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Research into Motivational Factors and Barriers
to Participation on Social Business Software
Master Thesis
Tessa van den Broek
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Master Thesis
Research into Motivational Factors and Barriers
to Participation on Social Business Software
Groningen, 15-01-2012
Author Tessa Louise van den Broek
Student Number 1977911
Commissioning Company Embrace Social Business Software Supervisor Commissioning Company F. Smit
University of Groningen MSc Business Administration
Specialization: Business Development
Supervisors Associate Professor W.G. Biemans
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University of Groningen Embrace SBS
Postbus 800 Stationsplein 9
9700 AV Groningen 9726 AE Groningen
Preface
This thesis is the results of my graduation research project for the Master Business Administration, specialization Business Development at the University of Groningen. The study was commissioned by Embrace Social Business Software (SBS). This research is of an exploratory nature. To research the business phenomenon a single-case study is executed at a housing association which is often referenced to as association X.
My gratitude goes out to my supervisor at Embrace SBS, Frank Smit. His enthusiasm, motivational skills and knowledge were an inspiration during my research project. Furthermore I would like to thank Koen Wemmenhove for keeping me company at the office most of the days and for the moments of laughter which made a day at the office fun.
Also I would like to thank my supervisor mister W. G. Biemans for guiding me through this, occasionally, challenging process, for his feedback and for bringing fun into writing my thesis. In addition I would like to thank my second supervisor mister Van der Bij for clearing time for examining my thesis and for providing constructive feedback.
I would also like to express my gratitude to corporation X for their willingness to cooperate and for their openness. A special thanks goes out to the people of association X for taking the time to share their experiences and opinions on Embrace with me.
A special thanks furthermore goes out to my boyfriend and friends and family for their support throughout the process.
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Table of Content
Preface ... 1
Table of Content ... 4
Chapter 1. Introduction ... 7
Chapter 2. The Business Phenomenon ... 10
§ 2.1 The Business Phenomenon... 10
§ 2.2 The Reason Behind This Study ... 10
§ 2.4 Guiding Topic & Research Focus ... 11
§ 2.5 Sub Research Questions ... 11
§ 2.6 Conclusion ... 11
Chapter 3. Research Methodology ... 12
§ 3.1 Exploratory Research Cycle ... 12
§ 3.2 Case Study ... 13
§ 3.3 Qualitative Research ... 13
§ 3.4 Research Quality Criteria ... 13
3.4.1 Controlability ... 14 3.4.2 Reliability ... 15 3.4.3 Construct Validity ... 15 3.4.4 Internal Validity... 15 3.4.5 External Validity ... 15 § 3.5 Conclusion ... 16
Chapter 4. Literature Review & Orientation ... 17
§ 4.1 Literature Review ... 17 4.1.1 Organizational Characteristics ... 17 4.1.2 Individual Characteristics ... 18 4.1.3 Platform Characteristics ... 18 4.1.4 Motivational factors ... 18 4.1.5 Conclusion ... 19
§ 4.2 Interview about the Business Phenomenon... 19
4.2.1 Concepts and Relationships between the Concepts ... 20
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§ 4.3 Gap in and Contribution to Literature ... 21
§ 4.4 Conclusion ... 21
Chapter 5. Results and Interpretations ... 22
§ 5.1 Level of Participation... 22
5.1.1 Relationship Pre-Implementation Attitude and Level of Participation ... 22
5.1.2 Relationship Current Social Media Use & Activity Embrace ... 24
5.1.3 Who is Participating on Embrace and Why? ... 27
§ 5.2 Motivational Factors of Participation ... 28
5.2.1 Purpose of Usage ... 28
5.2.2 Added value ... 28
§ 5.3 Barriers to Participation ... 29
5.3.1 Fear ... 29
5.3.2 Wiki’s and Blogs Cause Confusion... 31
5.3.3 A lack of Feeling Having Something Valuable to Add... 31
5.3.4 Mail vs. Embrace ... 32
5.4.5 A Lack of Time ... 33
5.3.6 Introduction too Quick After the Merger ... 33
5.3.7 Usability ... 34
5.3.8 Customer Support ... 34
5.3.9 Irritations Personal & Non-Work-Related Issues Online ... 35
§ 5.4 Conclusion ... 35 5.4.1 Level of Participation... 35 5.4.2 Motivational Factors ... 36 5.4.3 Barriers to Participation ... 36 Chapter 6. Recommendations ... 39 § 6.1 Removing Barriers ... 39
6.1.1 Establish and Communicate Policies ... 39
6.1.2 Provide Examples ... 39
6.1.3 Signal for Messages ... 40
6.1.4 Split Non-Work-Related Topics from Work-Related Topics ... 41
6.1.5 Access to Embrace via Mobile Applications ... 41
6.1.6 Usability ... 42
6.1.7 Customer Support ... 43
6.1.8 Integrate Systems ... 43
§ 6.2 Participation Encouragement ... 44
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6.2.2 Place Important Content ... 44
6.2.3 Want to Know More? ... 44
6.2.4 Create a User Community ... 45
§ 6.3 Conclusion ... 45
Chapter 7. Discussion ... 46
§ 7.1 Limitations ... 46
§ 7.2 Future Research ... 46
Appendices... 48
Appendix I. Embrace Social Business Software ... 48
Appendix II. The Interview Questions ... 49
Appendix III. The Detailed Interviews ... 52
Appendix IV. Details of the Interviewees ... 78
Appendix V. Conceptual Model of The Literature ... 79
Appendix VI. Relationship Pre Implementation Attitude and Level of Participation ... 80
Appendix VII. The Relationship between Current Social Media Use and Participation on Embrace 82 Reference List ... 86
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Chapter 1. Introduction
Organizations grow even bigger and bigger, all employees together represent a growing source of knowledge and wisdom. However, finding the right knowledge or finding the colleague with the right knowledge is often difficult and makes knowledge difficult to exploit. Nardi et al. (2000) concluded in 2000 “It’s not what you know but who you know” that makes a difference.
The Strength of Weak Ties
Granovetter (1974) performed research already in 1974 on ‘the strength of weak ties’ and concluded that people often found a new job through acquaintances they rarely saw; the weak ties. This is a great example of ‘the strength of weak ties’.
