Organizational culture in Slack
The relationship between organizational culture and digital collaboration tools
Organisationskultur i Slack
Relationerna mellan organisationskultur och digitala samarbetsverkyg
Niklas Nordström
Faculty of social science and humanities
Media and communications: Digital media and analysis C-Essay 15 points
Emilia Ljungberg 07/06/19
Abstrakt
Syftet med den här studien var att utforska organisationskultur i en digital miljö, så att en ökad förståelse för de två ämnena kunde utvecklas. Intresset för ämnet kom från observationer och reflektioner
införskaffade under en tidigare praktik på en mindre organisation som använde den digitala plattformen Slack i sitt dagliga arbete. För att besvara syftet med studien formulerades en huvudsaklig forskningsfråga;
’Vad är relationen mellan organisationskultur och en digital plattform som Slack?’, och två sekundära frågor;
’Hur används Slack som lösning för problem med intern integration?’, och ’Hur används Slack för att lösa problem med extern anpassning?’. De sekundära frågorna kom från en operationalisering av Scheins (2010, p.18) väl använda definition av organisationskultur. Den kvalitativa metoden netnografi användes för att studera beteende och interaktioner mellan medlemmarna i en mindre organisation. Genom deltagande observationer i kombination med fältanteckningar och observationer från den tidigare praktiken kunde forskningsfrågorna framgångsrikt besvaras. Resultatet visade att Slack användes som ett verktyg för att behålla struktur och ordning under problem med extern anpassning, uppkomna till följd av en
omorganisering av företaget. En minskning av aktiviteten i Slack visade att själva användandet av Slack är kopplat till en viss tidsperiod och enkelt kan bytas ut vid förändrat behov, men också att uppskattade beteenden och riter skapade genom användandet av Slack kan leva vidare utanför mediet. Resultatet visade också att Slack framgångsrikt fungerade som ett verktyg för att lösa problem med intern integration. Genom att låta nya medlemmar effektivt komma i kontakt med både formella och informella kulturella element kunde själva essensen av kultur, underliggande förgivettaganden, snabbt läras ut. Effektiviteten av att använda Slack för intern integrering visades också föra med sig ett eget potentiellt problem, en upplösning av gränsen mellan privat och arbete. Svaret på den huvudsakliga forskningsfrågan var att Slack är en artefakt, innehållandes andra artefakter, som lever i symbios med organisationen. Även om Slack kan hjälpa en organisation att hantera problem med extern anpassning och intern integrering, fungerar Slack inte som en ensam källa för att förstå och bli en del av en organisation och dess kultur, eftersom organisationen och dess kultur alltid kommer att leva vidare och utvecklas utanför det digitala mediet.
Nyckelord: Slack, Organisationskultur, Digitala sammarbetsverktyg
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore organizational culture in a digital context, so that a greater understanding of the relations between the two subjects could be developed. The interest for the subject came from reflections and observations obtained during a prior internship at a small organization using the digital collaboration platform Slack in their daily work. To answer the purpose of the study, one main research question; ‘What is the relationship between organizational culture and a digital communication platform as Slack?’ and two sub questions; ‘How is Slack used to solve problems with internal integration?
and ‘How is Slack used to solve problems with external adaption?’ was formulated. The two sub questions came from an operationalization of Schein’s (2010, p.18) well used definition of organizational culture. By using the qualitative method netnography to study the behaviors and interactions of the members of a small organization through participating observations, in combination with the field notes and observations from the prior internship, the research questions were successfully answered. The results showed that Slack was used as a tool to maintain structure and order during problems with external adaption in form of a re- organization creating an unsecure time-period. Decrement in activity also showed that the usage of Slack was limited in time and easily could be exchanged, but that appreciated cultural rites and behaviors created from using it could live on outside of Slack. Results also showed that Slack successfully functioned as a tool to solve problems with internal integration. By allowing new members to efficiently come in contact with both the formal and informal cultural elements, the very essence of culture as in underlying assumptions was quickly taught. The efficiency of using Slack for internal integration was also shown to rely on a new
possible problem in form of a disintegration between the private and work. The answer to the main research question was that Slack is an artifact, inhabiting other artifact, living in symbiosis with the organization.
Even though Slack could help an organization to cope with problems of external adaption and internal integration, Slack on its own did not serve as a one single place for understanding and becoming a part of an organization and its culture, as the organization and culture still will live and develop outside of the digital medium.
Keywords: Slack, Organizational culture, Digital collaboration tools
Foreword
In this section, I would like to thank my supervisor Henrik Örnebring for the inspiration and guidance throughout the writing of this paper. I also wish to thank everyone at Sticky Beat for allowing me to hang out with you once again, sorry for the coffee-maker. Last but not least, a special thanks to my dear Olivia, thank you for keeping up with me.
Without the support from all of you, this paper would have never been done, thank you.
Niklas Nordström.
Table of Contents
Abstrakt ... 2
Abstract ... 3
Foreword ... 4
1. Introduction ... 7
1.1 Background ... 7
1.2 Problem formulation ... 8
1.3 Purpose ... 8
1.4 Delimitations ... 9
1.5 Research questions ... 9
1.6 Online collaboration tools and Slack ... 9
1.7 Sticky Beat ... 11
2. Prior research and theoretical perspectives ... 13
2.1 Prior research ... 13
2.1.1 Search method ... 13
2.1.2 Prior research about digital workplaces and organizational culture ... 13
2.1.3 Prior research about Slack ... 14
2.1.4 Conclusions ... 15
2.2 Theoretical perspectives ... 16
2.2.1 Organizational culture ... 16
2.2.2 Organizational culture in creative professions ... 17
2.2.3 Schein perspective ... 18
2.2.4 Three levels of culture ... 19
2.2.5 Artifacts ... 19
2.2.6 Espoused beliefs and values ... 20
2.2.7 Basic underlying assumptions ... 21
2.2.8 Satisficing ... 22
2.2.9 Summarizing discussion ... 22
3. Method ... 23
3.1 Netnography ... 23
3.1.1 Principles of Netnography ... 24
3.2 Sample ... 25
3.2.1 Collection and description of empirical data ... 25
3.3 Methodological problems ... 26
3.4 Ethical considerations ... 27
3.5 Operationalization ... 28
3.6 Analysis method ... 29
3.7 Validity, reliability and generalizability ... 30
4. Results, analysis and discussion ... 31
4.1 Initial impressions. ... 31
4.1.1 Summary of first impressions ... 35
4.2 Architecture of Slack ... 37
4.2.1 Channels ... 38
4.2.2 Types of channels ... 39
4.3 Everyday problems of internal integration ... 41
4.3.1 Co-presence and Slack ... 41
4.3.2 Slack as a motivator for internal integration ... 42
4.3.3 Internally integrating the espoused values ... 43
4.4 Extension of the work day ... 47
4.5 Organizational change ... 47
4.5.1 Change in rituals ... 48
5. Conclusions and future research ... 51
5.1 Future research ... 53
6. Implications for society and working life ... 54
7. Bibliography ... 55
Table of figures Figure 1………...……..10
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Figure 13……….……45, 46 Figure 14………...………47
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1. Introduction
This chapter will first present the background of the study and then move on to the research problem, purpose, delimitation and research questions. In the end of the chapter two key elements are presented.
