Sven Dittes und Stefan Smolnik
How Enterprise Social Media Enhance Employee Performance – A Longitudinal
Study on the Role of Networking Impact and Organizational Climate
Working Paper
Fakultät für
Wirtschafts-
wissenschaft
How Enterprise Social Media Enhance Employee Performance – A Longitudinal Study on the Role of
Networking Impact and Organizational Climate
This is a work in progress.
Please do not cite without permission of the authors.
Sven Dittes
Faculty of Business Administration and Economics University of Hagen
58084 Hagen, Germany sven.dittes@fernuni-hagen.de
Stefan Smolnik
Faculty of Business Administration and Economics University of Hagen
58084 Hagen, Germany stefan.smolnik@fernuni-hagen.de
+49 2331 987-2466
Abstract
In recent years, organizations tend to replace their old intranets – which have continuously grown as time passed and which mainly consisted of static web pages presenting content that was centrally distributed by official organizational channels – with new social intranets on the basis of modern enterprise social media (ESM) platforms. This article uncovers how these social intranets can improve employee performance and also how this impact differs from the traditional intranet. In order to empirically assess the difference of both intranet versions, this research applies a longitudinal research design by rolling out a survey at two points in time, i.e., before and after the new social intranet was introduced. Furthermore, researchers and practitioners are emphasizing the importance of organizational climate as an enabler of ESM platforms and social intranets. The results showcase the networking impact as a mediator of the relationship between an employee’s social intranet use and the performance impact. These results can be used by practitioners to contradict various sceptic voices towards ESM platforms and to validate the investments. Further, the study shows how the organizational climate should be composed, and how it acts as an enabler for a social intranet that improves employee performance. This not only acts as a motivation for organizations to start a transformation process, but the conceptualization in form of four dimensions proves the important aspects of organizational climate as well as can be used in future research endeavors.
Keywords: Enterprise social media, performance impact, networking impact, organizational climate, longitudinal study, empirical data
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1 Introduction
In the last decade, the discourse of enabling and fostering the ‘Enterprise 2.0,’ which is the term that McAfee (2009) introduced, was very intensively discussed among researchers and practitioners alike. Hereby, the implementation of new and modern information and communication technology (ICT) is at the core of this movement (McAfee, 2009). These new and modern ICT base on purported Web 2.0 technologies, such as social networking tools, wikis, and blogs (Bughin, 2008). In this context, enterprise social media (ESM) platforms have been developed that bundle a range of these diverse Web 2.0 applications and tools in one powerful platform (Rode, 2016). Taking a closer look at the practice, increasingly more organizations invested in and implemented such ESM platforms (Chui et al., 2012;
Keitt et al., 2010; Leonardi, 2014), aiming at further developing their organization toward the Enterprise 2.0. Especially in today’s world with the current COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown situation, having a fully functioning Enterprise 2.0 that supports working online by the means of ESM platforms is essential for most organizations (Deloitte, 2020).
We find that many of the organizations introduce an ESM platform as a new version of the corporate intranet, which is often called the social intranet (Williams & Schubert, 2018).
Although these new social intranets, which are based on ESM platforms, replace the traditional intranets, the range of functionalities and working principles are rather different. In this context, Janes et al. (2014), as well as Williams and Schubert (2018), state that the main difference bases on the creation and governance of content where, in a social intranet, all employees are able and responsible to post, edit and comment on content, whereas in a traditional intranet, by contrast, the content is presented on static web pages and also published and governed by a centralized department, resulting in very different working principles for the two platforms1. The reason for organizations’ significant interest and investments in implementing ESM platforms base on these platforms’ several positive impacts on the organization, such as improving employee performance (Wehner et al., 2017a). However, even though many organizations introduce ESM platforms, they sometimes fail at achieving the targeted benefits (e.g. Chin et al., 2015b). Considering practice, we find that the reason for this failure is not always only based on the new platform’s low adoption rates by the employees but also on the
1 Please see Section 2 for a more detailed overview of the differences between a traditional and social intranet.
2 employees’ wrong usage behavior (e.g. Dittes & Smolnik, 2019; Ghezzi et al., 2016). In this context, especially the relationship between an employee’s use of an ESM platform and the corresponding impact in the individual work performance (also referred to as the use-performance relationship) is very crucial and of special interest in research (e.g. Ali-Hassan et al., 2011; Kügler et al., 2015b; Moqbel & Nah, 2017; Suh & Bock, 2015).
Taking a closer look at these studies, we find that most of them solely focus on researching the ESM platforms’ impact on the employees. However, they neglect that ESM platforms are often implemented as social intranets and, thus, also replace an essential and central organizational ICT in the form of the traditional intranet that employees used daily. Consequently, in our study we aim to uncover this relationship between an employee’s use of the intranet and the impact on employee performance by especially focusing on the differences between social intranets based on ESM platforms and traditional intranets. Thereby, we also draw on various calls for research, including provided empirical evidence for the actual impact and on how ESM platforms can add value to organizations (e.g. Aral et al., 2013). We also conduct longitudinal research to showcase how an ESM platform’s impacts and effects develop and change over time (e.g. Högberg, 2018). Based on this, we derive the first research question:
RQ1: (a) How can the employee’s use of a social intranet, which is based on an ESM platform, impact the employee’s performance, and (b) how does this differ from a traditional intranet’s working principles?
Drawing on potential differences and the use-performance relationship, we find – in contrast to research on traditional intranets – many sources and evidence for the influence of the organizational climate2 when it comes to introducing social intranets successfully and in order to leverage the potential benefits (e.g. Engelbrecht et al., 2017; Patroni et al., 2016;
Richter & Wagner, 2014). Although many studies state the organizational climate’s importance, it is rather unclear how exactly this impacts the use-performance relationship’s working principles. Further, when studying the literature, we find several references of how an organizational climate should be manifested in order to ideally act as a catalyst for introducing ESM platforms: For example, Richter and Wagner (2014) highlight the importance of openness and transparency, while Sarker et al. (2011) research the influence on trust in order for an
2 Please see Section 2 for a more detailed overview of conceptual differences between organizational climate and culture.