Nowadays getting in contact with weak ties or even no ties has become easier. Weak ties are people you occasionally have contact with. No ties are people outside your network, but through social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and many more it is easier to come in contact with these persons than before. The internet is the enable of this phenomenon and facilitates society to get in contact with people from all over the world as well as more easily keeping in contact with them.
Social Business Software
Let us now focus on Social Business Software. Which also enables people to communicate with strong, weak and no ties. Except that social business software is designed for internal usage at companies. With collaboration and knowledge sharing platforms it becomes easier to connect, communicate and work together with colleagues (either they are strong, weak or no ties to you within the firm).
According to DiMicco et al. (2009) Social Business Software typically shares a blend of both personal and professional information that is tailored for business colleagues. Employees are connecting with people on a personal and a professional level. They get in contact with people they do not know, opening up the possibility for making connections in the future; virtually or face-to face (DiMicco et al., 2009). Organizations can benefit from Social Business Software in many ways. The benefits are greatest when participation is high. Many organizations are struggling to achieve the benefits because the application suffers from a lack of effective participation from employees (Chui et al. 2009).
Embrace SBS (Social Business Software) is a company that has developed Social Business Software and is interested in factors that play a role in active participation of employees in Social Business Software. The next section will tell more on the company and product of Embrace SBS.
About Embrace SBS
Embrace SBS is a recently started (December 2009) privately owned company with merely one product also called Embrace. The owners of Embrace SBS found that communication through existing intranets mainly took place top down. They saw an opportunity to empower employees by using a new kind of intranet; Social Business Software (SBS). Embrace SBS is software that uses the power of social networking within organizations or alliances. It makes ‘ the new world of work’i (in Dutch: “het nieuwe werken”) possible. ‘The new world of work’ can be seen as a response to the challenges that organizations (and society) are confronted with such as internationalization (e.g. emerging markets), the growing potential of ICT to provide new forms of cooperation (e.g. more home working parents, reduce congestion), binding and retaining talent (the right person in the right place), etc.
Embrace is Social Business Software, sometimes also known as Enterprise Software or Social Intranet. With Embrace employees can find colleagues, content, and expertise they are searching
8 for. Furthermore Embrace captures knowledge and therefore enables institutional knowledge sharing. Embrace provides a collaboration platform on which people can share documents, work on and in documents at the same time from different locations, set milestones, deadlines, share their agenda’s, chat with colleagues and post short messages to keep their colleagues posted on what they are working on or share an article which they found interesting for instance.
Users of Embraces SBS are able to create new groups (e.g. Marketing, Executive Committee, Board of Directors, Brainstorm Group, Innovative Idea Platform and so on) and are able to communicate within these groups and share documents. The software not only enables to share documents within groups but also with other groups as well as with the entire organization. It is possible to post a question in a certain group or on the home-page which enables the entire organization to view the status update, question or document. To get a more visual idea of what Embrace looks like please check appendix I. Embrace Social Business Software.
High and Active Participation
To benefit most from Social Business Software maximum participation is desired. Because Social Business Software is a relatively new phenomenon motivational factors of why people participate in Social Business Software are few. Also insight into barriers of active participation are seldom. Embrace SBS, the commissioning company, wants to gain insight into these phenomena.
Case Study
To gain insight in these factors a single case study was executed. At the beginning of this research Embrace Social Business Software (SBS) had been implemented for about four months at a housing association. For the anonymity reasons the association is referred to as association X in the rest of this report. Embrace wanted to know which employees are participating and in what ways. What are their motivations for using Embrace and what are barriers for a lack of active participation. Better insight into motivational factors and barriers to active participation may help Embrace during implementation at other companies in the future.
For this research the following main question was formulated:
‘What are motivational factors and barriers to participation of Embrace Social Business Software at Association X? And which interventions and measures can Embrace SBS and client companies execute to achieve (active) participation?’
Content of the Report
The next chapter begins with the business phenomenon. Due to the exploratory nature of this research the investigated subject is not called a business problem but a business phenomenon. This chapter furthermore elaborates on the purpose and importance of the study. After which the sub-research questions are depicted.
Chapter three discusses the research methodology which elaborates on the exploratory case study
and the qualitative research that was executed.
In chapter four diminutive existing literature on the business phenomenon is discussed as well as the interview that was held with the owner of Embrace on the business phenomenon.
In chapter five the results of the interviews are discussed and interpreted.
Based upon these results and interpretations recommendations are made on interventions and measures Embrace and Association X can perform to enhance participation. In some cases these
9 interventions are suitable for future client companies as well. All this is elaborated upon in chapter
six called ‘recommendations’.
Chapter seven discusses the limitations of this study and elaborates on future research that is
necessary to get a better understanding of this business phenomenon and the impact of the recommendations on the degree of active participation.
As mentioned before the conducted research is one of exploratory nature. What exploratory research entails is discussed in chapter three, in particular in the first section. Due to the exploratory nature of this study the research being studied is not called a business problem but a business phenomenon. The next chapter will elaborate on the business phenomenon.
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Chapter 2. The Business Phenomenon
As previously mentioned this chapter will inform on the business phenomenon being researched. Furthermore it will discuss to whom and why this research is important. Furthermore the sub research questions that have guided this research can be found in §2.4.
§ 2.1 The Business Phenomenon
After one year of development the first release of Embrace has become reality. At the moment of this research the first release has been implemented and tested by a housing association. Embrace has been customized for the housing association and is in use (at the moment of research) for about four months.
Both Embrace and the director of the housing association hold the opinion that participation in Embrace can be increased although the director of the housing association has indicated that higher participation rates on Embrace are not priority at the moment due to a recent merger. However, the director has given permission to Embrace to do research at the housing association.
Embrace has access to the Social Business Platform that is used by the housing association and established that only a small part of the employees of association X are active on Embrace. Also it realised that a small set of the possibilities that Embrace offers is being used. Embrace wants to gain in-depth information into factors that impede participation on Embrace and factors that motivate people to be active. A better insight into these factors can assist in improving the Social Business Software Embrace which may lead to higher participation rates. Furthermore, when a better insight into motivational factors and barriers to participation is gained, measures and interventions can be developed to refute barriers and motivate users to increase participation.
