportunity for various societal actors' interventions to shape the role and content of sustainability communication.
Originality/value
The paper offers an original, theoretically informed methodological contribution to the literature on sustainability communication by coupling a sensemaking approach with action research. The approach is employed to examine the role of internal organisational actors in sustainability reporting processes, an area that has received scant attention.
Details
Keywords
Sabine Einwiller, Christopher Ruppel and Julia Stranzl
Based on social exchange theory, the study examines the influence of informational and relational internal communication on cognitive and affective responses and job engagement…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on social exchange theory, the study examines the influence of informational and relational internal communication on cognitive and affective responses and job engagement during organizational crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected by means of an online survey among people working in organizations with a minimum of 10 employees (N = 1,033) and analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
Results show that informational and relational communication as organizational resources have a significant but distinct influence on how employees support their employer during the crisis. While informational communication influences employees' acceptance of managerial decisions, relational communication exerts most influence on affective commitment, which is the strongest driver of job engagement.
Research limitations/implications
The cross-sectional design, specific crisis situation and geographic location are limitations of the study.
Practical implications
Delivering relevant information to employees quickly and reliably is important. Yet, relationship-oriented communication that demonstrates appreciation and allows for participation has even stronger effects on job engagement, which is essential to mastering challenges arising from a crisis.
Social implications
During the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations demanded much from their employees. In exchange, organizations should provide the resources information, status and love (Foa and Foa, 1980) by means of internal crisis communication.
Originality/value
The study demonstrates the role of different types of internal communication during organizational crises used to convey organizational resources, and it highlights the mediating role of acceptance and commitment to enhance employees' engagement at work.
Details
Keywords
Ward Van Zoonen, Jeffrey W. Treem and Anu Sivunen
The benefits associated with visibility in organizations depend on employees' willingness to engage with technologies that utilize visible communication and make communication…
Abstract
Purpose
The benefits associated with visibility in organizations depend on employees' willingness to engage with technologies that utilize visible communication and make communication visible to others. Without the participation of workers, enterprise social media have limited value. This study develops a framework to assess what deters and drives employees' use of enterprise social media.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 753 employees of a global company using an online survey. The response rate was 24.5%. The authors used structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized framework.
Findings
The results show that various fears by workers may deter or motivate enterprise social media use. This offers an alternative viewpoint for examining the consequences of communication visibility in organizations. Specifically, the findings demonstrate that the fear of accountability and the fear of losing uniqueness reduce enterprise social media use through increased codification efforts. The fear of missing out is directly and positively related to collecting behaviors on enterprise social media.
Research limitations/implications
Expectations about participation in visible organizational communication environments are rising. However, as individuals may experience anxiety in such settings, the authors need to direct more analytical focus to the ways individuals manage communication visibility in organizing contexts and develop a deeper understanding of the consequences of fear in workplace communication.
Originality/value
The analysis recognizes that fear can play a key role in deterring or motivating workers' specific choices in navigating the challenges that occur when technology can make communication broadly visible. This study uses theorizing on communication visibility to bring together different fear mechanisms to predict enterprise social media use.
Details
Keywords
Ward van Zoonen, Anu Sivunen and Ronald E. Rice
This study aims to examine some of the benefits and drawbacks of communication visibility. Specifically, building on communication visibility theory, the authors study how and why…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine some of the benefits and drawbacks of communication visibility. Specifically, building on communication visibility theory, the authors study how and why message transparency and network translucence may increase knowledge reuse and perceived overload through behavioral responses of vicarious learning and technology-assisted supplemental work.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on survey data obtained from 1,127 employees of a global company operating in the industrial machinery sector, the authors used structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized model.
Findings
The results demonstrate that the two aspects of communication visibility yield somewhat differential benefits and drawbacks in terms of knowledge reuse and communication overload, through vicarious learning and supplemental work practices.
Research limitations/implications
The results demonstrate the relationship between different aspects of communication visibility and knowledge reuse, specifically through vicarious learning. Furthermore, the findings highlight a potential drawback of visibility – communication overload – specifically through technology-assisted supplemental work. Overall, network translucence seems more beneficial compared to message transparency in terms of knowledge reuse and communication overload.
Originality/value
The study connects with recent work on communication visibility by distinguishing differential direct and indirect effects of message transparency and network translucence. It also extends this work by testing relationships between communication visibility and a potential drawback of visibility – communication overload – specifically through technology-assisted supplemental work.
Details