Affordances for sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge on enterprise social media

Many organizations have implemented enterprise social media (ESM) to better connect employees and promote knowledge sharing. Prior studies indicate that employees often use ESM to access knowledge in other domains or complex knowledge. But connecting employees is only part of the picture – while ESM...

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Main Author: Pee, Loo Geok
Other Authors: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/142502
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author Pee, Loo Geok
author2 Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
author_facet Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Pee, Loo Geok
author_sort Pee, Loo Geok
collection NTU
description Many organizations have implemented enterprise social media (ESM) to better connect employees and promote knowledge sharing. Prior studies indicate that employees often use ESM to access knowledge in other domains or complex knowledge. But connecting employees is only part of the picture – while ESM offer the possibility of accessing domain specific and complex knowledge, the flow of such knowledge might remain inhibited by the perceived effort required to codify them for sharing. This study identifies salient ESM affordances that can alleviate the perceived effort of sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge. Results of a survey of 303 employees working in organizations using ESM indicate that domain-specific knowledge is perceived as less effortful to codify when the affordance of visibility is strong (i.e., the affordance negatively moderates the positive relationship between knowledge specificity and perceived codification effort), and complex knowledge is perceived as less effortful to codify when the affordances of association and editability are strong. These findings indicate that it is necessary to consider both knowledge attributes and ESM affordances and their interactions when understanding knowledge sharing using ESM.
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spelling ntu-10356/1425022020-06-23T03:29:23Z Affordances for sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge on enterprise social media Pee, Loo Geok Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Social sciences::Communication Willingness to Share Knowledge Enterprise Social Media Many organizations have implemented enterprise social media (ESM) to better connect employees and promote knowledge sharing. Prior studies indicate that employees often use ESM to access knowledge in other domains or complex knowledge. But connecting employees is only part of the picture – while ESM offer the possibility of accessing domain specific and complex knowledge, the flow of such knowledge might remain inhibited by the perceived effort required to codify them for sharing. This study identifies salient ESM affordances that can alleviate the perceived effort of sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge. Results of a survey of 303 employees working in organizations using ESM indicate that domain-specific knowledge is perceived as less effortful to codify when the affordance of visibility is strong (i.e., the affordance negatively moderates the positive relationship between knowledge specificity and perceived codification effort), and complex knowledge is perceived as less effortful to codify when the affordances of association and editability are strong. These findings indicate that it is necessary to consider both knowledge attributes and ESM affordances and their interactions when understanding knowledge sharing using ESM. 2020-06-23T03:29:23Z 2020-06-23T03:29:23Z 2018 Journal Article Pee, L. G. (2018). Affordances for sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge on enterprise social media. International Journal of Information Management, 43, 25-37. doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.05.006 0268-4012 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/142502 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.05.006 2-s2.0-85048497286 43 25 37 en International Journal of Information Management © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
spellingShingle Social sciences::Communication
Willingness to Share Knowledge
Enterprise Social Media
Pee, Loo Geok
Affordances for sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge on enterprise social media
title Affordances for sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge on enterprise social media
title_full Affordances for sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge on enterprise social media
title_fullStr Affordances for sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge on enterprise social media
title_full_unstemmed Affordances for sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge on enterprise social media
title_short Affordances for sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge on enterprise social media
title_sort affordances for sharing domain specific and complex knowledge on enterprise social media
topic Social sciences::Communication
Willingness to Share Knowledge
Enterprise Social Media
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/142502
work_keys_str_mv AT peeloogeok affordancesforsharingdomainspecificandcomplexknowledgeonenterprisesocialmedia