Employee ideation in a VUCA context: Communication responsibility and roles on internal social media

Purpose: This study explores how employees act as responsible communicators while shifting between different communication roles in an ideation process on internal social media (ISM) within a context of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
Approach: The empirical material consists of online observations of employee ideation on ISM and 14 interviews with employees in a Danish knowledge-intensive organization. Discourse analysis is applied to study how the employees position themselves and their coworkers in different communication roles.
Findings: This study reveals that when employees take responsibility for communication in the front stage of an innovation process on ISM, they assume and shift between various communication roles. Drawing on the empirical results, a theoretical typology of employees’ communication roles is developed.
Research/practical implications: This study contributes to the emerging research on employees as responsible communicators. Findings suggest that understanding the communication roles and responsibilities can be essential for confronting challenges related to employee ideation and internal communication on ISM
Keywords: Employee communication responsibility, communication roles, ideation, ISM, power
Paper type: Research paper