Abstract
PurposeThe 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/approachThis qualitative field study is based on semi-structured interviews and enterprise social media review data from a large Nordic media organization.FindingsOn 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/valueThis 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.
Highlights
Companies are currently investing in social media both to strengthen their communication with external parties and to utilize social media internally
Drawing from two theoretical frameworks, communication privacy management (Petronio, 2002, 2013) and the technology affordance perspective (Treem and Leonardi, 2013; Rice et al, 2017), we argue that personal privacy management principles and technological affordances are critical in understanding information-sharing behavior on enterprise social media (ESM)
Employees’ information sharing on Second, as ESM’s unique characteristics (Ellison et al, 2015) may afford different kinds of information-sharing capabilities, strategies and constraints than public social media (Choi and Bazarova, 2015; Spottswood and Hancock, 2017), we aim to extend the literature on technological affordances by using it as a perspective to find technology use-related explanations for employees’ information sharing or decisions to refrain from posting on ESM
Summary
Companies are currently investing in social media both to strengthen their communication with external parties and to utilize social media internally. Internal enterprise social media (ESM) platforms are multidimensional web-based communication tools that allow. Information Technology & People Vol 34 No 2, 2021 pp. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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