Social inclusion has become a pressing issue for organizations wishing to close the inequality and disparity gaps associated with underrepresented or disadvantaged groups. The challenge is becoming particularly critical in higher education institutions suffering from low retention rates and low graduation rates among first-generation college students (FGCS). In response to the challenges imposed by the notion of social inclusion, some universities and colleges are exploring the use of social networking technologies such as social media (SM) in ways that can impact social inclusion. In order to improve the understanding of how social networking technology affects the social inclusion of FGCS, we conducted a case study in a public, Hispanic-serving institution in the United States. We used technology affordance theory to reveal various affordances actualized by FGCS and various outcomes resulting from those affordances. To explain how the actualization of different strands of affordance produces certain outcomes, our analysis of 102 FGCS’ narratives followed an established five-step framework for identifying generative mechanisms, revealing three SM user types—Community Builders, Scholars, and Information Seekers—and four actualized affordances, namely interconnection, inspiration, insightfulness, and intense comfort, which are conceptualized into three generative mechanisms: identity booster, academic growth, and self-care. Our results provide insights into SM usage for social inclusion outcomes. By revealing how technology use can promote social engagement and mitigate exclusion experienced by FGCS, this study contributes to the broad social inclusion research on technology and disadvantaged communities.

Today, the healthcare industry is challenged with promoting health and disease prevention through various customer outreach initiatives. Social media tools enable customers to aquire health information without the need to visit their doctor. Yet, healthcare providers do not understand what motivates customers to use such technology for health-related purposes. In this study, an online survey was conducted with 4,058 participants. Using SEM techniques, the results indicate that previous experience with online health-related searches serves as a direct and indirect motivational driver. While the direct relationship between prior experience with online health-related searches can be mostly positive, it can be weakened and impacted by inhibitors that create online use concerns (e.g., privacy and confidentiality). Furthermore, health condition may determine the level of interest people may have for health-related social media sites as well. This research provides a deeper understanding about motivational factors that impact the intent to use health-related social media.

Internet Addiction has emerged as a universal issue affecting a multitude of people. Internet addiction may be brought about by the simple fact of using coping in combination with internet technologies to escape from the negative emotions of daily live and promote more positive emotions. Drawing on this coping theory, this manuscript reports the results of a study designed to explore the relationships between internet addiction and positive/negative emotional states. Internet users were surveyed about their internet usage patterns and some basic emotions. These survey results were then analyzed using PLS. The results showed significant relationships between internet addiction and the emotional states. Specifically, internet addiction is found to concurrently increase the negative emotional states and decrease the positive emotional states. This is troubling as internet usage has been steadily increasing. The findings show that if the usage is from an Internet addict, the usage can decrease the positive and increase the negative emotional states.

Digital and social media (DSM) have transformed the workplace in organizations.Two decades ago, the use of electronic communication technologies--such as emails, messaging, and teleconference systems-promoted effective electronic communications in organizations, changing organizational forms, enabling electronic document management, and preserving organizational memory.Now organizations are experiencing an exponential growth in the use of a new wave of social technologies such as blogs, wikis, social networking sites, twitters, and microblogging that provide new affordances.While scholars have examined the use of social media technologies for organizational external communications (e.g., with customers and vendors), our understanding of the digital and social use within organizations remains limited.In order for an organization to amplify the returns/benefits and to mitigate the drawbacks of DSM use within the organizational work environment, it is imperative for both researchers and practitioners to focus on the implications of digital and social media use for organizational actions.This minitrack presents theoretical and empirical studies addressing organizational, managerial, technical, and behavioral perspectives on digital and social media in enterprises.Issues and topics of study include new organizational work issues associated with digital and social media use, information security and the use/misuse of digital and social media at workplace, and effects of and support for digital and social media in enterprise.This research lies at the intersectionality of multiple disciplines, namely Information Systems, Science & Technology, Organization Science, and Behavioral Science.This year the minitrack presents three papers on topics ranging from enterprise digital and social media challenges, leadership in the digital world, to future research agenda.We introduce the three papers briefly below.The first paper is entitled "Social Network Sites in Businesses: Combating Technostress" and coauthored by Murad Moqbel and Valerie L. Bartelt.This survey research examined social networking sites (SNS) internal to the company to determine how SNS use affects attitudes, and ultimately turnover intentions.Drawing upon theories of social capital, emotional dissonance, and resource conservation, the study hypothesized and tested the relationships among SNS use, work isolation, employees' work attitudes and turnover intentions.The study found that incorporating internal SNS in businesses improves attitudes and behaviors, suggesting that technology has the potential of reducing technology stress symptoms at work.