1.1 Background
In January 2019, Slack surpassed 10 million daily active users (Slackhq, 2019). That Slack, a tool used for co-working and communication, can reach that number of users in just five years is no coincidence. The majority of their users are tech-companies or organizations working in the computer software industry (idatalabs, 2019). This industry, as well as other living of creativity, has experienced an increased need for agility and flexibility, while at the same time replacing the former hierarchy based organizational structure in benefit of more team-centric models (Bersin et al., 2017). Collaboration is often presented as a key
component to becoming a high performing company in this industry and studies show that collaboration increases motivation and performance while taking on challenges (Carr et al., 2014). Working in this agile way, where some colleagues are at home, some at the office and some are unavailable before evening, requires a simple and flexible way of communicating and collaborating amongst colleagues, a tool like Slack.
At the same time whole industries are experiencing fundamental changes, the interest in organizational culture has remained steadily since the popularization back in the 80’s. The interest in organizational culture has its foundation in the interest of creating a useful and effective management strategy, increasing the engagement and motivation in the organization. This will ultimately result in a more successful organization (Alvesson, 2015, p.21-23). Studies also show that finding meaning at work often is valued higher than a high payment, especially by millennials (Stahl, 2016). The combination of new ways to work, together with the continued high interest in organizational culture creates a highly relevant and present field of research.
To answer the research questions, this study will take help from a smaller organization called Sticky Beat.
The organization consists of 8 employees divided into 2 offices. The organization works with digital innovation and has been a frequent user of Slack since 2014. The reason this company figures in this research is not only their long usage of Slack, but also that I have worked as an intern at the organization during a 10-week period. The thing that struck me only a few days into the internship was how fast I felt as just another employee in the company. The organization and employees were all open and inviting, making sure I felt at ease being there but one of the most important reasons in a retro perspective, was the usage of Slack. My already good relations to the company, combined with my sparked interest in Slack and its effects on a new member in the organization lead to an interesting opportunity. An opportunity where I could travel back in time and look at my past time as an intern through the eyes of a researcher, to understand if and how Slack helped me during my internship. I could also study how the organization and its members themselves used Slack in their internal communication and work.
Their physical offices were also located nearby, which granted me the opportunity to spend the time conducting this research at the main office in Karlstad. My prior knowledge of the company, their usage of Slack and the opportunity to spend more time with them allowed me to save a substantial amount of time which also was a big reason for choosing them as object of study
1.2 Problem formulation
This study is going to investigate the relations between soft values and the digitalization of the workplace.
Over the past years, the term workplace has moved from referring to a physical place as offices and meeting rooms into a more diffuse environment where the employees are always connected and in touch, working on common projects without being at the same physical space. The digital workplace comes with many advantages including collaboration, compliance, mobility, reduced stress and overload (Attaran et al., 2019).
What this study sets to find out, is what happens to the ‘softer’ and often hard to measure values in this digital environment. Things like motivation, dedication, pride and passion are often related to the more personal properties of people and can in organizational context often be connected to the organizational culture. Connecting organizational culture to an increasing digital phenomenon is interesting on many levels.
One is that it is important for organizations to know how ‘their way of doing things’, as organizational culture is often described, is affected by an actual new way of doing things.
1.3 Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore organizational culture in a digital context, so that a greater understanding of the relations between two present subjects can be developed and built upon. As
mentioned before, the usage of digital platforms as Slack is increasing rapidly, at the same time organizations seeks a greater understanding of the dimensions of organizational culture. Research today does not cover the two subjects in combination, although there is a need for it. Changes as fundamental as digitalization of the workplace is highly ongoing and affecting more companies every day. A greater understanding of how the relations within the organization and creation of mutual purpose takes its form in this new medium are of high value to anyone in-, and outside of an organization. As one of the reasons for the growing attention on digital workplaces is its aspects countering the need for physical meetings combined with the increasing focus and attention to environmental issues, I hope by presenting a deeper understanding of such a key aspect in the organizational area as organizational culture, that this study will contribute in its own small way to a better planet. To do this I will study the organization Sticky Beat and their use of the collaboration platform Slack.
1.4 Delimitations
This study is not conducted to find best practice of how organizations or management can alter culture to increase performance or effectivity. This study instead takes a more critical perspective to study the relationship between new digital platforms in the working environment and the culture of an organization.
Delimitations in time will be applied, both considering the analysis and the scope of the study.
1.5 Research questions
The research question, and sub questions are:
What is the relationship between organizational culture and a digital collaboration platform as Slack?
How is Slack used to solve problems with internal integration?
How is Slack used to solve problems with external adaption?
1.6 Online collaboration tools and Slack
The use of online collaboration tools has increased expeditiously in the past decade. Globalization and an increasing need for communication and collaboration amongst spread out workforces are some of the reason’s tools like Trello, Yammer, Google Hangouts, Basecamp and Slack, just to mention a few, has increased in popularity. These tools help solve most of the backdrafts of email like slow communication and difficulties to collaborate and instead provide instant messaging, file sharing and collaborative search engines for finding spread out information throughout all levels of an organization. Searching the web for
‘collaboration tools’ returns results as ’53 most popular collaboration tools’ or ‘top 30 tools for
collaboration’, so it goes without saying that the market for these kinds of services and tools are flourishing.
One of the most popular tools is Slack (Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge). Available on both desktop and mobiles, Slack has since its launch back in 2013 grown rapidly and is today used by more than 10 million daily active users, with 65 of the fortune 100 as costumers (Slack.com, 2019). Slack is essentially a chat room made for organizations, designed to replace emails as the primary source of internal communication and sharing of content and knowledge.
In Slack, each organization creates its own workplace and invites its employees to join. Inside the workplace, the communication is organized in channels for group discussions, and private messaging for person to person communication. The channels work just like ‘topics’ would in any online forum, things concerning a specific subject is discussed under its own channel. A channel can be public, meaning that it is open for all members of a workplace to join, or private and require an invitation.