About The Case Study Association
To study the business phenomenon a case study was held at a housing association. This association was the first official client of Embrace and started using Embrace right after several small housing associations merged into one bigger association. Their old intranet was considered out-dated. By replacing it with Embrace, management aimed to create higher engagement amongst personnel. The housing association holds four different locations.
At the moment of research association X was the only company that had several months of experience with working in Embrace. It was considered a suitable company to research the business phenomenon.
§ 2.2 The Reason Behind This Study
Importance for Embrace
In sales meetings with potential clients Embrace often heard about companies that have installed the social business software of a competitor. This particular software was installed without an implementation plan. Embrace often hears that in the beginning participation is high, though after a while participation becomes less which eventually leads to the dying of the software. Embrace sells Embrace Social Business Software including implementation strategy because it believes client companies benefit from high participation rates. The results of this research are important because Embrace can use the results to further improve their implementation strategy and usability. Embrace can also use the research results in their sales meetings with potential clients to make their implementation story more thorough and therefore perhaps more convincing. Also some results of this study will be used for marketing purposes.
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Importance for Literature
Literature states that organizations can benefit from Social Business Software in many ways. The benefits are the greatest when participation is high. According to Chui et al. (2009) many organizations are struggling to achieve the benefits because the applications suffer from a lack of effective participation from employees. At this moment academic literature minimally describes participation factors (motivations and barriers) considering Social Business Software (SBS). This might be due to the relative new concept of using Social Networking inside organizations. Mc Lure and Faraj (2000) also indicate that reasons why employees decide to actively participate in virtual communities is currently not well understood.
As previously mentioned, this study will contribute to a better understanding in what factors play a role in active participation on Social Business Software. Gained insights will contribute to practice as well as to academic literature.
§ 2.4 Guiding Topic & Research Focus
The guiding topic of the research is participation and motivational factors for Social Business Software and implementation strategies.
The focus of this research is to gain insight in:
1. motivations of individuals to participate on Social Business Software ; 2. barriers of individuals to participate on Social Business Software;
3. measures and interventions that enhance active participation on Social Business Software.
§ 2.5 Sub Research Questions
The following research questions are used to guide this research process: Why are high participation rates beneficial?
What are motivational factors to participate on Embrace SBS at corporation X? What are barriers to participation on Embrace SBS at corporation X?
What interventions and measures can Embrace execute to accomplish higher participation rates and at which moments?
§ 2.6 Conclusion
Through this research Embrace gains a better insight into the business phenomenon. This knowledge can be used by Embrace in future implementation strategies. Furthermore it can use the information to enhance participation at the current association. The research also contributes to academic literature on Social Business Software and factors that play a role in active participation.
To gain insight in the business phenomenon a main question and several sub-questions have been set up. To answer these questions a case study was conducted at a housing association. More information on the case study and on the research methods can be found in the next chapter.
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Chapter 3. Research Methodology
The previous chapter discussed the business phenomenon. Due to the fact that Social Business Software is a relatively new product, there is very little known about the business phenomenon. Chui et al. (2009) say that organizations are struggling to achieve the benefits of Social Business Software because the applications suffer from a lack of effective participation from employees. Academic literature is minimal on this topic and therefore an exploratory research cycle is used to research this business phenomenon. The next paragraph describes what the exploratory research cycle looks like. In addition, this chapter contains more information on the case study and on research quality criteria such as controlability, reliability, internal validity, external validity and construct validity.
§ 3.1 Exploratory Research Cycle
This paragraph describes the research cycle that was used to guide this research process. As previously mentioned the research process is one of exploratory nature. It appeared that the business phenomenon has not been researched often in exploratory research. Due to little understanding of the phenomenon the most suitable research cycle is then the exploratory cycle. For an overview of the exploratory research process please look at figure one. For more information on the business phenomenon please read §2.1 The Business Phenomenon.
Due to the practical nature of this research, namely to provide Embrace in recommendations, the exploratory research process has been adapted from the exploratory research cycle described by Van der Bij (2011) in his lecture. The exploratory research cycle starts by describing the business phenomenon. Then existing literature was reviewed to get a better idea of what concepts could play a role concerning the business phenomenon. Next the phenomenon is observed in a case study. In this particular case at a housing association that is using Embrace for about four months at the time of the study. In exploratory research it is custom to use the results of the study to come to propositions which can be tested either by means of another case study or empirically. However, due to the practical nature of the business phenomenon the results have not resulted in propositions, rather they have been translated into recommendations for Embrace SBS (Social Business Software). In other words, the results have led to recommendations concerning the research topic on how to increase participation on Social Business Software.
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§ 3.2 Case Study
The research strategy is one of exploratory nature due to the rather minimal research on the business phenomenon. Most common in this kind of research strategy is the use of case studies and the gathering of information via quantitative research methods.
‘In exploratory case studies, fieldwork and data collection may be undertaken prior to definition of the research questions and hypotheses’ (Tellis, 1997). Preceding the interviews at the association a literature review was conducted to get an impression of variables that could play a role in barriers to participation and motivations to participation in Social Business Software. The literature was used to create a framework for the study.
The business phenomenon was studied at one association. Single cases are used to confirm or challenge a theory, or to represent a unique or extreme case (Yin, 1994). Social Business Software is a relative new product and the usage of the software by a company also represents a unique case. The second reason behind the single-case study is also that there is only one company suitable for the research. When no other cases are available for replication, the researcher is limited to single-case designs (Tellis, 1997). Single-single-case designs require careful investigation to avoid misrepresentation and to maximize the investigator's access to the evidence (Tellis 1997).
§ 3.3 Qualitative Research
Semi-structured interviews were held to investigate the motivational factors and barriers to participation of the Social Business Software Embrace. There are a number of advantages for using personal interviewing as a method for data collection (While and Barriball 1994).
1. It has the potential to overcome the poor response rates of a questionnaire,
2. It is well suited to the exploration of attitude, values beliefs and motives (Richardson et al., 1965),
3. It provides the opportunity to evaluate the validity of the respondent’s answers by observing nonverbal indicators, which is particularly useful when discussing sensitive issues (Gordon, 1975),
4. It can facilitate comparability by ensuring that all questions are answered by each respondent (Bailey, 1987),
5. It ensures that the respondent is unable to receive assistance from others while formulating a response (Bailey, 1987).
