Workforce Capacity Development
Implementing a New Initiative to Build Organizational Capacity: The Digital Information Fluencies Program at the University of Victoria Libraries
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Justin Harrison
To align more closely with the University of Victoria’s Learning Objectives the Libraries has undertaken a strategic initiative to provide students with technological skills required for learning, research, and life beyond the academy. This initiative is in response to a sudden shift of educational and social changes taking place involving digital tools scholars need for their research and learning. The Libraries’ Digital Information Fluency (DIF) initiative seeks to directly support the University’s Learning Objectives, while additionally serving to build capacity of knowledge within the organization itself. A DIF programming framework was designed to enhance cross-unit collaboration, leverage human capital, and develop professional knowledge with the creation of innovative programming involving digital tools for students. In addition to serving as an operational plan for a new organizational direction and initiative, the DIF framework serves as an expression of the organization’s understanding and addressing of core strategic challenges of new technological needs and new ways of learning, as well as building networks of innovation within the Libraries. The DIF program was conceived in part to enhance employees’ knowledge and skills with the latest forms of technological tools and instruction methods, by virtue of shared development in programming. This sharing of knowledge is intended to build capacity in specialized and innovative knowledge throughout the organization. This presentation will describe this new organization-wide initiative that seeks both to align the organization with key stakeholder interests as well as to build knowledge capacity through shared innovative programming.
WeChat as an Internal Communication Tool : Collaborative and Work-life Balanced Organizational Culture
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ran Ju, Mirit Devorah Shoham
In China, WeChat is one of the most widely-used social media applications, playing a prominent role in both personal and organizational domains. In the organizational context, research primarily examines the external use of WeChat as a tool for marketing and advertising but neglects its role as an internal communication tool. In fact, the application has become one of the most essential work communication tools for employees across various types of organizations in China. This study explores the internal uses of WeChat across organizational communication practices, to illuminate this otherwise overlooked scholastic gap and help inform management (in China and globally) of actual and best practices for the use of such technology. As a social media technology, WeChat possesses unique, interactive, empowering, communal, participatory and relational information-sharing features, which have the potential to foster a collaborative organizational culture, facilitate the knowledge-sharing process and construct and promote organization identity. However, as any form of social media, the features of accessibility and mobility may cause overuse at work and beyond, potentially creating work-life conflicts. Qualitative interviews with diverse Chinese employees will seek to uncover answers to two driving questions: How do employees use WeChat? And how do organizations use WeChat? The results intend to reveal any discrepancies between employees’ actual use and organizations’ imposed use of this technology and hence provide implications regarding the broad idealized use of this technology at work. Recommendations will be offered to help employers use the technology to foster a collaborative environment and work-life balanced organizational culture.