One of Slacks most appreciated features is the integration of third-party services.
These can help teams with anything from sharing content directly in dropbox or google drive, sharing gif’s from Giphy or incorporating other popular collaboration tools like Trello directly in Slack. Other popular services are customizable bots, automatically posting statistics from a website, app or social media, reminding the users to take out the trash or decide where to eat lunch. With third party services
organizations can customize their own ‘workplace’ and avoid changing tabs, open up other applications or remember where shared links went etc. Another popular feature in Slack is the search function where users can search for files, users, messages etc. This minimizes the risk of losing information or important
messages even if the conversation continues after something important is posted. Slack is also equipped with the common notifications, seen in social media as red dots when a user is mentioned or messaged.
Altogether, Slack and tools of its like claim to help organizations with; productivity, coordination, collaboration and communication.
Fig. 1. Example of how a ‘workplace’ in Slack can look. From www.getcloudapp.com/blog/what-is-Slack , By E. Johnston, 2019.
1.7 Sticky Beat
Sticky Beat is a company working in the creative industries, consisting of eight employees divided into two departments. The main office is located in Karlstad and consists of six employees and the second office is in Torsby consisting of two employees. At each location, there is also one employee from their subsidiary company. Sticky Beat describes themselves as a ‘digital innovation agency’, meaning that they create digital solutions and experiences as e.g. games, apps or websites. The organization has existed in different
constellations since 2006, but the current one with two offices is only (at the time this study is conducted) a few months old. Earlier there was a department in Stockholm with five employees but that department including the employees was recently sold to another company.
Sticky Beat started using Slack in 2014. At that time the company consisted of 22 employees and three offices, Karlstad, Torsby and Stockholm. Slack was implemented as a tool for cooperation and
communication via group chats, video meetings and voice calls between the spread-out departments.
Sticky Beat shares many similarities with other companies in the creative industry. Meaning that they work with agile methods, high tolerance of failure, project planned work and a high degree of collaboration.
Referring to themselves as a ‘digital innovation agency’ does not quite make it clear what they do, more than something digital and innovative. To get a better understanding of what they do one must look to their project portfolio. There, one can find mobile games made to make children want to brush their teeth, an app made to increase safety at construction sites, and an intranet made for a foundation working with helping youths. The theme of what kind of projects they work with is easily recognized.
This is something that is deeply imbedded in the organization, they talk about it as their DNA. From an outsider’s perspective, the DNA is first mentioned on their website in the ‘about us’ section, in the same sentence as their mission; ‘Our mission is to create the best possible digital experience for our clients and their users. We achieve this by staying true to our DNA: ”We Love Tomorrow”.’ (stickybeat.se, 2019). From a scientific perspective, DNA is explained as ’A chemical element…which main purpose is to store
information that affects the development and function of an organism’ (“Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Fact Sheet”). The scientific explanation works for understanding how Sticky Beat as an organization intends to function. Sticky Beats DNA origins back from an internal workshop held in 2016 when the company was in the middle of a reorganization. They had for several years worked as a production bureau but wanted to leave that behind and instead become a more independent company to benefit more from the creativity they possessed within the workforce.
This description of the company and their way of working is based on my own time as an intern at the company. During my 10-week internship I took part in projects, meeting, travelling, workshops, planning and after work activities. During this time, I became and functioned as a natural part of the workforce, it was also at this time I first came in contact with Slack and how it was used. During my internship, me and two other interns, did a thorough work in ‘employer branding’ and thus got the opportunity to investigate and question the employees including founders of the organizations view and conception of the
organizational culture. The way Sticky Beats lives, express and functions in line with their DNA is similar to many other companies, as in having a strong and highly extroverted mission serving as a basis for the existence of the organization.
2. Prior research and theoretical perspectives
2.1 Prior research
Herein follows a review of relevant literature treating Slack, digital workplace’s and organizational culture. The chosen articles cover the subjects in a both broad and narrow perspective. Afterward follows a conclusive discussion about the outcome of the review, where my research and method are motivated.
2.1.1 Search method
For this study, I have chosen literature that treats the subjects Slack and organizational culture. Due to absence of peer reviewed literature about Slack, articles about digitalized workplace and organizational culture was also included. The literature chosen covered my area of research in a broad and narrow
perspective, presenting a thorough description of the area of interest. To find relevant literature, I used the university library search engine and search for peer reviewed studies and articles covering ‘Slack’,
‘Organizational culture’ and ‘digital workplace’. The search words were combined and exchanged for relevant synonyms.
2.1.2 Prior research about digital workplaces and organizational culture
Studies mainly focusing on digital workplaces in similar to Slack, and the relation to organizational culture provides interesting points of view. One of the studies mentions that a digitalized workplace comes with a new set of challenges concerning security, etiquette to expectations from the employees and the expectation to always being ‘online’. This will result in a new distinct culture affecting how the worker view and conduct their tasks in comparison to the previous more traditional workplace. The study also claims, that a
transformation into a digitalized workplace soon is a ‘must have’ in comparison to a ‘better have’ (Haddud
& Mc Allen, 2018).
Another study explores the relationship between human dynamics and technological systems in an educational environment. This study concludes that one ‘must see the organization as a central player in the interactive change between human and technical systems’ (Snyder, 2005, p.6). She writes that an
organization is a human device, facilitated by technology, but also that the technology facilitates the
organization and that it is the interplay between the two parts that must be analyzed in order to understand what a digital culture is (Snyder, 2005). The digital culture then give rise to new symbols, action, rhetoric’s and system of work supported and carried out by communication patterns, and that the culture will change our way of connecting and create a new space for organizational learning on a ‘multidimensional plain between the virtual and the physical’ (Snyder, 2005, p.6).
A third paper discusses digitalized teambuilding, and how it can be done in for example Slack (Feshbach
& Poyet, 2018). They mean that the ‘consumerization of the workplace’ has led to a state were employees expect the tools and environment of the workplace to behave like other consumer experiences outside of work. Which in turn has had a part in the success of tools like Slack. The usage of Slack on mobile devices is also presented as a cause of the ‘invasion of the home sphere’ (p.53).
