Social Media and Collaborative Information Behaviour Intergenerational Difference in a Multinational Company Setting

This research explores the collaborative information behaviour (CIB) of different generations and their social media use in a multinational company (MNC) setting. Academic scholars and practitioners have recognised that globalisation has engaged organisations in increasingly complex supply chains and the impact of the digital era has challenged organisations with complex issues in various ways, such as the collaborative information-intensive environment, the adoption of evolving technology (social media), intergenerational difference, and the influence of cultural difference in organisations. The literature highlights there is a lack of research on the totality of influences and the interplay between these issues as they affect complex settings. Thus, this research analyses the overall complex issues of CIB in an MNC and the interplay of the issues of CIB, social media, intergenerational difference, and cultural difference, and how these issues influence each other in the MNC setting. To address these research questions, this research takes an interpretive approach using activity theory (AT) as a theoretical and analytical framework. Document analysis, non-participant observation, focus group discussion and semi-structured interviews were conducted in a multinational company in Thailand as a case setting. This thesis produces a collaborative information behaviour (CIB) model in the MNC context: an integrative model to shed light on the process of CIB in the MNC and the interplay of significant issues discovered in the complex setting, including the issues of CIB, the colonisation of an organisation by technology, the role of evolving technologies as CIB tools, the intergenerational difference, and the interplay between the national and organisational cultures. This thesis contributes to the fields of CIB, social media, generational difference and cultural difference in terms of investigating the totality of issues and the complexities around the interplay of these issues influencing CIB in the complex organisational setting. The contributions have organisational implications for policy making and management practice.