Mock Thesis Proposal: Personal Support Networks During Periods Of Employee Transition, Part 2

This post is Part 2 of my Mock Thesis Proposal. Part 1 is located here. The Abstract is repeated.

Abstract

Social Network Sites (SNS) create multiple affordances employees leverage during their employment lifecycle. In this Masters Thesis, I examine how a SNS helps employees during transitional periods such as: joining the company, moving into a new position, and navigating through organizational disruption. Personal support networks are one type of SNS affordance employees can exploit when seeking information, mentoring, advice, problem-solving help, or opinions on the “folklore” of another group or business area. Output from this work will identify employee personal support practices, the influence media, management, and culture have on such practices, and benefits that accrue to employees and employers.

• Methodology
• Relevant Experience and Expertise
• Research/Production Plan
• Bibliography

Methodology

The study will include research from both scholarly and mainstream media sources that are related to this thesis. In addition, analysis and interpretation of research sources will be combined with the following quantitative and qualitative methods:

Survey: The purpose of using surveys is to obtain a sampling of data points from a population of management and employees. Aggregated results should reveal trends regarding (1) manager and employee views on use of a SNS for reasons of personal support, (2) preferences regarding use of different types of media, (3) opinions on the influence culture has promoting or inhibiting personal support networks, and (4) benefits that might accrue to workers and the organization. Data collection would occur through use of web-based questionnaires.

Sample Questions

1. How frequently do you communicate with co-workers for assistance to do your job better?

   1. Range: 1 (rarely) – 7 (very often)

   2. What tools are used?

      i.     F2F, e-mail, phone, SNS

2. How frequently do you go to co-workers for career advice?

   1. Range: 1 (rarely) – 7 (very often)

   2. What tools are used?

      i.     F2F, e-mail, phone, SNS

3. How frequently do you go to colleagues to assist you with problem solving?

   1. Range: 1 (rarely) – 7 (very often)

   2. What tools are used?

      i.     F2F, e-mail, phone, SNS

Observational: The purpose of field observational techniques in this study is to gain immersive, qualitative insight regarding people’s opinions on topics related to this thesis. Specifically, a hybrid approach that combines elements of contextual design and contextual inquiry will be used. Individual and small groups of employees will be allowed to “tell their stories” within a defined topic area. The observer (myself) will minimally facilitate and guide the session. The goal is to passively observe the conversation while taking copious notes. Afterwards, an “interpretation session” will be conducted to synthesize the notes into a collection of affinity statements. Affinity statements are sorted into a three-layer hierarchy that can subsequently be analyzed.  

Sample Storytelling Topics

1. Mentoring: What role does your SNS play within your mentoring program from the view of its participants and by management?

This open-ended statement would lead to an ad-hoc conversation with the individual or group. The role of the observer is to not provide answers or to prompt participants to go down certain paths. The observer does keep the discussion “boxed” within the topic area and can ask follow-up questions to specific responses to surface additional context to statements made during the session.

Interviews: Interviews provide in-depth background on specific areas of interest in the study. While difficult to generalize into broad horizontal trends, interviews can reveal subtle and nuanced in-depth insight on specific topics that are difficult to call out through other means. Interviews can also “bring a story to life” and can actually reflect an individual’s own experience with personal support networks. As such, interviews could evolve as a type of oral history. Interviews will likely occur both face-to-face, over the telephone, and through electronic means (e.g., Skype). Use of Twitter and its hashtag feature (e.g., #MikeChat) could be used to facilitate an open discussion on the topic as well.  

Sample Interview Questions

1. If you were trying to transfer to a new position in another group, would you “check them out” on your internal SNS to find out more about:

   • The people in the group

   • The type of work they do

   • What type of expertise seemed to be necessary

   • Whether people seemed happy

2. Would you use the SNS to “follow” people in that group? Would you join communities related to that group’s work as a way to build relationships with people in those teams?

3. How would your manager or supervisor react if they discovered that you were interested in transferring to that group?

Industry studies: Vendors (e.g., IBM and Cisco) and consultancies (e.g., McKinsey, Deloitte) often publish industry reports covering the use of social media, social networks, and Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise. These reports often cover technology and its applied use, including applications that might be relevant to this study. Industry Analyst firms (e.g., Gartner, Forrester) also provide reports that analyze a variety of topics involving employee engagement, culture, and social networking. Although these reports are often behind a “pay wall”, it might be possible to gain access to these reports for academic use.

