Understanding Workplace Instant Messaging Adoption: Use and Consequences via Social Perspectives

Originally regarded as a tool for social communication among teenagers, Instant Messaging (IM) technology has taken practitioners and researchers by surprise with its rapid proliferation in the workplace. While gaining valuable insights from existing IM literature, we identify the gap whereby researchers have neglected to pay attention to the processes that may shape users’ perceptions of and behavior with regard to this technology. In this paper, we advocate the use of technological frames (Orlikowski and Gash 1994) as an analytical lens to understand IM adoption, usage, and consequences. We believe that empirical studies applying this theoretical perspective will not only shed light on our understanding of IM technology, but more importantly, they can advance our knowledge of other new communication technologies in organizations.