Question

In many workplaces ranging from Fortune 500 to small enterprises, workplace communication takes place over instant messaging. The leading platform in this space is Slack, a cloud-based team collaboration tool. Messages are organized by private and public channels and users can chat, share documents, browse through past messages, and collaborate with each other. Slack is solidifying the role of instant messages in the workplace and even if you end up in a company that does not use Slack, it is likely that you will end up using one of its competitors.

Slack has an interesting founding story: Stewart Butterfield, who is also a co-founder of the image hosting service Flickr, founded the video game company Tiny Speck and released the game Glitch in 2011. As part of their game development process, the company also built a team communication platform, allowing software developers to communicate with each other while building Glitch. Glitch was shut down after a year, but the company devoted itself to the full-scale development of their communication tool, which resulted in Slack. Through word of mouth, Slack acquired 16,000 users in its beta stage, and the product was fully released in 2014. Four years later, the company boasts 50,000 companies and 6 million users. The company expects to surpass e-mail use in the workplace by 2025.

Using instant messaging organized by private and public channels is changing how people communicate in the workplace, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. On the upside, Slack often receives feedback from users who identify as shy and introverted, stating that this tool allows them to participate more in team conversations. Anna Pickard, Creative Director of Voice and Tone, at Slack, also observes that messaging makes communication more humane and natural. Communication no longer takes place between small groups of people over e-mail. Instead, it occurs in channels that are searchable and are organized by team or topic. People can reach out to and connect with people they would not otherwise. Many companies have an "ask me anything" channel where employees may post messages and high-level managers may answer, resulting in greater transparency and accessibility to upper management, helping to create a sense of belonging.

At the same time, technology sometimes amplifies communication problems that also occur in person, and creates new ones of its own. If you have ever written a chat message and instantly regretted it, you can imagine the problems that may occur at scale in the workplace. The instantaneous nature of chat can make people less deliberate and careful about their messages. There are also examples of private feedback given in an open channel, resulting in a public shaming of an employee. Slack conversations, even if they are in private channels, can be read by the employer, and may result in adverse employment actions against the employee. There is no "forward" button on instant messages, but it is all too easy to take a screen shot of the conversation and share with others, resulting in Slack leaks, similar to e-mail leaks. Additionally, there is also user error—in e-mail it is relatively easy to find out who the recipients of the e-mail are, but on Slack, people may pay less attention to who is on that channel, and others may join the channel at a later point, suggesting that the audience for the posts will evolve and can grow over time. People may confuse which channel they are on, and post messages intended for a small group to a broad audience.

As Slack grows, it develops its own etiquette. For example, hitting "enter" after every sentence is often mentioned as a no-no, and a pet peeve of heavy users. Senders are expected to complete their message and then hit enter in one go. Other habits may result in productivity losses—spending time in private chats as opposed to working is one way in which Slack and tools like it may result in productivity losses. One company banned the use of Slack during meetings, as people were having back-channel conversations during the meeting, which was distracting and affecting engagement in the meeting. How these tools are used are shaped by the office culture, and in turn will have an impact on communication culture in the workplace.

1. If you were to create a social media policy including Slack, what types of rules would you include and why?  

2. What types of messages do you believe are appropriate to communicate via Slack? For what type of communication is this tool less useful?

3. What type of communication barriers exist when workplace communication takes place over Slack and similar sources?

4. What are the implications of Slack and similar communication tools in affecting the sense of belonging that employees experience in the workplace?

5. Based on reading this case and your general experience with similar tools, what advice would you give to an employee who will start working in a company using Slack?

1. Include the bold headings below.
2. Summary: Provide a brief summary listing the key facts in the case.
3. Case Discussion Questions: Include each question before your response. Write a detailed and researched reply to each of the Case Discussion Questions found at the end of the case study.
4. Conclusion: Write a conclusion and include a separate reference page.

Can anyone help on this?.Thanks.

Answer 1

Chat etiquettes of a company messaging platform:

• Pushing for openness and collaboration, but making acceptable and inappropriate actions clear.
• Asking staff to send the messages they'd be saying in person.
• Asking all to keep positive thoughts on board.
• Do not send messages or discuss teammates specifically in off-hours.
• Ask peers and teams to express their priorities on messaging.
• Specify whether or not a response is immediate, or should delay.
• Encouraging staff to use the platforms "Do not interrupt" and mute.
• Set some parameters for the way topic-oriented communications will operate.
• Make it clear the discussions are not confidential at 100 percent.
• Getting clear escalating routes to behaving improperly.

Only work-related informative messages are generally acceptable over chat platforms. For communication like having an informal meeting over the break, a general get together, are not very relevant for happening over slack.

Communication barrier like having a tendency of too much aware of what to be said, find oneself tongue-tied or not able to get your point across, not able to make the other party understand an emphasis over any particular point, etc can be a barrier to communication over messaging platform like Slack.

Working at an office is more than just working in a chamber and doing work. It's about having a sense of belonging to the workplace. The social interaction among the employees, the environment at work is more than just bringing employees together. Its also about having harmony and a common goal to work towards. So, breaking up this traditional setup and moving towards only work from home and offering telecommute via these apps does have certain implications. The sense of belonging to any organization and having the mentality to work towards the better meant of the organization can hurt severely by doing so.