Thomas Wagenknecht

Towards a design theory of computer-supported organizational participation

Purpose Employees demand high responsibility and empowerment, while keeping their work communal and flexible. Initiatives that foster organizational participation (OP) can contribute to the fulfillment of such work conditions. Research in sociology and psychology demonstrated positive effects on job satisfaction as well as on productivity. However, adoption of social software is widely spread in firms, research on the determinants of computer-supported OP is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to describe the elements to consider when designing OP processes that aim to be beneficial for both the employer as well as the employees. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted 20 guided expert interviews to propose a nascent design theory, following a socio-technical approach that promotes democratic and humanistic principles. Findings Building on the expert interview, the process model includes a topic horizon and a collaboration phase, which creates proposals that have to be decided in order to produce results. The authors show how employee competence and leadership commitment are as important as the workload and support as well as an option for anonymous communication. The authors propose a set of features and explain principles of implementation. Research limitations/implications Despite the authors’ best efforts to diversify the authors’ set of experts, the findings have a limited generalizability as the authors only interviewed a few selected German experts that were either members of the board, HR or IT managers, often concerned with organizing rather than only participating in computer-supported organizational participation (CSOP) processes. Besides testing the model in practise, future research should also consider surveying a broader (and more international) set of employers and employees. Practical implications The authors propose a step-by-step procedure to introduce CSOP. Despite identifying many pitfalls, the research demonstrates that CSOP promises a wide variety of benefits to both employers as well as the employees of an organization, including increased satisfaction as well as productivity. Originality/value This is one of the first studies to propose a nascent design theory for CSOP. The authors derive a number of requirements to consider when implementing an information management system that seeks to improve both the efficiency and equality of employers and employees and lead to a win-win situation for both. The authors describe valid constructs for firms with spatially and timely dispersed teams and more than 50 employees. The research is based on 20 expert interviews, conducted with senior managers of medium and large German enterprises.

Towards a Research Framework of Computer-Supported Organizational Participation

Employees demand high responsibility and empowerment, while keeping their work communal and flexible. Initiatives that foster organizational participation can contribute to the fulfilment of such work conditions. Research in sociology and psychology demonstrated positive effects on job satisfaction as well as productivity. However, although adoption of social software is widely spread in firms, research on the determinants of computer-supported organizational participation is scarce. We conduct 20 guided expert interviews to propose a research framework for computer-supported organizational participation. We describe the elements to consider when designing processes that aim to be beneficial for both the employer as well as the employees. Building on the expert interviews, our process model includes a topic horizon and a collaboration phase, which creates proposals that have to be decided on in order to produce results. We show how employee competence and leadership commitment are as important as the workload and supporting features as well as an option for anonymous communication. We propose a set of features and discuss implications for researchers and practitioners.

Organizational Online Participation

As today’s employees demand higher degrees of involvement in terms of how, when, and where they work, open innovation and (internal) crowdsourcing are being widely adopted. Despite recent efforts by many organizations to implement such systems in order to increase the possibilities for organizational participation, studies have only narrowly explored how their design affects employee opinions and communication as well as how organizational culture influences usage and adoption. This thesis investigates the conditions, capabilities and components for the design of organizational online participation systems, applying a Design Science Research approach. Following a literature review on idea generation, collaboration and evaluation in open innovation processes, we outline success factors for open innovation systems. We validate our success factors in practice by conducting semi-structured interviews with 20 experts from mid- and large-cap private and public organizations in Germany. Moreover, we derive three key challenges that guide our subsequent studies. First, we investigate the “Bag of Lemons” approach, a novel rating technique, and compare it to the standard techniques Likert scales and up- and down-voting. Our study with 141 participants in an open innovation engagement at a public-private research organization finds that BOL is perceived as more frustrating than the other two rating techniques, which is partly mediated by the significantly increased information overload. Second, we turn to anonymity in two distinct studies. We analyze the effect of anonymity, as compared to identifiability of user profiles, on communication persuasiveness – operationalized as actual opinion change – in a two-staged online experimental survey with 377 participants. We find anonymity to be a double-edged sword as it decreases perceived social presence, which in turn affects both user involvement as well as perceived user credibility. Thereafter, we investigate the design of a feature for optional anonymous contributions and its effect on participation and the choice of language in an internal crowdsourcing platform. Our analysis of an implementation and five-month test at a public organization with more than 110 employees shows the effectiveness of our “opt-in anonymity” feature as we elicit participation from otherwise reticent employees and no disinhibited language. Third, we analyze the design of an internal crowdsourcing system at this public organization in more detail, focusing on the influence of its organizational culture on usage and acceptance. We assert an IT-culture-conflict, as the organizational values do not match the open and communal approach transposed by the crowdsourcing system. We suggest that organizational online participation is a promising tool to enhance employee involvement, driving innovations and enabling organizational transformation.

A Janus-faced matter—The role of user anonymity for communication persuasiveness in online discussions

Abstract Employees are increasingly involved in internal corporate discussion processes, often via online platforms. On such platforms, diverse opinions converge and controversial discussions may unfold. Anonymity is assumed to encourage reticent users to speak their mind and to allow for the expression of divergent views, but it has also been found to affect how arguments are received, including perceptions of credibility and, thus, persuasiveness. This paper considers how user anonymity affects communication persuasiveness in online discussions with both identified and anonymous treatment conditions. Drawing upon the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion, we find that anonymity affects persuasiveness via the opposing paths of credibility and involvement

Designing Anonymous Collaboration in Computer-Supported Organizational Participation

Voicing one’s opinion, especially when it is not in conjunction with the opinion of the senior management, can be difficult in organizational contexts. Thus, platform facilitators in organizational participation processes might want to grant their users a way to communicate anonymously. However, this might have adverse effects, such as hoax and foul language. In this study, we describe the rigorous design process, evaluation and instantiation of an artifact that allows the postings of opinions and issues concerning the strategic and operational decisions in a public organization without revealing the identity of the author. Building on a thorough literature review and the involvement of key stakeholder groups allowed us to design and realize an artifact that mitigates the negative effects, while supporting reticent employees and those in fear of their superiors to speak their mind. We discuss both theoretical and practical implications.