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Mobilizing Government: Inter-Organizational Collaboration Using Open Social Media Platforms

The nature of inter-organizational collaboration between government and other stakeholders is rapidly changing with the introduction of open social media (OSM) platforms. Characterized by a high degree of informality as well as a blurred personal/professional nature, OSM can potentially introduce changes and tensions in the well-established routines of the public sector. This paper aims at shedding light on such changes, presenting findings from a study on the use of an OSM platform, WeChat, in an inter-organizational collaboration project between government, university, and industry stakeholders in China. Drawing on the framework of the theory of temporary organizations, we analyze data from interviews and participant observations to single out the characteristics of inter-organizational collaboration afforded by OSM. The findings outline the features of collaboration practices afforded by OSM in the four dimensions of time, task, team, and transition. Specifically, we report on new collaboration procedures that are characterized by an ad-hoc and non-linear management of time; a sense of shared commitment to the accomplishment of tasks; a serendipitous recruitment of team members based on expertise rather than on organizational affiliation; and a transition from formal to informal as well as from professional to private collaboration.