7 Hyperconnected Net Work Computer-Mediated Community in a High-Tech Organization Anabel Quan-Haase and Barry Wellman Computer networks and work networks The turn to networked collaborative work community Computer-mediated communication (CMC) permeates organizations. The internet and internal intranets link managers, professionals, and even many line workers. These communication media provide speed, flexibility, and the ability to append germane documents, pictures, and audio. Yet there is more assertion than evidence about how CMC actually affects work relations and organizations. Have applications such as listserves, email, and instant messaging (IM) fostered new forms of organization that are less bounded than traditional bureaucratic hier- archies? Analysts have asserted that CMC aids rapid communication and information access among employees, making easier inexpensive and convenient communication with far-flung communities of work. They argue that CMC provides the means for leaping over workgroup and organizational boundaries, communicating rapidly: locally or long distance; one to one, one to many, many to many. Coupled with a low operating cost and the ability to communicate while the other person is not immediately available, CMC can create an enhanced ability to maintain spatially dispersed, sparsely knit, and interest-based relation- ships. 1 Heckscher & Alder / The Corporation as a Collaborative Community 07-Heckscher-chap07 Page Proof page 281 29.8.2005 1:06pm