2.0 Introduction
The English Institute of Sport (EIS) is a nationwide network of world class support services, designed to foster the talents of elite athletes. Services are offered from nine regional multi-sport hub sites and an evolving network of satellite centres (Appendix 1). The services are delivered by a co-ordinated network of regional teams, which feature complementary skills and experience.
Building work relationships between staff and athletes, within departments, across departments, and outside the organization, are conducted predominantly via email, but also face to face and over the phone. The EIS spend an estimated ???? on travel expenses every year and ??? on mobile phone costs (Appendix 2).
Building working relationships entails a high level of uncertainty in the process of negotiating work expectations and understanding social behaviours and contexts among the people involved (Trier, 2005). Initial standards and expectations about work partners can be influenced by information from official and unofficial sources (Wellman, 1995), such as job definition, work manuals, or informally-obtained information about a partner's personality and behaviours.
This article examines how Instant Messaging (IM) systems could help employees from the English Institute of Sport improve their working relationship with their associates at organizational boundaries—within and across departments and also help cut the cost on travel expenses and mobile phone bills. The author uses the diffusion of innovation theory to understand the rate of adoption of new technology and develops recommendations that need to be considered by the English Institute of Sport.

The objectives for the report are:

Ø To analyse existing literature about the diffusion of innovation theory and the use of instant messaging within the business environment.
Ø To demonstrate the importance of building working relationships.
Ø Explain the implications of using instant messaging.
Ø To make recommendations as to how staff could improve productivity through the use of instant messaging.

3.0 Analysis of Work Relationships, Instant Messaging & the Diffusion of Innovation.

Building work relationships has become an essential part of the business environment. Organisations only function with the co-operation of their members (Heap, 2001).

Gabarro (1990, p. 81) defines a working relationship as being:

"An interpersonal relationship that is task-based, non-trivial, and of continuing duration"

Throughout, the nine regions, the EIS rely on work relationships to achieve strong partnerships across the organization and with the National Governing Bodies (NGB’s) (Appendix 3). According to Cho and Kim (2005), one of the major factors affecting the development of working relationships is effective communication. This may not necessarily entail formal interactions (Trier 2005). At the EIS, mainly formal interaction between associates is used as the institution is spread across the entire country. Scientific research conducted by Kraut, Egido, & Galegher (1990) showed that physical closeness between partners was considered essential in developing working relationships, because co-located partners were more likely to have frequent encounters to discuss emerging issues. Currently the EIS understand that synchronicity of communications between associates is important in the development of working relationships. However, according to Gabarro (1990), they need to take into consideration that spontaneous and informal interactions are more effective in developing working relationships than scheduled and formal interactions.

In this report, the author focuses on the role of Instant Messaging (IM) as a virtual collaboration tool that can be used by the EIS, not only to develop and strengthen relationships but also bring them closer throughout their business network. However, IM is a new tool that is foreign to the institution, as a method of communication, therefore a

framework will be used to understand how new technologies are adopted within the business environment.

Newer technologies are continually replacing older ones. No matter what their advantages are, newer technologies are not widely adopted by potential buyers immediately (Norton, 1987). Rather a diffusion process is put in motion.

According to Rogers (1983) the theory of diffusion is:

‘The process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system’

This definition can be adapted and applied to the working environment. The EIS are currently using email, mobile phones and face to face meetings to communicate throughout the network (Appendix 5). A lot of time and money are spent on communication as it is an integral part of the Institution. New communicating technologies have not been introduced, although there is a demand for information sharing, time saving and the reduction of internal expenditure.

The diffusion of innovation theory was formalized by Everett Rogers in 1982. As Fig 3.1 shows, Rogers (1982) categorized adopters of technology into five groups depending on the rate at which they adopted new technology:
1.
(Adapted from Rogers, 1982)
Innovators - venturesome, educated, multiple info sources,
2. Early adopters - social leaders, popular, educated
3. Early majority - deliberate, many informal social contacts
4. Late majority - skeptical, traditional, lower socio-economic status
5. Laggards – suspicious, skeptical, conservative, fear of debt

Fig 3.1 Typical diffusion patterns

Rate of Adoption – ‘bell’ shaped normal distribution

Innovator
Early
Adopters
Early Majority
Late
Majority
LaggardsMolesworth (2006)

The EIS ethos is to ‘make the best better’ (Appendix 1), it is an innovator for sports science in this country. New sport science technologies are adopted quickly as this gives the institution advantages over their competition (Appendix 4). However, the method of communicating within and across departments has always remained the same, even though new tools of communication have been invented. In the sense of adopting new communication technology, according to Rogers (1982), this would label the EIS as laggards.



