Cultural Diversity and its impacts on emerging Social Collaboration Technologies

Cultural Diversity and its impacts on emerging Social Collaboration Technologies Fachtagung und wissenschaftliches Vernetzungstreffen der Diversity- Forschenden aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 2016 Source: https://www.infosecsociety.com/ Ferry Nolte & Dr. Nadine Guhr & Prof. Dr. Michael B. Breitner

Agenda Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical Background a. Enterprise social networks what is it about? b. Cultural Dimensions c. Technology Acceptance 3. Method 4. Findings 5. Summary Seite 2

Introduction: What is Enterprise 2.0? Enterprise 2.0 is the use of Web 2.0 technologies by businesses in pursuit of their goals (McAfee, 2009). With external stakeholders: e.g. customers or other business partners With internal stakeholders: e.g. employees Enterprise 2.0 is driven by: Less imposed structure, Open communication and Analytics Web-based social media technologies common in user features of profiles, relational connections and sharing/exploring (Boyd and Ellison, 2007): Technologies like: micro-/blogs, social networking sites, wikis, communities, social bookmarking and tagging (Denyer et al., 2011; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010; Treem and Leonardi, 2012) Seite 3

Introduction: Has it practical relevance? One of the Major IT trends Example: IBM Connections for internal ESN tools. Cloud Computing IT-Sicherheit Big Data/ Datability Industrie 4.0/ Internet der Dinge Mobile Computing Collaboration/ Enterprise 2.0 Enterprise Content Management IT-Outsourcing Business Process Management Heimvernetzung/ Smart Home Anteil der befragten Unternehmen 0,0% 10,0% 20,0% 30,0% 40,0% 50,0% 60,0% 70,0% 21% 19% 28% 28% 26% 42% 40% 48% 64% 61% Hinweis: Deutschland; Januar 2015; ITK-Unternehmen Quelle: Bitkom; ID 380843 Seite 4

Introduction: Research Question RQ: How is cultural diversity influencing the ESN intention to use of employees? Seite 5

Agenda Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical Background a. Enterprise social networks what is it about? b. Technology Acceptance c. Cultural Dimensions 3. Method 4. Findings 5. Summary Seite 6

Theoretical Background: Enterprise Social Networks - What is it about? A Enterprise Social Network (ESN) wants to make the intra-organizational knowledge and information flows visible throughout the whole corporation (Leonardi, 2014) Achieved by: Open communication of the employees over the ESN services Participation - actively or passively - in the information exchange process Main concept behind ESN is the visibility of communication and knowledge within an organization Seite 7

Theoretical Background: Enterprise Social Networks - What is it about? Visibility of communication and the equal right to participate might be assessed differently by employees with different cultural backgrounds Individual norms of employees influence collaborative work practice (Harris et al., 2004) Visibility should be mentioned in terms of accountability and openness With an official identity of the employees in an ESN platform, the individual becomes accountable for the information they provide to an anonym corporate audience (Danis and Singer, 2008; Grudin and Poole, 2010; Treem and Leonardi, 2012; Treem, 2014). Further, through the open access to user-generated information, the possibility to edit others content (e.g. adding a section to Wiki) brings an uncertainty for the employees sharing behavior (Grudin and Poole, 2010; Mansour et al., 2011). Responsibility levels might be skipped or impacting the organizational relation und information association, visibility interferes with hierarchy and power structures (Behrendt et al., 2015; Treem and Leonardi, 2012) Seite 8

Theoretical Background: Technology Acceptance Model Most well know and cited is the technology acceptance model (TAM) introduced in by Davis (1989) and Davis et al. (1989) One central extension to the TAM was the introduction of social influence processes (e.g. social norms and image) and cognitive instrumental processes (e.g. job relevancy) and their influence on Perceived Usefulness, with building a new stream of external variables influencing the intention to use (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000) Seite 9

Theoretical Background: Cultural Dimensions Hofstede s definition of culture predominantly used and well known (Srite and Karahanna, 2006) the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another (Hofstede 1980, p. 260) Individual norms are influenced by underlying cultural values and beliefs and are varying in the degree of certain dimensions (Hofstede, 1980; Hofstede, 2001) 5 Dimensions (Hofstede, 1980; Hofstede and Bond 1988). : Individualism/collectivism (INV/COL) Power distance (PD) Uncertainty avoidance (UA) Masculinity/femininity (MAS/FEM) Long-term orientation (LTO) Relating to the social influence processes (e.g. subjective norms) of TAM Seite 10

Agenda Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical Background a. Enterprise social networks what is it about? b. Technology Acceptance c. Cultural Dimensions 3. Method 4. Findings 5. Summary Seite 11

Method: Literature Review Based on Webster and Watson (2002) a structured literature review was conducted Aim is to give an overview about Hofstede s cultural diversities understanding into technology acceptance literature and derive its relevance for the ESN research field Searched data bases: AISeL, ScienceDirect, IEEEXplore, JSTOR, SpringerLink, ACM, Wiley, Emerald and InformsOnline. Technology acceptance & Database Cultural differences AISeL 286 Science direct 268 Emerald 121 Wiley 98 IEEEXplore 129 Springer Link 102 Jstor 53 InfromsOnline 20 Total hits 1077 Big search amount, reduced to 170 articles from different research fields. Complete review still in progress. IT Journals and selective IT conference proceedings with Hofstede s dimension incorporated into TAM studies or studies building on TAM constructs for this presentation: n=21 Seite 12