2.1.3 Prior research about Slack
Prior research about why and how Slack is used by software developers, show that it is used for personal, team-wide and community-wide reasons. Personal reasons include discovering and aggerating news and information, for example by tracking RSS feeds or bookmarking interesting web sites, or to network and support social activities by using its instant message features. This can be directly related to work or simply for fun, by using some of the bots compatible with Slack (e.g. Giphy) employees can share gifs and memes to each other. Team-wide purposes are to communicate with stakeholders or teammates, often due to geographical distances, but also to take notes or to simplify and enable team collaboration by sharing code or notification systems. Community support comes from that Slack enables participation in communities of practice or groups related to special interests. The opportunity to use bots for acquiring information, support their daily lives or team and task management is also frequently used. For further studies, they note that more and richer research is required to fully understand the effects of using Slack (Lin et al., 2016).
Another study, made by Bunce, Wright and Scott (2017), focus on how the usage of Slack affects remotely working journalists, through interviews and ethnographic observations they present interesting reflections and conclusions. The journalists mostly used Slack as a professional tool, supporting production, coordination and collaboration. Although the majority of discussions were made in a highly professional manor, mainly related to the news production process, often more light-hearted topics would emerge. Slack also supported connection and collaboration amongst the journalists by reducing the effect of the physical distance between the workers, the frequent interactions helped in developing organizational norms, just as a physical space might would do. Also, by making discussions concerning the purpose and values of the organization, prior only visible for the board of directors, accessible for all employees within the
organization, they could effectively form and discuss their ‘own way of doing things’. These, and the other discussions were of high value to the new employees, who quickly could use Slack as a source to learn how the organization and its employees behaved. Results also showed that the journalists working together in a physical space, as in an office, experienced a closer network containing ‘additional levels of interaction above and beyond Slack’ (Bunce et al., 2017, p.3392). Their final research question answers to how Slack shapes relationships between employees and managers in the organization. The result show that Slack made the colleagues feel closer to one another, while also supporting and enabling friendships non-existent prior to the usage of Slack. The medium helped the users in maintaining connections, and assisted the team in developing a team identity, as a result of the now public conversations.
One of the driving factors to this result, was the often-light-hearted discussions and the sharing of funny things from the internet, that lead to bonding between the employees. The relation between the managers and the journalists was also affected by Slack, results show that the usage of Slack could form a more egalitarian power structure, but in reality, it might not be that way. By largely informal discussions and transparency throughout the strategic decisions made, a less hierarchal organization could be one of the effects of using Slack. But at the same time, the power relations between the employees and managers were inherent in the very architecture of the platform. As managers were the ones creating and promoting the channels, thus signaling which was more important than others, they shaped the culture and practice of the group. Slacks openness also gave the managers opportunities to publicly praise or critique the journalists work, which influenced the group as a whole. The omnipresence of Slack was also seen as a form of surveillance and source of stress by some of the employees. Even though the managers explicitly told the employees that they could turn Slack off if they needed time to think, the very awareness of the constantly developing discussions could lead to a form of self-governing (Bunce et al., 2017).
In conclusion of their article, they state that Slack shares many functions with a physical workplace, and that the usage of Slack help developing and containing friendship and norms within the organization. By illustrating how digital platforms can create new forms of power dynamics, the study shows that Slack can be used for managerial inclusion, incursion and surveillance. They also mention that the conditions of their study might be unique, making it difficult to apply any larger conclusion from it to other contexts, but that the ethnographic approach to the contents of Slack and its users, is extremely rewarding (Bunce et al., 2017).
2.1.4 Conclusions
Concluding the prior research presented above, I have reviewed the present level of knowledge
surrounding my research question. From the prior research about Slack, it is clear that the researchers have had a direct focus on the effects of the usage of Slack. By studying how it is used, both structure-wise and for what areas, the prior research presents a valid picture of how the workers relation to both each other and to their work is affected. The research concerning relations between digital workplace’s and organizational culture are more focused on how the digitalized workplace changes the way employees work and how they view work, thus also resulting in a change in culture.
The researchers come from various research disciplines, conducting their studies from different
perspectives including; educational, architecture and managerial. The prior research has been conducted by using several qualitative methods, e.g. ethnography and interviews, the combination of multiple disciplines and methods has resulted in a deeper understanding of the subject and research area. To begin, Slack and its likes is a fairly new concept, reducing the available studies to a minimum.
Most studies also seem to either have studied how Slack (or other digital collaboration tools) is used, and how it affects the work place as a whole, or only the way workers communicate with each other, but none has directly researched the relation between organizational culture and Slack. This I consider to be a hole in the present research. The ethnographic studies made on organizational culture, has proven to be fruitful, making my transformation of this kind of research into a digital medium, with additional elements, a necessary contribution. There are no studies to my concern that has used netnography as method to
understand organizational culture. With this as ground, my research and its purpose, where I intend to study relations between Slack and organizational culture, are motivated furtherly.
2.2 Theoretical perspectives
This section presents the theoretical foundation laying as basis for the study.
2.2.1 Organizational culture
Organizational culture has been defined and debated ever since the first time it was first introduced by Dr.
Elliot Jaques in 1951. Elliot Jaques was studying a British company mainly working with manufacturing, selling and serving metal bearings, his study covered the description, analysis and development of the corporate group behaviors, he wrote;
“the culture of the factory is its customary and traditional way of thinking and doing of things, which is shared to a greater or lesser degree by all its members, and which new members must learn, and at least partially accept, in order to be accepted into service in the firm…”. (Jaques, 1951, p.251).
The way he writes about the commonly shared wishes, desires and aspirations of the members of the organization, which should convince the members to work together, could be explained simply as their ability to care about the same things. To explain how these unified thoughts, take their form, a disintegration and categorization is highly required.
A common division of organizational culture is to view it either from a constructive or critical
perspective. Even though Jaques brought it up as early as 1951, organizational culture became a hot topic as a result of the western world’s interest in the rapid economic growth of Japan in the 80’s. The fascination lead to ideas of organizational culture as an asset, besides e.g. technology. As with technology, the asset could, and preferably should, be mastered and manipulated in order of maximizing the effectiveness of the organization. The critical perspective adapted at least implicitly by Schein (2010), views culture as the organization. Culture is now no longer an asset but instead, the organization and the culture are a unity, the very same thing. Studies of organizations from this perspective studies culture in the same way one would explore an undiscovered universe, with an open mind and without preconceptions. This mindset allows the researcher to discover what is often taken for granted, like language or clothing. Culture from this
perspective is seen as something that is extremely difficult to manipulate.
With this division as starting point, one can break up organizational cultural even more to give a more thorough understanding. Working through the perspectives given by literature Maul, Brown, and Cliffe (2001) divides organizational culture into four main themes.
