[IS Theory]Social construction of communication technology

Social construction of communication technology Fulk, J.. 1993. Academy of management Journal. 36. pp. 921

 

- work group members share identifiable patterns of meaning and action concerning communication technology.

- Social influences on technology-related attitudes and behavior were consistently stronger when individuals were highly attracted to their work groups.

 

[Theories of the Social Construction of Communication Technology]

 

- Social constructivist thinking about technologies has penetrated the organizational context.

- Technologies are equivocal because they can be interpreted in multiple and perhaps conflicting ways.

- Technology users create rich meanings in mediated communication through their choices of media with specific symbolic features.

- The medium is the message.

- "adaptive structuration" approach to communication technology, a constantly evolving set of social structures and technological manifestations arises as groups selectively appropriate features of both a technology and the broader social structure in which the group is embedded.

 

- Within the realm of the mutual determinism of technology and social structure, what specific social processes engage individual? Described by social learning theory and social information processing theory

 1) Social learning theory: predicts coordinated behaviors and meanings that arise through several processes of modeling.

  (1) Observational learning occurs when individuals acquire cognitive skills, new behavior patterns, or both by observing the behavior of other individuals.

(2) Inhibitory and disinhibitory effects arise from observation of the consequences of a behavior for others who have exhibited that behavior and from observers' estimates of the likelihood of experiencing the same consequences.

(3) Response facilitation is present when models' behavior serves as a social prompt for behaviors for which previously there has been insufficient inducement.

(4) Arousal occurs because emotional reactions in individuals tend to elicit emotional reactions in observers.

(5) Environmental enhancement occurs when "a model's behavior channels the observers' attention to particular stimuli or draws observers into settings which elicit similar behavior"

 

2) Social information processing theory: proposes multiple mechanisms whereby co-workers influence the attitudes and behavior of individuals.

  (1) Overt statements that individuals assimilate

 (2) Interpretations of events

(3) Communications that increase the saliency of events simply by calling attention to them,  

(4) Provision of standards for judging the appropriateness of particular behaviors and for appropriately rationalizing workplace activities

 

- These constructivist perspectives share the core proposition that social and symbolic processes produce patterns of shared cognitions and behavior that arise from forces well beyond the demands of the straightforward task of information processing in organizations.