Adoption symbolique d'un Réseau Social pour entreprise : le cas de BOUYGUES CONSTRUCTION

Social Networks Systems (SNS) are among the latest trends of web 2.0. Based on Social Network Analysis' methods, these tools identify the relationships between individuals and allow them to interact and exchange information informally. These tools are attracting more and more organizations' interest because of their ability to facilitate actors' work and to improve cross functional collaboration between actors. However these tools are also likely to highlight the informal structure of the organization and making visible what was hidden and therefore these tools may have significant social and political impacts within the organization (Bowker and star, 1995; Star and Strass, 1999) and lead actors to re-negotiate their social positions in the organization. In this context, the objective of this research is to study how individuals adopt the idea of implementing a new social networks tool in a company. Through a case study within BOUYGUES CONSTRUCTION, we study the symbolic adoption of a SNS tool by the actors. By adopting the theory of signa and symbol of Feldman and March (1981), we have identified that the planned deployment of a SNS was perceived by actors as being both a signal expressing the willing of the organization to move towards a more collaborative model and a symbol of social change that organization have to integrate. Nevertheless the deployment of a Social Network tool is more leading actors to defend the current operating mode of BOUYGUES CONSTRUCTION than to re-negotiate their social positions.