In an effort to reduce insurance costs and improve the health and well-being of employees, corporations are using wearable fitness trackers in tandem with Corporate Wellness Programs. Research shows that CWP improve employee fitness levels, job satisfaction, and well-being. While prior studies indicate that wearable fitness trackers improve user well-being, the potential negative impacts or unintended consequences of introducing these devices in the workplace needs additional investigation. We conduct a case study at a company using wearable fitness trackers in its wellness program. Our initial findings suggest that introducing wearable fitness trackers to wellness programs has a negative relationship with job satisfaction and employee well-being. These findings have implications for wearable technology research and for practitioners utilizing wearables in the workplace.

In response to a high dropout rate and low graduation rate among first-generation college students (FGCS), higher education institutions are turning to social media (SM) as the medium to provide resource and enhance digital inclusion for this population. Because little is known about how SM facilitates digital inclusion, we conduct a case study to investigate how SM usage impacts FGCS. We employ the technology affordance lens to uncover the affordances of the SM and the outcomes experienced by the users. Analyzing qualitative data of 73 FGCS from an economically-diverse urban university in the U.S., our study revealed that SM use by FGCS led to the benefits of maintaining and strengthening the family bonding relationship over the temporal and physical barriers; enhancing psychological well-being (e.g., feeling less stressful); and gaining access to more informational resources. In particular, four major themes from social media usage were identified: (1) personal empowerment; (2) a portfolio of affordances; (3) psychological well-being, and (4) complexities of affordances. Our results provide insights into understanding how SM affect college experience outcomes as well as the affordances provided to FGCS by the SM tool that may lead to academic success.

In response to the challenge of socializing new IT employees, some IT departments are exploring the incorporation of enterprise social media (hereinafter ESM) as an informal organizational socialization tool. Because this is a relatively new phenomenon, little is known about how ESM facilitate employee socialization. In order to contribute to our understanding of how ESM affects employee socialization, this paper invokes a case study to explore how one organization’s implementation of an ESM for its IT new hire program influenced the socialization process and outcomes. To delve deeply into how the ESM influences socialization, we draw upon technology affordance theory to uncover the various first and second-order affordances actualized by different actor groups and the various outcomes resulting from the affordances. We then identify five generative mechanisms – bureaucracy circumvention, executive perspective, personal development, name recognition, and morale booster – that explain how the actualization of different strands of affordances by various groups of users produces eight different outcomes. Our results provide insights into the different affordances made possible by ESM in the context of a new hire socialization program and how these affordances have repercussions beyond those experienced by the individuals using the ESM. The results have important implications for new hire socialization and technology affordance research.

The debate over rigor and relevance has extended many decades with rigor leading the way in the overwhelming majority of our academic journals where theory contribution and methodological excellence transcend any practical implication the research may have. Practice-based research aspires to bridge the gap between academic theory and practice; it aspires both to introduce researchers to state of the art practices and issues from industry as well as introduce managers to research that makes sense of and brings coherence to the issues they face. The methods used in practice-based research are often exploratory, field-based studies involving interviews, observations, and/or descriptive surveys. The intense pressure to achieve methodological distinction and theoretical contribution often results in very current practice-based topics being eschewed by researchers, because the topics themselves are not mature enough in practice to achieve desirable samples or sample sizes, nor are they conducive to theorizing since so little is known. These are precisely the reasons that exploratory, practice-based research can play a tremendous role in helping establish and lay the foundations of a research domain while providing insights into an emerging topic.

