In this study, nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in New Zealand were surveyed to explore influences on adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). We sought to extend existing research by considering ''institutional'' influences alongside organizational and environmental features and by examining how institutional forces affect optimal use of ICTs. Findings suggest that NPOs adopting and using ICTs tended to be self-perceived leaders or those who scanned the environment and emulated leaders and tended to have organizational decisionmakers with the expertise to enable adoption and use.Furthermore, optimal fit of ICTs tended to be spurred by institutional forces if accompanied by self-perceived leadership and appropriate organizational resources. Implications for practice and theory are explored.
Scholars continue to debate the social functions of YouTube as an online platform; some pointing to emergence of community [21] while others describing it as an asocial extension of a television screen [7]. This paper argues for three types of participation online: passive, active and interactive. Focusing on one particular YouTube site, the authors engage in a multi-method exploration of the content of communication (using thematic analysis) as well as interaction patterns (emerging through a network analytic perspective). Results show that viewers are largely passively consuming the video content, with few participants actively engaging, and even fewer interacting with others. YouTube commenters are characterized as cyber-graffiti authors, broadcasting messages for the cyber-world at large. Implications for community and affiliation networks are discussed.
In this study we examine the relationship among supervisors' social support skills, employees' communication motives, and supervisor-subordinate relationship satisfaction. A network approach focuses on the relational tie between actors, as opposed to characteristics of the actors themselves. Using a sample of employees (N=222) from a wide range of occupations, we found that supervisors' emotional, informative, and instrumental social support skills are positively correlated with employees' communication motives of pleasure, affect, inclusion, and relaxation. While network studies suggest the need to navigate one's social web in order to acquire different types of support from different proximate alters, employees herein report attaining emotional, informative, and instrumental support from one singular tie: Their supervisor at work.
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