Is Social Networking the future of Project Management

Communication is the lifeblood of project management, but the increasing geographical dispersion of project teams and stakeholders creates a challenge. Project managers need to exploit a range of tools and methods to communicate effectively with their team, clients and subcontractors. Social networking is ever more widespread, both in the workplace and our personal lives. This paper studies project managers’ use of social networking, in an attempt to determine whether, and if so how, project managers could improve their communications by making effective use of social networking platforms. A literature review identified several potentially useful aspects: user profiles, professional networks, blogs and real time communication. A survey found that 74% (n=150) had already used social networking in the workplace. The most widely used sites were corporate platforms (38%) and LinkedIn (37%). The survey found that the most effective uses for social networking were promoting a project within an organization and for intra-project communication. Interviews suggested that the most useful applications of social networking sites in projects are to improve knowledge management, enable quick communications and to introduce new team members. Face-to-face meetings remain the preferred method of communication where possible. The main limitations are perceived security risks and concerns about time-wasting.

[1]  Alexander Richter,et al.  Functions of Social Networking Services , 2008, COOP.

[2]  Mian M. Ajmal,et al.  Knowledge Transfer in Project-Based Organizations: An Organizational Culture Perspective , 2008 .

[3]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  When social networks cross boundaries: a case study of workplace use of facebook and linkedin , 2009, GROUP.

[4]  Pop Alexandra Mihaela,et al.  THE MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION OF THE INTERNAL COMMUNICATION PROCESS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT , 2013 .

[5]  Guru Prakash Prabhakar,et al.  Projects and Their Management: A Literature Review , 2009 .

[6]  Mor Naaman,et al.  Is it really about me?: message content in social awareness streams , 2010, CSCW '10.

[7]  Diane Gilmour,et al.  It's all about you. , 2007, Journal of perioperative practice.

[8]  Alexander Richter,et al.  Tweet Inside: Microblogging in a Corporate Context , 2010, Bled eConference.

[9]  C. Roberts,et al.  Its All About You , 2007 .

[10]  C. Robson,et al.  Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers , 1993 .

[11]  Danah Boyd,et al.  Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship , 2007, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[12]  Michael J. Muller,et al.  It's all 'about you': diversity in online profiles , 2008, CSCW.

[13]  Werner Geyer,et al.  People Sensemaking and Relationship Building on an Enterprise Social Network Site , 2009, 2009 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[14]  Viswanath Venkatesh,et al.  Bridging the Qualitative-Quantitative Divide: Guidelines for Conducting Mixed Methods Research in Information Systems , 2013, MIS Q..

[15]  K. Riemer,et al.  Corporate Social Networking Sites – Modes of Use and Appropriation through Co-Evolution , 2009 .

[16]  A. Wald,et al.  Success factors of knowledge management in temporary organizations , 2011 .

[17]  Alexander Richter,et al.  Oh, SNEP! The Dynamics of Social Network Emergence-the case of Capgemini Yammer , 2012 .