In-depth interviewing furthermore gives the researcher the opportunity to grasp and focus on the essence (Craig and Douglas, 2000). Furthermore, exploratory research is a type of research that really suits qualitative methods like in-depth interviews (Zwart, 1993).
The detailed interviews can be found in appendix III.
§ 3.4 Research Quality Criteria
According to Van Aken et al. (2007), conducting research can be seen as a process in which the deliverables have to meet certain quality criteria. The quality criteria upon which a research project can be evaluated are respectively; controllability, reliability, and validity (which composes of construct, internal validity and external validity). A research method is reliable when it provides consistent results. According to Van Aken et al. (2007) controllability is a prerequisite for the evaluation of reliability and validity. Controllability considers one question: ‘How was the research executed?’. Controllability is a process that describes how data was gathered, how cases were selected, how the interview schedule was constructed etc. Research methods are valid when the research is a representation of the entire situation that is researched. Validity can be subdivided into construct validity, internal validity and external validity. Construct validity is the extent to which a measuring instrument measures what it is intended to measure. This refers to the quality of the
14 operationalization of a concept (Van Aken et al., 2007) Internal validity concerns conclusions about the relationship between the phenomena (Van Aken et al., 2007) and external validity is the extent to which the results of the study can be generalized beyond the current research (Van Aken et al., 2007).
The research method choices affect both validity and reliability. The next sections discuss the research methods chosen and also mention their advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore it explains why certain research methods were chosen.
3.4.1 Controlability
This section describes how the research was executed. All steps taken during the research are elaborated upon.
The housing association was chosen to research the business phenomenon because it was the only company at the moment of research that had a satisfactory amount of experience with the software Embrace. Sufficient time (four months) passed by to observe a clear difference between active users, less active and non-users.
After the decision to study participation on Social Business Software at association X literature was reviewed. Academic literature minimally describes participation factors (motivations and barriers) of Social Business Software. This might be due to the relative new concept of using Social Networking inside organizations. Mc Lure and Faraj (2000) also indicate that reasons why employees decide to actively participate in virtual communities is currently not well understood. Though limited literature exists, some cases were quite similar to SBS and participation factors. For a literature review please read §5.1. Furthermore, an interview was also held with the owner of Embrace (§4.2) to gain insight in which concepts he believed play a role in motivations for participation and barriers to participation on the software. The purpose of this interview was to gain a broader perspective on concepts that influence the business phenomenon. The literature that was found on the topic was discussed and the degree to which concepts found in literature could also play a role at association X. Also supplements of possible influencers of the business phenomenon were given. The purpose of this deliberation was to increase the extent of the measuring instrument. Due to his addition on the possible concepts that may play a role in participation on Social Business Software the interview questions are more complete.
Based upon the literature and on the interview with the owner a conceptual model was conceptualized (please check appendix V for the conceptual model). Firstly the conceptual model was discussed with professor W.G. Biemans. Based on the conceptual model interview questions were set up. The interview questions were again discussed with W.G. Biemans and checked for completeness which increases the validity of the research. In deliberation with him it was also decided to research whether there is a relation between people who are active on Social Media and the extent to which they are active on Embrace. Also the check for a possible relationship between pre-implementation attitude and participation on Embrace was added; two concepts that are not depicted in the conceptual model. Since the research is an exploratory study interview questions have been dropped and added based on the outcomes of previous interviews. According to Tellis (1997) this is allowed in exploratory case studies. The interviews were of a semi-structured nature. During the interviews there was room for discussion and answers from questions were sometimes followed-up by new questions. Insights gained from the interviews were used in following interviews. Interviewees were also allowed to provide insights and give recommendations themselves. According to Tellis (1997) in these kinds of interviews interviewees may propose solutions or provide insight into events. The interview questions can be found in appendix II.
Over a course of eight weeks, ten employees of Association X were interviewed. The interviews were held face-to-face at the locations of association X. The interviewees were of different ages, from different locations and occupied different positions. Interviews were held until no new information was given. Please check appendix VI for an overview of the details of the
15 interviewees. The interviews were recorded with permission of the interviewees. The detailed interviews were sent back to the interviewees to increase reliability of the results.
Based on the detailed interviews conclusions were drawn by the researcher. A presentation was given to two owners of Embrace, a project manager of Embrace and to one communications manager of Aqtion. Aqtion is a company that serves as a reseller to Embrace. The communications manager has been closely involved during the development of the Embrace Software. She was interested in the results of the research and therefore attended the presentation. The purpose of the presentation was to give insight into the first results and to brainstorm on possible solutions to increase participation.
3.4.2 Reliability
Reliability is achieved in many ways in a case study. One of the most important methods is the development of the case study protocol. A case study protocol was developed which contained the main research question, the academic interest, limitations of the study, a literature review and a description of the business phenomenon. The research protocol has been assessed by two professors (Van der Bij and Van Peet) of the University of Groningen. Before interviewing the employees of Association X the literature was discussed and probable barriers and motivations for usage of Embrace were discussed. It was decided to firstly interview three employees. After these interviews a moment of revision was integrated. Based upon deliberation with W.G. Biemans it was decided to also ask the interviewees’ opinion on how to stimulate active participation. In addition interviewees were also asked about what they would like to see improved in Embrace. According to Tellis (1997) in open ended interviews interviewees may propose solutions or provide insight into events.
3.4.3 Construct Validity
As mentioned before construct validity is the extent to which a measuring instrument measures what it is intended to measure. This refers to the quality of the operationalization of a concept (Van Aken et al., 2007). The operationalization of a part of the concepts is based on existing literature (approximately 75 percent). The rest is based on conversations with the owner, a brainstorm session; including someone externally (from a small consultancy firm).
According to Tellis (1997) construct validity is especially problematic in case study research. It has been criticized because of potential investigator subjectivity (Tellis, 1997). Yin (1994) proposed three remedies to counteract this: using multiple sources of evidence, establishing a chain of evidence, and having a draft case study report reviewed by key informants.
According to Tellis (1997) the researcher must avoid becoming dependent on a single informant, and seek the same data from other sources to verify its authenticity. Due to time constraints the interviews were the main source of data. Although the interviews were with more than a single informant no other sources were used like for instance Google Analytics to study actual activity. Therefore a limitation of this study is the lack of multiple sources of evidence.