First, Culture can be seen as a learned entity. Organizational culture is often presented as ‘the way we do things around here’ or ‘the way we think about things around here’ (Williams et al., 1994). This point of view is supported by Schein (2010) as it relies on the point that the culture is taught to new members of the organization as the correct way to behave, and thereby the culture lives with the organization through growth and change (Maul et al.,. 2001).
A second perspective sees culture as a system of belief. This perspective distinguishes between
fundamental guiding beliefs and daily ‘nitty-gritty’ beliefs. The fundamental beliefs give guiding to what is worth to give attention to in the every-day lives of the organization, the daily believes change from the context provided by the more fundamental believes (Maul et al,. 2001).
The third perspective treats culture as strategy. This perspective based on Bate (1995) means that strategy and culture is the same thing, since formulation of an organizational strategy is a cultural activity and any change in the culture is therefore a change in strategy (Maul et al,. 2001).
The fourth and last perspective views culture as mental programming. Hofstede (1984) is one of the major supporters of this perspective, meaning that culture is a collective programming of the mind, which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another. This definition sees culture as
something collective and intangible that is only interesting because it separates one group of people from another (Maul et al,. 2001).
What all themes have in common, independent of the perspective or approach, is that all organizations have a unique culture, and its own understanding of the meaning of it. The culture is created mainly by unconsciously shared values, often deriving from the founders or managers of the organization. Shared is also the opinion that the positive effects a ‘successful’ culture can have, is competitive advantages during organizational development and better cooperation, communication and commitment.
2.2.2 Organizational culture in creative professions
Also described as a strategic asset amongst organizations, is creativity. Creativity is also presented as one of the leading causes of organizational growth and development (Isaksen & Akkermans, 2007). A common challenge in the daily work of organizations living of creativity like game developers, advertising agencies or any other similar profession, is the balancing act between enabling it and at the same time containing it to be able of capitalizing on it. This challenge is also highly present at the organization in focus of this study, Sticky Beat. The culture in these organizations is described as failure tolerant and developed thru incentive structure and group interaction. The networks promoting group interactions should be based on ‘loose ties’
and enabling different actors in the organization or industry to quick and easy reach one another (DeFillippi, et al,. 2007), much in similar to how Slack is used.
Organizations in creative industries often work on different projects from time to time, generating new knowledge as the projects develop. The challenge in this way of working is that while creativity thrives on diverse teams, thus the introduction of newcomers, managerial tactics favors homogenous and proven groups (DeFillippi, et al,. 2007). The managers are also presented as one of the key factors to creativity, by creating or supporting a climate positive to creativity, a higher degree of creative behavior is perceived by the employees (Isaksen & Akkermans, 2007). With these studies in mind, one can conclude that
organizations who live of their creativity, must have a culture supported by leaders that promote innovation by e.g. enabling coworkers to effortlessly contact and talk to each other, and at the same time efficiently teach new members the knowledge obtained from the different projects conducted. This view of how culture can operate shares many similarities with the frequently cited Edgar Schein.
2.2.3 Schein perspective
According to Schein, organizational culture is about the common behavior and values of a group that should be taught to new members of the organization to keep the organization growing and surviving, as he defines it;
‘a pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, which has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.’ (Schein, 2010, p.18).
He means that cultural formation is always a striving toward patterning and integration since there may be changes in leadership, mission, underlaying technology or primary tasks that could intervene with the group and their learning experience. Many groups may also have contradictive beliefs or values ending in conflicts and uncertainty, so if the concept of culture should have any value, one must draw the attention to what are the human sides of it, like need for stability, consistency and meaning. Because the history of experiences in a group could be an obstacle, preventing them from reaching a clear-cut unambiguous paradigm (Schein, 2010, p.18).
All groups, independent of size, must deal with two sets of major problems: (1) Survival, growth, and adaption in their environment (external adaption); and (2) Internal integration that permits daily functioning and the ability to adapt and learn (Schein, 2010, p.18). Examples of problems with external adaption can be competition in the market, inability to deal with re-organizations, different assumptions of an organization’s goals and mission, or inability to attract new employees. Sticky Beats explicit talk about their ‘DNA’ is therefore an example of a solution to an external adaption, as in making sure all members in the
organization has the same perception of the reason to why they exist, preventing divergent assumptions.
Examples of problems with internal integration can be inability to communicate internally, or inability of transferring the mutually found knowledge to new members. These areas of group functioning foretell the macro cultural context in which the groups are formed and from which the broader and deeper basic assumptions about the nature of reality, time, space, human nature and human relations are derived (p.19).
2.2.4 Three levels of culture
According to Schein (2010, p.23) culture can be analyzed at 3 different levels, the term level meaning the degree to which culture is visible to the observer. These levels range from the most obvious manifestations that can be viewed and touched to the most deeply imbedded, sometimes unconscious basic assumptions, the ‘essence of culture’ (p.23). Between the layers are the embraced beliefs, values, norms and rules of behavior, used by the members to portray their culture to themselves and to others. In contrary to many other cultural researchers, Schein prefers the term basic assumptions over basic values, since if one would describe it as values it would be open for discussion, and possibly acceptingly disagreed with. Assumptions are taken for granted in a deeper manner and disagreeing with them is viewed as so far away from the others that they could not exist in the same organization without being a cause of confusion or mistrust (p.23).
Here follows an explanation of Scheins three levels of culture; artifacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions.
2.2.5 Artifacts
When encountering a new group with an unfamiliar culture, the first things that one can see, hear and feel are the artifacts, the top level of culture. These consist of all things visible like; architecture, language, technology, clothing, decoration or manners, as well as their observable rituals and ceremonies (Schein, 2010, p.23). The observed behavior, and the organizational processes whom confirm such behavior as routine, are also to be considered as artifacts along with structural elements like formal descriptions of work routine. Some cultural analysists equate organizational climate with organizational culture. Schein (2010), instead argues that it is better perceived as an outcome of the culture, an artifact, since the climate is a product of some of the underlying assumptions (p.24).
The thing about the artifacts is that they are easy to identify, but very difficult to decipher, at least in a way that could be representative or correct according to the members of the culture. At the organization of interest to this study, Sticky Beat, Slack can be considered as an artifact. It is something that is used every day and is therefore almost unavoidable in contact with Sticky Beat, independent of whether you are a customer or a student looking for an internship. Slack is an artifact in the same way as the small robot figures that can be found in various places around the office.
