Accountants' engagement with social networking technologies in the UAE: A communicative ecology perspective

This paper provides preliminary evidence on accountants' low engagement with Social Networking technologies (SNT) in companies operating in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). SNT are credited with potentials for adding business value and are touted as a new wave of technologies for creating, sharing and communicating information that was previously difficult to achieve in the workplace. The paper draws attention to the importance of understanding the communicative ecology within which SNT are adopted. Using a qualitative methodology in tune with the social, technical, and discursive features, the paper emphasizes the importance of understanding the uptake of SNT in organizations in relation to different professionals' communicative ecologies. Given the growing scholarly interest in the new avenues opened up by SNT for communication in accounting and related exchange of information, the paper focuses on studying accountants' communicative ecology. The paper reports the findings of twenty interviews with accountants and finance managers in five companies located in Dubai and discusses the difficulties they experience in integrating SNT into their professional ecology. The paper concludes that the realization of SNT potentials to add business value requires a much more complex structural reform and needs to be carefully managed if it is to create business value. It suggests that considering the communicative ecology underpinning accountants' practice is essential for ensuring effective communication and successful technology implementation. Our findings challenged the overenthusiastic speculation about the prescribed promises and benefits of these new technologies and draw attention to the relationship between SNT communication and collaboration opportunities and the 'communicative ecology' underpinning their use. The findings herein should be of help for those considering the adoption and investment in SNT in business organizations. It draws attention to the importance of embracing a broader perspective that accounts for the various layers constituting the communicative ecology of the different professional groups.