As the literature review stated, there are some difference between digital natives and digital immigrants. Therefore, it was out of interest for us to analyse the interviewees perspective on these groups and if these groups exist within their organization, thus the interviewees where asked the question if they see a difference between digital natives and digital immigrants (Table 4-11).
Table 4-11. Findings about digital natives and digital immigrants.
Differences among digital natives and digital immigrants
A
No visible difference
Depends on the person and experience rather than age
All employees at the organization are excited about technology B
Does not think there is a difference
Employees are used to computer and social technologies
Majority built on digital natives
But rest of the employees have a lot of knowledge about IT as well
C
Not a difference between digital natives and digital immigrants
Does not depend on the age, it relies on the individual use and curiosity.
most active users are those who experienced the great potential hidden in ESN
Digital natives might have smaller hurdles to use the ESN compared to those, where it is firstly of task to build up media competence.
There are both, digital natives, who are not so “digital” in their mind as it assumed, and digital immigrants, who rapidly grasp the potential behind a new technology.
it is about the leadership standing behind the implementation of ESN
D
Majority of the staff are digital immigrants, where he would see a need to particularly train these employ-ees regarding the usage of ESN than digital natives.
Not of task to provide trainings about the system itself, but moreover to change the minds of these digital immigrants in terms of when they should use the ESN
E
There is a difference how digital natives work and the digital immigrants
It is more normal for digital natives to have communications via Yammer than over e-mail.
Possibly a pressure from the digital natives in the long term to use tools like Yammer
Minority of the organization are digital natives
Big group that will use Yammer, that has higher employee age, so their knowledge of information systems differs, some of them are really quick and think using such a tool is very easy, whereas others think it is difficult and not so easy to understand
Both of these groups will have training, as it is just not only to know how the system works but it is also to know how the organization wants their employees to use the tool
F
Employees at the organization are used to computer and social technologies
Both of these groups will need a training for the system, as it is just not only to know how the system works but it is also to know how the organization wants their employees to use the tool
Successful adoption does mainly depend on the understanding about how to use the ESN and thereby about convincing the employees about the benefits and illustrate them how it generates a sustained add-ed value, regardless of their age
In IA's, IB's and IC's opinion there is not a difference between digital natives and digital im-migrants, as IC thinks it depends on the person and of its experience and curiosity, instead of the time they grew up. However IA mentioned that his department is very biased as there are only software engineers who are doing computer stuff. And his co-workers live with the tech-nology everyday so for him there is not much of a difference. Hence, from his side, there is not a big gap between younger and older employees. He furthermore stated, that everybody at his organization are very excited about technology so that might also be one reason. The same goes for organization B and F, as both, IB and IF stated that the employees at the organization are used to computer and social technologies. Besides that organization B is in majority built of digital natives, but rest of the employees have a lot of knowledge about IT as well. Howev-er, IB stated that if he were not working at an IT organization there might be some differences between digital natives of others employees. However, IE's opinion is that there is a differ-ence how digital natives work and the digital immigrants work. As he stated that people born after 1980 are raised with technology and his thought is that this generation does not even like e-mail, which it is very old tool and they would rather skip to use. Therefore, it is more
nor-mal for digital natives to have communications via Yammer instead of via e-mail. And inter-viewee E even thinks that there will be a pressure from the digital natives in the long term to use tools like Yammer, and this group could even have affects to other employees that are not counted as digital natives. So the employees that do not fall under the group of digital natives will be pulled in when they see that other employees are already using Yammer.
IC pointed out, that the most active users are those, who experienced the great potential hid-den in the ESN. He argued that generally digital natives might be more familiar with social networks and thus more open to adopt ESN within the workplace. However, it does not guar-antee, that they know already straight from the beginning how to use it properly. IE and IF supports this by stating that even though there is a difference between digital natives and digi-tal immigrants, both of these groups will need a training for the system, as it is just not only to know how the system works but it is also to know how the organization wants their employ-ees to use the tool. However, he assumes that the training for the digital natives may take shorter time than for others. Moreover, ID reported that the majority of the staff are digital immigrants, where he would see a particular need to train these employees regarding the us-age of ESN than digital natives. Thereby, he believes it is not of task to provide trainings about the system itself, but moreover to change the minds of these digital immigrants in terms of when they should use the ESN, what topics should be included, how they should behave within the platform and how open they deal with it.
As in organization D, at organization E the minority of the employees fall under the group of digital natives. However according to IE there is of course a big group that will use Yammer, that has higher employee age, so their knowledge of information systems differs, some of them are really quick and think using such a tool is very easy, whereas others think it is diffi-cult and not so easy to understand. IC supports IE last saying, by indicated that, there are both, digital natives, who are not as “digital” in their mind as it assumed, and digital immigrants, who rapidly grasp the potential behind a new technology. When someone is curious about new technologies, then he or she cares about it, regardless of the age. He thus concludes it is not about distinguish between digital natives or immigrants. It is about getting people’s inter-est. Indeed, IF has the same view and stated that the successful adoption does mainly depend on the understanding about how to use the ESN and thereby about convincing the employees about the benefits and illustrate them how it generates a sustained added value, regardless of their age. As a matter of fact, IC argued, it is about the leadership standing behind the imple-mentation of ESN. When superiors sees the value resides in the ESN, they will then ensure that it will be used, no matter how old the employees are within the department. He claimed, that it is still a fact, that we live in a world, where hierarchy is lived and hence, the idea of a bottom-up approach might be very useful, but there are many organizations being hierarchical structured and changes in such large organization as organization C is, are seen as a revolu-tion, rather than something that can be accomplished overnight.
Summary. To summarise: almost all interviewees agreed on the fact, that there is no differ-ence between digital natives and digital immigrants to be considered. Quite the contrary, it has been emphasized that it does not depend on the age of the employees how they make use or perceive the ESN, but moreover on the individuals understanding, curiosity and perceived benefits. However, on the other hand, it has also been reported, that some interviewees see a difference between those two groups, where it was claimed, that digital immigrants would have a greater need of training regarding the ESN and it is assumed that a pressure occurs from the digital natives in the long term to use social tools such as ESN in a business’ context.