3 ESM platform to impact employee performance, and Giermindl et al. (2018) state community commitment as an important motivational factor. However, there is a lack of a more structured and holistic view on the impact of an enabling organizational climate in the context of the use-performance relationship of ESM platforms including the organizational climate’s various facets and characteristics. Thereby, we also aim to answer various calls for research on discovering an organizational climate’s role and characteristics in the context of introducing an ESM platform (e.g. Aral et al., 2013; Wehner et al., 2017b). From this, we derive our second research question:
RQ2: (a) How is an organizational climate constituted that has the potential to influence the relationship between an employee’s social intranet use and the performance impact, and (b) how does this influence differ between a social intranet and a traditional intranet?
In order to answer these research questions, we apply a survey-based research design in a longitudinal setting. Firstly, we develop a research model by deriving hypotheses for the use-performance relationship and by developing a conceptualization of the organizational climate for the purpose of our research. Secondly, we empirically assess and evaluate our research model. Thereby, we could identify an organization from the automotive industry that was just in the process of replacing their traditional intranet with a new social intranet based on an ESM platform. Hereby, we could roll out a worldwide employee survey before and one year after the implementation of the new social intranet. This approach not only enables us to collect a very unique data set but also allows us to gain very valuable insights by analyzing, comparing and contrasting two points in time. Thus, via our research, we are able to actually assess an ESM platform’s impact compared to its predecessor platform and, thus, our study constitutes one of the first longitudinal research approaches using quantitative data in the realm of ESM research. Finally, we discuss our results and findings and also derive various practical implications for the introduction of ESM platforms.
4
2 Theorizing organizational climate’s impact on the relationship between employees’ enterprise social media use and performance impact
2.1 From traditional intranets to social intranets – the historical development of corporate intranets
Defining the term of a corporate intranet, we draw on Curry and Stancich (2000) who state it as “private computing networks, internal to an organization, allowing access only to authorized users.” Moreover, they state that corporate intranets are usually accessed only by a particular organization’s employees via web browsers that include several web pages, applications, and functionalities. In the following, we outline the intranet’s historical development by referring to the main functionalities, how they developed, and how they were added over time:
In the 1990s and 2000s, when networking technology grew and increasingly more ICT was deployed, organizations introduced the first intranets for the purpose of providing a central employee portal in order to provide information (Curry & Stancich, 2000). This information was presented on various web pages that could be accessed by the employees – however, it was not possible for the employees to provide feedback and to influence the content (Williams & Schubert, 2018) and, thus, we refer to this traditional stage of the intranet’s development as a static intranet phase. According to Ward (2010), as well as Curry and Stancich (2000), collaborative functionalities (such as file exchange, forums, and chats (Azzone & Bianchi, 2000)) were added to the former information publishing sites as a next step of the development in the following years – however, the core of the intranet, i.e., the static web pages for providing information, stayed mostly the same.
With the rise of the Web 2.0 technologies and social media, organizations decided to stop further developing their traditional intranets and to replace their intranet platforms by introducing new intranets, also called Intranets 2.0 or social intranets, including new technological tools and corresponding functional principles (Ward, 2010). Thereby, organizations introduced ESM platforms as the technological basis for their new intranets (Pochyla, 2012). In defining ESM platforms3, we draw on the most frequently used definition by Leonardi et al. (2013) who state that ESM platforms are “web-based platforms that allow
3 Frequently used synonyms are ’enterprise social software’ (Antonius et al., 2015), ‘enterprise social media’
(Kane, 2015), ‘enterprise social network’, and ‘enterprise social networking’ (Fulk & Yuan, 2013;
Mäntymäki & Riemer, 2016).
5 workers to (1) communicate messages with specific coworkers or broadcast messages to everyone in the organization; (2) explicitly indicate or implicitly reveal particular coworkers as communication partners; (3) post, edit, and sort text and files linked to themselves or others;
and (4) view the messages, connections, text, and files communicated, posted, edited and sorted by anyone else in the organization at any time of their choosing.” Hereby, ESM platforms as social intranets introduce new social media functionalities, such as user profiles, following, liking, sharing and providing user generated content by commenting on content or posting blog posts (Mark et al., 2014) to the realm of a corporate intranet. Hereby, we find that ESM platforms aim to foster not only collaboration but also social interaction among employees by enabling networking and relationship building (Steinhüser et al., 2011).
Further elaborating on the main differences, Table 1 summarizes the main differences between a traditional intranet and a social intranet based on reviewing the literature.
Traditional intranet Social intranet (based on an ESM platform) Technological basis
(Williams & Schubert, 2018) Static web pages presenting
content Interactive web pages and
apps Content creation
(Janes et al., 2014; Williams & Schubert, 2018) Centrally provided content User-generated content Main use types
(Curry & Stancich, 2000; Patten & Keane, 2010)
Providing information (& collaboration)
Collaboration and networking Table 1. Summary of differences between a traditional and a social intranet
2.2 The relationship between enterprise social media use and performance impact When considering the introduction of new ICT in an organization, investigating the relationship between employee use and the corresponding impact on employee performance was always of interest and a main research stream within the realm of information systems (IS) and management research (e.g. DeLone & McLean, 1992; Lucas Jr, 1975; Robey, 1979). However, and according to Kügler et al. (2015b), there were not always consistent results, which ranged from research stating a very strong positive relationship to research not finding any, indicating that this relationship is non-trivial and rather complex.
Taking a closer look at research on social intranets and ESM platforms, we find various studies investigating the use-performance relationship (e.g. Aboelmaged, 2018;
Ali-Hassan et al., 2011; Moqbel & Nah, 2017). On closer investigation of these studies, we mainly find two conceptual approaches in order to untangle the complex use-performance relationship: Firstly, we find approaches that decompose the use and performance concept into
6 more detailed concepts, for example, Kügler et al. (2015b) who differentiate between two use types, i.e., the differences between inter-team and intra-team use, as well as the differences between task performance and innovative performance. Secondly, we find approaches that introduce additional factors mediating the use-performance relationship, for example, Moqbel and Nah (2017) who conceptualize workplace integration and positive emotions as mediating variables. Consequently, we plan at combining both approaches in our research by introducing a variable that refers to a particular use type of social intranets as the use-performance relationship’s mediating variable. In doing this, and in accordance to our first research question, we decide to focus on the social networking possibility as a mediating variable for our research since it refers to the new use types and functionality that was added by the social intranet (see Table 1).
