دانلود رایگان ترجمه مقاله تاثیر به اشتراک گذاری شبکه بر روی فعالیت های تسهیم دانش و عملکرد شغلی (نشریه الزویر 2016)

تاثیر به اشتراک گذاری شبکه بر روی فعالیت های تسهیم دانش و عملکرد شغلی در محیط رسانه های اجتماعی شرکتی

The effects of network sharing on knowledge-sharing activities and job performance in enterprise social media environments

Abstract

This study examines the influence of the tertius iungens orientation on knowledge-sharing activities and individual job performance within enterprise social media environments. The empirical analysis reveals that knowledge self-efficacy, social interaction ties, and the norm of reciprocity positively influence the tertius iungens orientation and knowledge-sharing activities in social media, while enjoyment of helping does not have a significant influence. In addition, the tertius iungens orientation has a significant impact on knowledge-sharing activities in social media, which in turn influences individual job performance. Based on the results of this analysis, this study discusses the research findings and proposes theoretical and practical implications of the study as well as the research’s limitations.

1 Introduction

Social media environments offer unique features, including openness, two-way communication, and open-ended feedback. These characteristics have made it possible for large numbers of people to freely and easily share their thoughts, opinions, experiences, perspectives, information, and knowledge through social media (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Given the importance of mobilizing knowledge resources through active and close relationships with coworkers (Borgatti & Cross, 2003), social media, by nature, can be useful in facilitating knowledge-sharing activities within organizations. Social media platforms are increasingly implemented in work organizations as tools for communication among employees (Leonardi, Huysman, & Steinfield, 2013). Leonardi et al. (2013, p. 2) call social media in work environments “enterprise social media,” which they define as “web-based platforms that allow workers to (1) communicate messages with specific coworkers or broadcast messages to everyone in the organization; (2) explicitly indicate or implicitly reveal particular coworkers as communication partners; (3) post, edit, and sort text and files linked to themselves or others; and (4) view the messages, connections, text, and files communicated, posted, edited and sorted by anyone else in the organization at any time of their choosing.” With the help of web technology, social media can be combined with various media tools, such as video, audio, or photos, and various communication tools, such as chat applications, audio/ video conferencing programs, or feedback systems. Through social media, employees can easily share not only their explicit knowledge through written communication, but also their tacit knowledge, which may be difficult to express in written form. Social media can make shared knowledge richer and more abundant, which in turn promotes knowledge-sharing activities.

People who actively use social media gain knowledge and information that they can use to resolve problems they may encounter with coworkers or various others. Thus, in a social media context tertius iungens activity, which involves the introduction of unconnected individuals, can play an important role in information exchange and knowledge sharing. Hess (2013) has proposed that the role of the tertius iungens orientation in the news media involves “bridging and linking” to control the types of information shared between individuals, to connect people across cultural, social, and economic spaces, and to link people with others in positions of power. In the context of enterprises’ social media efforts, tertius iungens activities are expected to lead to the development of strongly connected network structures (Obstfeld, 2005), in which knowledge and information are smoothly transmitted by introducing people who are not yet connected to one another. This can make knowledge sharing more efficient and effective.

This study examines how individuals’ tertius iungens orientations affect knowledge-sharing activities and individual job performance. We propose a conceptual framework involving threestep cause and effect relationships, moving from the formation of tertius iungens to the activation of knowledge-sharing behavior, and then to the creation of job performance in social media environments. In the first step, we posit that individual and social factors affect the level of tertius iungens orientation through social media. Our hypotheses concerning this step are based on social cognitive theory and social capital theory. In the second step, knowledge-sharing activity is developed through the tertius iungens orientation and its antecedents. In the final step, the effect of the tertius iungens orientation on individual job performance is revealed through knowledge-sharing activities.

Our study makes significant theoretical contributions by revealing the important role of the tertius iungens orientation in the relationship between individual and social factors, knowledgesharing activities, and job performance, and presents practical implications for companies’ in-house social media strategies that make it possible to enhance individual job performance.