The agreement that one takes of one’s shoes when entering the building or the recurring ‘Friday lunch’
consumed together at some local restaurant are examples of rites and rituals. Rites and rituals are ‘symbolic ways to formalize certain assumptions and are, therefore, important artifacts to observe’ (p.253). As an observer one can interpret the ‘Friday-lunch’ as a way of celebrating the end of the week together, or the robots as a love for technology, all deriving from one owns feelings and reactions. To make out any larger conclusions or find deeper assumptions, one must talk to the members and analyze the espoused values, norms and rules which provides the organization with principles on which they can model their own behavior (Schein, 2010, p.25).
2.2.6 Espoused beliefs and values
The layer below artifacts is espoused values, consisting of ideals, goals and values. These may or may not be in line with behavior or other artifacts, but they are based on mutual learning experiences within the group.
When an organization faces a new kind of problem, the actions taken are often based on an individual’s own assumptions and beliefs of what is right or wrong, or what will or will not work. The individuals who can assure others that their idea will be successful, and persuade the others in executing the proposed solution, will later be identified as the founders or leaders of the organization. Until the leader has proven that the solution is good enough to be executed, and the result is perceived as successful by the whole group, the proposed action is only valued as a statement of the individuals own values and beliefs, something that should be questioned, debated, challenged and tested. When, and if, the solution is proven to be functional, or at least work well enough, the value is gradually transformed into a shared belief or value, and ultimately into a shared assumption. This can only happen if the actions taken based on it continue to be successful.
Fast forwarding the transformation process, members of the organization will eventually forget the prior questioning and testing, and mutually take it into their practice (Schein, 2010, p.26).
According to Schein, only the beliefs and values that can be tested and thereby proven to work reliably, will transform into assumptions (p.26). Other examples hindering the conversion, could be those dealing with elements that are uncontrollable or those dealing with moral matters. These can be impossible to test, although consensus through social validation is still possible, just not in the same fluent way as in the prior case. As explanation to social validation, he writes that the values and beliefs are confirmed through mutual social experiences of the group, and that various religions use the same reinforcement of the values and beliefs as justification. The very test itself is made up by how comfortable and anxiety free the members are when following them instead of, if they work or not. The group finds comfort and reliability in the
reduction of uncertainty in critical areas of the organizational functioning. As it continuous to provide meaning to the group, it transforms into nondiscussible assumptions although the relation to direct
performance is absent (Schein, 2010, p.26). Another element that can be difficult to test is the very strategy and goals of the organization. This is due to the fact that the link between performance and strategy can be hard to prove, and the only way of validating the strategy is also through consensus. These espoused values, as in mutual belief and ethical rules, can often be seen as the articulated ideology or ‘mission’ and ‘vision’ of an organization. In this case they serve as a normative function that guides the members of the organization in dealing with various situation, which is also taught to new members as the correct way to behave. As example, Sticky Beat writes that their mission is to ‘create the best possible digital experience for our clients and their users. We achieve this by staying true to our DNA: ”We Love Tomorrow”.’ (“About us – Sticky Beat - en digital innovationsbyrå”). The mentioned ‘DNA’ is a perfect example of espoused beliefs and values, in Sticky Beats meaning, the DNA should guide the organization in their daily functioning and growth, just as espoused values is described in this paragraph.
Schein (2010, p.27) also mentions the possibility of having an ideology stating one thing, while the observed behavior reflects another. In this case it is crucial to separate the underlying assumptions that;
guide performance, the ones that are part of the ideology, and the one that are rationalizations or only serve as aspirations for the future when analyzing the espoused beliefs and values. This is because the espoused beliefs often are abstract or even contradictory, leaving the observer feeling that one understands a part of the culture but not the whole picture. To fully understand the culture and its pattern, one must go deeper into the category of basic assumptions.
2.2.7 Basic underlying assumptions
Basic assumptions are values and beliefs that has been implemented and proven to be successful to the group so many times, that they ultimately become taken for granted and decisions are unconsciously taken based on them. Any step away from the basic assumption, or any action taken on another premise, would be simply unthinkable (Schein, 2010, p.28). This makes basic assumptions extremely difficult to change, since they are a nondiscussible part of the members world view, and any attempt to change it would cause destabilization and release large quantities of anxiety. Culture, being a set of basic assumptions that guides the members in what is worthy of their attention, what things mean and how to react to things happening, members would rather deny or falsify differing assumptions to avoid the destabilization and confusion. This is where culture has its strongest firmament, because the development of such assumptions, or way to see the world, makes us comfortable with anyone sharing it, and uncomfortable with anyone operating in difference to it (Schein, 2010, p.29). The risk of misinterpreting or just not understanding anyone else’s world view is simply too great to be worth taking and since the human mind craves for stability, one would rather avoid or deny opposing basic assumptions and become defensive than risk releasing the anxiety caused of being incorrect (Schein, 2010, p.29).
This explanation paints an almost depressing view of culture as something held by a group of people, rejecting all other views except the ones who fits into their own world view. Fortunately, everything is not as black or white as it may sound, and many possible misinterpretations can easily be solved with a third part or a laugh and a lesson learned. The defensiveness is also not always as prominent as to freezing out or excluding others and often any underlying assumptions only causes a temporarily confusion in collision with opposites. At the same time as the basic assumptions works as a defense mechanism for the cultural
members, it also gives them an identity and defined values that provides self-esteem (Hatch & Schultz, 2004). Realizing that the culture is what tells the members who they are, how to behave and why they should feel good about themselves makes it obvious why anything disrupting it causes anxiety (Schein, 2010, p.29).
This operates on multiple levels simultaneously, while individuals bring their own cultural learnings and assumptions from prior experiences and groups, the new group develops its own shared history and creates or modifies new assumptions. The new assumptions will then become the basis for the culture of the new group (Schein, 2010, p.29).
In Sticky beat it is therefore not the small decorative robots, or the DNA presented on the website that defines their organizational culture, but the underlying basic assumptions leading to the very creation of a DNA, or the choice to place small metal figures in the shelves around the office. To understand what Sticky Beat and their culture is, one must therefore decipher each layer of Scheins model, one by one and then together, to get to the core.
2.2.8 Satisficing
Schein talks about culture in terms of solutions that has ‘worked well enough’ (Schein, 2010, p.18), but what ‘well enough’ is can be very different from time to time. To better understand how it can be
understood, one can argue that there is high resemblance with the term satisficing, developed by Herbert A.
Simon (1956). Satisficing is a strategy for decision making where the available options are scanned until an acceptability threshold is met. The term is used to explain behavior of decision-making in circumstances where the best solution cannot be predetermined, or where such a process would require too much
resources, very much in similar to the process of developing or finding future espoused values and beliefs in an organization. In these circumstances the group cannot know if the presented solution to a problem is the optimal one and must therefore evaluate it through testing and questioning.