Studying the literature more closely, we find evidence indicating that the introduction of ESM platforms affects the intensity and means of social interaction among employees (DiMicco et al., 2009; Leonardi et al., 2013). Furthermore, we find literature stating that ESM platforms have the potential to improve networking (Boughzala, 2014) by enabling professional interaction and relationship building (Steinhüser et al., 2011). Thereby, ESM platforms can strengthen and extend an employee’s personal network within the organization (Bala et al., 2015; Kim & Kane, 2015). Accordingly, we introduce the concept of networking impact, which relates to the extent to which an intranet enables and improves an employee’s networking activities. Moreover, and by considering traditional intranets’ main use types, it is essential to differentiate between networking activities and collaborative activities. Consistent with Gronski and Pigg (2000), we state that collaboration is an interactive process involving several people aiming at a common goal. Thus, when discussing collaboration, a task or project dimension is always involved. In contrast, networking refers to any social interactive process that is not necessarily directed and guided in order to achieve a goal, for example, talking about non-work-related topics.
Furthermore, studying the relationship’s performance aspect, we draw on a commonly applied conceptualization (e.g. Kügler et al., 2015b; Tam & Oliveira, 2016; Willis et al., 2009) by introducing the concept of individual performance impact, which refers to how a social intranet influences an employee’s performance in completing daily tasks. Thereby, we solely focus on a task dimension in order to define and measure employee perfromance – however, we also acknowledge other potential approaches that, for example, differentiate between a task and an
7 innovative performance dimension (e.g. Ali-Hassan et al., 2011). Considering this task dimension of employee perfromance, we find various studies stating that an ESM platform ultimately has a positive impact on an employee’s job performance (e.g. Ali-Hassan et al., 2015;
Bala et al., 2015; Lu et al., 2015; Pfaff & Hasan, 2007; Steinhüser et al., 2011). Furthermore, we also find literature stating that informal communication has a positive impact on an employee’s performance (Orbach et al., 2015) and literature stating that networking on ESM platforms enhances employee performance (Moqbel et al., 2013). Thus, and since we already proposed that an employee’s use of a social intranet has a positive effect on the networking impact (Boughzala, 2014), we hypothesize as follows:
H1: A social intranet’s networking impact positively mediates the relationship between an employee’s use and the individual performance impact.
To conclude, we examine the differences between a social intranet and a traditional intranet, and evaluate the hypothesized effects’ potential differences. Table 1 shows that enabling and fostering networking is among a social intranet’s main use types and goals, and, thus, it is not surprising that we expect a very strong relationship between social intranet use and the networking impact. Furthermore, Zhang and Venkatesh (2013) state how an employee’s network influences job performance. Furthermore, we find Suh and Bock (2015) who propose a positive relationship between informal networking activities and employee performance.
Conversely, examining the traditional intranets, Table 1 shows that the main use types are to provide information to the employees as well as in further development stages also to support collaboration. Even though traditional intranets do not directly focus on supporting networking activities, we find that the introduced functionalities for collaboration such as online chats and forums can also – as a byproduct – be used for more informal interchange and networking activities (Risku & Dickinson, 2009). Based on this, we posit:
H2: (a) How the intranet use affects the networking impact and (b) how the networking impact affects the individual performance impact are significantly higher with a new social intranet based on an ESM platform than with a traditional intranet.
2.3 The role of the organizational climate and its characteristics
Considering the use-performance relationship and how a social intranet can positively impact employee performance, we find evidence highlighting the importance of the organizational culture or climate when introducing a new ICT, as well as the influence on employee
8 performance (e.g. Meglino, 1976). Before hypothesizing how the organizational climate influences the use-performance relationship, it is essential to define the concept of organizational climate and to present the conceptual differences from the organizational culture concept. Studying the organizational culture concept more closely, Goffee and Jones (1996) characterize it as the “glue that holds organizations together.” Drawing on this, Schein (2010) defines organizational culture as employees’ shared values, beliefs, and practices within an organization. Considering the research, we find that the organizational culture concept is often used to explain the use and adoption of various ICTs (e.g. Gallivan & Srite, 2005;
Leidner & Kayworth, 2006). Referring to the organizational climate concept, although “both climate and culture deal with the ways by which organization members make sense of their environment […] culture operates at a greater level of abstraction than climate”
(Tesluk et al., 1997). For example, Schein’s (2010) conceptualization introduces various layers of an organizational culture, which make the concept of organizational culture very difficult to observe and empirically assess (Scott et al., 2003). Thus, we decide to build on the concept of organizational climate for the purpose of our research, since organizational climate is also stated as an approach “of quantifying the culture of an organization” (Permarupan et al., 2013).
Defining organizational climate, we draw on Ireland et al. (1978) who define organizational climate as a “set of properties of the work environment, perceived directly or indirectly by the employees who work in this environment and […] assumed to be a major force in influencing their behavior on the job.” Studying the organizational climate’s ability to influence employee behavior, we also draw on social cognitive theory where Lin (2016) conceptualized organizational climate as an important concept of affecting employee behavior.
Moreover, and by studying research on social intranets and ESM platforms, we find evidence that organizational climate is an important factor to leverage the potential benefits (e.g. Engelbrecht et al., 2017; Patroni et al., 2016; Richter & Wagner, 2014). However, King et al. (2007) state that even though there were studies that focused on organizational climate, recent studies instead focus on specific climate dimensions that fit to the studies’
particular interest and focus. Thus, since our research goal is to investigate how the organizational climate influences a new social intranet’s use-performance relationship, we first need to derive relevant organizational climate dimensions. Thus, we revisited the literature and extracted four dimensions that are relevant in the context of ESM platforms and social intranets:
Firstly, we find studies stating that an employee’s identification with his/her co-workers
9 influences the social behavior in terms of helping each other (e.g. Farmer et al., 2015).
Furthermore, Hsu and Lin (2008) adopt the concept in the context of research on the adoption of ESM platforms and state it as a factor motivating an employee’s use. Moreover, Kügler et al. (2015a) also use the employee’s identification with co-workers as a dimension in their conceptualization of an enabling organizational climate. Therefore, we introduce co-worker identification as an organizational climate dimension in our conceptualization and define it in accordance with Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) as the extent to which an employee thinks of himself/herself, together with the co-workers, as a group.
