Purpose

The study aims to understand enterprise social media usage at work and explore its impact on employee outcomes, particularly learning behaviors. The scope of the paper is limited to organizationally facilitated enterprise social media (ESM) used internally for workplace communication and draws upon ESM affordances highlighted by the theory of communication visibility.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used a qualitative research design based on Miles and Huberman framework (1994) as the research question was exploratory in nature. Thematic analysis was conducted using QSR-NVivo to arrive at the dominant themes and to understand their relationship between enterprise social media use at work. Each emergent theme was generated from the behavioral indicators labelled as nodes. Drawing on qualitative data, the study explored the lived-in experiences of employees using enterprise social media for workplace interactions.

Findings

The thematic analysis using QSR-NVivo provided qualitative evidence for the phenomenon of enterprise social media use in the form of four emergent themes: patterns of enterprise social media usage by employees, employees' informal learning behaviors, employee social capital and organizational learning capability.

Research limitations/implications

The study provides theoretical insights into the lived-in experiences of employees using ESM at work and unravel thematic behavioral impact on their learning, social capital and organizational learning capability. The findings of this study support recent research work on impact of ESM on knowledge sharing behaviors (see Sun et al., 2019) and other significant work on co-creation of knowledge (see Wagner et al., 2014). Thus, adding to the body of knowledge management literature.

Practical implications

This study provides evidence for the role of enterprise social media in developing organizational learning capability by offering support and platform for employees' informal learning and building their social capital. Thus, organizations should leverage enterprise social media not only a social networking tool but more as a strategic learning resource. Hence, organizational leaders must encourage employees to be involved on such platforms in order to promote their informal learning. Also, this study captures the role of employee social capital in explaining the enterprise social media, informal learning and organizational learning capability relationship. This shows that enterprise social media can help employees to learn informally when they have good relationships. Hence, this study provides implications for both HR and IT managers and consultants who plan to implement technology for collaborative purposes, should not undermine the importance of building employee social capital. Only then can they utilize the potential of ESM as a learning tool. Last, this research may also influence the general attitude towards social media use at work and further impact the design and implementation of organizational social media policies.

Originality/value

The paper is novel as the qualitative investigation offers deeper insights into the impact of ESM usage on employee and organizational learning behaviors. The paper draws on theoretical underpinnings to present useful linkages between emergent concepts and makes valuable contribution to the literature on enterprise social media use and learning at work.

中文翻译：

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企业社交媒体与工作学习的相互作用：定性调查

目的

该研究旨在了解企业社交媒体在工作中的使用情况，并探讨其对员工成果，尤其是学习行为的影响。本文的范围仅限于在内部用于工作场所沟通的组织促进的企业社交媒体 (ESM)，并借鉴了沟通可见性理论所强调的 ESM 可供性。

设计/方法/方法

该研究使用基于 Miles 和 Huberman 框架（1994）的定性研究设计，因为研究问题本质上是探索性的。使用 QSR-NVivo 进行主题分析以得出主要主题并了解它们在工作中企业社交媒体使用之间的关系。每个紧急主题都是从标记为节点的行为指标生成的。该研究利用定性数据，探讨了员工使用企业社交媒体进行工作场所互动的生活体验。

发现

使用 QSR-NVivo 的主题分析以四个新兴主题的形式为企业社交媒体使用现象提供了定性证据：员工使用企业社交媒体的模式、员工的非正式学习行为、员工社会资本和组织学习能力。

研究限制/影响

该研究为员工在工作中使用 ESM 的实际体验提供了理论见解，并揭示了主题行为对他们的学习、社会资本和组织学习能力的影响。这项研究的结果支持了最近关于 ESM 对知识共享行为的影响的研究工作（参见 Sun等人，2019 年）和其他关于共同创造知识的重要工作（参见 Wagner等人，2014 年）。因此，增加了知识管理文献的主体。

实际影响

本研究通过为员工的非正式学习和建立他们的社会资本提供支持和平台，为企业社交媒体在发展组织学习能力中的作用提供了证据。因此，组织应该利用企业社交媒体，不仅是一种社交网络工具，而且更多的是作为一种战略学习资源。因此，组织领导者必须鼓励员工参与此类平台，以促进他们的非正式学习。此外，本研究还捕捉了员工社会资本在解释企业社交媒体、非正式学习和组织学习能力关系中的作用。这表明企业社交媒体可以帮助员工在人际关系良好的情况下进行非正式学习。因此，这项研究为计划实施技术以实现协作目的的人力资源和 IT 经理和顾问提供了启示，不应削弱建立员工社会资本的重要性。只有这样，他们才能利用 ESM 作为学习工具的潜力。最后，这项研究还可能影响人们对工作中使用社交媒体的一般态度，并进一步影响组织社交媒体政策的设计和实施。

原创性/价值

这篇论文很新颖，因为定性调查提供了对 ESM 使用对员工和组织学习行为的影响的更深入见解。本文利用理论基础来展示新兴概念之间的有用联系，并对有关企业社交媒体使用和工作学习的文献做出有价值的贡献。