3.4.4 Internal Validity
According to Tellis (1997) internal validity is a concern only in causal (explanatory) cases. This is usually a problem of "inferences" in case studies, and can be dealt with using pattern-matching. Due to the exploratory and not explanatory nature of this research the causal mechanisms are not discussed.
3.4.5 External Validity
External validity deals with knowing whether the results are generalizable beyond the immediate case (Tellis, 1997). Some of the criticism against case studies in this area relate to single-case studies. However, that criticism is directed at the statistical and not the analytical generalization that is the basis of case studies (Tellis, 1997). The extent to which the results of this study are generalizable
16 beyond the immediate case is considered very limited. The single form of this case study and the limited sources of information make it difficult to generalize the results. Due to the limited generalizability of the results more research is recommended into barriers to participation and motivational factors of active participation on Social Business Software at different companies and associations and operating in different industries.
§ 3.5 Conclusion
This chapter discussed the exploratory research cycle that is used to guide this investigation into a business phenomenon. For exploration of the business phenomenon a case study was conducted. All steps that were taking during this research were described in the section about controllability. Furthermore this chapter discussed research quality criteria such as reliability and internal, external and construct validity. It was concluded that both the external validity and construct validity are limited and that further research on the business phenomenon is necessary. More on further research can be found in §7.2.
The next chapter discusses the literature found and discusses the opinion of one of the owners of Embrace SBS on the business phenomenon.
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Chapter 4. Literature Review & Orientation
This chapter contains a literature review of existing literature considering motivational factors and barriers of participation on some form of Social Business Software or something that is resembling Embrace. Furthermore an interview was held with the owner of Embrace which is also responsible for sales and implementation of Embrace at client companies. The results of this interview can be found in this chapter as well.
§ 4.1 Literature Review
Social Business Software is a relatively new concept. It is also known as Intranet 2.0, Social Intranet or Internal Social Networking Platforms. Social intranets typically share a blend of both personal and professional information that is tailored for business colleagues (DiMicco et al., 2009). Employees are connecting with people on a personal level and they are learning about people they do not know, opening the possibility for making connections in the future (virtually or face-to-face) (DiMicco et al., 2009). Organizations can benefit from Social Business Software in many ways. The benefits are the greatest when participation is high. Many organizations are struggling to achieve the benefits because the applications suffer from a lack of effective participation from employees (Chui et al., 2009).
Academic literature minimally describes participation factors (motivations and barriers) considering Social Business Software. This might be due to the relative new concept of using Social Networking inside organizations. Mc Lure and Faraj (2000) indicate that reasons why employees decide to actively participate in virtual communities is currently not well understood. However, the first case studies have arisen. For instance DiMicco et al. (2008) have researched by means of a case study at IBM why employees found it useful to use social networking sites and what kind content workers share on the platform called Beehive. Brzozowski (2009) also performed a case study which was executed at HP and focused on an international networking platform called Watercooler. He researched for what purposes the workers of HP use the platform. Ardichvili et al. (2003) researched motivations and barriers to participation in what they call virtual knowledge-sharing communities of practice. These virtual communities of practice are quite similar to the concept of social intranets. This paragraph discusses literature that was found on barriers and motivational factors that influence participation on Social Business Software. The literature is used to create a framework of concepts that could play a role in the degree of participations on Embrace at association X. It is divided into four parts: organizational characteristics, individual characteristics, platform characteristics and motivational factors.
4.1.1 Organizational Characteristics Management Support
One of the problems why people felt unmotivated to participate was because they felt management support and feedback from management was lacking (Yardi et al., 2008). Furthermore 42 percent in the study of Brzozowski (2009) indicated that employees felt that their managers did not attach importance to their postings or that their managers were not aware of their participations. Indicating that a lack of management support may hinder adoption and the level of participation of Internal Networking Platforms. Bughin (2007) also stressed the importance of participation in Social Media and indicated that managers should generate enthusiasm amongst employees.
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Network Externalities
The most mentioned motivation for a lack of participation in the study of Brzozowski (2009) was the low participation rate of other employees. Also according to Grudin (1994) not having a “critical mass” is a common barrier to groupware’s utility. We call this concept ‘network externalities’. 4.1.2 Individual Characteristics
Job Function
The case study at HP showed that people who work in engineering and marketing at HP are more likely to use the social networking platform than do people in sales, finance or operations. This implies that job function might be a factor influencing adoption and the level of participation. Also at Caterpillar some employees felt that they did not ‘earned the right’ to post on a company platform (Ardichvili et al., 2003).
Fear
Several employees at Caterpillar indicated that they were concerned about what they post might not add value, not be relevant or important and could mislead their colleagues or it may not be completely accurate. They feared receiving criticism or ridicule. Some feared that their questions were questions they should actually know the answer to.
Feeling Valued
According to Brzozowski (2009) employees need to know their contributions are being valued by others.
4.1.3 Platform Characteristics Information Overflow
At HP the content on the platform increased every day. A concern that was mentioned was that it became harder to follow everything and to know where people had to find the content that was interesting to them (Brzozowski, 2009). This might be a barrier to participate (actively) on social business software.
Usefulness & Ease of use
The literature found thus far does not describe usefulness and ease of use as a barrier to participation of Social Business Software. However, Horton et al. (2001) did found that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are factors that influence the acceptance of (regular) intranets. 4.1.4 Motivational factors
Moral Obligation
At Caterpillar employees felt a moral obligation to share knowledge and contribute to communities.
Self-Based Considerations
The motivation behind adding comments, postings etc. for employees at Caterpillar was that they felt a need to establish themselves as experts by contributing to the community (Ardichvili et al., 2003). Managers and experts within Caterpillar also indicated that they contributed because they felt it was time to share some of their gained expertise with other employees.
Connecting with co-workers
A case study at IBM by DiMicco et al. (2008) found that employees use internal social networking to connect to employees personally or work purposes. They like that they can get in contact with both persons they know as well as persons they do not know. Brozozowski (2009) also found that people used internal networking platforms to find people within the organization with interests or expertise in specific knowledge area’s or initiatives. Ardichvili et al. (2003) also found that people used the
19 internal networking platform at Caterpillar to connect to co-workers and asking specific questions in order for the employee to solve problems.
