What makes corporate wikis work? wiki affordances and their suitability for corporate knowledge work

M. Lisa Yeo, Ofer Arazy

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Wikis were originally intended for knowledge work in the open Internet environment, and there seems to be an inherent tension between wikis' affordances and the nature knowledge work in organizations. The objective of this paper is to investigate how tailoring wikis to corporate settings would impact users' wiki activity. We begin by synthesizing prior works on wikis' design principles; identifying several areas where we anticipate high tension between wikis' affordances and organizational work practices. We put forward five propositions regarding how changes in corporate wikis deployment procedures may impact users' wiki activity. An empirical study in one multi-national organization tested users' perceptions towards these propositions, revealing that in some cases there may be a need for modifying wiki's design, while in other cases corporations may wish to change their knowledge work practices to align with wikis' affordances.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDesign Science Research in Information Systems
Subtitle of host publicationAdvances in Theory and Practice - 7th International Conference, DESRIST 2012, Proceedings
Pages174-190
Number of pages17
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes
Event7th International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems: Advances in Theory and Practice, DESRIST 2012 - Las Vegas, NV, United States
Duration: 14 May 201215 May 2012

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume7286 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference7th International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems: Advances in Theory and Practice, DESRIST 2012
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityLas Vegas, NV
Period14/05/1215/05/12

Keywords

  • Affordances
  • Knowledge Management
  • Wiki

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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