Striving to promote the health and well-being of their workforce and decrease insurance expenditures, many organizations are incorporating wearable fitness trackers into their corporate wellness programs. Research suggests that these devices encourage individuals to make healthier choices; however, little is known about the drivers and impact of fitness trackers on employee health and wellbeing. We seek to fill this knowledge gap by investigating the following research questions: (1) what is the impact of wearable fitness device use on employee health and well-being? (2) what is the impact of wearable fitness device use on step count? Our results indicate that extended use has a positive impact on employee well-being and step count, which fully mediates the relationship between feature use and health. These findings have implications for research into wearable fitness trackers and, more specifically, for research on the uses of wearable fitness devices in corporate wellness programs.

This is the introduction to the minitrack.

Corporate wellness programs can help employees improve their health and well-being. There are many advantages to a healthy workforce including increased productivity and lower health insurance premiums. A growing trend in corporate wellness programs is to offer wearable fitness trackers to employees to help them monitor their activity so that they can make better choices about their health. It is estimated that more than 13 million wearable fitness devices will be used in corporate wellness programs by 2018. Our research will explore this phenomena by investigating the effect of wearable fitness devices on employee identity and well-being. We will use a case study about a financial institution that has recently implemented the use of Fitbits as part of its corporate wellness program. Our results will have the potential to shed light on the impacts of wearable fitness device initiatives on employees and organizations.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how an internal social media tool impacts new hire socialization. Using an interpretive case study of a financial services company, this study finds that social media use helped the new hires experience social acceptance, role clarity, self-efficacy, and knowledge of organizational culture. The social media system provided both socialization affordances and constraints. Both social bonding and social struggle were observed to result from the social media use.

Socializing new employees into the organization and building higher levels of organizational commitment poses a challenge to organizations of different sizes. Social media technologies present an opportunity for organizations to create value by facilitating interactions among employees. The purpose of this study is to investigate an internal social media tool that was designed and implemented as part of a new hire program. An online survey was administered to IT new hires in a military financial services organization. While work related social media use did not prove to have a significant relationship with socialization or commitment, this study suggests that social related social media use is associated with knowledge of organizational culture, social acceptance, and affective commitment. In this study, two types of social media use, four indicators of socialization and three indicators of commitment were analyzed. Our paper concludes with a discussion and the implications concerning internal social media use.

Digitally enabled social networks, encompassing social media applications such as wikis, blogs and social networking sites, have the potential to dramatically change organizational culture by building communities, promoting information sharing and fostering collaboration. Although organizational social media site (hereinafter SMS) implementations are proliferating, these technologies often do not harmoniously combine with traditional organizational cultures. To shed light on social media's impact on organizational life, this paper draws on an interpretive case study to investigate a global security company's efforts to implement a digitally enabled social network as part of a cultural change effort. Conceptually, based on the theory of IT–culture conflict, this paper underscores the interplay between organizational culture and technology. Our study finds that conflicts can arise between employees' workplace values and the values they ascribe to social media. This can result in an IT–culture system conflict, which organizations can address using policy‐based, socialization‐based and leadership‐based mechanisms aimed at bringing cultural values and social media site values into alignment.

Social media technologies have grown from the personal recreation tools of college students to systems that can benefit business. In addition to using social networking to market, sell, and manage external stakeholder relationships, some organizations are leveraging social networking’s communication and collaboration tools to improve internal operations. However, implementing social networking systems (hereinafter SNSs) within an organization can prove challenging since the values associated with SNSs (i.e., having fun and getting to know people personally) may conflict with an organization’s culture (i.e., work, control, and authority). Therefore, the purpose of this case study is to understand how to resolve IT– culture conflict in workplace implementations of internal SNSs, often referred to as Enterprise 2.0.