Problem Solving Tool
In many cases the literature describes that internal networking platforms are being used as a problem solving tool. People find it easy to post a question about a specific problem they encounter or ask feedback on a piece of their work. At Caterpillar respondents point out that they receive useful solutions and feedback of other participants of the platform (Ardichvili et al.,2003).
Advancing career within company
The study by DiMicco et al. (2008) furthermore found that people used the social networking platform to connect strategically and promote themselves in a way that could benefit their career. One interviewee told the researchers that he connected around topics that had his professional interest and tried to be seen as someone that is very knowledgeable about the topic of conversation (DiMicco et al., 2008). Some also tried to get in contact with senior management or commented on profiles and micro blogging posts of management to be noticed by management.
Campaigning for projects
Another motivation for employees to be active on the platform is to gather support for projects they are working on. The platform was used to get attention and support from senior management. Via the platform interviewees expressed that it was possible to skip some levels in the organization and draw the attention of higher ranked employees to their projects (DiMicco et al., 2008).
Being kept up-to-date
Two respondents of the study by Brozozowski (2009) indicated that they liked to know what was going on in the company. At Caterpillar participants also pointed out that they use internal social networking to keep being informed about developments in their area of expertise or in area that is outside their profession.
In appendix V the literature review has been captured in a conceptual model. 4.1.5 Conclusion
Literature on Social Business Software is limited. It is concluded that the research particularly lacks understanding in barriers to active participation and on how to overcome these barriers. The literature that was found is in the form of case studies. The case studies were executed at companies (HP, Caterpillar and IBM) that diverge greatly from the housing association that was studied in this research. It is expected that new barriers and motivations will be found at the housing association as well as some overlap in findings in literature.
For orientation reasons on the business phenomenon the next section contains the results from an interview with the owner of Embrace.
§ 4.2 Interview about the Business Phenomenon
To increase the quality of the operationalization of concepts (Van Aken et al., 2007) the owner of Embrace SBS, which is also responsible for sales and implementation, was interviewed. From the beginning he was involved in the implementation of Embrace at association X. The purpose of this interview was to gain a broader perspective on concepts that may influence the business phenomenon and to assure better quality of the operationalization of concepts which increases the construct validity. Per concept found in the literature it was discussed whether and to what extent the concept could play a role in association X. Also supplements of possible influencers on active participation on Social Business Software were discussed. Based on his adding the interview
20 questions were extended. The results of the interview with the owner of Embrace SBS are discussed below.
4.2.1 Concepts and Relationships between the Concepts
Management SupportAssociation X is a housing association which operates on a not-for-profit basis. Basically they do not have to be ‘excellent’ the owner says. With the implementation of Embrace at Association X, the director wanted to improve communication within the organization because he found communication between employees was poor. The owner of Embrace thinks that because they came from such a poor communication status the association is satisfied quite quickly with small improvements. According to the owner further participation improvement does not have priority at association X even though a higher participation will probably lead to greater benefits in the form of greater knowledge sharing and better co-operation.
Useful Contribution
The owner furthermore believes that people will participate if they believe that they have something useful to contribute. He believes that especially managers have something to post and therefore should function as role models for other employees. Because contribution of these managers is sometimes also lacking, participation might be low.
Perceived Usefulness
Association X did not have clear goals about what it wanted to reach with Embrace. The only goal was to enhance communication. To reach this goal no clear objectives were set. According to the owner due to the lack of clear goals it might not be clear to employees how Embrace can benefit them. Furthermore he believes that Embrace has not become part of their work-process yet.
Fear
People at association X have a fear of contributing on Embrace. They fear the consequences of what they post. This is pretty typical for a not-for-profit housing association. Frank does not particularly associates transparency immediately with housing associations and that is especially what Embrace provides. According to Frank there is also fear of what they should place/write where. They doubt about ‘what should I put in a blog?’ and ‘What is a Wiki meant for?’ etc.
Connections
Frank also believes that possibilities to link Embrace to a person’s own agenda and the possibility to use Embrace on a smartphone and for instance the I-pad increases participation. At this moment it is possible to use Embrace on an Ipad, though there is still no possibility to use it on a smartphone. Frank believes the more Embrace can be integrated with other programs such as diaries, outlook etc. people feel that Embrace is offering them a whole package instead of ‘another tool’ which may lead to higher participation. The integrations do not exist yet. A lack of integrations may lead to a lower perceived ease of use and consequently lead to lower participation.
Being kept up-to-date
The owner believes the greatest reason why employees use Embrace is that they want to be kept up-to-date.
4.2.2 Conclusion
The owner of Embrace has given his opinion on aspects that could influence participation on Embrace at association X. The interview led to the insight that the association did not have clear goals it wanted to reach with the Embrace Social Business Software. Therefore it is believed that employees do not know what kind of benefits the software can offer them. The interview therefore
21 included questions on whether the Embrace Social Business Software adds value in the opinion of users and whether they see benefits in Embrace.
§ 4.3 Gap in and Contribution to Literature
Section §4.1 discussed academic literature that considers factors that influence participation on some sort of Social Intranet/Social Business Software. Though academics have researched several cases the phenomenon has not been explored often in exploratory research yet. Especially barriers to participation and how to refute these are is barely described.
Another case study may lead to propositions that are changes of or additions to existing theories. It can give greater insight into motivations and barriers to participation and might lead to hypothesis/proposition which can be tested empirically in the future. The literature reflects remarkably little about managerial implications. What can businesses, managers and suppliers of Social Business Software do to stimulate active participation? The results of the case study at the housing association therefore might be translated into new implementation strategies which can guide Embrace and client organization pre, during and after implementation of the Software.
§ 4.4 Conclusion
It has been establish that the business phenomenon has not been researched often in exploratory research. Some case studies have been executed however these studies were executed at companies that greatly differ from the housing association and where totally different aspects might play a role in the degree of participation on Social Business Software. However the diminutive literature has provided a framework for concepts that could influence participation at association X. The interview with the owner furthermore provided some insight into what might influence the degree of participation of individuals at the housing association. Based upon the literature review, the interview with the owner of Embrace and on reasonable thinking the interview questions were set up. The interview questions can be found in appendix II.
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Chapter 5. Results and Interpretations
In this chapter all findings for motivational factors and barriers to participation are summarized and are interpreted by the researcher. For the interpretations new literature has been developed in the form of a Social Business Participation Ladder which is based on the Social Media Ladder developed by Forrestersii. It should be mentioned that all conclusions are based on the interviews held at association X. The next paragraph starts by elaborating on two possible relationships.
