Collaboration in the digital age: From email to enterprise social networks

Abstract

A revolutionary medium of communication in the 1990s, email has progressively revealed
its limitations and even emerged as a source of information overload. In response, many
companies have adopted enterprise social networks (ESN) as alternative communication
channels, though surprisingly little research attention focuses on the articulation process
by which both technologies influence work practices, through complementarity or substitution effects, or addresses the information overload challenge. In this article, we detail an
empirical, qualitative study of the articulations of emails, ESN, and other collaborative
tools in organizations, on the basis of 1) an exploratory study of three companies from various sectors, 2) an auto-ethnography that relies on participant observations from a large
French telecommunication company, and 3) a validation through in-depth discussions
with experts. The resulting causal framework of the articulations of usage factors of email,
ESN, and specialized collaborative tools at work contains three main contributions. First,
we enhance understanding of information overload by clarifying that it is not intrinsic
to email and by analyzing the emerging notion of “collaborative overload.” Second, we
determine that ESN may not be the solution for fostering new behaviors. Third, workplaces
do not need ESN tooling but rather require a digital transformation strategy, with more
emphasis on meeting employees’ needs instead of focusing solely on an ESN’s promise for
altering workplace culture and practices.