Mobile collaboration: exploring the role of social capital

  • Authors:

  • Hossam Ali-Hassan;Dorit Nevo;Saggi Nevo

  • Affiliations:

  • York University, Toronto, ON, Canada;York University, Toronto, ON, Canada;University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY, USA

  • Venue:
  • ACM SIGMIS Database
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

With advances in the areas of telecommunications, computing and miniaturization of computers, the use of mobile technology is becoming prevalent within organizations. Consequently, a shift towards a nomadic computing environment, capable of supporting workers anywhere and anytime, is commonly observed. While many of the issues associated with such environments are technological in nature, this paper focuses on the social aspect of the shift to a nomadic computing environment, and examines its impact of employees' ability to effectively collaborate with one another. Studying changes at the individual level, we argue that an increase in workers' social mobility, brought upon by the move to a nomadic computing environment, is likely to have a negative effect on their social capital. Social capital has been shown to positively impact collaboration in various settings, including the workplace. We further argue that the above negative effect is contingent upon the type of mobile technology used by nomadic workers. The paper concludes with suggestions for model extensions and avenues for future research.