Fig 3.2 Overall Level of Adoption – ‘S’ shaped graph: Communication tools in EIS

Total Level of Adoption
Time
Adopters
Non Adopters
Palm Pilots
Telephone Conferencing
Prediction of Instant Messaging
Mobiles
Email
Face to Face
(Adapted from Rogers 1982)
Rogers (1982) theorized that innovations would spread through society in an S Shaped curve. Fig 3.2 has adapted the S Shaped curve to illustrate the EIS’s overall level of adoption of their communication tools throughout the institution (Appendix 5). It is apparent that three forms of communication is preferred across the organization (Mobiles, Email and Face to Face), although there have been adopters trying to initiate the use of other tools (Telephone Conferencing and Palm Pilots). A prediction has been made that over a period of time IM will be integrated and adopted by the entire organization.

Instant Messaging (IM) is quasi-synchronous, computer-based, one-on-one communication (Nardi, Whittaker, & Bradner, 2000). It allows users, of the same

software, to know when others are online and have a real-time conversation, in form of a personal chat room. IM is "quasi-synchronous" because it involves a small amount of asynchronicity, e.g., typing time (Trier, 2005).

Voida, Newstetter, & Mynatt (2002) consider IM to be a hybrid communication medium as it can incorporate synchronous and asynchronous communication, and brief and continual conversations. In the context of working relationship development and improvement, this results in a combination of synchronous conversation and asynchronous use of transcripts or document transfer. Cramton (2001) believes by using IM, workers can build up common knowledge about their work by quickly exchanging and instantly correcting their intended meanings or by maintaining their working context with the use of recorded transcripts or transferred documents. Furthermore, as new needs arise, the work context can be shared easily via IM because users can check whether relevant people are logged in and available for communication. IM not only supports turn-taking and quick, informal conversations that are similar to oral conversation, but it also supports more carefully crafted formal sentences recorded in a transcript file or the transfer of formal documents.

From reading the literature the author has identified that IM is a useful and effective way to build on work relationships, however, understands that there are some underlying factors that needed to be analysed.

Despite the potential for IM to be used to maintain work relationships in an organization, the current perception of IM is that it is used mainly for socializing, not for task-related purposes. Herbsleb, Atkins, Boyer, Handel, and Finholt (2002) found that some employees resisted using IM for their work because they felt that informal communication through IM was not required and not useful. However, research conducted by Isaacs, Walendowski, Whittaker, Schiano, and Kamm (2002) found that

employees in a business organization used IM more for business purposes than for socializing.

According to Trevino, Webster, & Stein, (2000) there are two different viewpoints on how people choose different communication media. One view is that people choose communication media rationally, i.e., they choose a medium that can best convey their intended meaning, and their choice of medium is restricted by work-related contextual factors such as distance between communication partners. The other view is that people choose communication media in a social context, i.e., that social norms and culture, in addition to rational reasons, affect their choice.
The theory of media symbolism (Trevino et al., 1987, 2000) suggests that some symbolic meanings are attached to media, e.g., letters are regarded as more formal than e-mail. Symbolic meanings play an important role when people choose media, resulting in different choices of media. Given that IM is currently used as a very informal and casual communication channel, IM might show idiosyncratic communication patterns, especially depending on with whom IM communication occurs. Specifically, the author conceives that there is a different media symbolism associated with IM, depending on the formality of its use in a specific working relationship.

In addition it is important to identify how an innovation would affect behaviour in a business. For example, adding a new function to email. This will need some adjustment to behaviour, to learn about the function, but it is built on existing knowledge. According to Molesworth (2006) this behaviour consequences can be identified in three areas:

Continuous Innovation – Minor ‘improvement to the product’. Requires little or no new skills and has little impact on behaviour. E.g. EIS upgrading Performance Analysis software
Dynamically Continuous – Some adjustment to behaviour and some new skills required, but built on existing knowledge. E.g. EIS adding a new function to email.
Discontinuous – Entirely new product category requiring change in behaviour and new skills. E.g. EIS implementing Instant Messenger across the network.

