Online Social Networks - How are online social networks experienced by individuals in an organizational context?

Abstract: Organizations’ external environment is full of business ventures. Individuals play ‘in role’ and ‘extra role’ at the same time within the organizations. They are also located in an online environment where they participate and communicate using online social tools. Moreover, individuals within organizations seldom know who are likely to provide the right information or knowledge. The "who knows who knows what?" problem blows up. Thus, it takes a lot of effort to create a trustworthy network between organizations. Furthermore, the process of creating online social networks requires social know-how as well as technical expertise. These problems have a relation towards the lack of face-to-face communication. The main purpose of this research is to describe both intra- and inter-organizational social networks looking through the window of individuals’ experiences from professional as well as personal life. The individual is the core of the research and the purpose is fulfilled from the individuals’ point of view. The research is carried out by the phenomenological method of analysis, where data is gathered by interviews. The results from the analysis show the most popular social tools individuals are using. Furthermore, the interviewees shared experiences and ideas on how to initiate relations that to create social networks within the external organizations environment are studied. Moreover, distinguishing professional and personal roles of individuals, it was found out that these roles merge in an online environment. The final conclusion is that the online social network phenomenon spreads in different areas and affects individuals as well as organizations.