New research paper on employee Internet use

I've just finished a paper I intend to present to a conference in the USA early next week - see details.

The paper is entitled: The employee and the Internet age: A reflection, map and research agenda.

A copy can be viewed here.

And some details:

The main aim of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the burgeoning, yet far from cohesive, literature that surrounds employee use of the Internet, with view to reflecting upon the extent to which employees have more broadly (or not) benefitted in the Internet age.

This is achieved by drawing on a range of literature associated with the study of employment and work organisations. Due to the nature of Internet communication technologies and how this conflicts with the much slower nature of academic output, the review and mapping exercise is supplemented by press reports of emergent employee uses for new forms of Internet-based communication technologies, such as blogs, social networking sites and wikis.

The review is based on examining the shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and followed by an overall discussion of important employee-related changes that characterise the shift from the old to the new Internet.

The main conclusion of the review is that the Internet represents a “double-edged” sword, yet the shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 appears to have opened up fresh and exciting opportunities for employees to engage with their jobs, misbehave, shape trade union practices, and, challenge managerialist discourses.

Finally, the findings are diagrammatically mapped out, the limits of the study are discussed and a range of important research opportunities and challenges are presented.

I'd be more than happy to receive comments on my paper!