Enhancing Company Communication

Computer Supported Cooperation

Interactive technology plays a central role in organizations; one facet is the provision of tools for communication and cooperation. Within the Christian Doppler Laboratory (CDL), we accompanied the roll-out of corporate social media in a international production company. In a first step, we investigated the usage and acceptance of the tool through a multitude of actions (e.g., expert evaluation, use case definition, success criteria survey, workshops, and a benchmark survey). The first benchmark survey round particularly strived to assess the employees’ attitude towards the corporate social media platform at a specific point in time. The results of this survey (n= 224) show that the employees rather accepted the social media platform for internal communication and collaboration purposes.

After rolling out the social media platform company wide, we decided to re-assess the employees’ attitude towards the platform with a second benchmark questionnaire round one and a half years later. Thereby, we aimed to investigate – after being initially accepted in the first round – if the employees had adopted and integrated the social media into daily work practices. The quantitative findings showed that the employees rarely adopted the social media platform into their work practices. This finding led us to analyze in detail the qualitative data gathered along with the survey, as this data held valuable examples and explanations to better understand this phenomenon. Hereby, we identified three major challenges regarding the adoption of corporate social media: (1) diverging perspectives & uncertain top-down communication, (2) the functionality jungle & high usage complexity, and (3) lacking collaboration & customization.

In order to further inform and address the identified challenges in technology acceptance and adoption, we broadened our perspective towards technology appropriation, which not only concerns social media, but a variety of interactive technology in organizations and private lives. In a series of workshops, we aim to discuss and learn from individuals’ experiences and practices in adapting technology to their needs. Thereby, we particularly focus on technology that was not initially intended to foster communication, but which was appropriated to meet people’s communication needs. Thereby, users are considered as part of an ongoing design process, which can also inform the design of novel interactive technology.

Contact: Alina Krischkowsky

Related Publications

J. Bardzell, N. Boulus-Rødje, M. Muller, A. Salovaara, A. Krischkowsky, and V. Fuchsberger, "Discerning Designers' Intentions," in to appear in Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work -- Panel, Reports of the European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies, 2017.
[Bibtex]

@InProceedings{Bardzell_etal2017,
author="Bardzell, Jeffrey
and Boulus-R{\o}dje, Nina
and Muller, Michael
and Salovaara, Antti
and Krischkowsky, Alina
and Fuchsberger, Verena",
title="Discerning Designers{'} Intentions",
booktitle="to appear in Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work -- Panel, Reports of the European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies",
year="2017"
}

M. Muller, K. Neureiter, N. Verdezoto, A. Krischkowsky, A. M. Polli, and M. Tscheligi, "Workshop: Collaborative Appropriation: How Couples, Teams, Groups and Communities Adapt and Adopt Technologies," in Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing Companion (CSCW '16 Companion), 2016, pp. 473-480.
[Bibtex]

@InProceedings{Muller_etal2016,
author="Muller, Michael
and Neureiter, Katja
and Nervo Verdezoto
and Krischkowsky, Alina
and Polli, Anna M.
and Tscheligi, Manfred",
title="Workshop: Collaborative Appropriation:  How Couples, Teams, Groups and Communities Adapt and Adopt Technologies",
booktitle="Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing Companion (CSCW {'}16 Companion)",
year="2016",
pages="473--480",
doi="10.1145/2818052.2855508",
opturl="http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2818052.2855508"
}

A. Krischkowsky, M. Tscheligi, K. Neureiter, M. Muller, A. M. Polli, and N. Verdezoto, "Workshop: Experiences of Technology Appropriation: Unanticipated Users, Usage, Circumstances, and Design," in Adjunct Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 2015.
[Bibtex]

@InProceedings{Krischkowsky_etal2015,
author="Krischkowsky, Alina
and Tscheligi, Manfred
and Neureiter, Katja
and Muller, Michael
and Polli, Anna M.
and Verdezoto, Nervo",
title="Workshop: Experiences of Technology Appropriation: Unanticipated Users, Usage, Circumstances, and Design",
booktitle="Adjunct Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work",
year="2015"
}

M. Tscheligi, A. Krischkowsky, K. Neureiter, K. Inkpen, M. Muller, and G. Stevens, "Potentials of the ''Unexpected'': Technology Appropriation Practices and Communication Needs," in Proceedings of the 18th ACM international conference on Supporting group work, 2014, pp. 313-316.
[Bibtex]

@InProceedings{Tscheligi_etal2014,
author="Tscheligi, Manfred
and Krischkowsky, Alina
and Neureiter, Katja
and Inkpen, Kori
and Muller, Michael
and Stevens, Gunnar",
title="Potentials of the {'}{'}Unexpected{'}{'}: Technology Appropriation Practices and Communication Needs",
booktitle="Proceedings of the 18th ACM international conference on Supporting group work",
year="2014",
pages="313--316",
isbn="978-1-4503-3043-5",
doi="10.1145/2660398.2660427",
opturl="http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2660398.2660427"
}

A. Krischkowsky, V. Fuchsberger, and M. Tscheligi, "Revisiting Corporate Social Media: Challenges and Implications from a Long-Term Study," in ACM Conference on Supporting Groupwork, GROUP'14, 2014.
[Bibtex]

@InProceedings{Krischkowsky_etal2014,
author="Krischkowsky, Alina
and Fuchsberger, Verena
and Tscheligi, Manfred",
title="Revisiting Corporate Social Media: Challenges and Implications from a Long-Term Study",
booktitle="ACM Conference on Supporting Groupwork, GROUP{'}14",
year="2014",
doi="10.1145/2660398.2660411"
}

A. Krischkowsky, A. Weiss, S. Osswald, and M. Tscheligi, "Evaluating a social media platform in a large-scale international company: A five action approach," in International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS) 2013, 2013, pp. 99-106.
[Bibtex]

@InProceedings{Krischkowsky_etal2013_2,
author="Krischkowsky, Alina
and Weiss, Astrid
and Osswald, Sebastian
and Tscheligi, Manfred",
title="Evaluating a social media platform in a large-scale international company: A five action approach",
booktitle="International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS) 2013",
year="2013",
pages="99--106"
}

A. Krischkowsky, A. Weiss, S. Osswald, and M. Tscheligi, "Enhancing Company Communication: The Case of a Social Media Platform," in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI2013), 2013.
[Bibtex]

@InProceedings{Krischkowsky_etal2013,
author="Krischkowsky, Alina
and Weiss, Astrid
and Osswald, Sebastian
and Tscheligi, Manfred",
title="Enhancing Company Communication: The Case of a Social Media Platform",
booktitle="Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI2013)",
year="2013"
}

Enhancing Company Communication

Computer Supported Cooperation

Research by

Alina Krischkowsky

Research Lead

Verena Fuchsberger

Research

Related Publications