This term is also useful in understanding the agile work strategy used by many organizations in the creative industry, Sticky Beat for example. To work agile is ‘an iterative development methodology that values human communication and feedback, adapting to changes, and producing working results.’ (Conrad, 2018). To work in an agile way is to work iterative, meaning that projects are done in pieces or sprints, each sprint builds and improves on the lessons learned from the previous one, also very much in similar to the previous used description of how an organizational culture is developed. These two terms will be of high value when analyzing and deciphering the organization and its culture of focus in this study, Sticky Beat.
2.2.9 Summarizing discussion
The theoretical framework presented above will be used to analyze the empirical data. The starting-point will be Scheins (2010) classic view on organizational culture. The reason behind this decision is that Scheins theory about organizational culture is one of the most cited, and his definition, quoted in the beginning of the heading about Schein, provides a solid ground on which to operationalize my research questions. From the perspective provided by Schein, the essence of culture lies in the basic underlying assumptions, and one can only interpret the artifacts or understand the espoused values and beliefs in a correct way after
identifying the shared taken for granted assumptions. In difference to other theories about organizational culture, Scheins critical perspective is more suitable when studying culture as a living organism rather than the constructive way of trying to shape it for the purpose of organizational benefits. The connection between satisficing, Scheins quote on organizational culture, and the agile way of working in creative industries will also contribute to a deeper understanding of the empirical data.
3. Method
This section presents the method netnography, used for collection and analyzation of the empirical material used in this study.
3.1 Netnography
Netnography is best understood against its origin, ethnography. The word ethnography is a conjunction of the Greek word’s ethnos, which means; people, and grapho, which means; I write. Basically, ethnography is a scientific method where the researcher writes about people, this could include their social life or their culture. Netnography therefore, as its name foretell, is to write about people and their social and culture context in an online environment (Berg, 2015, p.10). But Netnography is more than just doing ethnographic research online, netnography is used to ‘understand and describe internet as an artefact, tool and place to associate, partly to understand and describe the social and cultural life which flourish on, together, and in relation to internet’ (Berg, 2015 p.10). What I mean to say by this is that the reason netnography is the preferred method for this study, is that it lays in the very wording of the research question ‘What is the relationship between organizational culture and a digital communication platform as Slack?’. Just as netnography, this study intends to study culture on, in relation to and as a result of internet. As the purpose of this study is to investigate the relations between organizational culture and the digital collaboration platform Slack,
netnography as method allowed me to conduct my research, answer the research questions and ultimately fulfill the purpose.
There are other qualitative methods that might could answer the research question, for example
qualitative interviews would be close to what netnography could provide but on its own, in comparison to the strengths in netnography, it misses out on essential aspects and elements. Netnography as method has its strength in enabling a combination of different methods, sources and material to paint a complete and valid picture of the empirical data. Just as the precursor ethnography, Netnography often extends in an organic and natural way from the basis of participatory observation into elements like interviews, archival data, semiotic analysis and a large variety of other techniques (Kozinetz, 2010, p.130). Another reason that netnography helped in answering the research questions is that this study intends to study the culture of the organization, in a digital landscape. The culture itself is much made up by attitudes and behavior, the very focus of netnographic research. By adapting ethnographic research techniques to study cultures emerging through computer mediated communications (Kozinets, 2002), the researcher becomes a part of the object of study, and is able to actually see what people do, not only what they say they do. Another big reason to why netnography is the preferred method for this study, is that it allowed me to utilize my former
experience as an intern at the organization when interpreting the elements of Slack, and their culture. This method, compared to using only e.g. interviews, gives the researcher a more substantial experience of the material, thus leading to a more valid study.
Netnography as a method therefore relies on the researcher to fully emerge him- or herself into the focus of the study to be able to witness how the culture is expressed and shaped in its natural habitat. It is crucial when trying to understand what happens in a digital world, to have extensive knowledge of the basic conditions the world is built upon. Therefore, it is not pre-decided that netnographic research exclusively is conducted on material collected exclusively in the digital world. The dissolution between on- and offline, together with the fact that netnography is a question of research on and together with internet, made it necessary to in this study collect empirical data offline to understand what was happening online, and vice versa (Berg, 2015, p.68).
3.1.1 Principles of Netnography
Netnography often follows the same principles as other qualitative research; a research question is formulated on the basis of a scientific problem, an empirical field is then approached from a theoretical perspective, on which an understanding is built. The empirical field is then left, to make place for analysis and the writing of a report, essay or likewise. Research in Netnography can therefore achieve high quality by following the same determinant dimensions as in other qualitative research (Berg, 2015, p.70).
First, netnographic research should never relate only to prior research relating to internet or other mediums, and instead include research from perspectives of social processes or practices in general. In this study, theories and prior research from several different areas has been used, but all relating to the interests of this study. Second, clearly defined limits for what the researcher should study is essential for netnographic research to prevent overflow of empirical material. In this study certain events, as in changes affecting the organization of interest, made it unavoidable not to change or at least adapt the focus. However, the very basis for the research was always the same. As Berg (2015) writes ‘research is often chaotic, contradictive and part of a process where big questions are allowed to change during the project.’ (p.73).
In netnographic research, the empirical material is accessed via fieldwork. Fieldwork is a process of formulating a problem, defining and limit the field, collecting the empirical material, and analyzing it (Berg, 2015, p.87). In this study, the fieldwork was conducted by observing and taking part in how the organization Sticky Beat used Slack. To gain a deeper understanding and being able of presenting a thick description, the fieldwork included spending time in Slack, and being physically present at one of the offices of the
company. In this study, the research problem spawned from observations and interest sparked while spending time in the field, both on- and offline, as an intern at the company. In that sense a part of the fieldwork had already been conducted when the problem first was formulated, and while spending additional time in the field, a deeper understanding of the first time in the field could be developed and utilized.
3.2 Sample
The material studied is, as mentioned before, a company named Sticky Beat and their interactions and usage of the collaboration platform Slack. The organization consists of 8 employees distributed over two separate offices. One of the main reasons to why I chose this company as object of study was that I already had good connection to the company and all the employees due to my 10 weeks as an intern, and therefore had the opportunity to study their internal communication on Slack. The physical offices were also located nearby which granted me the opportunity to study their offline behavior as well.
