Abstract:
This research investigates the perceptions of employees at South Winds (the pseudonym), a
software engineering company, about using a corporate social networking site for sharing and
generating knowledge. It focuses on understanding and explaining how the perceptions of
employees from different organisational levels impacted on the usage of the social
networking site.
Methods of data collection included interviews and focus groups with C-level managers,
middle managers and software engineers. Qualitative methods were used for analysing the
collected data. Analysis drew on an extended Orlikowski and Gash's technological frames
theory (1994) to identify five categories of perceptions relating to technology implementation
and use. Applying the concept of framing in this study helped to surface specific areas within
which divergence of perceptions occurred.
Results showed significant divergences in perceptions about the corporate social networking
site in 4 out of the 5 categories across the different levels of the organization. These
divergences were found to have arisen largely as a result of information deficiencies.
Furthermore, little understanding about the nature of the technology led top management to
decide to use an adoption approach that discouraged knowledge sharing and creation through
this tool. As a consequence, this study found that there appeared to be little likelihood of
creating or sharing knowledge through the corporate social networking site under the
observed implementation, although the corporate social networking site was widely perceived
as a useful technology for sharing and creating knowledge.
Recommendations for realizing potential benefits from using a corporate social networking
site include developing plans for aligning organizational perceptions about the corporate
social networking site and developing a suitable reward plan based on group performance in
order to encourage the employees to create/share knowledge.
The findings of this research suggest an extension of the Orlikowski and Gash's (1994)
technological frames theory for knowledge management systems. This research also suggests
that perceptions about different aspects of a technology may be arranged in a hierarchical
chain. This would bring significant implications in designing and implementing technologies.
