{"id":25026,"date":"2021-03-05T02:29:22","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T02:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/enterprisesocialmedia.org\/sshrc\/?page_id=25026"},"modified":"2021-03-12T17:34:01","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T17:34:01","slug":"about-the-project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/enterprisesocialmedia.org\/sshrc\/about-the-project\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t

About the Project<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t

Project Summary<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Socialness— the urge of an individual to seek the community of others—is at the heart of human\u00a0survival and a critical aspect of workplace interactions with measurable benefits for job satisfaction,\u00a0productivity, creativity, and collaborative work. Although the trend towards digital workplaces is not\u00a0new, it has been amplified by the current pandemic. Hence, the importance of socialness—in particular\u00a0in light of the recent “social distancing” mandate—has never been more evident. Recent workplace\u00a0technologies, such as Enterprise Social Media (ESM), promise to create better opportunities for\u00a0relationship formation among co-workers, but the extent to which these tools can support meaningful\u00a0social interactions in the workplace and realize associated organizational benefits is ill-understood.\u00a0Hence, there is a strong need for a multidisciplinary, integrative literature review to holistically\u00a0understand: (i) the concept of socialness; (ii) its meaning and (iii) value in workplace settings; (v) its\u00a0applicability in digital settings; and (v) the role of technology use as well as technology design in\u00a0maximizing the benefits for workplace socialness while mitigating possible risks. To do so, the proposed\u00a0research will use a semi-systematic literature review approach with the aim of mapping out and\u00a0synthesizing the state of knowledge, including strengths and gaps, providing a historical overview of\u00a0how the topic of socialness has evolved, and proposing a research agenda. Not only can these insights\u00a0help to guide future academic research on socialness, in particular in the context of workplaces and\u00a0digital or technology-enabled settings, but it can further help to produce best practices for (i) managers\u00a0interested in fostering supportive digital workplaces, (ii) employees navigating digital workplaces in\u00a0search of meaningful social experiences, and (iii) system designers developing workplace technologies\u00a0intended to foster positive social experiences.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t

Intellectual merit\u200b<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

The proposed research\u00a0aims to produce such a knowledge synthesis and lead to five major scholarly contributions: 1) an interdisciplinary conceptualization of socialness; 2) an understanding of socialness and its importance in\u00a0workplace settings; 3) sociotechnical insights into the role of technology in enabling socialness; 4)\u00a0extensions to ESM research on the “socialness” impact of ESM in workplace settings; and 5) design\u00a0guidelines and best practices for fostering workplace socialness that can be validated and tested in future\u00a0empirical research.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t

Broader impacts\u200b<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Practically, we expect that the resulting insights will have social benefits through\u00a0informing organizational policies and practices for designing positive workplace social experiences and\u00a0avoiding employee social isolation—specifically those most vulnerable due to distance working (e.g.,\u00a0women and minorities). Results will also be used to inform employees on how to use technology in\u00a0appropriate and constructive ways; perhaps one of the most important research contributions in times of\u00a0pandemic challenges. Socialness is not just of heightened importance due to the current pandemic, but\u00a0recent research shows that the three most important workplace needs of millennials are: sociability with\u00a0colleagues, opportunity to grow, and work-life balance; further underscoring the broader relevance and\u00a0applicability of the proposed topic. Finally, we aim to generate actionable design implications for how\u00a0workplace technologies (e.g., ESM) can support socialness. The research team will continue to be active\u00a0in and out of academic circles to present the resulting findings and training materials through a dedicated\u00a0website, practitioner-oriented webinars, and the development of an online, interactive socialness design\u00a0toolkit for improving social technology design. The expected outcomes can be broadly classified into\u00a0three knowledge groups. First, in terms of academic outcomes, we intend to develop a holistic\u00a0conceptualization of “socialness”, generate a knowledge synthesis review of “socialness” research, and\u00a0propose a research agenda to guide future “socialness” research, particularly in workplace and digital\u00a0settings. We will also generate a database with all reviewed literature for data sharing, replication, and\u00a0validation purposes. Second, for educational purposes, we intend to generate a “how-to” literature\u00a0review guide—an aspect of academic writing most students struggle with—as well as interdisciplinary\u00a0lecture notes on the topic of socialness. Third, for practitioners, several sets of knowledge will be\u00a0generated. For managers, this project will produce insights about the value of socialness in workplaces;\u00a0best practices for fostering workplace socialness and using technology to support meaningful social\u00a0experiences; and mitigation strategies for avoiding potential negative side effects (e.g., deteriorating\u00a0work-life balance or privacy). For employees, we will generate best practices to help navigate workplace\u00a0social experiences and use guidelines for technologies (e.g., ESM) to reap the benefits of digital\u00a0socialness while avoiding its potential pitfalls. Finally, for designers, we aim to generate a set of design\u00a0recommendation and resources in the form of a web-based, interactive design toolkit for improving\u00a0technology affordances to enable meaningful social experiences and safeguard against negative\u00a0side-effects.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t

Funding\u200b<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"SSHRC\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
This project is funded by SSHRC and specifically the Knowledge Synthesis Program on Skills and Work in the Digital Economy.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About the Project Project Summary Socialness— the urge of an individual to seek the community of others—is at the heart of human\u00a0survival and a critical aspect of workplace interactions with measurable benefits for job satisfaction,\u00a0productivity, creativity, and collaborative work. Although the trend towards digital workplaces is not\u00a0new, it has been amplified by the current pandemic. …<\/p>\n

About the Project<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-25026","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisesocialmedia.org\/sshrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisesocialmedia.org\/sshrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisesocialmedia.org\/sshrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisesocialmedia.org\/sshrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisesocialmedia.org\/sshrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25026"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisesocialmedia.org\/sshrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25105,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisesocialmedia.org\/sshrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25026\/revisions\/25105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisesocialmedia.org\/sshrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}