Secondly, we find research stating trust as a dimension of organizational culture (e.g. McMurray et al., 2004). Hereby, we draw especially on the concept of co-worker trust, which Ferres et al. (2004) define as an employee’s perception that his/her co-workers “will act in a fair, reliable and ethical manner” and that they “will support their peers and will not take advantage of them by withholding information.” Therefore, mutual trust is essential for social interaction. Furthermore, Dirks and Ferrin (2001) introduce trust as an enabling factor under which certain outcomes, such as an improvement of performance, occur. Referring to research on ESM platforms, we find Sievert and Scholz (2017) who state trust as an essential success factor for ESM platforms. Based on this, we add trust to our conceptualization of an enabling organizational climate.
Thirdly, we find the perceived importance and extent of knowledge sharing an important dimension of an enabling organizational climate. In this context, Chin et al. (2015a) state that a knowledge sharing culture’s perception influences an ESM platform’s perceived value and usefulness. Similarly, Steinhüser et al. (2011) state the sense of knowledge sharing as a success factor of ESM platforms. To conclude, Kügler et al. (2015a) conceptualize the concept of collaboration norms as an organizational climate dimension referring to the consensus in the organization concerning collaboration, knowledge and information sharing. Based on this, we introduce knowledge sharing norms as a climate dimension and define it as the extent to which an employee perceives knowledge sharing as important in the organization.
Fourthly, and lastly, we introduce the concept of social support that refers to a perception of
“members [who] help each other and have positive social interactions” (Campion et al., 1993).
On closer investigation of ESM platforms, having a supportive culture is said to be an enabler of employees creating content (Nolte et al., 2017). Similarly, Chin et al. (2015b) posit having
10 supportive community members as an important enabling factor when it comes to the adoption of an ESM platform. Thus, we introduce social support as a fourth dimension of an enabling organizational climate when in regards to social intranets.
Since organizational climate is stated an enabling factor for the success of a social intranet, we conceptualize organizational climate as a moderator of the use-performance relationship regarding a social intranet. A moderator “affects the direction and/or strength of the relationship between the dependent and independent variables” (Shin, 2012). Based on organizational climate being stated as an enabling factor, we posit a strengthening effect. Moreover, Zhou (2018) states that the organizational climate “plays an important role in the formation and development of interpersonal relationship in work.” Since networking activities can be drilled down to maintaining and extending interpersonal relationships, we hypothesize as follows:
H3: The organizational climate strengthens (a) the relationship between an employee’s use of a social intranet and the networking impact, as well as (b) the relationship between the networking impact and the individual performance impact.
To conclude, we draw on the difference between a social intranet and a traditional intranet:
Since a traditional intranet mainly shows and distributes content that is centrally provided by an official department (see Table 1), the organizational climate dimensions such as trust among employees do not play a major role. Even considering further developed traditional intranets that also foster collaboration where employees can interact with each other, literature shows that collaboration usually involves several people aiming at a common goal, such as performing a particular task (Gronski & Pigg, 2000). Accordingly, team composition is very important by selecting the right employees for the project a priori in order to achieve the project goal (Turel
& Zhang, 2010). The employees usually know each other and are top-down delegated to work together and as a result, organizational climate, such as trust, is not considered being a relevant enabling factor. Based on this, we posit:
H4: The organizational climate does not have a moderating effect for a traditional intranet’s use-performance relationship.
11 Figure 1summarizes our proposed research model.
Figure 1. Research model
3 Method
3.1 Research site
For assessing our research model and the derived hypotheses, we performed a survey-based approach. We, therefore, identified an international automotive supplier headquartered in Germany (hereafter referred to as “AutoSupply”) in order to collect empirical data. AutoSupply manufactures special parts and delivers its products to most of the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the industry. AutoSupply, therefore, counts as a major supplier in the automotive industry. Studying the organizational structure, we find that AutoSupply consists of multiple brands that used to be independent companies, which AutoSupply acquired over time. To this very day these brands still work rather independently from each other. However, as a total organization, more than 90,000 employees work at AutoSupply – but, scrutinizing the intranet, we find that only about two thirds of the employees have access to a computer and, thus, to the corporate intranet, while the other employees mostly work in production.
In 2015, AutoSupply decided to renew their corporate intranet by replacing their traditional intranet with a new social intranet based on a state-of-the-art ESM platform, which is distributed by a major ESM provider. Taking a closer look at the traditional intranet, we find that although there was a global intranet in place, several of the brands each had an additional, organically grown intranet, which were all supposed to be replaced by a single central and organization- wide social intranet. Reviewing these traditional intranets, we find that the basis of each was
Intranet Use
(formative)
Networking Impact
Individual Performance
Impact
H1 H1
Organizational Climate
(second order) Co-worker
Identification
Trust Knowledge
Sharing Norms
Social Support
H3a H3b
Stronger effect for social intranet compared to traditional intranet No effect for traditional intranet & significant effect for social intranet H2
H4
12 still the first intranet consisting of static web pages, such as a news page and contact list, where the content was provided and edited by only selected employees. Over time, the static web pages were extended by adding further collaborative functionalities, such as a discussion forum.
At the beginning of 2017, the new social intranet was introduced and after a transition period of about nine months for transferring relevant content to the new platform, the traditional intranets were completely shut down. In sum, AutoSupply provides a unique perspective allowing us to investigate the introduction of a social intranet by also first evaluating the situation prior to the introduction and, thus, to empirically assess our research model. Due to the situation’s uniqueness, we decided to test our model within this single organization. This approach also enabled us by default to control for several sources of variation, such as different types of ESM platforms and their functionalities, as well as the duration and gravity of the employees’ exposure to these platforms.
3.2 Survey instrument
Following Straub (1989), we developed and designed a survey instrument in order to assess the concepts in our theoretical model. Thereby, we reviewed the literature in order to draw on tested and proven measures as recommended (e.g. Kankanhalli et al., 2005; Stone, 1978). Studying our research model, we operationalized the concepts as reflective measures – except for the concept of an employee’s intranet use, which was assessed as a formative measure. Based on our conceptualization of the organizational climate consisting of the four dimensions co-worker identification, trust, knowledge sharing norms, and social support, we operationalized organizational climate via a reflective-formative higher order model (Hair et al., 2016). Hereby, the dimensions of organizational culture as lower-order components are measured relying on reflective measures; analyzing organizational climate, these reflective measures act as formative variables explaining organizational climate as higher-order component.
