Learning to Share by Reflection-on-Action on an Enterprise Social Media Platform

Abstract

Enterprise Social Media Platforms are now commonplace in organisations. They are argued to bring benefits, like simplifying work processes, enhance internal communications and reduce internal organisational barriers. Such benefits can be obtained on the assumption that employees naturally engage on a platform and share knowledge. But how to and what to share on an enterprise platform is not always a straightforward task and is a practice that must be learned through sense-making of sharing. Therefore, this challenges the assumption that sharing on Social Media Enterprise Platforms can bring benefits. Consequently, the paper examines the challenges in making sense of the meaning of the practice of sharing. The paper explores a case study on how a County Authority in a Nordic country implemented an Enterprise Social Media Platform and how a group of employees tried to make sense of the practice of sharing by reflection-on-action. The results show that the employees interpreted sharing as an informing practice, resulting in information-overload and disengaged users.