Socializing At Work - No Longer A Waste Of Time

Industrial-age management theories are deeply rooted in a model that:

• organizes the enterprise into formal hierarchies
• establishes boundaries based on functional or geographic groupings
• thrives on top-down decision-making in those hierarchies and groupings
• defines process structures to manage official work activities
• assigns roles to workers that establishes decision-making rights and participation levels in those processes, hierarchies and groupings
• values workers based primarily on task-based productivity measures

The model remains broadly entrenched as the prevailing management practice in many organizations worldwide. Many organizations, as a result, foster a leadership, decision-making and information-sharing environment that values certain types of management activities and styles (e.g., “command and control”). Often, these management actions focus heavily on activities that optimize the efficiency and effectiveness aspects of its products and services. Corresponding management styles often created overly restrictive walled gardens that limit cross-functional interaction and information stovepipes. Investments in human capital rise only when the risk to the core business model is self-evident (e.g., threats from aging workforce and talent gaps). Consequently, few organizations think and plan strategically when it comes to human capital management.

In today’s global, information-centric and collaborative marketplace, industrial-age management practices are insufficient to support the innovation, growth and human capital management needs of most organizations. Intuitively, strategists recognize that personal contacts, casual conversations and informal information sharing (whether done face-to-face or digitally) can be a valuable, if not essential, business activity. Social interaction has an immense (yet subtle) influence on how well an organization catalyzes relationships, leverages professional associations, and cultivates a sense of community among employees, customers, partners, and suppliers. Indeed, social software trends under the banner of “Web 2.0” offer business and IT leaders the opportunity to gain a better appreciation of how social interaction can become a valuable resource and a force of change (e.g., Facebook, YouTube).

Business strategists increasingly view the consumer market as a template for enterprise solutions that enable more flexible work models, catalyze informal interactions and connect people with shared interests. IT strategists are exploring social software as the key IT component to support the innovation, growth and human capital management objectives outlined by their business counterparts (refer to this post on the Burton Group report on Enterprise 2.0).

For well over a decade, virtually all large enterprises have undertaken efforts to automate core operational functions (e.g., customer relationship management, enterprise resource management, human resource management, financial, etc.). Most of these same firms have also established an Internet presence aligned with its other business channels to support related sales, marketing and customer service activities. Additionally, a large number of enterprises have deployed a myriad of collaboration, communication and content management systems to improve productivity of workers and execution of business processes. Yet many organizations have not fully realized the potential of a highly collaborative and knowledge-sharing environment. It is also becoming more common to read statements from executives in various media publications on the need for organizations to be more agile to exploit business opportunities or more resilient to weather unexpected marketplace disruptions.

While best-practice enterprises are succeeding in their respective markets, a reasonable generalization is that most firms find themselves relying on similar management practices and similar tools to deliver solutions that are similar to those of their competitors. For these firms, long-term differentiation is becoming less noticeable by customers and other stakeholders. What differentiation does exist is likely to become more difficult to sustain unless the organization continuously transforms itself and innovates in distinct ways.

The implications are ominously clear: survival of the enterprise. The value an organization needs to continuously deliver to stakeholders, and the market differential it needs to leverage to outpace competitors, can only emerge from the one asset it has unique access to – people (e.g., the employees who work for the firm, the stakeholders that invest in the firm, and the customers that buy products and services from the firm). The “social enterprise” (e.g., Enterprise 2.0), reflects a desire to transform organizations governed by industrial-age management practices. Establishing a more participatory culture across internal and external stakeholders is essential for enabling the level of workforce agility and resiliency necessary for organizations to continuously innovate and grow. These objectives anchor virtually all key trends related to social software, including associated knowledge management and human capital management strategies.

Comments

[Carter F Smith]

How about a back-to-local movement for businesses who are tired of losing business to the Amazon’s of the world. I’m thinking a local presence in my virtual neighborhood, where the gas station lists their current prices (one can hope!), and the local grocery displays advertised specials.

Could it be that we could see a resurgence in local shopping? Is it time for the Mom and Pop stores that were pushed out by Wal-Mart to push back?

http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/22851

[Recycling Equipment]

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