Hui-Jung Chang, Ph.D. 1996Department of Communication

Michigan State University

ProfessorGraduate Institute of CommunicationFu-Jen Catholic UniversityTaiwan

Social networking sites and interruption in organizational settings: A media uses perspective

outline

Introduction Literature Review Methods Results Discussion

Introduction

The uses of new communication technology has always been a challenge to communication within an organization.

“embedded, pervasive, & interconnected; they ARE wherever we are”

interrupt one another, impede or delay progress on tasks

social networking sites (SNSs)

Definition public or semi-public profile publicly display friends list view and traverse their list of connections

effects on the workplace connecting people and building relations

across boundaries of geography and discipline increase the possibility of interruptions in a

person’s work

Goal of the paper

SNSs uses a higher level of interruption

“The effects of communication technologies are determined by the way they are used” ( Fulk et al., 1990).

Goal of the paper

Why and How SNSs are used in the workplace?

Why-why people use SNSs?

How- for what purposes?

Literature Review-Theories of media uses Media characteristics models

Social presence Media richness

Social influence models jointly constructed by co-workers in the

workplace

Media characteristics models Social presence

Physical presence (1976) “the degree of salience of the other person in the

interaction” psychological involvement (2003)

Media richness “a medium’s capacity to process equivocal and

uncertain information” instant feedback, multiple cues, natural language,

convey emotion

Ftf > telephone > email> letterhigh social presence, rich + equivocal & uncertain

tasks

Media characteristics models and SNSs Ftf > IM> email Ftf> SNS>email SNSs are high in social presence and media

richness organizational members consider richer

media such as SNSs better than traditional media to obtain assimilation-related information (Waldeck, Seibold & Flanagin,2009) .

Theories of media uses -The social influence model “the social context,…, can affect beliefs

about the nature of jobs and work, about what attitudes are appropriate...”

mostly by the attitudes, statements and behaviors of co-workers (including supervisors)

The social influence model and SNSs

workers are expected to be logged on IM whenever they are physically present at the firm (Quan-Hasse, Cothrel & Wellman, 2005) .

social influence accounts for electronic multitasking behavior in organizational meetings (Stephens & Davis, 2009)

How SNS are used-6 purposes

Caring the personal satisfaction of connecting socially

at work Climbing

the benefit of promoting and connecting strategically for career advancement

Campaigning gather support for their projects

from Dimicco et al. (2008)

How SNS are used-6 purposes

organization of work preparing and announcing meetings, checking

availability activities of knowledge work

information sharing, problem solving, document transfers

Socializing conversations not related to work

from Cho et al. (2005)

Literature Review -Interruption and SNS uses

“a synchronous interaction which is not initiated by the recipient, is unscheduled, and results in the recipient discontinuing their current activity” (O’Conail & Frohlich’s,1995, p. 262)- intrusive

IM is interruptive SNSs, (IM, message boards, videos,

games) might be a greater source of interruption

Four types of Interruption(Jett & George, 2003)

Intrusive : unexpected intrusions Breaks

anticipated or self-initiated time away from performing work

Distractions affect a person’s cognitive processes so that he or

she can not focus on primary work Discrepancies

perceives inconsistencies between one’s knowledge and expectations and what is happening in the external environment

Negative consequences of SNS uses

wasting time slandering co-workers or customers SNS addiction lower employee productivity

Research questions

RQ 1. Are the three media use theories (social presence, media richness, and social influence) related to the level of perceived interruptions in the workplace?

RQ 2. Which theory of media use is most strongly related to the level of perceived interruption?

RQ 3. Are different purposes for using SNSs (organization of work, knowledge exchange, socialization, caring, climbing, and campaigning) associated with different levels of interruption in the workplace?

RQ4. Among the three media-use theories and the six purposes, which variable is most strongly related to the level of perceived interruption?

Methods

Facebook Via convenience and snowball sampling of

computer-using workers in Taiwan, 12/2010~2/2011. graduate students->to their acquaintances

an online survey N = 116

51.4%male 48.3% female

Measurement

Facebook use. the Facebook intensity scale (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007) 241 friends 60% spent less than 1 hour per day 81.0% interact with friends and families

Measurement

Social presence Copresence Social richness

warm, sensitive, personal, social Involvement

self-involvement partner-involvement

Social attraction

From Biocca et al., (2003)

Measurement

Media richness instant feedback multiple cues natural language convey emotion (Liu & Ku, 1997)

Social influence Supervisor Co-workers

(Liu & Ku, 1997; Schmitz & Fulk, 1991)

Interruption Intrusion Breaks Distraction Inconsistency

Results

RQ 1 social presence (b = .41, p < .001) media richness (b = .38, p < .001) co-workers (b = .34, p < .001) supervisors (b = .43, p < .001)

RQ 2 supervisors (b = .35, p < .001) perceived partner involvement (b = .28, p

< .05)

The higher they rated social presence, media richness, experienced social influence from co-worker and supervisors, the higher level of interruption.

The more one is influenced by supervisor, the greater one perceives partner involvement, the higher level of interruption.

Results

RQ3 None

RQ4 supervisors (b = .35, p < .001) perceived partner involvement (b = .28, p

< .05) organization of work (b = -.20, p < .05)

The purposes of using FB is not related to the perceived level of interruption.

The best predictor to the perceived level of interruption is supervisor, followed by partner involvement, organization of work.

Discussion

Social influence works betterSupervisor are a major influence

media characteristics modelsperceived partner involvement –>elicit

personal emotions->interruption

people use FB mainly for leisure purposes Breaks 80% of the respondents interact with their

friends and families Management nightmare

FI, interruption (r = .44, p<.001) permit employees to use SNSs for breaks but

regulate the amount of time

organization of work, interruption

“invocation of script” (Sætre et al., 2007) for routine work, the use of script that has

been stored in out mind process automatically

Limitations

external validity respondents are not representative

enough to stand for all computer-using workers in Taiwan

the results specific to a cultural context

Thank you!