§ 5.1 Level of Participation
In this section two possible relationships are being researched and discussed.
1. To what extent is there a relationship between pre implementation attitude and the level of participation on Embrace?
2. To what extent is there a positive relationship between the level of current Social Media use and activity on Embrace?
The reason behind the research on these topics is because Embrace is planning to develop a quick scan to assess to what extent an organization is ready for Social Business Software. Based on the findings of the Quick Scan an implementation strategy will be set up for the client company. This paragraph shows the results on whether relationships exist between pre implementation attitude, current social media use, and the level of participation on Embrace. When the results show that there actually is a relationship the quick scan outcomes are more reliable because they are not based on assumption but on research. However it must be noted that the external validity of the results of this study are limited.
The following section starts with the relationship between pre implementation attitude and the level of participation.
5.1.1 Relationship Pre-Implementation Attitude and Level of Participation
This section describes the degree of relationship between pre-implementation attitude of Embrace and the level of participation on Embrace. The interviewees gave their opinion on Embrace pre implementation and explained what their attitude towards Embrace was based on.
With this knowledge pre implementation attitude barriers may be taken away at future implementations and positive attitudes may be stressed during future implementations.
Degree of Activity & Attitude
First their attitude towards Embrace was inventoried. Then the interviewees were classified in terms of activity. To establish the degree of relationship a table was set up (please check figure two). The classification of the respondents activity and degree of positive attitude is based on a general impression and responses from the interviews. The interpretation of the results could be considered somewhat subjective.
Horizontally the degree of attitude Vertically the degree of activity is is depicted ranging from divided in
Negative attitude No activity
See benefits but also drawbacks Very low activity
Positive attitude Medium activity
23 Figure 2. Relationship pre implementation attitude and level of participation on Embrace.
Conclusion
It is concluded that people that have a relatively positive attitude pre implementation are more likely to become more active on Embrace. People that have a relatively negative opinion of Embrace tend to become less active than people who are interested from the beginning.
Arguments behind Pre-Implementation Attitude
This sub section considers the argument behind their pre-implementation attitude which helps to gain insight into barriers and motivational factors that can be influenced at future implementations.
Arguments behind Positive Attitude
People with a considerably positive attitude towards Embrace generally were positive on the interactivity and the openness Embrace offers. Embrace facilitates working from home, which is also seen as positive. People that had a positive attitude towards Embrace also mentioned that they liked the prospect of being kept up to date.
Arguments behind Negative Attitude
Three interviewees were more skeptic towards using Embrace. The reasons behind this varied. One interviewee had a negative attitude towards Social Media and was therefore also skeptic about Social Business Software. The other interviewee was skeptic because he felt yet another new thing was introduced right after the merger. It was introduced at a time he felt very busy. Another saw benefits in Embrace but had his doubt whether it was worth the costs and whether people would actually participate on Embrace. This perspective came from the operations manager.
Conclusion & Interpretation
A relationship between pre-implementation attitude and participation on Embrace was found. Embrace can influence pre-implementation attitude by stressing the benefits of interactivity to individuals by stressing the possibility to be kept up to date on people’s own interests. Some future users will have negative experiences or a negative attitude towards Social Media which may influence their opinion on Social Business Software pre implementation. Also the somewhat negative experiences due to the merger indirectly influenced a negative attitude towards Embrace. Removing these barriers might occur for instance by showing pre-implementation of how a particular individual could benefit from Embrace by giving examples that are similar to a person’s work activities. More on this in §6.1.2.
Attitude Activity
Negative attitude See benefits but also drawbacks
Positive attitude No opinion
No activity I Very low activity I I I Low activity I Medium activity I
24 5.1.2 Relationship Current Social Media Use & Activity Embrace
This section tried to answer the question “To what extent is there a positive relationship between current Social Media use and active participation on Embrace SBS?" To classify the interviewees in terms of the level of activity on Social Media the participation ladder of Forresteriii was used. Furthermore, a Social Business participation ladder is made. These ladders are used to draw a conclusion whether there is a positive relationship between the extent of usage of Social Media and the extent of active participation on Embrace Social Business Software. The first section describes the Social Technographics Ladder of Forresteriv. The second section describes the Social Business participation ladder that was developed for Social Business participation purposes.
The Social Media Participation Ladder
Forrester, a technology and market research company that provides advice in the area of business and technology has categorized social computing behaviors into a ladder with six levels of participation; it uses the term Social Technographics® to describe a population according to its participation in these levels (Li & Bernoff, 2007). According to Li & Bernhoff (2007) the ladder can be used ‘to help figure out which social strategies to implement first and also how to encourage users to “climb up”, so to speak, from being spectators to becoming more engaged.´
The Social Technographics® ladder vconsists of the following levels:
1. Inactives are the people who are not active on Social Media, they have not gotten around to using it and are not participating in the online conversation. They are the people with an Embrace account but have never or only a couple of times checked the dash board of Embrace.
2. Spectators are people that are kind of passive on Social Media. Mainly they read (blogs, tweets etc.). They may also listen to music online.
3. Joiners are people who maintain a profile on a networking site and who visit social networking sites.
4. Critics are people that contribute to social Media. They comment on blogs someone else’s blog, they respond to discussions on LinkedIn, they contribute to online forums and contribute to or edit wiki’s.
5. Conversationalists update their status on social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. They update at lease at least weekly because anything less than this is not considered much of a conversation.
6. Creators are people that create content online. They publish blogs, write articles and post them etc.
25 Figure 3. The Social Media Participation Ladder
The interviewees were categorized in one or more of the stiles of the Social Technographics® ladder. The classification of the interviewees on the Social Media ladder can be found in appendix VI. The next subsection describes the Social Business Participation ladder that was developed.
The Social Business Software Participation Ladder
The Social Business Software participation ladder (please see figure four for a graphic design) has been developed based on the interviews, own expertise and the owner of Embraces’ perspective. The ladder consists of the following levels:
1. Inactives are people that are completely inactive on Embrace. They might have logged on to Embrace once or twice but have not contributed nor have they read to be kept up to date. 2. Spectators are people that read the content which is placed on Embrace by others.
