Working with collaboration platforms

Abstract

Companies increasingly use collaboration platforms that allow employees as well as customers or external employees to work and communicate in one digital space. In view of the wide range of possible uses and high potential for self-organisation, there are numerous challenges for the design of usage, such as the orchestration of different applications or dealing with transparency. In order to facilitate good and effective work supported by this new technology, an active working design is necessary. In the present text, we define collaboration platforms and their features in comparison to traditional groupware and knowledge management systems, while also illustrating the opportunities and risks their usage creates. Moreover, we will provide recommendations for seven dimensions of work design and synthesise four general recommendations.