Agenda Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical Background a. Enterprise social networks what is it about? b. Technology Acceptance c. Cultural Dimensions 3. Method 4. Findings 5. Summary Seite 13

Findings: Literature Review We selected only TAM studies or TAM construct (PU, PEOU) of Journals and a view conference proceedings Level of Analysis Counts of UA Counts of PD Counts of INV Counts of MAS Counts of LTO Counts of Studies Country 8 4 8 4 2 13 Individual 5 4 5 4 1 8 Total 13 8 13 8 3 21 UA and INV are the most investigated dimensions There is a shift towards the individual level using the cultural dimensions as a operationalization preventing the ecological fallacy All studies have in common that culture is at least a moderator and helps to explain difference in the intention to use a technology Comparison of initial TAM showed that without recognizing the culture the explanatory power might fail in certain countries (McCoy et al. 2007) Seite 14

Findings: Uncertainty Avoidance & Power Distance UA is not only moderating the intention to use (Srite & Karahanna 2006; Choi et al. 2014; McCoy et al. 2007; Nistor et al. 2014 ) but directly influences PU (Straub 1994; Durfee et al. 2006 ) and PEOU (Durfee et al. 2006; Hwang 2005; Veiga et al. 2001) or is moderating the PEOU (Hoehle et al. 2015) Uncertainty is a big factor of the ESN nature (e.g. unstructured workflows, unknown audience, change of processes) P1: Employees with a high UA are reluctant on the behavioral intention to use an ESN. PD is mainly moderating the BI (Srite & Karahanna 2006; Lin 2014; Austin et al. 2009; Durfee et al. 2006; Veiga et al. 2001; Hoehle et al. 2015) and is accounted for diminishing the PU or PEOU relevance in TAM for the user with high PD (McCoy et al. 2007). The visibility and open equal right to exchange might conflict with PD perception of users (e.g. leap frogging the chain of command) P2: Employees with high PD will base their intention to use on top-management acceptance of ESN. Seite 15

Findings: Individualism/Collectivism INV/COL is connected with the social norms of the users and relates therefore to collective PU (Abbasi et al. 2015; Choi et al. 2014; Guo et al. 2011; Yang et al. 2009; Durfee et al. 2006; Veiga et al. 2001; Hoehle et al. 2015). But INV/COL is not the most significant moderator (Abbasi et al. 2015; Srite & Karahanna 2006) ESNs are on the one hand individualism driven through self-representation functionalities, but also relate to collective processes like collaboration, social recommendation or group innovation. ESN user are different than public social media users, they are following their own goal (e.g. career) (Mettler & Winter 2015) P3: Employees with a high level of INV will perceive the tool as more useful and are more likely intending to use it. Seite 16

Findings: Masculinity/Femininity & Long-term Orientation MAS/FEM is found to moderate the PU and PEOU and the behavioral intention (Srite & Karahanna 2006, Dinev et al., 2009; Veiga et al. 2001; Hoehle et al. 2015). The effect on social norms were not significant. ESN can help to achieve career goals through self presentation and adding new knowledge to ones expertise (MAS). To utilize the ESN enterprises should promote open display of knowledge as career opportunity, thus generating organizational pressure and work goals (Huang et al., 2010; Mansour et al., 2011) P4: Employees with a high MAS are perceiving the ESN more useful and job relevant with an effect on behavioral intention to use in an ESN. LTO is connected with the PU, which is originating in the cognition processes of output quality, but also found its impacted on PEOU (Dinev et al., 2009; Veiga et al. 2001; Hoehle et al. 2015). ESN are questioned as a passing hype (Stenmark, 2008;Kaske et al., 2012) which might not survive competing next to established IT. P5: Employees with a high LTO are questing the ESN as sustaining IT and its unstructured nature and will not perceive it as useful and ease to use, thus will not intent to use it. Seite 17

Agenda Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical Background a. Enterprise social networks what is it about? b. Technology Acceptance c. Cultural Dimensions 3. Method 4. Findings 5. Summary Seite 18

Summary: Proposed Moderation of Cultural Dimensions Other cultural dimensions (organizational, professional) Cultural Dimensions LTO (e.g. PU via output quality) UA (e.g. intention to use, via PU and PEOU) PD (e.g. intention to use directly, by top-down pressure) MAS (e.g. PU via job relevance and PU) INV (e.g. intention to use directly) Social influence processes e.g.: - Subjective norms - Image PU Basic Technology Acceptance Model Cognitive instrumental processes e.g.: - Job relevancy - Output quality PEOU Intention to use ESN Usage behavior Seite 19

Thank you for your attention Seite 20

Back-up Seite 21

P1: Employees with a high UA are reluctant on the behavioral intention to use an ESN. P2: Employees with high PD will base their intention to use on top-management acceptance of ESN. P3: Employees with a high level of INV will perceive the tool as more useful and are more likely intending to use it. P4: Employees with a high MAS are perceiving the ESN more useful and job relevant with an effect on behavioral intention to use in an ESN. P5: Employees with a high LTO are questing the ESN as sustaining IT and its unstructured nature and will not perceive it as useful and ease to use, thus will not intent to use it. Seite 22

Are Organizations ready for the change? Where are ESN applicable from a German Corporate view (in red internal ESN use): Hinweis: Deutschland; Österreich; Schweiz; Q1/2010; 72 Befragte; Unternehmen Quelle: centrestage; ID 163056 Seite 23