3. Critics react to others’ postings, comment on blogs and wiki’s, answer questions on Embrace etc.
4. Conversationalists are people that post status updates with questions and announcements. 5. Sharers are people that upload documents to be shared with colleagues for information
provision.
6. Creators are people that create blogs and wiki’s.
7. Participators are people that recognize the importance of knowledge sharing and actively contribute to this by active participation.
8. Stimulators are people that recognize the importance of knowledge sharing and try to stimulate participation of others by provoking them to participate and share knowledge as well.
26 Figure 4. Social Business Participation Ladder
The interviewees were categorized in one or more of the stiles of the Social Business Participation Ladder. The classification of the interviewees on the Social Business participation ladder can be found in appendix VI. Based upon this categorization and on the interviewees responses concerning their participation in Embrace a conclusion is made about the extent to which there is a positive relationship between current Social Media use and active participation on Embrace.
Results Degree of Activity on Social Media and Social Business Software
Two interviewees are joiners, spectators and actives on Social Media and are also quite active on Embrace (spectators, participators and sharers). Concerning these two interviews there is a positive relationship. Furthermore there is one employee which is mainly a spectator on Social Media as well as on Embrace. One might say the activities on Social Media and on Embrace are corresponding. Two employees are inactive in Social Media as well as on Embrace. Contradictory four respondents are all not exceptionally active in Social Media (one is even inactive) though relative to this activity on Social Media they are very active on Embrace.
Conclusion and Interpretation
Principally a general conclusion is hard to draw from the ten interviews. It seems that there is not a relationship between current activity on social media and participation on Embrace. Further research is necessary to get a better understanding of this concept.
Nevertheless there is another impression that is worth mentioning. It seems that people with higher functions (managers and Management Team members) are more active (according to the classification on the Social Business Software Ladder). The reason behind them being more active remains unknown and may be numerous. More research on their motivations necessary.
27 5.1.3 Who is Participating on Embrace and Why?
This section discusses which people are considered active on Embrace and why they are considered active and/or inactive. The interviewees where asked who they saw as active participators and who they saw as inactives. Also their thoughts were asked on what they believed are reasons for individuals or departments to be inactive or low participators on Embrace. Especially knowing the reasons behind people’s inactivity is important because understanding this creates opportunity to refute these barriers. Reading this section it should be kept in mind that seven people answered this question because one has to visit Embrace to be able to make a statement about who is active in their opinion. In the tables below an overview is depicted on how many times each department is mentioned active or inactive.
Results
Active Users Number of times mentioned
Staff Department III
Secretariat II
Facility Management I
Core Users I
The staff department is mentioned most often as active. The financial department is mentioned most often as inactive.
Arguments Behind the Activity/Non-Activity
The Staff Department is possibly quite active because they have information to share which is
relevant for a large part of the organization. They place content and share information on current affairs. The financial department is not active due to a backlog in invoices and other activities. Two managers believe the employees from that department consequently do not allow themselves time to participate on Embrace. Also they might feel that they do not have something valuable to add. A reason for the members of the property development team for not being very active could be that they are out on the job a lot and consequently have no access to Embrace because Embrace has not developed Mobile applications yet. Furthermore the ‘core users’ are being mentioned as an active group. The ‘core users’ group is a mixed group of people that wanted to be involved during the implementation process. Many employees name individuals that are active which mainly contain people in managers or advisory functions.
Conclusion and Interpretation
Two aspects draw the attention:
1. The reason behind the non-activity of the financial department. This is most likely partly due to the feeling they do not have something valuable to add. The researcher holds the opinion that this feeling can be influenced. A recommendation on how to influence the feeling of not having something valuable to add can be found in §6.1.2.
2. The reason behind the inactivity of the property development department. This is most likely because they are out on the job a lot. At the moment Embrace does not provide mobile applications which enable remote access to Embrace. This barrier can be overcome easily by developing applications for mobile phones. More on the development of mobile applications can be found in §6.1.5.
Non Active Users Number of times mentioned Property Development I Financial Department IIII
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§ 5.2 Motivational Factors of Participation
This paragraph discusses for what purposes employees of association X use Embrace mostly for. Furthermore this chapter contains whether employees believe Embrace adds value in their work to them and in what ways it adds value.
5.2.1 Purpose of Usage
The question ‘What do you use Embrace for?’ was answered by six persons. All six of them mention they want to stay informed on what is happening in the organization. Embrace is used to stay informed on personal topics of colleagues and on work-related topics. Embrace is additionally used to inform people, to give opinions, to ask questions, announce events and to inform people. An employee of association X mentions that she uses Embrace to actively retrieve information from others. She uses it to gather information herself as well as to keep herself informed of what is going on a personal level and on an organizational level.
5.2.2 Added value
Various reasons were given why Embrace adds value to employees of Association X or to Association X in general. This section contains a summary of the reasons mentioned.
1. Embrace offers structure in daily activities because users can see what has happened and which documents were added in each group they are a member of. Quote: “All important information is in one place in one clear overview”.
2. Users of Embrace always have the opportunity to view reactions, opinions and files back whenever they want.
3. One employee finds “that work becomes more comprehensible”. Information from different activity fields becomes available and because it is accessible to everyone it gives you opportunity to gather new knowledge which was not possible before.
4. Information can be sourced from the entire organization and questions can be directed at the entire organization. Previously this was not possible.
5. Embrace offers information storage. Quote: “Information is never lost and can always be retrieved”.
6. Embrace offers a modern way of communication. Embrace facilitates interactive contact even over long distances.
7. Embrace facilitates being ‘kept up to date”.
8. For another employee the value lies within the possibility to have “quick communication… with close colleagues”. In particular she likes that everyone can see each other’s reaction in Embrace and that one comes quicker to a decision. Quote: “I like that one can see the opinion of others at once and sometimes nice (unexpected) outcomes are a consequence. This did not arise with e-mail because e-mail is not open to everyone.”
Conclusion and Interpretation
According to the respondents the added value of Embrace lies particularly in the interactivity of Embrace. Furthermore the possibility to source information organization wide and the storage and accessibility of information at all times from different fields are seen as something that adds value to employees of Association X.
This information shows the strengths of the Embrace Social Business Software. Embrace can communicate the strengths during future pre-implementation presentations.