Since the purpose of this study is to study the relations between organizational culture, something existing in every organization, and continues usage of a digital collaboration platform, something existing in many but not all organizations, the company Sticky Beat serves as a relevant sample. Since many of the companies using Slack work in the creative industries and use Slack for internal communication and collaboration just as Sticky Beat does, the organization is also representative for a larger field, even though organizational culture is something unique in all organizations. To study an area already familiar to me as a researcher, an area I easily could gain access to again, also allowed me to save a substantial amount of time.
3.2.1 Collection and description of empirical data
In this study I have chosen to mention the empirical data collected from Slack in terms of days instead of numbers of posts, since one post can be a single word or gif’s or shorter common conversational
expressions. The amount of posts would be impossible to calculate in an effective way; thus, days or dates is a more effective designation. The empirical data consists of conversations and observations in Slack
between September 2018 and May 2019. In some specific examples, posts made earlier then that were also used. To complement the digital data, observations and field notes obtained from spending time physically at the organization between September 2018 and January 2019, and again during the writing of this study between April and May 2019 was also used.
The collection of empirical data took place over two, ten week long time periods. During the first period I was an intern at the organization, spending time at the offices physically and in Slack. From a netnographic research perspective, this is described as participatory observation. During this time, I was unaware of this study but kept a personal diary over what I did, this can in netnographic research be considered as field notes.
During the second period, I spent additional time both in Slack and at one of the offices of the organization.
This time I could study both my own and the organizations past conversations over Slack, in netnography considered as archival data, while also conducting new participatory observations, writing new field notes and conducting a structure and network-analysis of the platform (Berg, 2015). By using the combination of e.g. real time field notes, archive data and own experience, I was able to capture different elements of the
organization and the organizational culture in real time, but also in the past, without removing to much of it from its context. Netnography thus allowed me to become a time traveler, constantly moving between past conversations and present to form a better understanding of what I was studying.
To prevent any risk of overflow of data, common in netnographic research (Berg, 2015, p.64), I
immediately asked the employees of the organization what channels were active, and which was not. I then joined the channels, to make sure I did not miss any interaction taking place. A combination of channels serving different purposes was used to capture all perspectives and types of usage, during the fieldwork some channels changed name or were archived. The field notes were collected by print-screening interesting posts or conversations, and placing them in a separate document, sometimes with a note or explanation.
Part from that I relied heavily on the search function of Slack. By being able to search for all conversations and posts made, I decided that downloading or saving any other data than the few print-screens was needed.
For the field notes related to things outside of Slack, the same document the print-screens was placed in was used.
3.3 Methodological problems
As presented earlier, Netnography in many ways follows the same principles and therefore also problems as other qualitative research, ethnography for one. Participant observation, common in both netnography and ethnography, relies on the fact that the empirical field should be visited and experienced for creation of an understanding. Once the researcher becomes a part of the field, problems in difficulties to view the field from an outside and objective point of view, commonly discussed in participant observations as ‘going native’, arises (Spradley, 1980). When this study was conducted, I already had ‘gone native’ unavoidably once, so while conducting the second part of the participatory observations, and when analyzing the material, I did my best to have an open mind by constantly questioning my interpretations.
Other commonly presented problems of netnography is the dependency of the researcher’s interpretative skills (Kozinets, 1998). To not risk of interpreting the material in an incorrect or non-representative way, my prior experience now functions as a solution, to spend time physically at the office also reduced the risk of misinterpreting the text due to sarcasm or other common misconceptions in a digital medium. Spending time during the writing of this study created another problem, the employee’s knowledge of me being there as a researcher. During the second field study, it was not uncommon to hear phrases like ‘I’m sure you will include that in your study’ or similar. However, due to my knowledge of the organization and their
conversational climate, I do not think that me being there in the role of a researcher had any major effect on the material posted in Slack. The shouting almost always came in relation to a joke possibly considered as
‘over the line’, being said or written, but always after it had been said or written. The members of the organization were also informed that this study in particularly would focus on ‘archival data’, making the messages posted during my time being there of less relevance.
Overflow in material is another problem in netnography, due to the fact that netnographic research often extends over the usual limits of time and space (Berg, 2015, p.64). To prevent the risk of overflow, the clear limits of what was researched, and the limits in nature of Slack was of great benefit. By only observing the interactions taking place over Slack between the time period pre-decided, and using the real-life observations
study was in the same place, preventing me from losing myself in the material.
Another problem specific for netnographic research is the very instability of material found online, as data can be deleted, changed and members of a community could leave etc. (Berg, 2015, p.127). In this study, Slack as platform showed to both withhold positive and negative aspects for this matter. The positive sides of Slack were that material rarely is deleted, instead it is archived and can still be accessed without difficulties. On the negative side, if a channel is renamed, the name does also change when looking back in time, the same goes for profile pictures. This created a bit of confusion in the early days of the field work, but as soon as it was acknowledged it was no longer a problem.
3.4 Ethical considerations
Research in social science today is regulated by the ethical guidelines, produced by the Swedish research council (2019). Netnography, being a fairly new field runs into some problem since most of the guidelines are developed for offline research. To counter this void, Berg (2015, p.128) recommends that one should use the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) collection of internet specific questions to evaluate ethical considerations in netnographic research.
As a netnographic researcher, whom study’s behavior and culture on internet, one always has to consider the participants understanding of what is supposedly public to be private or not (Berg, 2015, p.85). To do this successfully, the researcher has to introduce oneself to the participants and thus interact with the community of interest. A common problem in this matter is the organic evolving and constant change of online communities, as conversations constantly grow, and members are coming and going the researcher can rarely be sure of whether all participants are aware of the researcher’s presence or not. Another common dilemma in netnographic research, is that the researcher does not know who the research
participants are (Roy et al,. 2015), this could be a major problem since it can be problematic to gain consent from participants writing under an alias for example.
In this study, many of the possible ethical pitfalls was easily solved since the subject of the study is a small business organization, where the all the members are actual humans available for direct contact instead of unknown identities behind strange nicknames on an internet forum as it might be in other netnographic studies. It is therefore more correct to describe the sample as a privately moderated group, where all members must be approved by a gatekeeper, thus making it impossible to study them without interacting with them. Before any study could begin, I had to inform all participants of my presence and intentions, and also present the possibility to be excluded from the study as an option. I did this by writing a message in their main channel in Slack, where I described the purpose of the study and their role in it. I used the tag
‘@channel’ to notify everyone and could witness as the employees reacted with a thumb up as to show approval. The only problem with this was that everyone did not respond, to those I sent a private message with the same info and collected their consent that way. After making the entre and introducing the purpose of the study, none of the members of the community wanted to be excluded.
