Orchestrating enterprise social media for knowledge co-creation: an interactionist perspective
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/VJIKMS-12-2018-0115 |
| Published date | 14 October 2019 |
| Pages | 57-74 |
| Date | 14 October 2019 |
| Author | Fatuma Namisango,Maria Miiro Kafuko,Gorretti Byomire |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Orchestrating enterprise social
media for knowledge co-creation:
an interactionist perspective
Fatuma Namisango
School of Professional Practice and Leadership, University of Technology,
Sydney, Australia and Department of Applied Computing and IT,
Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
Maria Miiro Kafuko
Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and
Gorretti Byomire
Department of Applied Computing and IT, Makerere University,
Kampala, Uganda
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to present a conceptual frameworkof four knowledge co-creation processes in
enterprise social media (ESM).From an interactionist perspective, the paper proposes a model on the role of
ESM and enterprisesocial networks (ESNs) in facilitating knowledge co-creationprocesses.
Design/methodology/approach –This conceptual paperrevisits existing literature on ESM, ESNs and
social knowledgemanagement to propose, hypothetically,the relationship between ESM, ESN and knowledge
co-creationprocesses.
Findings –ESM enhances employee-to-employee interaction, which allows employees to co-create
knowledge in a social context. Firstly, ESM affords employees to create ESNs for knowledge co-creation.
Secondly, the structure of employee-to-employee interaction in ESNs will influence knowledge co-creation
processes. Thirdly, ESNs provide the mechanism through which ESM affordances enable or constrain
knowledgeco-creation in the organisation.
Practical implications –ESM creates a social contextthat allows employees to share, apply and recreate
or reproduce knowledge in the process of knowledgeco-creation. The action possibilities of ESM perceived
and actualised by employees will enable or constrainknowledge co-creation. Such influences are fuelled by
the structuralproperties of employee relationships on ESM.
Originality/value –The paper elucidates the conceptof knowledge co-creation based on a representation
of user activities in ESM. This paper suggests that knowledge co-creation is a salient outcome of both
individual-to-individual interactions on ESM and individual-to-ESM interactions enabled by ESM
affordances.
Keywords Social knowledge, Enterprise social networks, Enterprise social media,
Knowledge co-creation
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
Although social media is fundamentally designed for socialisation, particularly
friending relationships, it offers many affordances for enabling knowledge in an
organisation (Von Krogh, 2012;Newell, 2015). Organisations are therefore increasingly
Enterprise
social media
57
Received2 December 2018
Revised17 July 2019
Accepted15 August 2019
VINEJournal of Information and
KnowledgeManagement Systems
Vol.50 No. 1, 2020
pp. 57-74
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5891
DOI 10.1108/VJIKMS-12-2018-0115
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2059-5891.htm
using enterprise social media (ESM) to enable socialisation and facilitate knowledge
processes (Hacker, 2017;Holtzblatt et al., 2013;Razmerita et al., 2014;Helms et al., 2017).
ESM and knowledge management are thus seen as “a perfect couple”(Helms et al.,
2017), mainly because ESM facilitates informal social interaction and conversation,
which create a suitable context for enabling knowledge sharing and creation (Hacker,
2017;Helms et al., 2017). Moreover, social interactions and online conversations provide
an avenue to leverage collective knowledge to generate new knowledge (Ribière and
Calabrese, 2016;Russell et al., 2016). The increasing role of ESM in knowledge sharing,
collective knowledge, and creation of knowledge has created a context for collaborative
knowledge practices such as knowledge co-creation.
Social media, generally, enables individuals to interact, share, discuss and co-create
unique outcomes (Helms et al., 2017;Kietzmann et al., 2011). ESM, in particular,
provides a suitable context to foster knowledge co-creation by enabling a range of
practices from information sharing to problem-solving (Hacker, 2017;Richter and
Riemer, 2013). ESM could also facilitate knowledge co-creation because it supports
crowdsourcing of ideas, interactive dialogue, finding expertise (Richter and Riemer,
2013;Riemer and Scifleet, 2012;Jarrahi and Sawyer, 2013), infusion of innovative ideas
(Jarrahi and Sawyer, 2013) and allow organisations to leverage individual and
collective knowledge (Razmerita et al., 2014). Visibly, ESM supports knowledge
negotiation, knowledge integration, and knowledge translation (Hacker, 2017). ESM is
popular for information sharing, which makes it a rich context for knowledge co-
creation because information flow through messages is a significant activity that
supports knowledge creation (Nonaka, 1994). Moreover, information enables
individuals to add to, restructure and develop knowledge (Machlup, 1983 cited in
(Nonaka, 1994).
Organisations may not efficiently enable knowledge without sufficiently understanding
and addressing the needs of socialcontexts (such as ESM) in which knowledge is shared and
created (Newell et al.,2009;Hacker, 2017). Despite the growing research interest in social
knowledge management, the role of ESM particularly, and social media technologies in
general, in sharing and creationof knowledge remains unclear (Bebensee et al.,2012). Extant
literature overly emphasizes knowledge management systems (KMS) and knowledge
sharing (KS) while overlookingthe social interactions between individuals, which limits our
possibilities towards enabling knowledge creation (Ribière and Calabrese, 2016). ESM
supports the formation of enterprise social networks (ESNs), which are avenues for
knowledge exchanges and creation (Holtzblatt et al., 2013;Schlagwein and Hu, 2016).
However, an explicit representation of how ESNs enable knowledge processes is also
desirable (Schlagweinand Hu, 2016).
To address the above-mentioned deficiencies, we draw on the interactionist perspective
to define the role of ESM and ESN in enabling knowledge co-creation. We identify a key
research question,which states:
RQ1. How does ESM influence knowledge co-creation in organisations?
To operationalisethis research question, we pose the following sub-questions:
RQ1.1. What knowledge co-creation processes occur on ESM?
RQ1.2. What ESM affordances could influence knowledgeco-creation processes?
RQ1.3. What is the role of ESNs in knowledge co-creationon ESM?
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