We’re in This Together: Visible Social Support Actions in Virtual Teams Using Enterprise Social Media

Enterprise social networks (ESNs) are a communication standard within virtual teams. Among other affordances, ESNs enable colleagues to provide each other with social support. In this paper, we analyzed the message logs of virtual teams in a large open-source software project to determine how virtual teams use ESNs to provide particular forms of social support to each other and, secondly, to determine how the visibility of these interaction patterns influences team functioning. Our findings reveal distinct ESN use patterns in relation to four types of social support, each described using a metaphor: a dynamic notice board for information sharing, a community of practice for teaching and knowledge sharing, a team huddle for emotional support, and a job board for instrumental support. The findings provide structure to the diverse set of social support actions in this context and identify the higher-order functions that the visibility of social support produces.