In order to develop the formative measure for intranet use, we decided to draw on the relevant intranets’ main functionalities. Hereby, we performed several workshops with the project group that was responsible for introducing and maintaining the intranet at AutoSupply. Furthermore, formulating the measures, we build on an operationalization of Venkatesh et al. (2008) and assess the main functionalities’ use degree on a scale from 1 (Never) to 5 (Very often). As for the reflective measures, we created item pools for each of the variables after reviewing the literature. Moreover, we continuously adjusted and refined the measures: Firstly, we adapted
13 and aligned the wording to the context of this study in order to enhance comprehensibility and clarity (Suddaby, 2010). Secondly, we used the joint workshops with the project group to further refine comprehensibility in the AutoSupply context. Thirdly, we performed card sorting and item ranking exercises (Moore & Benbasat, 1991). Please see Appendix A for the final items.
3.3 Data collection and sample characteristics
For assessing our hypotheses, we rolled out our survey at two points in time. For the first data collection round, we rolled out the developed survey, which relates to a point in time where the traditional intranet was still actively used, in March 2016. After the new social intranet was implemented and used for about one and a half years – at that time the transition period for the traditional intranets had been completed for about nine months – we repeated the data collection in a second round in December 2018. As for conducting the survey, we distributed a link to a web-based survey via several communication channels. Hereby, we explicitly ensured the anonymity and strict confidentiality of data handling. We also included an attention item for ensuring that only genuine and real answers were used in the analysis. Further, we tested for common method bias by following the guidelines of Kock (2015). As a final result, we collected a final sample of 975 respondents for the first round and 870 respondents for the second round of the data collection, which we further used in our data analysis (see Appendix B for an overview of the demographics).
4 Data analysis and results
Analyzing the data and assessing our research model, we relied on the partial least squares (PLS) approach, which relates to a component-based structural equation modeling technique. As for analysis tools, we relied on SmartPLS 34 and followed the recommendations and guidelines of Hair et al. (2016) and Hair et al. (2017).
4 Ringle, C. M., Wende, S., and Becker, J.-M. 2015. "SmartPLS 3." Boenningstedt: SmartPLS GmbH, http://www.smartpls.com.
14 4.1 Measurement model assessment
Before assessing the research model and hypotheses, we assessed the measurement model for both data collection rounds. First, we assessed the intranet use as a formative variable by following the recommendations of Cenfetelli and Bassellier (2009), as well as Hair et al. (2016).
Hereby, we tested both data collection points for potential collinearity issues by showcasing that all the indicators’ variance inflation factor (VIF) was below the recommended threshold of five (Hair et al., 2016). Next, we analyzed the indicators’ outer weights and corresponding significance in order to determine relative contribution of the traditional intranet’s (first round) and social intranet’s (second round) functionalities (see Table 2). In doing this, we find that for the traditional intranet, all functionalities have a significant effect. For the social intranet, the searching and following of profile pages, the rating of content, as well as the news stream and the collaboration groups are significant functionalities for explaining an employee’s intranet use. To conclude, we revisited the indicators’ outer loadings to assess absolute importance.
Since all the indicators exceeded the 0.5 threshold, we proceeded with them when assessing the structural model as recommended by Hair et al. (2016). Table 2 provides an overview of the formative measure assessment for both data collection rounds. Furthermore, Table 2 also shows the means which relate to how often were the functionalities used by the employees.
Round 1: Traditional Intranet Round 2: Social Intranet Indicators Mean Outer
weight Outer
loading VIF Indicators Mean Outer
weight Outer loading VIF Employee search 3.502 0.485*** 0.687*** 1.078 Search profile pages 2.877 0.201*** 0.588*** 1.369 Bulletin/News
board 2.764 0.463*** 0.644*** 1.070 Follow profile pages 2.022 0.302*** 0.748*** 1.611 Discussion forums 2.291 0.518*** 0.711*** 1.090 Rate content (like,
share) 1.726 0.141* 0.710*** 2.173 Comment on content 1.504 0.124 0.634*** 2.033 Discussion forum 1.385 0.020 0.576*** 1.798 Blogging 1.571 0.025 0.537*** 1.562 News stream 2.703 0.345*** 0.670*** 1.207 Work in
collaboration groups 1.416 0.234*** 0.619*** 1.542 Search for content 3.659 0.149** 0.514*** 1.269 Notes: Significance level: ***: p<0.001; **: p<0.01; *: p<0.05.
Mean: The functionalities were measured using 5-point scales from 1 (Never) to 5 (Very often).
Table 2. Measurement model properties for formative measures
15 We continued assessing the reflective measures by following the guidelines of Hair et al. (2016).
Thereby, we assessed the variables’ construct reliability and validity for each data collection round. As a result, Table 3 indicates the variables’ mean, standard deviation (SD), composite reliability (CR), average variance extracted (AVE), and Cronbach’s alpha (CA) for each data sample. Hereby, we showcase that all indicators exceed the required thresholds as stated by Hair et al. (2016). We also revisited the loadings, and the results show that all loadings exceed the threshold of 0.7. Furthermore, the cross-loading differences (see Appendix C) exceed the recommended threshold of 0.1 (Gefen & Straub, 2005). To conclude, we also positively assessed the Fornell-Larcker criterion (Fornell & Larcker, 1981), as well as the HTMT values, which are all lower than 0.9 (Hair et al., 2016).
