"Too busy rowing to start the engine" : Motivation and barriers to sharing knowledge through social technologies at HULib
Ristikartano, Veera (2013)
Ristikartano, Veera
HAAGA-HELIA ammattikorkeakoulu
2013
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 1.0 Suomi
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2013100415855
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2013100415855
Tiivistelmä
The life cycle of social technologies can be short. New tools emerge on weekly basis, promising individuals and organizations enhancing ways to share and develop ideas, to collaborate regardless of the locations or the organizational borders, and to build digital identities online. Many organizations seem
to have hard time keeping up with the pace of the change. Tools that raise the interest can already be forgotten by the critical mass of stakeholders by the time they have been integrated in the core processes of the organization.
In this thesis the aim is to get to the root causes of the social technologies implementation being a challenge in the target organization, Helsinki University Library. The initial motivation for the work is to develop the communication practices of the library by unleashing the potential invested in both its employees and the social technology available. The ultimate goal of this action research project is to offer the target organization suggestion how to ease the implementation process, and how to pave the way for the future technologies.
The thesis work begins with outlining the research question and the phenomena of social media at work related context. After introducing the chosen research methodology and the target organization, both the quantitative data collected by a web survey in January 2013 and the qualitative data gathered interviewing the employees in February – March 2013 are discussed in context of current research literature. The aim is to understand how the different social technologies are currently used in the organization, and what motivates staff members and on the other hand hinders employees from sharing their knowledge through these channels.
The recognized issues are discussed in context of employees’ ICT skills, training opportunities offered, as well as the features of the tools. The research results however reveal that the motivation to share knowledge through the social technologies at hand is not just about the use of tools but about the
knowledge sharing culture of the working community. Thus the results are discussed further in relation to communication practices, leadership and communication culture.
As of 2013, the struggle at HULib is still mostly with tools that have been around for a decade or more, e.g. blogs and wikis. With the suggestions in the summary chapter of the thesis the aim is to look ahead. Social media challenges not just ways of working but the organizational structures and cultures
as well. This may help to explain why adopting the social technologies to be integrated part of the working processes in the library has been such a challenge. The continually emerging new tools and culture created by their users are challenging the community further.
to have hard time keeping up with the pace of the change. Tools that raise the interest can already be forgotten by the critical mass of stakeholders by the time they have been integrated in the core processes of the organization.
In this thesis the aim is to get to the root causes of the social technologies implementation being a challenge in the target organization, Helsinki University Library. The initial motivation for the work is to develop the communication practices of the library by unleashing the potential invested in both its employees and the social technology available. The ultimate goal of this action research project is to offer the target organization suggestion how to ease the implementation process, and how to pave the way for the future technologies.
The thesis work begins with outlining the research question and the phenomena of social media at work related context. After introducing the chosen research methodology and the target organization, both the quantitative data collected by a web survey in January 2013 and the qualitative data gathered interviewing the employees in February – March 2013 are discussed in context of current research literature. The aim is to understand how the different social technologies are currently used in the organization, and what motivates staff members and on the other hand hinders employees from sharing their knowledge through these channels.
The recognized issues are discussed in context of employees’ ICT skills, training opportunities offered, as well as the features of the tools. The research results however reveal that the motivation to share knowledge through the social technologies at hand is not just about the use of tools but about the
knowledge sharing culture of the working community. Thus the results are discussed further in relation to communication practices, leadership and communication culture.
As of 2013, the struggle at HULib is still mostly with tools that have been around for a decade or more, e.g. blogs and wikis. With the suggestions in the summary chapter of the thesis the aim is to look ahead. Social media challenges not just ways of working but the organizational structures and cultures
as well. This may help to explain why adopting the social technologies to be integrated part of the working processes in the library has been such a challenge. The continually emerging new tools and culture created by their users are challenging the community further.