What has the internet ever done for employees? A review, map and research agenda
| Date | 11 November 2011 |
| Published date | 11 November 2011 |
| Pages | 22-43 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451211183246 |
| Author | James Richards |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
What has the internet ever done
for employees? A review, map and
research agenda
James Richards
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which employees have benefitted
in the internet age and to identify research gaps that surround such activities.
Design/methodology/approach – The approach is a combination of a systematic literature review
and an empirical analysis of secondary data drawn from press reports of emergent employee internet
activities.
Findings – The internet continues to provide fresh and exciting opportunities for the employee to
explore in relation to furthering employment-related interests. However, the internet very much
represents a “double-edged sword” in that the many advantages of the internet can be quickly
cancelled out by employer attempts to monitor, control, and exploit for themselves such activities, for
their own ends. It is also evident that a full assessment of some activities cannot be made without
further research.
Research limitations/implications – The paper is reliant on extant literature and resources that
are known to have limited scholarly application.
Practical implications – A broad and eclectic discussion of employee internet activities is likely to
be of interest to academics and human resource practitioners whose interests are based on a blend of
employee relations practices and new internet-based technological developments.
Social implications – The study addresses how a distinct actor in employee relations has faired in
an age denoted by shrinking opportunities for collective action, yet also denoted by rapid
developments in empowering user-generated and social networking forms of information
communication technology.
Originality/value – This paper synthesises literature and data from a wide range of largely
incongruous academic and non-academic sub-disciplines to provide a fresh and authoritative account
of emergent employee behaviour.
Keywords Internet, Employees,Employee exchanges, Communicationtechnologies,
Computer applications
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In the early days of the internet this new form of communication was seen as some sort
of “beacon of hope” for individuals fragmented and disempowered by the forces of
advanced capitalism (Barglow, 1994). Castells (2002), moreover, claimed that internet
communication technologies could augment powers of social organisation and
integration. Indeed, over time, it has been clearly demonstrated that the internet has
become a focal point for almost every human activity and interest (Haythornthwaite
and Wellman, 2002). However, it is fair to say that we just do not know how certain
groups, such as employees, have faired in the internet age, especially as the internet
age (early 1990s onward) is also defined by a period of significant decline in traditional
collectivised employee activities related to trade union memberships, collective
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Employee Relations
Vol. 34 No. 1, 2012
pp. 22-43
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425451211183246
bargaining and strike action (Kersley et al., 2006; Barratt, 2009; Hale, 2010). We also do
not know how employees have faired as a result of more recent significant changes in
internet communication technologies, such as those associated with user-generated
blogging and social networking platforms. This is especially concerning as new forms
of internet communication technologies clearly have more potential for
self-organisation and individual actio n than static web sites (Web 1.0) that
previously required high levels of technical expertise to set up and maintain.
As such, the purpose of this paper is to attempt to investigate how employees have
faired throughout the entire internet age, with particular emphasis on the past five to
ten years. This is done by investigating the many growing applications employees
have for changing and evolving internet communication technologies. What is meant
by investigating employee applications of the internet is to consider a range of
pertinent questions. First, what can employees apply the internet for? Second, how has
the arrival of user-generated forms of internet communication technologies, such as
blogs and social networking platforms, changed the nature of what employees can
apply the internet for? Third and most importantly, have employees benefitted from
such changes or it is the case that it is far from clear what benefits employees can
derive from living in an ever-changing and evolving internet age? As such, the scope of
this paper is very large, yet is clearly defined and limited by a critical assessment of
what the internet age has allowed employees to do.
To do this the paper is organised into four sections. First, there is a brief overview
and discussion of the internet age with particular attention given to the shift from Web
1.0 to Web 2.0 forms of internet communication technologies, and how such
technologies have crept into the employment and organisation-related scholarly
debates. Second, the methodological approach of the paper is outlined and discussed. In
this instance methodological approaches involving a systematic reviewing processes
and the re-analysis of secondary data are examined. Third, there will be an in-depth
discussion of both early and more recent employee applications for the internet. It is
important to recognise early employee applications for the internet, as such practices
are likely to continue today, yet may be so ingrained in personal habits or
institutionalised in organisational policies and practices that they are rarely reflected
upon, especially in comparison with more recent developments in internet-based
communication technologies. It is also important to recognise how more long-standing
employee applications for the internet have expanded somewhat to reflect the
increasing social, inclusivity and informal nature of such communication technologies.
Fourth, and finally, there will be an overall discussion that is intended to reflect upon
the broader significance of such activities. As such, the final section of the paper
involves a reflection on the limitations of the current study, a map to reflect the main
findings, as well as pointing towards future research opportunities in this emergent
and growing sub-discipline of employment and organisational related study.
The evolution of the internet and arrival of the internet in employment and
organisational scholarly debates
It has been said that the primary objective and nature of the early internet (early 1990s
to early 2000s) – now widely referr ed to as Web 1.0 – was to publish information for
easy access by anyone using an internet-connected web browser (Murugesan, 2009).
However, in the first few years of the twenty-first century, new internet technologies
What has the
internet done for
employees?
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