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

1. Hui-Jung Chang, Ph.D. 1996Department of CommunicationMichigan State University Professor Graduate Institute of CommunicationFu-Jen Catholic UniversityTaiwan

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

3. outline • Introduction • Literature Review • Methods • Results • Discussion

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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).

7. Goal of the paper • Why and How SNSs are used in the workplace? • Why-why people use SNSs? • How- for what purposes?

8. Literature Review-Theories of media uses • Media characteristics models • Social presence • Media richness • Social influence models • jointly constructed by co-workers in the workplace

9. 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> letter • high social presence, rich + equivocal & uncertain tasks

10. 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) .

11. 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)

12. 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)

13. 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)

14. 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)

15. 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

16. 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

17. Negative consequences of SNS uses • wasting time • slandering co-workers or customers • SNS addiction • lower employee productivity

18. 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?

19. 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?

20. 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

21. 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

22. Measurement • Social presence • Copresence • Social richness • warm, sensitive, personal, social • Involvement • self-involvement • partner-involvement • Social attraction • From Biocca et al., (2003)

23. 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)

24. Interruption • Intrusion • Breaks • Distraction • Inconsistency

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. Discussion • Social influence works better • Supervisor are a major influence • media characteristics models • perceived partner involvement –>elicit personal emotions->interruption

28. 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

29. 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

30. Limitations • external validity • respondents are not representative enough to stand for all computer-using workers in Taiwan • the results specific to a cultural context

31. Thank you!