Blogs as Trust-Builders in Organizations

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Blogs as Trust-Builders in Organizations
Presentation for Awards for College Scientists
Foundation

• In Blogs We Trust
• Daniel C. Smith
• April 29, 2006

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Blogs New, Easy-to-Use Medium

• Arguably a new, participatory medium (Blood
  2004)
• The essential elements are social, not technical
  sociability, linking, authenticity
• Technology however facilitates desirable social
  interactions social networking, easy posting
  commenting, linking back-tracking, and RSS
  feeds to inform communities of interest

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Beyond Journals Marketing

• Building relationships

• Sharing knowledge
• Seeking help

• Fostering a climate

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Research Objectives

• Gather systematic data on the extent, purposes
  and policies about blogging (or not) in firms
• Assess the impact of organizational climate on
  blogging in firms, and vice versa
• Assess the impact of trust, in its multiple
  forms, on blogging, and vice versa
• Add blogging to models of organizational climate
  and positive outcomes.

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Organizational Climate

• The concrete expression of organizational culture
• Multi-dimensional
• Some examples Fairness, Affiliation.
  Innovativeness, Attitude toward knowledge
  sharing, Anticipated reciprocal relationships,
  Subjective norm to share knowledge, etc.

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Organizational Culture and Climate as Resources
of the Firm
Organizational Culture
Organizational Outcomes
Organizational Climate
Organizational climate dimensions have been
linked to productivity gains. (Patterson, Warr
West, 2004)
Knowledge Management (KM) is a Common Goal . . .
To which Blogging can contribute . . .
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Trust

• Multi-dimensional and can cross levels of
  analysis.
• Involves risk
• Fukuyama (1995) . . . the expectation that
  arises within a community of regular, honest and
  cooperative behavior based on commonly shared
  norms on the part of members of the community

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Trust

• Fukuyama considers trust more important than
  financial or physical capital.
• Allows delegation and interdependence
• Trust has recently grown in research importance
  due to the Web and e-commerce.
• Not a free resource requires resources to
  maintain in firms (Houtari Iivonen, 2004)
• Key concept is spontaneous sociability

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Factors of Perceived Trustworthiness
Mayer, Davis Schoorman Model (1995)
Perceived Risk
Ability
Risk Taking in Relationship
Outcomes
Trust
Benevolence
Integrity
Trustors Propensity
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The Many Faces of Trust

• Dispositional trust from Psychology Economics
  (General trust in others)
• Institutional Trust from Sociology (Trust in the
  structures/organizational climate)
• Interpersonal Trust from Social Psychology (Trust
  in specific others / situations, e.g. bloggers?)
• (Following McKnight Chervany (2002)

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Climate as Enabler of KM
Knowledge Creation Process
Organizational Creativity
KM Enablers
Collaboration Trust Learning Centralization
Add Blogging
Organizational Performance
(Climate)
Adapted from Lee Choi (2003)
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Climate as Antecedents of Effective KM
Work Satisfaction
Autonomy
Cooperative Learning
Add Blogging
Work Performance
Organizational Climate
Adapted from Janz Prasarnphanich (2003)
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Climate and Intention to Share Knowledge
Attitude toward Knowledge Sharing Subjective
Norm
Anticipated Reciprocal Relationships
Intention to share Knowledge
Add Blogging
Organizational Climate
Adapted from Bock, et al. (2005)
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Research Model
Organizational Climate
Organizational Climate
Organizational Outcomes
Organizational Outcomes
Trust Environment
Trust Environment
Blogging Behavior
Individual Outcomes
Blogging Behavior
Individual Outcomes
Individual Trust
Individual Trust
Blogging Policy
Blogging Policy
Phase 2 (Future Longitudinal Study)
Phase 1
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Hypotheses about Outcomes

• Trusting organizational climates correlate with
  numbers of employees blogging at, and about, work
• There is a virtuous circle of a trusting
  organizational climate and blogging
• Social networks will be broader with blogging and
  the social professional contacts of blogging
  will be as important as KM issues.
• Strength of weak ties Granovetter (1973)

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Data Collection Analysis

• Most blog research has been rich but based on
  interviews
• Need more systematic survey of organizational (1)
  policies, (2) expectations of management, (3)
  employee attitudes and behaviors
• Make a contribution on the first phase addition
  to the organization climate models -- while
  laying the ground work for a longitudinal study
• Content analysis of blogging policies
• Structural equation modeling of survey data

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Anticipated Contributions

• There is a lot of information on personal
  blogging but less practices, goals, and policies
  inside firms. Plan to add valid statistics
• Gain theoretical insights on the impact of blogs
  on desirable social behaviors, particularly trust
  and organizational climate
• Contribute to practice

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Mahalo! To ARCS Foundation --Honolulu, to
Columbia, and the Judges
smithdan_at_hawaii.edu http//www2.hawaii.edu/smith
dan/blogstrust/blogpage1.html http//inblogswetr
ust.blogspot.com/