João Baptista

Institutionalisation as a process of interplay between technology and its organisational context of use

This study contributes to the IS literature with a distinct explanation of the process of institutionalisation of technology in organisations. The research analyses the role of micro-level processes of interplay in embedding an intranet in the formal functioning of an organisation and in the habits and routines of its employees. The findings identify two types of processes of interplay underpinning this process of institutionalisation. The first operates at the level of constitutive expectations and refers to mutual changes to the governance, policy and control mechanisms which foster the perception that the intranet is part of the expected formal functioning of the organisation. The second operates at the level of background expectations and refers to mutual changes that make the intranet look more familiar, functional, easier to use, fostering its embedding in routines and habits of the employees. The study aims to motivate more research on institutionalisation as a bottom-up micro process of gradual development of institutionalised behaviour.This study contributes to the IS literature with a distinct explanation of the process of institutionalisation of technology in organisations. The research analyses the role of micro-level processes of interplay in embedding an intranet in the formal functioning of an organisation and in the habits and routines of its employees. The findings identify two types of processes of interplay underpinning this process of institutionalisation. The first operates at the level of constitutive expectations and refers to mutual changes to the governance, policy and control mechanisms which foster the perception that the intranet is part of the expected formal functioning of the organisation. The second operates at the level of background expectations and refers to mutual changes that make the intranet look more familiar, functional, easier to use, fostering its embedding in routines and habits of the employees. The study aims to motivate more research on institutionalisation as a bottom-up micro process of gradual development of institutionalised behaviour.

Communicational ambidexterity as a new capability to manage social media communication within organizations

Central to our inquiry is how organizations manage and accommodate conflicting demands in managing internal communication when they adopt social media that allows for more open and distributed communication. Drawing on ambidexterity theory we investigate and analyze the tensions and capabilities necessary to effectively manage two distinct types of internal communication (1) organizationally produced content and (2) user-generated content. We propose and unpack the concept of communicational ambidexterity to theorize the capability that enables organizations to accommodate and efficiently manage these two potentially conflicting modes of communication within organizations.