Uses of Instant Messaging in the Workplace: The Influence of Organizational Policies on the IM Uses

To understand the use of Web 2.0 technologies in the workplace, and how the uses are influenced by organizational policies, we conducted a study to learn how social software, one type of typical Web 2.0 technologies, is used in the banking industry. Instant messaging was picked as our study target because instant messaging provides instant communication to its users and we believed instant communication is essential in the banking industry and communication can be considered as one of the most important tasks bank employees have to perform in their daily work. Banking industry was targeted because we believe that banks would be more cautiously in adopting technologies in their enterprise network and there should be strict guidelines in guiding technologies uses.Findings revealed that spillover effect does influence the interviewees\u27 carryover of their IM home-use practices to the workplace