Construct reliability and validity Fornell-Larcker criterion Indica-
tors Mean SD CR AVE CA NI IPI CI T KSN SS Model 1: Traditional Intranet
Networking Impact
(NI) 3 2.359 0.835 0.876 0.801 0.924 0.891 Individual Performance
Impact (IPI) 3 3.280 0.857 0.871 0.795 0.921 0.408 0.895 Co-worker
identification (CI) 3 3.898 0.638 0.787 0.702 0.876 0.060 0.182 0.838 Trust (T) 3 3.665 0.668 0.855 0.775 0.912 0.045 0.128 0.585 0.881 Knowledge Sharing
Norms (KSN) 3 3.449 0.772 0.796 0.709 0.880 0.236 0.218 0.539 0.573 0.842 Social Support (SS) 3 3.803 0.605 0.809 0.724 0.887 0.074 0.101 0.563 0.702 0.599 0.851 Model 2: Social Intranet
Networking Impact
(NI) 3 2.287 0.915 0.877 0.802 0.924 0.896 Individual Performance
Impact (IPI) 3 2.519 0.926 0.906 0.841 0.941 0.659 0.917 Co-worker
identification (CI) 3 3.558 0.668 0.830 0.748 0.899 0.225 0.233 0.865 Trust (T) 3 3.406 0.703 0.888 0.818 0.931 0.190 0.209 0.702 0.904 Knowledge Sharing
Norms (KSN) 3 3.137 0.781 0.773 0.689 0.869 0.344 0.345 0.554 0.621 0.830 Social Support (SS) 3 3.528 0.642 0.846 0.766 0.907 0.202 0.247 0.638 0.716 0.644 0.875 Notes: All items underlying the above constructs were measured using 5-point Likert-type scales.
SD: Standard deviation; CR: Composite reliability; AVE: Average variance extracted; CA: Cronbach’s alpha.
Table 3. Measurement model properties for reflective measures
16 4.2 Assessment of the structural model
After positively evaluating the measurement model, we analyzed the structural model for both data collection rounds by applying a bootstrap analysis (1,000 subsamples). The results are shown Figure 2.
Figure 2. Results of the structural model assessment for both data collection rounds
Regarding the structural model, we assess and report on the path coefficients, as well as the significance of each hypothesized relationship (Hair et al., 2016), the R² adjusted that relates to a measure of the predictive power, the Stone-Geisser’s Q2 criterion (Geisser, 1975; Stone, 1974) that relates to the predictive relevance, and the effect size ƒ2 based on Cohen (1988) that relates to whether an effect has a substantive impact on the R² adjusted. However, first we assure that the explanatory variables contain no indication of collinearity issues by ensuring that all VIFs are below five (Hair et al., 2016).
First round: Traditional Intranet
Second round: Social Intranet (based on an ESM Platform)
Significance level: ***: p<0.001; **: p<0.01; *: p<0.05; ns: not significant Tradtional
Intranet Use (formative)
Networking Impact R2 adj = 0,065
Q2= 0,059
Individual Performance Impact R2 adj= 0,184
Q2= 0,177 Organizational
Climate (higher order) Co-worker
Identification
Trust
Knowledge Sharing
Norms
Social Support
0,230 *** 0,389 ***
0,017 ns 0,028 ns
0,276 *** 0,302 ***
0,293 ***
0,327 ***
Social Intranet Use
(formative)
Networking Impact R2 adj = 0,468
Q2= 0,360
Individual Performance Impact R2 adj= 0,447
Q2= 0,433 Organizational
Climate (higher order) Co-worker
Identification
Trust
Knowledge Sharing
Norms
Social Support
0,547 *** 0,620 ***
0,065 ** 0,022 ns
0,282 *** 0,296 ***
0,270***
0,317 ***
17 Investigating the relationship between an employee’s intranet use and networking impact, we find that for both data collection rounds, there is a significant positive effect. However, when further assessing the effect size ƒ2, the analysis shows that for the second data collection, there is a large effect (ƒ2 = 0.438), but for the first data collection, there is only a small effect (ƒ2 = 0.056). These findings also relate to the evaluation of the R² adjusted and also the Q2 values for the networking impact, which are very low regarding the first model.
Assessing the relationship between networking impact and individual performance impact, we find that for both models, the effect is significant: The effect size for the first data collection is medium (ƒ2 = 0.183) and for the second data collection large (ƒ2 = 0.627). Similarly, the effect sizes reflect on the R² adjusted and the Q2 values for the individual performance impact (see Figure 2).
We also assess whether networking impact mediates the use-performance relationship by following the recommendations of Hair et al. (2016). Hereby, we find that for both models, networking impact partially mediates the relationship, since the direct effect of the intranet use- individual performance relationship becomes significant, while the indirect effect still remains significant for each model. Thus, our data supports H1, however only partially.
Furthermore, we assess the organizational climate’s moderating effects. At the outset, we state that all four conceptualized dimensions contribute significantly toward explaining the organizational climate in the context of our research with trust showcasing the biggest contribution by a small margin for both models. Studying the social intranet and second data collection round, we find that organizational climate significantly moderates the relationship between social intranet use and networking impact, although – by examining the effect size– only showing a small effect (ƒ2 = 0.006) based on Kenny (2018). Therefore, our data shows evidence of supporting H3a. However, regarding the networking impact and individual performance impact relationship, organizational climate does not show a significant moderating effect and, thus, our data does not support H3b. Considering the first model, we do not find any evidence of a moderating role for the organizational climate and, thus, our analysis supports H4.
Eventually, we checked our model for three control variables (organizational tenure, general work experience, and experience with social media in private life), but could not find any significant effect as well as could not observe any major increase in terms of the R² adjusted.
18 4.3 Evaluating both models’ differential effects using multigroup analysis
In order to evaluate H2, we perform a multigroup analysis contrasting the effects of both data collection rounds. Thereby, we follow the recommendations by Hair et al. (2017) and perform a permutation test. Table 4 shows the results of the analysis.
Path Round 1
coefficient
Round 2
coefficient Permutation test Intranet Use
Networking Impact 0.230 *** 0.547 *** p= 0.000 ***
Networking Impact
Individual Performance Impact 0.389 *** 0.620 *** p= 0.000 ***
Organizational Climate moderates (Intranet Use
Networking Impact)
0.017 ns 0.065 ** p= 0.231 ns
Organizational Climate moderates (Networking Impact
Individual Performance Impact) 0.028 ns 0.022 ns p= 0.867 ns Notes: Significance level: ***: p<0.001; ***: p<0.01; *: p<0.05; ns: not significant.
Round 1: traditional intranet; Round 2: social intranet.
Table 4. Results of the multigroup analysis
The analysis shows that both the intranet use-networking impact relationship and the networking impact-individual performance impact relationships are significantly more positive regarding a social intranet. Therefore, our data supports H2. For completing the multigroup analysis, we also state whether the moderating effects differ significantly. Hereby, the multigroup analysis does not show any significant difference. However, since for the social intranet, the moderating effect between intranet use and networking impact is significant and for the traditional intranet the moderating effect is not significant, we still state H4 as supported.
