Strategies and symbolism in the adoption of organizational social networking systems

•New software enables organizations to manage the social capital of employees.•Groups of individuals respond differently to the visibility of social capital.•Groups of individuals develop strategies to control the visibility of social capital.•Groups of individuals strive to manipulate the interpretation of the social capital.

Because of the important role being played by social networks, many organizations are turning to the use of social network systems to help manage these social networks and the accompanying social capital. When a social networking system is implemented in an organization, it may serve as a signal to organizational actors that social capital, heretofore largely ignored and invisible, will hereafter represent an important resource for the organization. As a result, individuals may consciously manipulate the system to either increase their own social capital or decrease the value of others’ social capital. In a case study of two organizations in the process of adopting an SAP-based social networking system, our research examines how groups of actors develop strategies to control the social networking system as well as the symbolic capital that emerges during the adoption of the system.