As IM is considered to be new technology to the EIS, this technology would require change in behaviour and for staff to acquire new skills. This is known as discontinuous innovation. Tushman and O’Reilly (1997) suggest that discontinuous innovation involves breaking with the past to create new technologies, processes, and organizational "S-curves" that result in significant leaps in the value delivered to customers. However, this author suggests that discontinuous innovation can result in organizations delivering significant leaps of value to their members of staff and partners. New technology that aids staff to close gaps between co-workers and partners will add value to business relationships. The author does note that the technology will require sufficient training and for staff to adopt it as part of their routine.
There could be several reasons for reluctance to use IM in the workplace. Cho and Kim (2005) suggest that the informality of the medium could convey inappropriate impressions about the content of the message. Employees may be reluctant to use such a spontaneous medium to express important information, especially in situations where staff would want to check and edit their messages before sending them. These two factors could be emphasized when employees communicate with superiors with whom they wish to maintain more formal relationships. Moreover, since IM is a relatively new technology, it may not yet have been adopted by many people, especially in older generations. The recommendation section will resolve these issues.


4.0 Specific Recommendations
The author has identified that IM is a useful and effective way to build on work relationships. This section outlines specific recommendations that should be considered and ultimately followed by the EIS.

4.1 Instant Messenger System

Consulting with web design company Feref (Appendix 6), who currently manage the EIS main website, it is recommended that the EIS create a private IM system and not install a generic one, such as MSN Messenger or IChat. This will allow them to design the IM system so that it is an application that can only be used by EIS Staff and partners who have authorisation, which will limit the amount of socialising conducted over IM and help develop work relationships. Feref have identified a company called Interactive Networks Inc. (INI) that can help the EIS develop their IM system (Appendix 7).

It is suggested that the EIS let INI host the IM system as they will take control of everything. This includes: Server hardware, Operating System licensing, installing updates and backups, 24x7 monitoring and emergency support. If the EIS decided to install it on their own system this would require more resources and could potentially cost a lot more in the long term. The web-based administration console allows the EIS to have full control over the IM network.

4.2 Design

Using INI will allow EIS to design their own IM interface. This means they can customise IM branding and skins so that the staff can identify the organisation with the software, however it also allows the EIS to implement their own security protocols to make sure the IM system is safe to transfer information and files.
4.3 Implementation

The main consideration for the EIS is how to get the staff to adopt the new IM system. Fig 3.3 is a model that shows how the IM system could be communicated and integrated in the EIS, it has been adapted from Molesworth (2006). For staff to be aware of the new technology available it is important to educate and persuade them that IM is an essential tool to develop and strengthen working relationships, this can be conducted through national and regional workshops.

Fig 3.3 Diffusion Communication Process for New Technology at the EIS


New Technology
(IM)
English Institute
Of Sport

Existing Technology
e.g. Mobile, Email, Face to Face
National and Regional Workshops delivering sufficient training, knowledge and persuasion of New Technology (IM) to staff.
Rejection of New Technology
Time
Adoption
Routinization
Knowledge
Persuasion
Decision
Implementation
The EIS staff then can decide whether or not the IM will beneficial to them and if so can implement the new technology. This will lead to the adoption of the chosen technology and over a period of time will become a routine tool used in their working environment. It is important also to note that the created model does rely on previous literature on diffusion patterns (see Fig 3.0). The model has accepted that sometimes people will not adopt technology that has no use to them and can reject it all together.
4.4 Cost

The cost of the IM system is $5400.00 per year (Appendix 8) and will not affect the EIS communication budget. The national and regional workshops will also add additional costs, but is vital to integrate the IM into the culture of the institution. The implementation of the IM system will also reduce the cost on mobile phones and staff travel expenses.

4.5 Conclusion

IM is a communication medium that can be used in a business context for simple coordination but also for collaboration among heavy users. Its hybrid nature, between synchronous and asynchronous communication, renders IM a suitable medium for both ad-hoc informal and more formal communication (Trier, 2005). This makes it useful for establishing social as well as task-based aspects of a working relationship.

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