Knowledge Sharing on Enterprise Social Media: Practices to Cope With Institutional Complexity

Abstract

This study examines the use of enterprise social media (ESM) for organizational knowledge sharing and shows that professionals face ambiguities because their knowledge sharing behavior is informed by an institutional complexity that consists of 2 dissimilar institutional logics: Logics of the profession, and logics of the corporation. Our qualitative case study of an ESM at an IT consultancy organization shows that professionals find ways to manage the ambiguities they experience by engaging the affordances of ESM in such a way as to develop coping practices: Connection management, reputation management, and information management. By complementing the affordance perspective with an institutional logics perspective, we are able to advance scholarly understanding on how ESM can facilitate but also frustrate knowledge sharing.