The Use of Organizational Social Media Data in Qualitative Research

The proliferation of social media technologies as internal and external communication channels has led to a dramatic increase of computer-mediated interactions among organization members. Despite mounting interest by organization and management scholars in studying these interactions, there exists little reflection and guidance for the use of this relatively new kind of data in qualitative research. We address this shortcoming by elaborating the characteristics of organizational social media (OSM) as qualitative data and we subsequently show how organization and management scholars have taken advantage of the specific characteristics of this kind of data to examine organizational phenomena. Our analysis reveals how researchers used OSM to gain insight into different organizational phenomena, including the roles of emotions within organizations, employee resistance, identity negotiation, and value claims. In studying such topics, OSM data as permanent record of visible interactions and connections allowed researchers to gain longitudinal and processual insight from a multivocal and informal perspective, as well as relational insights. We discuss how social media as a data source can help scholars to overcome some methodological challenges associated with conventional qualitative methods. While doing so, we also problematize the limitations of OSM data.