4.4 Analyzing the variable level differences between the data collection rounds
Finalizing our data analysis, we return to the measurement-model level evaluating whether the individual variables differ significantly from each other by performing a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) (Weinfurt, 1995) using SPSS 26 as a tool. Hereby, we only use the reflective measured variables given that the operationalization of intranet use as a formative construct does not allow for fair comparison, since the functionalities are very different. In order to do this, we use the latent variable scores, which are calculated by using each variable’s item loadings.
19 Table 5 shows the results.
Variable Round 1 Round 2 MANOVA
Networking Impact Ø = 2.359 Ø = 2.287 p= 0.074 ns
Individual Performance Impact Ø = 3.280 Ø = 2.519 p= 0.000 ***
Co-worker Identification Ø = 3.898 Ø = 3.558 p= 0.000 ***
Trust Ø = 3.665 Ø = 3.406 p= 0.000 ***
Knowledge Sharing Norms Ø = 3.449 Ø = 3.137 p= 0.000 ***
Social Support Ø = 3.803 Ø = 3.528 p= 0.000 ***
Notes: Round 1: traditional intranet; Round 2: social intranet.
Ø: All items were measured by using a 5-point Likert scale.
Bold: significantly greater.
Significance level: ***: p<0.001; ***: p<0.01; *: p<0.05; ns: not significant.
Table 5. Results of MANOVA
We do not find a significant difference in terms of the networking impact, which is rather surprising, since networking is stated as a main use type of a social intranet. Furthermore, we find that the individual performance impact is significantly higher in the first data collection round. Eventually, we find a similar picture when studying the four organizational climate dimensions, since all four dimensions are significantly higher in the first round. In sum, the MANOVA’s results are rather surprising and require further explanation (see discussion section next).
5 Discussion
5.1 Core findings and interpretations
In the following, we discuss and interpret our findings based on existing literature. We also supplement the discussion by drawing on an interview study that was performed along the survey-based data collection involving several user types and stakeholders (see Appendix D for an overview of the interviewees). In this interview study, we performed 53 interviews at three points in time: The first interview round (n=20) was conducted together with the first survey- based data collection where we focused on extracting the status quo of using the traditional intranet and the expectations toward the social intranet; the second interview round (n=15) took place shortly after the new social intranet was rolled out in order to extract initial problems and
20 hurdles; and the third interview round (n=18) was carried out along with the second survey in order to evaluate the social intranet’s impact on the employees’ daily work. We use excerpts5 from these interviews when discussing the results for the purpose of data triangulation (Wilson, 2014). Thereby, we strengthen our results by using data from a second data source and provide further empirical insights when discussing and reasoning about surprising results or not-supported hypotheses.
Investigating the mediating role of networking in terms of the use-performance relationship, our results show that for both data collection rounds, networking impact acts as a partial moderator. Regarding the second data collection round, our results are in line with existing research proving that an employee’s use of an ESM platform has a positive effect on networking behavior (Boughzala, 2014), as well as research stating that networking on an ESM platform improves employee performance (e.g. Moqbel et al., 2013). However, our research extends these studies by showcasing networking impact as a partial mediator. Thus, we can derive that using a social intranet for the purpose of networking is an essential aspect for the use-performance relationship. Furthermore, the networking aspect is also stated important in the interview study: “I think that it will have a really positive impact. It is definitely my favorite thing about it, since it creates more visibility to information and it creates more visibility to other people. And it makes you feel more connected. Therefore, I really like that part of it”
(Interviewee 9 – Round 3). Nevertheless, since we only show partial mediation, statistics imply that there are also other aspects and use types of an employee’s social intranet use that are relevant for having an effect on the individual performance impact. Revisiting the literature, we find evidence of collaboration on projects acting as a mediating factor (Dittes & Smolnik, 2019).
Moreover, we also find evidence for the importance of collaboration on AutoSupply’s social intranet: “We now have a platform where everybody can collaborate, […] which, in turn, has several effects” (Interviewee 2 – Round 3).
By zooming in on the social intranet use variable in the second data collection round, we also found several new social media (or Web 2.0) functionalities – such as searching and following profile pages and evaluating content by liking and sharing – that determine the use when explaining the relationship toward the networking impact. However, we also find functionalities, such as working in collaboration groups, relevant. This finding reinforces the
5 Some excerpts are translated and thus, minor changes are possible due to language exclusive terms.
21 argument in the theoretical foundations (Section 2) emphasizing the malleability of ESM platforms (Richter & Riemer, 2013), which relates to the employees’ bottom-up decision on how to use various functionalities. Thus, the users can e.g. decide to use the collaboration groups for the purpose of networking (e.g. Risku & Dickinson, 2009). This fact also links to the first data collection round where the use of discussion forums, which were introduced for collaboration purposes, ultimately is the most important determinant when explaining the use of the traditional intranet in the context of networking impact: “There were discussions […], which were on a rather informal level” (Interviewee 3 – Round 1).
The multigroup analysis also shows that the path coefficients of the intranet use and networking impact relationship, as well as those of the relationship between networking impact and individual performance impact, are significantly smaller than the social intranet’s path coefficients. Our research, therefore, supports H2a and H2b. Drawing on this, and although the effect size of the relationship between traditional intranet use and networking impact is small, the effect is significant and, thus, leads to the finding that also regarding the traditional intranet, networking impact serves as a mediator. This finding shows that employees tend to find ways to socially interact even though networking is not a main use type of traditional intranets (see Table 1) and, thus, our study reinforces the general importance of informal social interaction and a corresponding social network when improving an employee’s job performance (Zhang & Venkatesh, 2013).
Evaluating the influence of organizational climate for the second data collection round, we find that it only moderates the relationship between social intranet use and networking impact, thus, supporting H3a. The relationship between networking impact and individual performance impact is, however, not moderated and, therefore, H3b is not supported. Explaining this finding, we can derive that organizational climate only acts as an enabler so that active users can network – however, after this initial building of a reliable network, the organizational climate seems to not play a role in the context of the use-performance relationship according to our data.
