Unmediated workplace images

from the Internet: An

investigation of work blogging

By James Richards
Heriot-Watt University
 Presentation outline
• Overview of paper
• Overview of blogs
• Overview of work-related blogs
• Outline of paper
• Research methodology
• Findings
• Conclusion and further research
 Overview of paper
• Recent advances in Internet
communication technology (i.e.
‘Web 2.0’) and how such
technology is being increasingly
applied by workers, represents
vastly under-researched terrain
• Looks at one angle of Web 2.0, i.e.
people who blog about work on
their own time
 Overview of paper
• Importance of study
– No published research on work blogging
– Little research looks at creative use of Internet
– New (easy to use) technology means Internet users are
no longer passive recipients of information, i.e. Web 2.0
associated with ‘user-generated content’
– Normalisation of Internet behaviour
– Normality of social networking sites for youngest
generation of workers (and those to come)
– Internet new way to augment human powers of
organization or integration?
– New way to do old things in line with changing
lifestyles?
– People coping with increased social isolation?
– People trying to construct identity as old identities are
 Overview of blogs -
• definition
‘A user-generated Website where entries are made
in journal style and displayed in reverse
chronological order (Wikipedia, 2007).
• Weblogs are filtering the news, detailing daily lives,
and providing editorial responses to the events of
the day. For many people, a weblog is a soapbox
from which they can proclaim their views,
potentially influencing many people that they can
in their everyday lives. For others, a weblog is a
creative space that allows them to experiment with
the tools of the Web itself, or to document their
offline projects for anyone who in interested. Some
webloggers use their weblogs to tell personal
stories, others to keep in touch with faraway
friends and family. Businesses use weblogs to
Overview of blogs - an
example
Overview of blogs - technical
dimension
 Overview of blogs -
statistics
• In 1998 just a handful
• 2006 57million
• 2007 ‘set to peak’ at around 100 million
• Two-thirds not up-dated after three months
• Part of ‘social networking’
• 60 per cent of public ‘never heard’ of blogs
• 30 per cent ‘regularly read’ blogs
• Most bloggers spend 1-2 hours per week
• 10 per cent spend ten hours or more
 Overview of blogs -
general research
• Rise of blogs noted by mostly press and
bloggers (Viegas, 2005)
• Initial blogs ‘sites of resistance’ (Ratliff,
2004)
• Motivations to blog (Nardi et al, 2004;
Dan Li, 2005; Lenhart and Fox, 2006)
• Blogs work at three levels (Kumar et al,
2004)
• Impression management (Trammel and
Keshelashvili, 2005)
 Overview of work-related blogs -
media reports
• High-profile dismissals
• ‘Loose cannons’ - People Management
magazine
• ‘Unpleasantly honest reviews of life
inside corporate houses’ (The Times)
• ‘Spilling the beans’ (The Guardian)
• Random Acts of Reality and Policeman’s
Blog
• ‘Shaping public opinion’ - ‘A capacity to
bypass and undermine official sources of
 Overview of work-related blogs -
research
• Represents a further means by which
organizations can harness the tacit
knowledge of workers (Hoel and Hollins,
2006)
• Potentially play a part in ameliorating
the increasing social isolation of
American workers (Gely and Bierman,
2006)
• A forum for resistance in that workers
use their blog as a buffer against the
company’s attempt to secure their
Overview of work-related blogs
- definition
• Contain strong reference to the
effects of being managed: the
experiences of employees in
organizations as they cope with
the strategies, tactics, decisions
and actions of managers
• Reflect the plurality of interests at
work
 Outline of paper
• Explore blogs in relation to media
reports, i.e. blogging as
misbehaviour or whistleblowing?
• Explore blogs (in much more
depth) than recent research
(empirical)
• Explore blogs from perspective of
bloggers
• Who reads work-related blogs?
 Research methodology
• Design based on nature of work
blogging, i.e. many written
anonymously and want to protect
anonymity
• 744 work-related blogs (screened and
collected over two years)
• Researcher ‘went native’ to gain trust
and consent
• Content analysis of blog posts
• Self-reporting on-line questionnaires
 Findings - part one
• Strong evidence to associate blogs
with
– Misbehaviour or creative resistance
– Low-level whistleblowing
– Influencing workers with similar
occupations and wider public
– Sharing tacit knowledge
– Applying blogs as a coping
mechanism
Findings - Why blog about
work?
Findings - Motivations to
start blog
Findings - Motivations to
continue blogging
Findings - who reads work-
related blogs?
 Conclusion and further
research
• Methodology suitable for preliminary
overview of work blogging
• Confirmed many perspectives of work
blogging
• Of value to critical labour and
managerialist researchers
• Contradiction between third party views
and blogger views, e.g. very few
claimed idea is to resist or influence
• Case study research required to explore