Instant Messaging and Microblogging: Situated-Learning Platforms for Educationists and Workplace Mentors

Digital Business Discourse

“…Darics (2010a) concentrated on the use of ellipsis dots, emoticons, capitalization, laughter, and backchannels for politeness reasons in a virtual workplace; in another study, explored how letter repetition in instant messaging goes beyond phonetic purposes to indicate intimacy and collegiality among colleagues. Other research also touched on the social or pedagogical functions of instant messaging at work, namely joking (Handel & Herbsleb, 2002), performing phatic exchanges (Chung & Nam, 2007), maintaining a minimal sense of group work , sharing work-related memory ( Jacobs, 2006), arranging multitasks, and recording workplace knowledge for newcomers (Mak, Chui et al, 2012). There have been quantitative studies (e.g., Avrahami & Hudson, 2006;Iqbal & Horvitz, 2007) that articulated the communication features (e.g., response time, message length) of Instant Messaging at work as well.…”

Socialization into the Workplace: A Newcomer’s Chitchat with Colleagues on Facebook Status Updates

“…Since workplace socialization involves ongoing interactions between a newcomer and the core members, rather than the cognitive mediation of the newcomer him-or herself only (Korte, 2009), it can be understood through exploring the language use of the newcomer when he or she communicates with the other colleagues (Mak, Liu, & Deneen, 2012), whether face to face, on the phone, or on the Internet (Mak, Chui, et al, 2012). This paper focuses on chitchat in status updates on Facebook.…”

“…A few of them (e.g., Mak, Chui, et al, 2012) examine the potential of status updates in newcomers' learning, but their scope is usually small and does not specifically touch on chitchat or other forms of small talk.…”

“…The former suggests Sam's lack of knowledge of the unwritten norms of interaction (Holmes, 2004;Mak, Chui, et al, 2012) In other circumstances, this membership is consolidated through his preferences to be standalone in collective activities.…”

“…When he underwent active socialization, he searched for entertainment at work, replayed insider knowledge, and even behaved as if he was already a veteran. Such occasional situations could be ascribed to the enhancement in familiarity with duties and colleagues (Mak, Chui, et al, 2012), sophisticated practice of going about work, and instantaneous alignment with integral members (Cooper-Thomas, et al, 2012).…”