Abstract Employees’ knowledge about their coworkers’ knowledge (i.e., meta-knowledge) is central for organizations to create competitive advantages. According to Communication Visibility Theory, enterprise social networks (ESNs) have the potential to foster long-term formation of meta-knowledge. However, research about this potential is still limited. Using a quantitative study, we improve the understanding of how ESNs facilitate the development of meta-knowledge in three ways: we (1) show that the creation of meta-knowledge through ESNs works across contexts, (2) find that ESNs can lead to rather immediate increases in meta-knowledge, and (3) reveal that managers can gain more meta-knowledge using ESNs than can non-managers.

中文翻译：

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员工如何使用企业社交网络获得元知识：沟通可见性理论的验证和扩展

摘要员工对同事的知识（即元知识）的知识对于组织创造竞争优势至关重要。根据“传播可见性理论”，企业社交网络（ESN）具有促进长期形成元知识的潜力。但是，关于这种潜力的研究仍然很有限。通过定量研究，我们通过三种方式增强了对ESN如何促进元知识发展的理解：我们（1）表明通过ESN创建元知识可在各种情况下工作，（2）发现ESN可以导致（3）显示，与非管理人员相比，经理人使用ESN可以获得更多的元知识。