Although this finding does not support H3b, this is reasonable and explainable to a certain degree: In a big organization, such as AutoSupply, most of the co-workers are unknown unless they have work with each other in previous projects (Zhu et al., 2014). Therefore, an organizational climate where there is general trust and support among the workforce might ease the means to approach those unknown co-workers. Similarly, Helms et al. (2011) state organizational climate as a barrier of approaching experts within an organization. Considering
22 the interview study, we also found evidence that the organizational climate plays a role when employees first make contact: “It is a matter of the organizational culture. I think that it [makes it] more transparent and that employees are connected” (Interviewee 2 – Round 3). However, when it comes to asking your contacts for help to work on tasks in order to improve the job performance, the opposite side is usually known or there has been some prior contact. Thus, general trust among employees such as conceptualized as a dimension of organizational climate only plays a minor role – its more about a specific trust between two individuals.
Moreover, when considering the traditional intranet, our data supported H4, since the organizational climate does not play an enabling role in the context of the use-performance relationship. This becomes obvious when an interviewee talks about expected changes for the new intranet: “The sense of community will increase because the employees will help each other and discuss […] – currently this does not work yet.” (Interviewee 2 – Round 1). Drawing on this, since the content presented in traditional intranets is usually centrally published and governed (Williams & Schubert, 2018), the aspects of organizational climate such as trust among employees does not play a role since it is rather about the specific trust in the central department that is responsible for posting the content.
To conclude, we discuss the MANOVA’s results, which states that the networking impact is not significantly bigger when compared to the two data collection rounds. This finding is somewhat surprising, since we state networking as a major use type that was added by replacing the traditional intranet with a new social intranet (see Table 1). In order to explain this, we need to delve deeply into the AutoSupply case where we find evidence that the new social media functionalities are not yet fully used by the majority of the workforce: “To be honest, [I use it] almost the same way [as the old intranet]” (Interviewee 23 – Round 3). This can also be derived from looking at the means in Table 2 for each functionality’s use since the most commonly used functionalities relate to searching profiles or content. Drawing on surprising findings, our results also show that the perceived extent of the four organizational climate dimensions decreased from the first to the second data collection round. Revisiting our interviews and the general research setting, we find that a potential reason for this finding bases on the new social intranet being introduced as a central and global intranet for all organizational brands, replacing also the individual intranets (see Section 3). Since we stated that the brands were mainly operating individually, the interviews show that the organizational climate within those brands is very good, while there might be a bit of animosity between them and, thus, there
23 are mostly independent organizational climates: “I do not think we have an overall organizational culture; we rather differentiate between the […] brands, as well as the subsidiaries” (Interviewee 1 – Round 1). Thus, having a global intranet for all brands exposes the employees to the other brands’ employees which, in turn, can reduce the sense of, for example, trust and co-worker identification in the course of answering a questionnaire in the context of this new social intranet. Eventually, the result that the individual performance impact is perceived lower in the second data collection round can be explained with the fact that the new social intranet bases on a very powerful ESM platform bringing far more functionalities and possibilities than the traditional intranet. The interviews show that only a small range of the new social intranet’s functionalities is currently used and, thus, employees see much more potential in the platform: “The new intranet has so much more potential” and “I think there is so much more potential even though I already see initial results […]; I really hope that the tool will be used more intensely” (Interviewee 20 – Round 3).
5.2 Theoretical contributions
In our study, we apply a longitudinal study design. By collecting survey data at two points in time, we are able to compare and contrast by analyzing the differences and to showcase empirical insights into the state of affairs before and after the introduction of the new social intranet. In this context, the rich and comprehensive empirical data collected at AutoSupply, along with the very interesting setting, allow us to present a very unique perspective and deep insights into the principles of introducing a social intranet. Thereby, our study is one of the first survey-based empirical studies in the realm of ESM platforms relying on longitudinal data. Our study, therefore, also addresses various calls for research, such as investigating changes of how people use and create value by using ESM platforms (e.g. Mäntymäki & Riemer, 2016) and showcasing an ESM platform’s actual impact (e.g. Aral et al., 2013).
Moreover, operationalizing intranet use as a formative measure by referring to the various functionalities’ usage extent as indicators, enables us to gain richer empirical insights into these functionalities’ role and importance in order to explain the networking impact. Thus, we draw on Barki et al. (2007), as well as Cenfetelli and Bassellier (2009), who motivate this approach in order to provide a new and more holistic perspective of IT use. Thereby, our study not only sets an example for upcoming research and quantitative studies involving the concept of IT use but also addresses a major call for research, which demands opening the black box and further
24 clarifying the IT artifact’s actual impact within the information systems (IS) research realm (Orlikowski & Iacono, 2001).
Next, and by showcasing networking impact as a partial mediator between an employee’s intranet use and individual performance impact, our study also contributes to the very rich research stream on the use-performance relationship (e.g. DeLone & McLean, 1992;
Lucas Jr, 1975; Robey, 1979). Moreover, by providing evidence for the importance of networking and informal social interaction, literature shows that networking does not only have the potential to improve employees’ performance but also, for example, to reduce burnout (Day & Leiter, 2014) and, thus, our study design could also be applied outside of the use-performance relationship.
In our study, we introduce and develop the concept of organizational climate and conceptualize it as a moderator in the context of the use-performance relationship. Thereby, we derive four dimensions from the literature, which are especially important in the context of a social intranet and ESM platform, and operationalize these dimensions as a higher order construct. Applying this approach, we also introduce a robust conceptualization and measurement instrument of an organizational climate, since we show that the dimensions are independent facets (see evaluation of measurement model). Hence, we introduce a conceptualization of an enabling organizational climate that can be applied in other research on ESM platforms and that can also be adjusted in order to fit to other contexts as recommended by King et al. (2007). Moreover, studying the current research on the role of organizational climate in the context of ESM platforms, we find studies stating organizational climate – or dimensions of it – also as a motivational factor directly influencing an employee’s use (Kügler et al., 2015a) or as a positive effect resulting from employees using an ESM platform (Cao et al., 2012). In this context, it would also be interesting to apply our conceptualization of the organizational climate as an antecedent or outcome of an employee’s ESM use.
5.3 Managerial implications
Considering the relevance of our research for practice, we also provide various implications for practitioners. Drawing on various skeptic voices doubting that ESM platforms and social intranet bring along several positive effects and benefits (e.g. Bughin, 2016; Mann et al., 2012;
Miller et al., 2011), our results can be used to contrast these negative opinions. In our study, we show that introducing a social intranet has the potential to enhance an employee’s performance.
