JCMC 2012 - special Issue on Social Media and Communication in the Workplace

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Category Computer Interaction

Deadline: February 01, 2012 | Date: July 15, 2012

Venue/Country: Online, Online

Updated: 2012-01-24 13:04:01 (GMT+9)

Call For Papers - CFP

Social Media and Communication in the Workplace

Guest Editors:

Charles Steinfield, Michigan State University, steinfiemsu.edu

Marleen Huysman, VU University Amsterdam, m.h.huysmanvu.nl

Paul Leonardi, Northwestern University, leonardinorthwestern.edu

Social media technologies have the potential to change important

communication processes within organizations.

As social media proliferate, it seems likely that organizational

members will use them to carry out socialization,

identification, collaboration, innovation, relationship development,

persuasion, learning, social capital formation,

and knowledge sharing processes. The explosive growth of these

technologies has not gone unnoticed bycommunication and information

scholars, as evidenced by the equally rapid growth in articles related

to the uses

and impacts of social media, including a prior special issue on social

network sites here in JCMC (vol. 13, no. 1,

2007). Much of this prior work has been conducted among student

populations or in the context of advertising andmarketing, and, as

such, has not focused on social media use in organizations. Studies

that do take theorganization into account, generally relate to such

fields as information systems marketing, and strategicmanagement, with

the aim of understanding how social media can be leveraged to enhance

business

performance. Less well studied, however, is the influence of social

media on a range of organizationalcommunication processes within

workplace contexts.

Focus of the Special Issue:

We invite submissions to a special issue of the Journal of

Computer-Mediated Communication focusing onresearch on social media

within the organizational context. Our aim is to highlight research

that explores how the

affordances of social media interact with organizational contexts,

behaviors, and communicationpractices to influence processes of

interest to organizational scholars.

We are interested in submissions that enable us to better understand

how social media affordances make a

difference in workplace settings. Affordances are the result of the

intertwining of capabilities provided by thetechnologies and the

actions taken by the actors using them. Papers are especially welcome

that integrate thematerial aspects of the technology with its use in

organizational communication processes. Submissions that

focus on such topics as the role of social media in attracting

customers or influencing sales will be given lesspriority as these

topics are extensively covered in other outlets.

We are intentionally not providing a definition of social media in

this call for papers, but ask authors to do so withintheir

manuscripts. We encourage authors to be explicit about what it is

about the media they are studying that

makes them "social" and to provide definitions that are robust enough

to endure over time.

We encourage diverse methodological approaches, including both

qualitative and quantitative studies. Conceptualpapers as well as

empirical studies are welcome. All papers must be theoretically

motivated.

Submission Process and Author Guidelines:

Papers will undergo an initial screening by the three special issue

editors in an accelerated review process. A setof selected papers will

then be invited for submission to the JCMC system and will undergo a

formal review led bythe special issue editors in conjunction with JCMC

reviewers.

Submissions should follow JCMC formatting guidelines available at the

journal site

(http://www.wiley.com/bw/submit.asp?ref=1083-6101) and should be sent

via email to the special issue editors by

February 1, 2012. Initial screening decisions will be completed by

March 15, 2012, and selected papers must besubmitted to the JCMC

system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jcmc by April 15, 2012.

Final acceptance

decisions will be completed by July 15, 2012.

Marleen Huysman

Professor of Knowledge & Organization

Department of Economics and Business Administration

VU University Amsterdam

http://kinresearch.nl