Methodology Alignment, Limitations & Challenges

Since I am an online student taking only one course per semester, this Mock Thesis will act as a “living document”, evolving over time as assumptions and issues related to personal support networks shift. The theoretical framework with its three domain areas should remain fairly stable. Over time, additional research sources, courses, and my own professional activities will help fine-tune the framework. The thesis may evolve to become more refined, focusing more on a particular application of a personal support network (e.g., mentoring programs), or shift slightly to look at different types of “employees” (e.g., contingent staff, exempt vs. non-exempt staff, retirees returning as consultants, former staff still with the firm but now reporting to an outsourcer) and how different types of employer/employee relationships influence participation in a SNS and use of personal support networks.

In terms of limitations and challenges, some of the selected research methods may be difficult to actually execute. For instance, the observational component typically involves some type of “call for participation” which may not result in enough firms participating. Also, firms must allow employees to talk freely and must be confident that sensitive information and use of the firm’s name be held in confidence. Travel on my part may not always be feasible. The interpretation session and creation of the three-layer hierarchy typically requires an additional 1-2 people to collaborate with on the effort. Those resources might not be available. There may also be a need to gain permission from my employer to gain funding and to use normal work hours for purposes of this study.

Relevant experience and expertise

My background as an industry analyst covering collaboration and social computing (including social media and social networking) for 14 years provides a very high level of expertise when it comes to technology and its application. As an industry analyst, I’ve talked to hundreds of Fortune 500 organizations as well as various federal and state government agencies on deployment of technologies to support improved information sharing, collaboration, and community building. In 2008, I conduced a field research project that leveraged contextual design and contextual inquiry methods to examine social networking trends within the enterprise. In that study, observational methods were applied in 21 organizations involving 65 people representing both business and Information Technology areas. From 1996 through 2005, I had the opportunity to interact with many vendors and industry thought-leaders on topics related to collaboration and social networking. Over the years, I have also developed a strong professional network across different disciplines. These contacts can be leveraged in terms of finding participants or to leverage their subject matter expertise to support the needs of this study. 

However, missing in my background has been a firm grounding in the scholarly aspects of media and culture. I enrolled in this program at The New School to alleviate these gaps. Academic guidance from faculty as well as coursework over the next several semesters will help improve my understanding of the inter-disciplinary nature of media studies and how to apply those concepts to this thesis work and my own professional activities.  In terms of an action plan, the following courses will support this thesis work: Media Studies: Ideas, Media Studies: Concepts, Interviewing, Focus Groups, Sampling, Discourse Analysis, Collaboration in Networks Environments, Business Strategies for Social Media, Media & Social Theory, and Weapons of Mass Communication.

Research/Production Plan

At this stage of thesis development, it is difficult to construct a timeline and budget forecast that would be relevant. However, there is a sequence of events that would have to occur for components of the study. Those elements are outlined below:

Surveys

Survey Design: Decisions need to be made as to whether a single survey will be used, or multiple surveys specific to different audiences (e.g., management, employees). Questions need to be reviewed to eliminate ambiguity and ensure that they will produce unbiased quantifiable results.

Survey Execution: People need to be solicited to complete the survey. Those participating desirably should represent people relevant to the study (e.g., managers, employees). Professional colleagues will be asked to help with promotion. Twitter and Facebook would also be used for promotional purposes. 

Survey Analysis: Excel or other tools should be able to produce statistical results.

Observational Study

Past experience conducting such a study suggests a 3-4 month elapsed timeline. A goal of at 20-25 participants from different organizations would be appropriate. The following production steps are required for a contextual inquiry/contextual design process:

Logistics:

• Issuing the “Call for Participation” using Twitter, my personal blog, and professional network. Processing responses to the invitation, including identification of a central point of contact for each firm, securing any needed confidentiality agreements, and defining rules of engagement (including confidentiality needs).

• Identifying individuals and groups to solicit for participation in the study (e.g., representatives from Human Resources, management, employees)

• Prepare questions for topical area storytelling sessions.

• Scheduling sessions            

Engagement

• Verify profile information on company and participants, assign codes to participants and companies to mask identities.

• Complete face-to-face or telephone interviews

• Review raw notes with central contact to ensure confidentiality. This may include striking/redacting key terms, acronyms, or statements that might reveal the firm or disclose sensitive information.

Assessment

• Replay notes to 1-2 colleagues to socialize interviews and to create affinity notes, and to eventually construct the three-layer hierarchy.

Review

• Review findings with all study participants as a “thank you” for participating.

Interviews

One-on-one interviews should be balanced between a management viewpoint and the perspective of the employee concerning personal support networks. Minimally there should be 2-6 interviews collected. Interviews should not take longer than a 30-60 minute discussion. Elapsed time for interviews should be no more than one month and can occur simultaneously to observational work. Interviews should include pre-defined questions but used primarily to “open up” the conversation, allowing the interviewee to tell their own unique story. Notes should be reviewed with the interviewee to ensure confidentiality needs are satisfied.

Bibliography / Mediagraphy

Refer to Literature Review: Improving Work Practices in Times of Change